Sage Spark Expert Blogger Postings

Give Yourself a Pat on the Back

Fiona_Walsh — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:32:47 +0000

The great thing about being in business for yourself is that you get to set the rules and keep all the profit. The bad thing about being in business for yourself is that you get to pay all the overhead and you do everything from finance to HR to bottle-washing, and everything in between. Sometimes it can be quite a grind.

As an entrepreneur, your to-do list never seems to end! I remember many days where I would do a brain dump of all the stuff I needed to do, look at the length of the list and groan in despair. I just felt overwhelmed by the sheet number of things that had to get done. And by the end of the week, I felt like I had made little progress as the list of stuff still seemed very full.

And that's when I learned the most important lesson of running a small business. No one is going to give you 'employee of the month' unless you do it. It's true that as a business owner, you have a long list of to-do's, which never seem to end. But come the end of the week, you should take time to recognize all the stuff you did get done. Don't just focus on what is undone. Celebrate your victories; pat yourself on the back for decisions made, new skills gained. Just concentrating on the stuff you haven't got around to doing will just grind you down. As a small business owner, your to-do list will always be longer than the hours you have. So take the time to reward yourself for another successful week.

Your Biggest Priority

Fiona_Walsh — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:03:05 +0000

Why do so many small business owners have trouble asking for money from a customer? Why does their voice shake when they have to talk about price? Why do they think that it's okay to provide the service or product, but not cool to ask for money in return?

Are you behind on your invoices? Do you routinely 'forget' to send an invoice or send them out late?

The good news is that you are not alone. AMEX tells us that 20% of small business owners have forgotten to invoice customers.

The bad news? You are literally working for free. If you go to all the trouble of selling your product to a customer, why wouldn't you collect the revenue you are owed? Send out those invoices on time - no matter how 'busy' you are. It's essential if you want your business to survive.

Besides - what's the point of being in business for yourself if you're not making any money? Get organized, stop making excuses and get all your invoices done.

The Key to Small Business Success

Fiona_Walsh — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:01:21 +0000

I just came back from teaching a seminar on marketing and sales for small business owners, and as always there was a lively discussion on defining target markets for your business. There is always at least one person in the group who doesn't 'want to miss out on opportunities by picking target markets.' They would rather chase after the whole world for potential customers.

That is crazy thinking for any small business owner. I remind them that Nike started out with one running shoe model only, not ten or twelve. The folks at Nike were smart enough to realize that they had to build a loyal customer base for their first shoe, before they started selling to other segments.

The same goes for every small business out there. You have limited time and resources for marketing and sales. The only way to build a successful business quickly is to focus on a well-defined target market. Doing this allows you to deliver a great product or service, find new customers more easily and build a strong brand in the market. Businesses that chase after everything that might have 'potential' to be a customer waste a lot of time and money. It takes them longer to close sales. The world is a big place and without a tightly defined focus on who you will market to, the chances of your business making an impact or a decent profit are slim.

Equally as important, is knowing who isn't your target market and why they aren't. I have seen way too many entrepreneurs burn out taking on customers that they know aren't good for them, because they worry if they don't, they won't make any money.

Every successful business has an extremely clear profile of their ideal target market and that is who they focus on. They don't allow themselves to get sidetracked by other stuff. That's how you build a global brand - one market at a time.

How to Increase Your Productivity

Fiona_Walsh — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:03:38 +0000

My clients know that I am all about planning. Too many small business owners spin their wheels every day because they simply react to whatever issues need their attention. And they get burned out and frustrated and never seem to make enough money for the hours they put in.

This happens because they DO NOT PLAN THEIR DAY. When you run your own business, you are captain of the ship. If you don't plan what you want to accomplish, then you are at the mercy of everyone else's agenda.

That's why I am such a big fan of blogger, Charles Gilkey and his site - www.productiveflourishing.com. He has some great tools for planning your time and managing your products more effectively.

My favorite thing is his "10/15 split". Simple yet very powerful; If you were to do this daily, your business would definitely improve. The 10/15 split is a very quick tool to keep you on target with your business. There are two steps:

Step 1 - Start every business day with a 10-minute check-in that outlines what you must get done that day. Too many people run around with all kinds of stuff cluttering up their head all day. This easy step gets you focused on what your priorities for the day are by answering these questions:

1. Is there anything significant that's changed between now and the last check-out?

2. What did you plan for today?

3. What is one thing that you are going to start on right now?

Step 2 - Spend 15 minutes at the end of the day checking out by asking yourself these three questions:

1. What did you accomplish? As a business owner, you rarely get to check off your whole to-do list. So you end up discounting what you have done and feel discouraged about all the stuff that you didn't get around to. It's extremely important every day to take time to acknowledge what you did get done.

2. Is there anything you need to do right now to be able to disengage? This step allows you to avoid those 3AM wake-up moments when you suddenly remember what you forgot to do earlier that day. Check in with your inbox and your to-do list to see if anything has fallen through the cracks.

3. When do you need to do the things that you didn't get done today? This step pushes you to attach a timeline to unfinished business, so you can get peace of mind and know that stuff is being handled in a timely fashion.

Sounds too simple to be that effective - yes? Trust me when I say that spending 25 minutes per day like this will get you organized, increase your productivity and let you enjoy your evenings and weekends more. Try it - I date you!

How would your family fare without you?

afadaie — Mon, 17 May 2010 19:12:37 +0000

When was the last time you took a few moments to think about how
your family’s lifestyle would be affected by losing you? Not only does your
family depend on you for love and emotional support, but the fact of the matter
is, they also rely on your continued earnings to provide for their daily living
needs.

This is why it’s critical you maintain sufficient life insurance
coverage. In the event of your death, life insurance proceeds can be used to
eliminate debt, provide a home

free and clear of mortgage payments, guarantee funds for a child’s
education and to replace the income you generate today that maintains your
family’s lifestyle.

How
much is enough?

A common rule of thumb suggests you should maintain life insurance
coverage equal to ten times your income. However the danger of a ‘rule of
thumb’ is that it does not

account for an individuals age, stage of life, or personal and
family circumstances.

Instead of relying on a ‘rule of thumb’ that may not apply to you,
you’d be well advised to complete a thorough needs analysis with the assistance
of a financial planner. An estate needs analysis will determine precisely how
much money would be needed to produce a steady income for your family’s ongoing
needs and how you’d choose to address mortgage and other debt obligations like
post-secondary schooling for your kids, and other goals in the event of your
death.

If you’re a stay-at-home parent, don’t assume your lack of income
means you have no need for life insurance – replacing your family role with
professional child care and domestic help will be costly as your spouse
continues in their career.

Going
beyond life insurance

At the same time, don’t overlook the financial toll a disability
would take on your family. U.S.
figures show 48 per cent of all mortgage foreclosures are caused by a
disability induced loss of earning power.*

Appropriately-designed disability insurance can fill the void in
the event you lose your ability to work or should you have no choice but to
accept a lower-paying job.

Insurance Solutions

Comprehensive

Critical illness insurance usually pays a lump sum to you should
you be diagnosed as having a life altering medical condition specified in the
particular policy – such as a heart attack or stroke, or if you are diagnosed
with a life threatening disease like cancer.

Ensure your Will is updated regularly, making sure you specify
whom you’d like to take care of your children in the event you and your spouse
should die simultaneously. This should be discussed with your designated guardian(s)
before your choice is formalized in your Will and provisions should be made to
ensure

funding is available to allow your guardian to carry out his/her
responsibilities.

Also, make sure you appoint an executor (liquidator in Québec).
This is the person who will act on your behalf to settle your personal affairs,
including the financial aspects of your estate.

Talk with me today to ensure you’ve done all you can to look after
the needs of your family in the event of an unforeseen circumstance.

*U.S. Housing and Home Finance
Agency.

Spark More Ideas and Confidence For Yourself

Fiona_Walsh — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:17:43 +0000

As an entrepreneur, you’re driven by the belief that you can do things better yourself. That’s why you decided to open your own business. You want to work for yourself, be the only boss you have, be responsible for the outcomes. You want to be more profitable. This focus on making things happen by yourself is a great strength. It gets you to accomplish things you would never have dreamed of.

But it can also be a great weakness. The death of any entrepreneur is solitude. I see too many entrepreneurs out there working their business solo, trying to do it all. You simply cannot build a sustainable business on your own.

This fact jumped out at me when I did a quick survey to find out why entrepreneurs had decided to get a business coach. Here were the main reasons:

· I have built a financially successful business, but know I could be doing even better. I don’t know how to build more success without working even more hours. I’m already maxed out.

· There’s got to be an easier way to do things, but I need help figuring it out. I just can’t do it by myself anymore.

· There are many opportunities being handed to my business right now. I need an objective opinion on which ones are the best fit for me.

· I’m a start-up. I need access to an expert who knows the tricks for growing a business quickly so I can be profitable before my financing runs out.

· I know there is stuff I need to do every week to grow my business, but I procrastinate on doing it. I need someone who will hold my feet to the fire.

All successful entrepreneurs know they can’t be solo players. I love the comment by Michael Gerber of E-Myth fame that the difference between successful and unsuccessful business owners wasn’t that the successful ones knew everything they needed to.

The difference was that the successful ones recognized what they didn’t know and took steps to correct it. The ones who went out of business had simply ignored what they didn’t know.

No matter how talented you are, there will always be areas of business that you’re not good at. To survive, you need access to other people’s expertise. Now I’m not suggesting that you all run out and get a business coach – that won’t be an option for everyone. But you do need to tap into some kind of support. Here are some options:

Put together an advisory board of experienced businesspeople. Meet them monthly over a meal. Run ideas by them. One business owner whom I know has a board that includes her banker and her accountant. Not only do they have fun at their monthly meeting, it’s a great forum for sharing advice, ideas and contacts. Each member has ended up with new business as a result.

Seek a business mentor. There are plenty of retired businesspeople with knowledge and skill to share. My business partner has lunch once a month with a retired businessman. He picks up the tab and, in exchange, gets feedback on business ideas and connections to help his business grow.

Join a group coaching program. You get access to a business coach and can build a network with other entrepreneurs at a reasonable price.

Join a business association, e.g., a chamber of commerce or Forum for Women Entrepreneurs(FWE). With access to resources and contacts, these associations are also a good place to find a mentor.

Build a Mastermind group of entrepreneurs. Share challenges and knowledge – you’ll all learn from each other.

Don’t use money as an excuse to not do this – you don’t have to spend a lot. And don’t say you don’t have time to do any of this, either. The more resources you have access to, the more business and revenue you will generate, the more ideas and confidence you will spark. The easiest and fastest way to get where you are going with your business is to understand how other people have done it. It saves you a lot of time, mistakes and sanity.

Embrace Those Objections!

Fiona_Walsh — Wed, 12 May 2010 22:19:10 +0000

Why do so many people dread hearing objections from prospects? I LOVE getting objections. Now why would she say that, you are thinking. Hmmm...ponder this for a moment.

Most people look at sales as a battle. They think they have to convince people to buy things they don't really want. That's why they see objections as a bad thing. It means the other side is lobbing ammunition back at them! They want to duck and run for cover. Which really makes no sense at all.

Think of your own buying habits. If you are really not interested in a product and you have zero intention of ever buying it, do you bother to raise any objections? No - you just want to get out of dodge because there is nothing interesting you.

But... if you are thinking that you might want to buy, you'll want to get answers to any questions or concerns you have whizzing around in your head. People raise objections when they are thinking of buying but:

- Don't have enough information to be sure it's worth the money

- Aren't clear on the value of the product

- Need more information to make an informed buying decision

So welcome those objections because it means you have an interested buyer in front of you. Listen to their objections thoroughly and then provide them with the information they are looking for in a clear and succinct manner. Don't over-talk, don't justify, don't exaggerate. Just tell them what they need to know to answer their concerns.

Remember: no objections = little or no interest. So if you are hearing lots of objections, it means you are doing a lot of things right. Happy Selling!

Here's How to Generate More Leads

Fiona_Walsh — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 06:37:55 +0000

Nearly every business owner I meet wants to know how generate more leads for their business and why not? If you don’t have a constant source of fresh leads, then your cash flow is going to be affected in a negative way. You grow your business by increasing sales which means you need to constantly be generating new leads.

So the next question is always: HOW DO I DO THAT? How do I find new leads? Today we are going to look at a few lead generation strategies that are very effective. Read about them and then put them into play. Good entrepreneurs know that it is executing that brings in the results.

1. Know Who Your Target Customer Is

Too many entrepreneurs just target anything that is alive and kicking out there in a desperate bid to find new customers. Do you have an extremely clear idea of who your customers are and why they buy your product? Do you know exactly how to reach them? I’ve lost count of business owners who say they are using Twitter for lead generation and yet, when I ask them if their target market “tweets”, they often say no! No wonder it’s not working. If I’m your target customer and I read the LA Times, advertising in the Orange County Register won’t work, no matter how good a deal the advertising price is.

If you don’t aim your lead generation efforts at specific target customers, you will get very few results. Going out and spraying the whole market will see most of your prospecting efforts go up in thin air. Know who your customer is, what sales messages you need to use and where to reach them.

2. Ask For Referrals

Every time you have satisfied customers, ask for a referral. This should not be hard to do if you are confident about the product or service you provide to customers and what a great experience they have buying from you! The best kind of lead is always one that comes to you because of a recommendation from someone they know.

Do you reward referrals? People who send you customers are doing your business development for you, so why not reward them? Put a structured system in place to get people to generate referrals to you. I’ve seen tons of clients do it and they are always surprised at how effective it is.

3. Build Your Word Of Mouth (WOM) Team

Hands down, WOM is the most powerful sales tool out there. When people talk positively about your company or your product - that is sales gold! This kind of endorsement is seen as more honest and reliable than paid advertising. So get out there and start building a team of brand ambassadors for your company. Figure out who the opinion leaders and early adopters are in your target market and prospect them directly. And if you already have WOM ambassadors out there, make sure you are thanking them for sending business your way.

4. Do Some Co-marketing

Find other non-competing businesses who are selling to the same target market as you are, and combine forces to increase the power of your lead generation machine. One of my clients who provides window films teamed up with a glass supply company to have their sales teams provide information and preferred discounts on the other company’s products to their customer base. It gave the reps ammunition to do another sales call on existing customers because they had new information to share, and customers felt valued because they got preferred pricing. It increased the pool of prospects significantly.

5. Everyone Loves Free

Want to catch the attention of prospects? Offer them something for free. People love free. But the caveat is that what you are offering for free has to have some value to those prospects. If they don’t think your ‘free stuff’ has no value, it will not matter one bit to them that it is free. Give them something they want. Do ‘surprise campaigns’, where you offer something for free on a particular day. Limit the access, instead of offering free to everyone all year long.

I’ve seen new spas and restaurants do this successfully, where they offer free food or services for a one-hour time slot on a particular day of the week. Samples are very effective sales tools, so get creative and think about how you can make ‘free’ generate leads for your business.

The key to good lead generation is to have an extremely clear idea of who your prospects are. Once you know that, then it is easy to know what messages you need to use to catch their attention and to know where to find them. You need a clear plan for how you will go after prospects and what tools you will use. Random efforts at prospecting will get you random results, which is not good for your bottom line. Think, plan and then execute. Then watch the leads start to come in.

Do What You Say

Fiona_Walsh — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:40:53 +0000

There is a lot of buzz out there about how you need to create a relationship with your customer (true) and the key to successful selling is to be able to uncover their needs and provide a solution (true). Unfortunately some companies out there have implemented customer service training programs that have their staff asking customers questions to uncover needs and then ignoring what the customer says. Here are a couple of examples I heard about recently:

A business associate got a call from his bank customer service representative, asking in a cheery voice if there was anything his bank could do for him. His reply - reduce the interest rate on my credit card. Her answer - no. Why bother making this phone call - window dressing?
A client of mine who has run a financially successful business for 5 years and is now expanding her business operation called her large global bank about getting a line of credit for the expansion. They told her it would be no problem - come in and see us and we will get it all set up. She goes for the meeting and finds out they are happy to extend credit to her through a credit card with 29% interested attached! Needless to say she has moved to the competition.

The three keys to business success are to create Visibility, Credibility, and Profitability. Both of the banks above lost credibility by asking customers what they could do better without ever intending to deliver anything different.

If you want to succeed in business, do what you say. If you genuinely want to find out what your customer wants and you are prepared to improve your product or service, then ask. If you are just doing it because it seems to be the thing to do, don't bother. You'll keep more customers and credibility that way.

Mobile Billing Boss

billingboss — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:22:37 +0000

It just came to our attention that people are looking in the app store for Billing Boss. You won't find an app there and there's no need to download antyhing. Just to go www.billingboss.com in Safari on your iPhone. You'll see the mobile version and can get started right away.

Recurring Invoice Feature

billingboss — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:09:10 +0000

We have recently released a new feature called recurring invoices. The concept is very simple: You have an invoice that you need to bill regularly on a schedule to the same customer.

You can create a recurring invoice which acts as a copy of your future invoices. Specify the schedule as weekly, monthly, or yearly. Select the customer to bill to and save. Billing Boss will create the invoices according to the schedule you have set up. If you want, the invoices can be sent automatically to your customers once it is created.

To access this feature, log into Billing Boss and click on the Recurring Invoices link (at the top of the screen) on your Dashboard page. Create a new recurring invoice similar to creating a new invoice. You cannot enter an invoice number as they will be automatically picked when an invoice is generated (based on your next invoice number). If you want to be notified by email when an new invoice is created, check the option send me a copy of the invoice option.

If for some reason, you do not wish to generate invoices for a particular recurring invoice, go to the Recurring Invoice page and click on View Invoice link next to the recurring invoice to view the recurring invoice. Click on the Delete Invoice on the left. This will stop generation of the invoices altogether. If you just wish to pause the recurring invoice for a short period of time, click on Pause this Invoice link. This will stop invoices being generated until you start it again. Note that once you restart a recurring invoice, it does not go back and re-generate invoices that were skipped according to the specified schedule.

That is it. Simple enough?

5 Steps for Building a Successful Business

Fiona_Walsh — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:07:36 +0000

"The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities." -Stephen Covey

Building a successful business and maximizing your earning potential is dependent on you having a big picture for yourself. A very clear picture of what you want to accomplish and where you want to go.

We are all so busy these days. There is so much to be done, it can be easy to put aside building our business until "later", when you have more time. Then suddenly it is the end of the year and you are not where you want to be. You need to make your success development one of your regular priorities - something you take action on every week.

Here are some tips on how to achieve your big picture:

Write down the answer to this question: If you could have anything you wanted in your work life, what would you have? Don't hold back; don't make up reasons why you can't have it. Just write it all down.
Now write down 6 things you need to accomplish your work goals. If it is really large, break it down into smaller pieces.
Pull out your calendar and schedule in time to take the steps necessary to accomplish each of those 6 things over the next year. Take Stephen Covey's advice and recognize that these priorities are equally as important as all the daily stuff you need to do. Make time to get them done.
Find someone to hold you accountable by telling them what your plan is. Get their input on how you can best achieve your goals, what resources you can tap into. Schedule regular discussions with them about your progress. This helps keep you accountable and on track.
Keep a list of your successes throughout the year. It is a personal reminder of how much you have accomplished.

The things that we focus our attention on are the things that get done. Get very clear on your priorities for yourself and set aside time to accomplish them. Creating a plan for yourself is not a selfish business move. Some entrepreneurs feel that between 9AM - 5PM they need to be servicing clients or doing work for others. This is not true.

For a business to not only prosper, but to actually grow, you must put time aside to develop your company. Follow the steps outlined in this blog and you will see it happen.

The Biggest Challenge for all Business Owners

Fiona_Walsh — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:11:22 +0000

When I ask audiences to guess what this is I usually hear: finding customers, cold calling, getting a positive cash flow, getting clients to pay. All of these are real challenges to be sure when you run your own business. But they are not the biggest one everyone faces.

This is the one that everyone tries to ignore - fear. I remember for the first month after I quit my six-figure job to launch FM Walsh & Associates Inc. being ingulfed in fear. Tossing and turning at 3AM every night, worried sick that I would be a failure, that I would not find any customers, that I wouldn't make any money. I'd pull myself together during the day, but inside I was literally shaking. I kept telling myself that the fear would go away once I had a few clients. It did lessen as clients came on board, but it never went away totally. We all have it. We all battle it. We just don't admit it.

Now I speak to hundreds of entrepreneurs and I hear about their different fears. And they all think it's only them - that they are inadequate somehow for having those fears. Many of them are surprised to learn that all entrepreneurs share the same worries; they just don't talk about them out loud. The most common fears include:

Fear of failure: What if my business idea doesn't work out? What if I don't make any money? What if I have to go back to working for someone else? Yes, these are all possibilities, but you can reduce the chances of business failure by writing a business plan that clearly defines what you sell, who buys it and why, and lays out a clear strategy for how you will reach those folks and turn them into paying customers. The coaching clients that I have seen build the fastest financial success all have a busienss plan and a clear idea of what they need to do to make money.
Fear of making mistakes: Relax and just accept that you are going to make mistakes, no matter how brilliant you are. I just shake my head when I look back at my first year in business and all the mistakes I made. Being a perfectionist at that time, I pounded on myself mercilessly for making those mistakes. Now I realize that they turned me into the successful entrepreneur I am today, because with each mistake I learned what not to do, and that has made me a very effective businessperson. As Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad says: "Remember, making mistakes and becoming smarter is the job of an entrepreneur; not making mistakes is the job of an employee."
Fear of too much success: I see this one a lot; entrepreneurs who get offered multiple opportunities and hold back because they are worried that they won't be able to handle the influx of business. Embrace your opportunities as they come along. They rarely come around a second time and with increased cash flow, you can afford to hire people to help you manage the busienss growth.

I freely admit that in the early days of building business, I was ruled by fear. I was just waiting for it to go away. I'll let you in on a secret...the fear does get reduced, but it never, ever goes away. With each new level of success you reach in business, you will still have fear dogging your footsteps, asking 'Are you sure you can do this?' That is natural.

So I came up with four steps to get me unstuck from fear paralysis:

Accept that the fear is there, that you are afraid. It never ceases to surprise me how quickly the fear loses its power when I acknowledge it is there.
Write your fears down. By taking the time to write them down, I find I get very clear on what is really worrying me.
Focus on success. Rather than thinking of all the things that could go wrong, focus on how much better your business and life will be once you have accomplished the thing you are dragging your feet on.
Take action. I find that inaction builds doubt and fear to higher levels. The simple step of taking action builds your confidence and removes the fear.

So, don't wait for the fear to go away before you decide to do something, because it won't. Learn to accept that it is there and then do what you need to do to build your successful business.

Maximize your RRSP today and reap the rewards!

afadaie — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:30:06 +0000

Year after year, many Canadians leave a key financial opportunity on the table by not contributing the maximum allowable amount into their Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP). If your annual income tax assessment includes a notice from the Canada Revenue agency that details how much unused contribution room you have left in your RRSP from previous years, the time to act is now. For example, investing $10,000 into an RRSP that offers a 7% return, compounded annually could turn into $76,123 over the span of just 30 years. Plus, investing the full amount creates a larger income tax deduction that could result in a significanttax refund.*Although it may seem difficult to find the money to contribute into your RRSP every year, we can show you a number of strategies to consider that can help accelerate your plan usingassets you have readily available and key tax planning benefits.

Know Your Limits

It’s important to know how much contribution room you have, prior to sitting down with us to discuss your RRSP investment strategy. Each year, the Canada Revenue Agency identifies your unused contribution room for the upcoming tax year on your Notice of Assessment. If however, you are unable to locate your Notice of Assessment, a quick call to the Canada Revenue Agency at 1-800-959-8281 or a visit to www.cra.gc.ca can provide theinformation you need.

Invest Smart

It may be to your benefit to move money you currently have in savings accounts or other investments into your RRSP sooner, rather than later.Moving these dollars into your RRSP will not only result in a reduction of your annual tax bill – but it also allows you to maximize growth inside your RRSP, without generating immediate taxable income. It’s important to remember that interest earned on savings accounts and bothrealized and unrealized capital gains on non-registered investments will be taxed prior to when they are moved into your RRSP. Invest Regularly

Consider working your RRSP contribution into your budget by using our monthly investment plan that automatically deducts a specified amount from your savings or chequing account on a regular basis and invests it into funds held insideyour RRSP.

RRSP SolutionsC

Monthly investment plans can be customized to work best for you. We will work with you to help determine the appropriate dollar amount and frequency. We generally recommend you begin by investing at least 10% of your earned income each month. However, it may make sense toinvest more, if you have unused contribution room.

Consider the Benefitsof Borrowing

In many cases, borrowing to take full advantage of RRSP contribution room makes sense. Maximizing your RRSP contribution now offers immediate tax savings this year andtax-deferred potential growth for many years to come. Using this strategy can make it beneficial to borrow for a short period to maximize your plan.**

As your Consultant, I can help you determine whether a loan fits into your financial plan by looking at the following factors:

Your age – The impact of compound growth increases depending on the time that money is invested. While borrowing to invest may have more impact at a younger age, I can prepare an illustration that shows it’s never too late to save for your retirement.

Your Ability to Repay – We would never recommend that you borrow more than you could possibly repay because it could make it difficult to save for next year’s RRSP contribution.Together, we will create just the right plan to make sure you can pay off the balance of your loanquickly and then start a regular investment plan to automatically take care of future RRSP contributions.In addition, contributing to an RRSP generates an income tax deduction that could result in asignificant tax refund that could be used to help pay down a portion of the loan almost immediately.

Your Ability to Borrow – An RRSP Loan or Line of Credit available through Solutions Banking™, like any other use of credit, will increase your Debt Service Ratio (the percentage of your monthly income that goes to pay off debts) and lenders rely on this ratio to determineyour loan eligibility. When preparing your plan, we’ll be sure to take your complete financial picture and other monthly commitments into account.

*Pre-tax RRSP investment assumptions –$10,000 investment purchased on January 1,2007 at a gross rate of return of 7% over a 30year period. The rate of return is used only toillustrate the effects of the compound growth rateand is not intended to reflect future values orreturns on investment.

**RRSP Loan assumptions – Client takes out a1 year RRSP loan of $10,000 at a fixed rate of6% on January 1, 2007 and makes a $860.66($810.66 principal and $50.00 in interest) paymenton January 31, 2007. Client has a marginaltax rate of 40% and receives a tax refund of$4,000, which is used to pay down the loan onFebruary 1, 2007 (remaining balance onFebruary 1, 2007 is $10,000-[$810.66+$4,000] =5189.34), which is paid monthly ($486.03) over

the remaining 11 months.

Get Over the February 'Blahs' - 5 Ways To Start Driving Your Sales Today

Fiona_Walsh — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:54:50 +0000

1. Paint a picture for the client of what your service or product will do for them. Sounds simple, yes? Then how come I keep hearing sales people who focus on the features and assume that the prospect knows what the benefits are? They don't. It is up to you to clearly spell out how I will be better off by purchasing your service/product. If you are unable to clearly do that, there is little incentive for me to want to buy from you.

2. Follow-up on your leads and your existing customers. Stop making excuses for not following up on leads. Almost 70% of the leads people get, don't get followed up on. You know who you are! You go to a networking event or see a good prospect in the business section of the paper and then you psych yourself out, listing all the reasons why they won't buy from you. You are completely 100% right about that. Good salespeople are always thinking of all the reasons why someone would be better off by purchasing from them.

As for existing customers, are you identifying opportunities to up sell to them? Could you be offering better solutions to them that would improve their experience with you company? Don't sit there like a toadstool and think - "if my customers want something new, they will ask for it." No they won't. Get out there and tell them about it.

3. Know what markets you want to grow your business in. No - picking niche markets does not limit your growth! It's good business sense. You only have a limited amount of time and money for marketing, so make sure what you are doing is targeted. Decide what your ideal client looks like and make those your target niche markets. Once you have succeeded with those markets, then you can add new ones. Running all over after anything that remotely twitches is not going to make your sales grow.

4. Close the deal; ask for the business. Every time. What is it about closing that makes so many people into lily-livered cowards? What do you think is going to happen if you ask for the business? People will run away screaming in horror? They will faint in front of you?

People expect you to close, so just do it. SIMPLY ASK FOR THE BUSINESS. When would you like to take delivery? When do you want to do the training seminar? What colour would you like that in? That's it. No arm-twisting or manipulation involved. A simple check-in to see if they want to buy or not.

If you identify a good prospect, uncover their needs, answer all their questions and objections and then don't close, all you have done is open the door for your competition to come in and take them as a customer. Do you really want to do that?

5. Put some tools in place to build relationships with your customers. It takes a lot of time and money to land a customer so wise business owners look for ways to keep customers once they land them. Can you make introductions to other business owners for them? Can you mention their business on your twitter or blog or in your newsletter? Create a newsletter that has good value and is worth spending the time reading it. Bring them along to a networking event as your guest. Send them a thank you for referring business to you. Give them advance notice of new products or sales that are happening. Track Google Alerts on your company to see what others are saying about you.

One of the big business trends of 2010 is making sure you build strong connections with your customers. The social media tools out there make it possible for people to share their comments and thoughts a lot more easily. Make sure that customers feel valued by you. It will pay off.

So there you have it - 5 simple tools for increasing your sales that you can start using today. Let me know how they work out for you.

Don't Be a Deer in the Headlights

Fiona_Walsh — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:49:10 +0000

You have met with a prospect and things are going well. You've answered all their questions, handled their objections and they seem ready to buy. You tell them the price. And then you hear: "Hmmm, I really want to buy from you - what can you do about price?"

Do you find yourself looking like a deer in the headlights when this question comes us? You want to land them as a customer. You know you will do a great job for them and that they will be happy. And so you start thinking that maybe you should lower your price to earn their business and really show them how good you are. They'll then refer you lots of business - yes?

Stop. Stop. Stop.

Do you negotiate the price of a coffee when you go into Starbucks? Do you negotiate the price of a chicken in Safeway?

Why should your business be any different? If you start discounting your price to 'get the business', here's what you'll be telling your potential customer:

My prices include padding, so I can offer everyone a discount. Now your prospect may think you are trying to rip them off.
I lack the confidence in my product to sell it for full price. My prices are not firm - they're always open for negotiation.
Price is the only differentiating factor between us and the competition.

Is this really the message you want to send to potential customers?

So, here's how you handle the price question.

Change what you are worth. Set a price that you are confident saying out loud. Don't price yourself out of profit. Know what the competition charges and what the benefits of doing business with you instead. Be proud of what you privide customers with.
NEVER justify your price or get defensive or go into a long explanation of why your price is what it is. It's the price. I always tell clients that they are setting a precedent if they lower their price, because they can't ever go back and charge full price.
If you want to reduce your price to meet their budget, then make sure you reduce your offering to meet their lower price requirement. I had a graphic designer client a few years ago that gave a $20,000 budget to a customer. She thought the deal was sealed, when the client came back full of apologies that they now only had a $10,000 budget. She freaked out because she wanted the client but knew meeting their budget would cause her to lose money. Instead of just walking away, we modified her proposal, reducing the value of the total package she offered them. Client was delighted that she worked with them to meet the budget and ended up spending $23,000 on the total project.

If a prospect is pushing hard on you to reduce the price, be prepared to walk away. Realize that they may not be a good fit for you and go focus your time and energy on finding new clients that will respect the skill you bring to the table and are willing to pay your prices.

Get paid with Payment Plus

billingboss — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:44:44 +0000

Payment Plus is an Add-On to BillingBoss and allows you to use your existing Merchant Account to process online payments.

Payment Plus currently supports the following processors:

Authorize.Net
CyberSource (US)
Moneris (Canada)
E-xact (Canada)
BeanStream Interac Payments (Canada)
BeanStream Credit Card processing

With Billing Boss Payment Plus, you have a new way for presenting invoices to customers and getting paid. You can send your invoice electronically, present the invoice nicely on a web page and give your customer the flexibility of paying for it using their credit cards.

The steps are pretty simple and easy to follow. Here is a quick summary of how to use Billing Boss to get paid. To make it easier to understand, I have included some screenshots.

1. Login Billing Boss and go to ‘Settings' tab. Select Online Payments to enter your merchant account information. In the screenshot, i entered e-xact as an option. Save your change by clicking on the Save and Continue button.

2. Now create a new invoice and Save. Screenshot not included.

3. After the invoice is saved. You will be presented with a list of credit card to allow. Depending on your merchant account, you might be allowed to process certain cards. Select the correct ones in the list by clicking on the checkboxes. Click on Save to remember the setting for your next invoice. See the screenshot below.

4. Click on Send link on the left to send the invoice by email. You can enter the email address of your customers if you know their emails or click on more contacts to see a list of existing email addressed entered. See screenshot below.

5. Your customer will receive an email in their inbox. In the email, there is a link to view the invoice online and pay it online.

6. Your customer happily clicks on the link and taken to a web page hosted by Billing Boss that looks like the screenshot below.

7. The customer can review the invoice to make sure the amount is correct. Click on Pay Invoice on the left to pay by credit card. Your customer would neeed to enter their credit card numbers and address. Click on Pay Now button to finish the transaction.

8. Billing Boss talks to your merchant account provider (e-xact in this case) and charges the customer's credit card with the amount of the invoice. You can view the payment in the virtual terminal provided by your merchant account provider. Billing Boss will mark the invoice as paid and store the payment information.

That is it. A new way of collecting from your customers and fully automated.

For more information on Billing Boss with Payment Plus see http://www.sagespark.com/paymentplus

If you have any questions, you can contact us through our forum , twitter or email info@billingboss.com

Richard
Billing Boss and Sage Spark development

Quotes - a new feature in Billing Boss

billingboss — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:52:45 +0000

We have released a new feature for Billing Boss. You can now save quotes (or estimate as some people call it). This is a popular request from our users.

You might have noticed a new button that says Create New Quote at the top of the screen. See below.

Click on it will take you to a new quote page like this. It looks very similar to the new invoice page. You can enter a quote number for your reference. Fill in the rest of the details and you can save it. You can send a quote or save it as a PDF similar to what you can do with an invoice.

Once a quote is saved, you can find it in the invoice list page which has been renamed Invoices and Quotes (the first page you see once you logged into Billing Boss).

You can convert a quote into an invoice. This means that your customer has accepted your quote and wishes to purchase service or product from you. You can click on the convert into invoice link in the quote list. Another way to convert a quote into an invoice is when you are viewing a quote. Click on the quote in the quote list to see the quote. On the left side of the page, you can see a list of options. convert into invoice is one of the options as illustrated below.

That is it. Simple enough?

If you have any questions, you can contact us through our forum , twitter or email info@billingboss.com

Richard Zhou

The Billing Boss Team

The challenge of keeping it Simple

billingboss — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:56:48 +0000

What happens when you get a bunch of internet geeks made up of developers, designers, product management and marketing staff in a room to develop a new web based product? ehmm..lets just say that you might end up with another Microsoft Word - 1 million interesting features - only 10% of them ever used or learned about.

That was the challenge we faced and continue to face when we develop Billing Boss - trust me, it is so very easy to build tons of cool features and functionalities into Billing Boss and while we are at, build a very complex interface that requires you to spend more time than you have trying to figure out how to use the product. Yes - its very easy to do that. It happens all the time - but that wasn't our goal. Hard STOP.

Our goal was to keep it simple - what we learned from our customers and customer visits was that at the end of a long and tiring day trying to get customers, drive sales or manage your business, the last thing you want to be doing is spending another 2-3 hours manually sending out invoices, tracking payments and sending notes and emails to people who haven't paid you yet nor did you want to be spending an additional hour or two being frustrated trying to learn how to use an application that was suppose to HELP and SIMPLIFY your invoicing tasks! FOCUS - IN and OUT. That was the goal.

When you actually stop and take a look at BillingBoss - it is really quite a complex tool that we have spent a lot of time and effort trying to make simple. Consider the core tasks that you use Billing Boss for - invoicing, tracking, payment collection, quotes and customer management - each tasks was designed to take less than a minute max per customer..and in many cases its a lot less.

For example - our Dashboard was designed to give you an overview of your invoices, whats paid, whats outstanding and what the status of the invoices are as well the ability to drill down into individual invoices - trust me, we could have made the dashboard really cool and complex with lots of bells and whistles - but the reality was - we didn't want to distract you from your core goal - get your invoicing done, check who's paid and get out and spend time with your family, go to the gym or even better..get some sleep!

YEAH! SLEEP IS SO NOT OVERRATED!

Here's another example - did you know that when you send an invoice out to your customer through BillingBoss, your customers who receive the invoice can hit "reply", type in some notes or comment into their email client and hit "send" and the message will be routed back to your email address that you have on file with BillingBoss? This allows you to maintain relationships with customers, manage disputes or get feedback from your customers directly to your email address! Again, sounds simple right?

The reality is that we could have followed many of the web 2.0 models and just forwarded the message to you but force you back to Billing Boss to send a response - but that would have made things more complicated in terms of the interface as well as your experience. We know you manage your e-mail communications from one inbox - its simpler, easier and you most likely access it from your iPhone..why make you go somewhere else to check messages from your customers that are responding to an invoice you sent them? FOCUS - In and OUT.

So while a lot of our competitors work at making their product more feature rich but also more complex and harder to learn - we work ten times as hard in making Billing Boss simpler, easier to learn and use while still focusing on the end goal of helping you manage your invoicing, payments and in the end save time and getting paid faster!

We love your feedback and are always considering new features/applications to develop to help you, our business users, free up more time. Tell us what keeps you up at night and we will see if we can help solve it for you!

Enjoy!

Peter Liao

Product Management

Billing Boss and SageSpark

Managing New Client Risk with Billing Boss

billingboss — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:27:48 +0000

Billing Boss is an innovative solution for helping you manage cash flow, invoices as well as new and existing customers. Although we tend to think about invoicing as an after sale activity where you have sold your service/product and now are looking to collect payment, you don't necessarily have to use it in that sequence.

One of the innovative ways you can use Billing Boss to get paid is to capture a pre-payment or deposit for services prior to providing the service.

In doing so, you reduce your risk of default or slow payment by collecting payment upfront from customers. Once you have established that the customer is credible or low risk, then you can revert back to providing the service and then billing for it.

The advantage of using Billing Boss for this is that it creates an electronic paper trail of the pre-payment/deposit so you know who has already paid and you don't bill them again, as well you can use the pre-payment mechanism at your discretion - so if you are meeting with a first time client, you can ask for pre-payment or deposit, ensure that payment goes through first and then provide the service. You may not necessarily do this with other clients or you may do it with clients who have defaulted in the past or are very slow to pay - its all at your discretion.

Just a quick note though - this is really only most effective when you have a merchant account and get paid via credit card - otherwise, if it's via check you have to wait for it to clear before you can associate payment to the invoice. This is not to say you can't do it, but its most efficient with a credit card PLUS it gives your client a 30 day window to pay their credit card provider which free's up their cash flow!

So, how do you ask - can I do this? its pretty simple really. There are multiple ways of doing this but here is the easiest and allows for some back and forth between you and the customer.

Assuming you have already setup your Billing Boss account, simple sign into Billing Boss and go to the Invoicing/Quotes tab and click on Create New Quote:

Fill in the details of the quote, save it and then sent it by clicking on the send link in the options bar on the left hand side:

Once you have had confirmation from your client about the quote, you can simply convert the quote into a invoice by clicking on the Convert into Invoice link in the options button where the quote is presented or go to the Invoices & Quotes tab and look for the quote in the Quotes section.

Once the customer has paid your invoice, it will show up as paid in the invoices section- and KA POW! you are ready to go.

You have just used Billing Boss to reduce your risk in getting paid!

Pretty Easy, Fast and Cool huh! Remember, getting paid faster and smarter doesn't need to be hard and time consuming if you are using the right tools!

If you have any questions, you can contact us through our forum , twitter or email info@billingboss.com

Enjoy!

Peter

The Billing Boss Team

The 7 Common Sales Sins That Most Small Businesses Commit - Part Two

Fiona_Walsh — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:05:08 +0000

Continuing with our theme of the most common mistakes small business owners make when it comes to sales, here are the last three.

5. So fearful of Rejection that they make excuses for not selling their service

If you don't go out there and sell, who will do it for you? Even if you hire a sales rep, they are still going to need training. If you don't know how to sell your product, how are you going to train them?
Grow a thicker skin. I don't think any of us who are good at sales, get up in the morning and look forward to hearing 'No'. The fact of business is that you are going to be rejected by people. This is not a comment on your personally or your product. It simply means that they don't need your stuff right at this moment. Get over it. Dust yourself off and go talk to the next person on your list.

6. Don't close or ask for the business

What on earth? Let's see - you spend time finding the right prospect, qualifying them and presenting the benefits - why not ask for the business? Why would you waste your time?
They are not going to think you are pushy or obnoxious. They expect it. No one is going to run away screaming from you.
And if they do say no and your feelings are hurt? Reread Sin #5

7. No follow-up

I am tired of hearing small business owners complain about not having enough sales. These are often the same people who 'haven't had the time' to follow up on the leads they have. Hmmm - can anyone else see a connection here?
Reread Sin #4 in Part One.
Make sure you follow up on all leads. Every single one. Just by doing that consistently you will see your revenues grow.

Take an honest inventory of your sales machine - which sins are you committing? Write them down and then look for ways to fix them today.

For the first 5 people that email me (fiona@fmwalsh.com) and tell me which sales sins they are committing, they will get a free one-hour business coaching session - no strings attached. Offer good to January 31, 2010!

The 7 Common Sales Sins That Most Small Businesses Commit - Part One

Fiona_Walsh — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:54:47 +0000

Selling is one of the most important components of a business. If you can't sell anything you are going to be out of business. Or even worse, you sell in little bits and you end up eking out a living, making less than minimum wage. That takes all the fun out of owning your own business.

Most small businesses don't know it, but their sales are not close to what they could be. So this month we are going to look at the common sins of sales that most small business owners commit.

1. Having no plan; no plan means you are going nowhere.

Do you have a written Plan of Action for developing your business? If not, why are you in business? Note that it must be written down. Having it in your head does not count - that is a daydream, not a plan.
Review it monthly. Do not be a loser and stuff it in a drawer after you write it. LOOK AT IT - see if you are building the business you want.
Stop doing stuff that doesn't contribute to your bottom line. If you are not making a profit on it, why are you doing it? If you want to run a non-profit, then set one up.

2. Having no defined niche market

Who needs what you have? Who would benefit most from your product or service?
If you can't clearly describe your target customer, how can you sell to them? Successful businesses have no more than 3 clearly defined target markets they focus on at one time.

3. Not being clear on your strategic benefit to clients

What does your product do?
What value do you bring to your clients?
You need to be able to clearly list WHY your clients buy from you. And don't default to wimpy answers like high quality, great service. Tell me what solution do you provide? What pain do you remove? What need or want do you fill?

4. Not networking strategically

Go to events with a clear idea of what contacts you want to make. Don't just show up, down a glass of wine, talk to the 3 people you know and bolt out of there.
Don't tell me networking doesn't work. I have seen first-hand how networking builds six-figure businesses for myself and my clients.
Don't be a doofus that comes home with great contacts and then never makes time to follow up with people. If you can't be bothered to follow up, then don't go out there prospecting.

Read about the other 3 sales sins later this month.

Taking Stock - What Do You Want in 2010?

Fiona_Walsh — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:24:09 +0000

This is the time of the year when I take stock of the year that is ending and the one that is about to start. I want to know where I shone, where I didn't, what I could do differently in the year to come and most importantly, what do I WANT in the new year. And I am not talking about writing a business plan. I am talking about a simple exercise to get you thinking about possibilities, to get you unstuck, to make sure your business doesn't head into the new year on auto-pilot, just continuing to do things the same way because you didn't take time to think about what kind of business and life you want to build in 2010.

Every year we at the Ghost CEO Business Coaching Program come up with a different set of questions to help our clients launch their new year on a strong footing. Here they are as my gift to you. My wish for you in 2010 is that you build the business you want, with intention, rather than letting it happen by accident.

Self-Assessment of 2009:

What are some of the things you wish you'd accomplished this year? Why didn't you?
What were some of the common challenges / roadblocks / hazards that tripped you up?
If you could have 3 'do-overs' for 2009, what would you change?
Who came into your professional life that supported you moving ahead?
Who got in your way?
Is what you built this year sustainable?
In what areas did you "settle"?
Did you give 2009 your best effort? If not, why?
Did you feel supported in your professional life, or did it feel like you were out there on your own?
Did you question your decisions, your abilities, or your contributions? If yes, in which ways?
What have you been lying to yourself about?
How much of the year did you spend criticizing yourself? How much time was spent championing yourself?

Considerations for 2010:

What are some of the goals you'd like to achieve in 2010? Are they measurable?
What skills do you need to acquire in 2010 to make it a powerful year and grow your professional abilities?
Who can you ask for help in 2010? Who knows how to get you where you want to go?
What habits can you change this year that will support you? Are they measurable?
Who do you need to spend less time with this year that is otherwise a drain on your life?
What could you do over the holiday season to prep your year for 2010?
Can you find a way to focus on your strengths rather than trying to fix your weaknesses?
What is your Plan B from your current situation? Do you have it planned or is it just a concept?
When is the last time you took time to put yourself first? Make a list of all your responsibilities. Where do the responsibilities to yourself rank?
Is this the year to start a new business model? If so, how will you plan for it?
How will you "give back" this year?

Watch Sales Soar: Qualify Quickly and Ask for the Business

Fiona_Walsh — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:52:42 +0000

To be successful in sales, you must learn to qualify quickly and ask for the business.

Qualifying is the most important skill in sales success - it is the one that makes the biggest difference in your ability to earn revenue. There are always going to be more prospects than you have the time to chase, yet I see too many people take way too long to qualify a prospect. They find someone who they think is a potential client and then they do a long, slow dance, which just wastes time and energy. Some prospects are more likely to turn into customers than others - those are the ones you want to focus on. You need to hear "Yes" to these 3 quetions to move ahead:

Do they need what you are selling and do they need it soon?
Do they have the money to buy from you?
Are they the decision-maker? If not, find out who is and spend your time on them.

I see a lot of entrepreneurs who are reluctant to ask for the business. Their reasoning is "if I have done a good job and the customer feels comfortable, they will want to do business with me. Closing is just pushy." Why would you do all the groundwork and not ask for the business?

That is like changing into a little black dress or swanky tuxedo and leaving your runners on! You are the expert in your product and the customer expects you to finalize the deal by closing. Effective closing is not about using manipulative techniques - it is as simple as asking good questions that will move the deal along such as: "When would you like to take delivery of that?" or "When do you want to get this project started?"

Plan to continue your success

afadaie — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:13:42 +0000

You’ve worked hard to make your business a success. There may have been times when you gambled on a business strategy and won – but, for the most part, you stuck to the meticulous business plan that has been your blueprint for growth and achievement.Now, it’s time for a new plan

…What would happen to your business if you were taken away from it, even temporarily? Would it survive?

If you’re like most small business owners, the odds are that your years of careful nurturing and building could come tumbling down without your energetic hands on the reins – because you are your business.

· You’re a professional – a dentist, for example – and you get hit with a sudden, extended illness. You’re entire practice will stop – but salaries, operating costs and other fixed expenses won’t. How will you pay them until you’re back in the game?

· You’re not only the owner of your small business, you’re also the primary salesperson, accountant and… everything else – and you’re in a car accident that leaves you injured and unable to work for months. Your entire business will stop – but the bills won’t and the income that supported your family will temporarily disappear. Do you have a contingency plan in place?There’s no need to gamble with your future financial health when you can take some essential steps right now to protect what you’ve built. It’s called business continuation planning and it’s the process of identifying issues that could put your business at risk and adopting strategies to help mitigate or eliminate those risks.

Protect your most important asset – yourself

As a business owner, you understand the need to protect against risks to your capital assets – that’s why you have fire, theft and other forms of insurance. But one of the major yet often overlooked risks faced by nearly every business is the temporary loss of vital human capital – a business owner due to a disability as the result of an accident or an extended illness, perhaps even a life-threatening critical illness.The risk is more likely than you think:

· About 1 in 7 people can expect to be disabled for five years or more before retirement1;

· 43% of all 40-year olds will suffer a disability for at least 90 days prior to age 652;

· 1 in 2 heart attack victims are under 65 years old.3;

· 3 out of every 10 workers between ages 25 and 65 will experience an accident or illness that keeps them out of work for three months or longer4.

But with the right business continuation plan, you’ll protect your business and your income by:

· Supporting continued business performance, profitability and productivity,

· Assuring that business debts can be serviced,

· Retaining employees who will continue to view the business as viable,

· Having the resources to fund recruitment,

· Maintaining good supplier relationships, and

· Preserving your customer/ client base.

Insuring effective risk management

The risks posed by the temporary loss of a primary business owner can be economically managed with critical illness and disability insurance– the cornerstones of an effective business continuation plan.

· Disability insurance allows an owner to fund the payment of ongoing essential office expenses such as salaries of employees, rent, utilities, and property taxes (Office Overhead Expense Disability Insurance) and replacement of personal income to pay family expenses during the period of the disability with tax-free dollars (Personal Disability Insurance).

· Critical illness insurance pays a one-time lump sum to help cover losses created by the owner’s absence. When the insured person is diagnosed with a critical illness or condition as de-fined in the policy, the benefit is paid – and how it is used is totally up to the recipient. It can be a vital injection of cash to pay recurring business expenses or to make payments on loans or to suppliers.

The other keys to continuation Personal protection is key to every business continuation plan – here are some other plan elements to consider:

· Key person life insurance ensures there will be a timely injection of tax-free capital should your business suffer the loss of a top producer or other essential employee.

· Buy-sell life insurance can fund the purchase of your financial interest in the business by a surviving business partner(s) or shareholder(s).

· Disability and/or critical illness buy-out insurance provides a lump sum tax-free payment to fund the purchase of your financial interest in the business by the other partner(s) or shareholder(s) in the event of a long-term disability.

· Potential creditor protection by use of personally owned segregated investment funds. You spent a lot of time developing and implementing your successful business plan. It wasn’t easy and it continues to evolve as your business grows and prospers. Your business continuation plan demands the same attention to detail. Talk to us today to be sure your goals and needs are matched to the right insurance products for your situation. Protect what you’ve built with a business continuation plan tailored to your business – it’s vital to your continued success, come what may.

Reputation is Everything in Business

Fiona_Walsh — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:52:05 +0000

In the Ghost CEO business coaching program, we talk about the 3 cornerstones of successful business: visibility, credibility, and profitability. Today I want to talk to you about credibility - building a great reputation!

As a business owner, your reputation is the most important thing you have and you are the only person responsible for building your reputation. If you are not paying attention to building a great reputation for yourself and your business, it's time to quit passing the buck. Start taking responsibility for growing a great reputation.

Treat yourself well. Be kind when you make mistakes. Give yourself time off to recharge. Set realistic to-do lists every day. Celebrate your victories. This kindness to yourself grows your confidence and confidence is a trait that attracts other people. Nobody likes being around someone who puts themselves down or makes excuses.
Treat your customers very well. Word of mouth advertising is the most effective way to grow a great reputation. What can you do that will make you stand out in the market? What will make your customers rave about you? What do they say about you now?
Develop a strong employee team. Encourage creativity and respect, and employees will pay you back with great ideas, loyalty, and an enthusiasm that carries over to customers. Have a no tolerance policy for gossip and excuses.
Treat vendors as you want to be treated. If you ask for a proposal, get back to them with an answer, even if it is no. Pay their bills on time. Look to make connections for them that will build their business.
Celebrate the successes of your peers - be happy for them. Being worried about someone else doing better or gossiping or being jealous of others' successes, will give you a bad reputation.

Ask yourself - is your business reputation currently where you want it to be?

Tend Your Gold Mine

Fiona_Walsh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:13:07 +0000

I have lost track of how many business owners I spoke to last month who complained that business was not as good as they wanted it to be. When asked, only half of them admitted that they do some kind of business development activity every week. Really? How do you expect business to grow if you don’t do anything to make it grow?

But it gets even more interesting. Of those who do regular business development, I started asking them where most of their clients come from. Many of them were surprised by the fact that when they thought about it, they realized that the majority of their new customers were being referred by other customers. Yet none of them tracked this on any formal basis. Which means that they aren’t bothering to find out who is sending them new customers, who is saying great things about them or who is helping them grow their business. Instead they are just focusing on getting new customers and neglecting the customers they do have. Several said that they ‘hadn’t found the time to follow up on these referral partners though they knew it was important’. WHAT?

People who send you new business are gold, and you need to treat them that way. Make sure you track who is referring new business to you. Know their names, build a relationship with them. Pick up the phone and say thank you. Write them a note. (For you technology fans out there – No, an email does not have the same impact as the personal touch!) Send them a gift if they are sending you a lot of business. Find out what they are looking for and see how you can help them get it.

Say you’re too busy to do at your own peril.

Incorporation-Now, later or never?

afadaie — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:29:02 +0000

If you're like most unincorporated small business owners, you're likely contemplating these thorny questions: Should I incorporate? If so, when's the best time? If not, why not? The simple answer is,” Incorporation is always good because it delivers terrific tax benefits while creditor proofing my personal finances.”

But like all simple answers, this one is much too simplistic. Whether or not to incorporate raises a diverse array of issues—many of them having to do with the length of time you've been in business, your personal cash flow needs, the relative profitability of your business, and the personal and corporate tax rates in your province. Let's take a closer look at how these and other issues might affect your decision.

Cash flow and you

If you need all of the profits from your business to support your personal cash flow needs, incorporation may not be for you. The cost of setting up and maintaining the corporation could outweigh the tax benefits. But when your financial position allows you to retain some of your business profits inside the company, incorporation could deliver significant tax savings. The money retained in the company can be used to grow the operations or invest in other non-related investments.

Taxing questions and answers

When it comes to taxes, incorporation can be a double-edged sword. If you're in the initial stages of your business, it's usually advisable not to incorporate because losses incurred by an incorporated business can't flow through to shareholders. In those early stages, you're better off being able to use those losses personally against other income. Once your business becomes profitable, incorporation can provide tax advantages.

If your business earns active business income (income earned as a direct result of the operation of the business as opposed to passive income earned, for example, by holding other investments through the corporation) you may gain an immediate tax break (in some provinces)and the opportunity to defer part of your tax payment.

A Canadian controlled private corporation’s active business income is taxed at a relatively low combined federal/provincial rate of 12–19 per cent, depending on the province in which you’re doing business.

The lower rate is applied federally on the first $500,000 of active business income, but in some provinces the lower rate maybe applied on an amount ranging between $400,000 to $500,000.

Even though shareholders must pay a second level of tax once the after tax income is paid out as dividends, this second level of tax is applied only when the dividends are paid. So you can control when you pay these taxes—and potentially reduce your tax bite—by choosing to declare dividends in years when your personal taxable income is lower.

Small Business Solutions Comprehensive
Incorporation also allows you to take advantage of income splitting to reduce taxes. If your spouse or adult children are shareholders in your corporation, any dividends they receive will usually be taxed in their hands.

Your corporation can also employ your family members as long as their remuneration is reasonable for the work performed.

You can defer certain expenses as well. For example, an incorporated business can report an employee bonus for tax purposes but may defer actually paying out the bonus money until after year-end. In order to be deductible in the year by the corporation, it must actually be paid to you no later than six months after the end of the year.

Creditor-proofing personal assets

Incorporation can limit your liability because corporate assets and personal assets are kept separate and corporate creditors can only go after assets owned by the corporation. But banks and other corporate suppliers often require small business owners to personally guarantee any liabilities and directors of a corporation may be liable for many types of unpaid debts (including outstanding income tax, GST/HST, PST and employee source deductions) so incorporation may not protect you from all creditors.

Retirement and insurance benefits

Your corporation can create a registered pension plan (RPP) and tax-deductible group health and life insurance for you and your employees, which could include family members. This pension plan option may provide higher retirement benefits than those available from investments in a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP).

A year of your own

Your incorporated business can choose a fiscal year spanning any 12-month period. You can select a fiscal year-end that coincides with business or cash flow peaks(making tax payments easier) or when corporate expenses are higher (potentially reducing your corporate tax bite).

Estate planning

The life of an unincorporated business usually ends with the life of its proprietor. But a corporation can continue to exist indefinitely, which is why corporations are often used for estate planning purposes. It is important to take steps so that after your death the business remains profitable with sound management provided by family members or others.

If after assessing the pros and cons, you’re leaning toward incorporation, you still have a few important decisions to make: Who will be the shareholders? You may choose to make family members shareholders for income splitting purposes—but the ability to issue shares to family members is limited in certain corporate structures.

It's also not advisable to issue shares to minor children so it maybe necessary to establish a family trust to hold the shares on their behalf. Who will be on the board of directors? Directors have exposure to many different types of liabilities, so becoming a director is not a decision to be taken lightly. Who should be the officers? These are the people entitled to sign contracts, banking, and other documents on behalf of the corporation. They must be chosen with care and with an eye to the future development and direction of your business. Yes, there are potential benefits to incorporation, but be sure to talk to us before you make the final decision

Persistence Pays Off

Fiona_Walsh — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:10:19 +0000

"The difference in winning and losing is most often... not quitting."

This quote by Walt Disney should be everyone’s mantra when it comes to selling. Most people put in 1 or 2 calls to a prospect, and when they don’t hear back, they give up. They quit. They invent a million reasons in their head about why that person won’t buy from them.

Research shows that it takes an average of 7 to 8 touches on a prospect before you catch their attention and get them to read your email, return your phone call, or agree to a meeting. Yet, the majority of us give up after one try. Which means you’re quitting too soon!

Look at how busy you are. Do you always get back to people in a timely fashion? Do you get behind in your email and voicemail? Are you ever glad when a person contacts you that extra time because you were interested, but you just hadn’t the time to get around to following up with them?

Forget about thinking of all the reasons a prospect isn’t responding to you – you really have no idea of what’s happening on their end. Rather than be negative, be confident about how your product or service is a good solution for them. Then keep contacting them until you hear them say a definite no.

Develop A Strong Voice For Yourself

Fiona_Walsh — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:34:44 +0000

This past month I have met a lot of entrepreneurs at events, in meetings, and over the phone. Some of them made a great impression, some did not. When I stopped to think about the last one and why I didn't have a great impression from them, I realized for many of them it was their voice. The way they used it did not impart confidence and strength. When talking about your company, your products and services, you have to exude confidence and passion. Only part of that comes from the words you use; most of that impression comes from the way you work your voice. So here are a few tips for building a good impression with your voice.

1. Don't be a shallow breather. Most of us are shallow breathers - our chest barely moves during the day. Shallow breaths mean you run out of air on longer sentences and end up squeking out the words. Stand straight and pull your breath down into your waist. Breathing deeper also imparts a sense of calm and confidence. This was the tip that made the most impact on building my success as a professional speaker and in selling.

2. Stand and sit up straight. This lets your lungs fill up. If you hunch over while on the phone, like I said above, you will run out of air and your voice starts cracking or you gulp air. This makes you sound rushed. Straighten your spine - you'll sound more powerful! Always make sure you stand up straight when speaking to people - hunched over does not make you look confident.

3. Watch your speed. Speak too fast and people get suspicious - they think you are covering up something or being less than truthful. Speak too slowly, people think you don't have your act together and they stop listening.

4. Don't be a 'low talker.' I ran into a low talker at a networking event lately. Lovely lady. I couldn't hear a word she was saying. Watch this, especially if there is a lot of background noice going on. Women need to watch that they don't speak at a high pitch. It gives the impression that you are nervous, which also causes people to tune you out.

5. Sound like you care. My clients know that I believe in having a prepared script for phone calls, presentations, and introductions. Having a game plan for what you want to say removes a lot of nerves for people and allows them to shine when getting their message across. But just because you use a script, doesn't mean you should sound like you are reading from it. Memorize it so it rolls off your tongue naturally, and then add passion. If you sound passionate about what you are talking about, I am more likely to listen and want to engage. Sound like you're reading frm a script, people won't be impressed and they certainly won't want to buy.

Your voice and the way you deliver your message about your company is one of the most powerful marketing tools you have as a business owner - don't waste it.

Stop Waiting for Things to Improve - Take Action Now

Fiona_Walsh — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:38:26 +0000

I am sick of hearing business owners tell me that "they are just waiting for the economy to improve" and then they'll get back to building business. I just had one owner tell me that they were in the hole for $60,000 and that they realized they should have cut costs six months ago.

Are you kidding me? As a business owner, it is your responsibility to take action, not to wait around for 'things' to change. If you are owed money, take action to collect it. Forget about excuses like 'I hate asking people for money' or 'my customer is going through a rough patch'. It is not your job to subsidize other businesses. You did the work in good faith; if your invoice hasn't been paid - go out and collect on it.

If you are losing money, take a hard look at all your expenses. Do you need to readjust staff hours? Do you have expenses that you added when times were good, that are extras now? Have you renegotiated costs with your suppliers? (One client just did that and is saving $5 per unit manufactured, simply by asking for better pricing.) Sharpen your pencil and start cutting costs now. Don't wait till things get worse.

Are you sales sucking? What have you done to improve your sales situation? Are you out there building business or just waiting it out? A lot of businesses are waiting themselves into bankruptcy. There is always money to be made in good and tough markets. Sit down and take a long look at what markets you could target that you haven't touched. Then start marketing to them. Ask for referrals. Get in touch with past customers and see how they are weathering the recession and whether you can help out in any way.

The key to surviving in this economy is to get out there and hustle. No more excuses! In works of Nike - Just Do It!

Create Your Own Job Security - Build A Successful Business

Fiona_Walsh — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:46:03 +0000

I recently heard entrepreneuralism referred to as the only form of true job security and I have to agree. I worked in the corporate world for 16 years, experienced 3 mergers, and saw what economic conditions do to corporate policy and priorities.

I like being my own boss better. I like being responsible for driving my own financial success. I like being in the drivers seat and setting the rules. Yes, there are always a share of moments, when you miss the paycheque, but after four years of running my own company, I can absolutely tell you that owning your own business is the only real job security out there.

But these are tough economic times, so let's talk about how to build a successful business. As a business coach, I have seen companies that soar to amazing levels of financial success. And every day I see businesses out there that are doomed or dying. So what makes the difference between those who succeed and those who don't?

Whenever I ask that question, everyone always gives the same answer: "a really great product or service." Yes, it's important that you sell something that people want to buy. But, even more important, is having 5 essential traits seen in all successful entrepreneurs.

1. Clarity: You must be absolutely clear on what you want; you need a very clear vision of what kind of business you want to build. It must be very specific and you have to think big. Peter Drucker once wrote, "Even if you are starting your business on a kitchen table, you must have a vision of becoming a world leader in your field, or you will probably never be successful."

Building a business is hard work, and without a very clear written vision and plan for what you want to build, it is easy to get de-motivated and give up. The most successful clients I have worked with all had an extremely clear vision of what they wanted to create with their company.

Here are some questions to get you started on the road to clarity:

What is your vision for yourself and your future?
What is your vision for your finances?
What is the mission of your business? What is it you want to accomplish for your customers?
What are your goals? Remember, goals are not just about your money. Do you have goals for your health, your family, your personal development? These are just as important.

2. Competence: To be successful in business, according to Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, you must find a product or service that satisfies three requirements:

First, it must be something for which you have a passion - something you really believe in and love to do. Talk to any great entrepreneur and you will immediately see their passion come out.
Second, it must be an area where you have the potential to be the best, to be better than 90 percent of the people in the field. You must have the expertise, the skill to stand out in the market.
Third, it must involve a product or service that can be profitable. Just because you think it is a great idea does not make it so. You need to do some market research.

3. Remove Personal Constraints: All entrepreneurs have strengths and weaknesses; all of us do things that get in the way of our success - consciously and unconsciously. In the Ghost CEO coaching program, we refer to these things as the limiting factor. Fully 80 percent of the reasons that business owners do not achieve their goals as quickly as they want is due to themselves. Only 20 percent of the time will it be due to external circumstances or people.

Some of the most common limiting factors I see in entrepreneurs include:

Perfectionism
Can't delegate
Too much focus on the details
Can't ask for what they want
Uncomfortable asking for money
Think selling is a 4-letter word

Michael Gerber, author of the E-Myth Revisited, once said it was not what business owners didn't know that caused them to fail. It was the fact that they did not do anything about it.

4. Creativity: The essence of successful business is innovation, especially in challenging economic times like this. This is the ability to find better, cheaper, faster or easier ways to produce and deliver your products and services.

Successful entrepreneurs are problem-solvers by nature. Their focus is on the solution rather than the problem. Instead of blaming, they are always looking for solutions to obstacles, marketing opportunities, ways to attract new customers. They are driven to try new things.

Check out www.springwise.com - they have a weekly newsletter that outlines new business ideas from aroudn the world - creativity in action!

5. Courage: It takes tremendous courage and a slight madness to take the business risks necessary to become wealthy. In study after study of entrepreneurs, experts have concluded it is the courage to take the "first step" that makes all the difference. This courage to launch in the direction of your goals, with no guarantee of success is what most people lack.

You also need courage to hang in there and persist in the face of adversity that comes along in the normal running of a business.

If you have the 5 traits outlined above and you are committed to launching your new business, here are two steps for getting your business off the ground.

Know your target market. I see too many entrepreneurs who miss profitable opportunities because they focus too much on getting their products or service ready before going out to the market. Michael Masterson, author of Ready, Fire, Aim talks about the 90/10 marketing rule and its key role in business success. Simply put, businesses have a far higher chance of succeeding if their owner puts 90% of their effort in the beginning into identifying their target market and understanding their needs, and only 10% into developing the actual product or service. Most entrepreneurs do it backwards - they spend 90% of their time and money perfecting their product and only 10% on identifying their target market. The result? They launch their business and then struggle with sales and marketing because they are not clear on who their customer is. One of my clients took her consulting business form $100,000 per year to $450,000 per year by identifying who her target customers were, what their needs were, why they would buy from her, and then packaging her services in a way that the market gobbled them up.

Write a simple business plan. Even if you don't need financing, you need to have a written business plan. It can be a short strategic plan that outlines your products and pricing, your target markets, your goals for the year and your marketing strategy. This is not optional. You certainly cannot run a successful business without having a map in place for what you want to accomplish.

Start taking action today to create your own job security. Think big and get very clear on what you want to build, then go out and build it!

How to Fail As a Business Owner - Guaranteed

Fiona_Walsh — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:56:30 +0000

Prefer to do everything yourself.

Trust no others with important tasks.

Fly solo because it's faster if you do it yourself, than show someone else how to do it.

Keep thinking that no one can do it as well as you can.

Then find yourself going insane because you are working 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. You start to drop balls and customers don't get their stuff on time. Customers get angry and your reputation gets trashed. You are the bottleneck in your company. Decisions don't get made, you don't get things done in time, you fail to follow up on leads. And then you burn out and hate your business.

That is the profile of a stupid business owner. Learn to delegate - especially the stuff that doesn't make you money. Then get out there and hunt for new business that will pay for the help you need. You can never build a sustainable, profitable business doing it all yourself.

And yes it can be done. One photographer I recently worked with was working solo and losing money. We identified that he was wasting all his time doing the Photoshop touchups, when he should have been out finding new clients. He hired someone to do the Photoshop work (at a fraction of what he could make behind the camera) and then he took those extra hours and went out to find new business. In three months, he has gone from losing money to bringing in $25,000 in new business, and this is still only early days.

Increase Your Bottom Line With This Simple Tool

Fiona_Walsh — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:04:43 +0000

Every Friday afternoon do a weekly review of your business - this activity will let you know exactly how your business is and will make it easier for you to book time off on the weekend and enjoy it. There is no worse feeling than spending your days off feeling like you should be working or remembering stuff that you were supposed to do but forgot to, before you left.

The weekly review is a simple process but highly effective. Just book one hour to do it every Friday afternoon. Mine is done at 3:00PM. Over that hour, take a look at:

What are the revenues? Are you on track to meet your sales goals? If not, what actions can you take to get your revenue goals met?
Did you accomplish your weekly goals?
What new business did you develop this week?
Are there opportunities that need follow-up?
Do you have prospects lined up for next week?
Write down your weekly goals for the next week.
Review your to-do list and catch anything that got missed.
Build your to-do list for Monday.
Take a moment to ackowledge what you accomplished this week and give yourself a pat on the back.
Send any thank you notes that need to go out.

This simple weekly practice will give you a sense of control because you know exactly where your bottom line is and what you need to do in the following week. Which translates into really taking the weekend off.

New version of Billing Boss deployed Sep 23rd

billingboss — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:43:17 +0000

Today we deployed a new version of Billing Boss.

This new version allow you to use your Billing Boss account to access Sage Spark (without the need to create a new account). With this option, you can easily access Billing Boss support forum, purchase services and most importantly, interact with fellow small business owners on Sage Spark.

Expect more exciting changes coming to Billing Boss in the near future.

Richard

The Billing Boss Team

info@billingboss.com

Reach Out And Touch Someone - Your Customer

Fiona_Walsh — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:50:34 +0000

Yesterday I got a surprise in the mail. A movie gift card as a thank you, from a business associate who I had sent a customer to. A small gesture - but a very powerful one! It made a huge impression on me. Chances are very high that I'll do more business with him. It wasn't the fact that I got something for free that made the impact. It was the randomness of the gift and that he took the time to make the gesture. It made me feel my efforts were appreciated.

Rarely in this society do we say thank you to people who do business with us. As a small business owner, your biggest asset is your existing customer base. Research has shown that it costs seven times more to find new customers than to keep the existing ones. So why not shower your clients with kindness? Show them you appreciate their business? That's the best way to build loyal customers and keep them coming back. You need to stay in touch so they don't forget you.

And I am not talking about some lame newsletter or bombarding them with Twitter messages about your products. I am talking about taking the time to do some personalized marketing, using the tools described below.

1. Send a card. Other than bills and junk mail, most of us rarely get mail anymore. Sending a hand-written thank you note makes a great impression. Or use a service like SendOutCards, that will mail cards in your handwriting on demand. It doesn't cost a lot of time to make a big impact.

2. Pick up the phone. Call clients the day after they buy to see if they are happy with their purchase and thank them for shopping with you. One of my gift basket clients did that and saw her repeat business jump 30% in one quarter!

3. Make them feel special. I got an invite to a VIP event at one of my favorite clothing stores last week. Not only was the event invite only and included a hefty shopping discount, we were handed a gift bag at the door filled with gorgeous stuff - a total surprise! The event was a hit and I've been telling all my friends about the store. Make people feel special and you will get customers for life.

4. Practice random acts of surprise. Give customers unexpected gifts that are fun or whimsical. Don't stick to branded calendars or pens or always sending coffee cards. One company gave me a funky stainless steel water bottle that I take everywhere with me. People always comment on it, and I tell them the name of the company - no branding needed on the bottle. Another sent a potted plant. Give people something tht they will enjoy - books, chocolates, funky shopping bags, gift cards to local businesses. These kind of random acts have huge impact on people.

It's very important as a small business to really focus on keeping your customers loyal to you. Do some personalized marketing on a consistent basis and I think you will be very surprised at the results!

What Maturity Means

Tony_Wanless — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:21:21 +0000

The dictionary defines maturity as “the state of being fully grown or developed”, which I guess is technically right, but sounds like it has an element of wish in it: I know many people who are fully grown and are anything but fully developed.

But perhaps the dictionary is trying to be inspiring. Certainly, it has synonyms for maturity that sound more real. For example, it lists words like completion, cultivation, experience, full bloom (I like that one!), mellowness, prime, wisdom, and my favorite, “readiness”.

Encore or boomer entrepreneurs generally make a living by being mature. The wisdom or experience that comes from maturity is usually their chief asset, which is in turn employed by either a company or themselves in a business. So it’s probably a good idea to understand what it means. To that end, here’s my riff on maturity:

Maturity means you have learned lessons and recognize you will continue to learn them. Life is a continual, informal and sometimes formal school and you’re always at your desk.

Maturity means constant growth and you can’t grow unless you screw up sometimes. If you’re mature, you understand that you will make mistakes, that you will make corrections, and that you will learn from the process.

Maturity means understanding that the most important time is the present. Yes, you have a past, and (it’s hoped) a future. But, while you may think about them, you can’t live in the past or the future. The only time you can live is right now.

Maturity means understanding that creativity is as important as pragmatism, and vice versa. Being purely creative all the time is the function of a child without responsibilities. Being constantly pragmatic is dull and lifeless. Even the most pragmatic dish needs a little creative sauce to be palatable.

Maturity means recognizing that you should do all things in moderation. And that includes being moderate. Kick up your heels once in a while.

Maturity means understanding that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence. But sometimes it is. You have to analyse and decide.

Maturity means recognizing that what you make of your life is up to you. Yes, you may have been shaped when you were immature by other, outside, forces, but there comes a time when you make the choices. The philosopher Albert Camus said it best: “Alas, after a certain age, every man is responsible for his own face.” He meant women too. And I don’t think he was talking about cosmetic surgery.

Maturity means that if you love or hate someone that says more about you than them. You can’t love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

Maturity means being less critical and more understanding. We all have foibles, bad habits, and annoying traits. Sure, we should try to change them, but sometimes we can’t.

Motivating Your Employees to Give Outstanding Customer Service

Sylvain_Deslongchamps — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:10:13 +0000

Did you know that exceptional customer service will provide the following benefits to your business?

• Increase revenue and profits through referrals and repeat business
• Increase customer and employee satisfaction.

So how do you motivate your employees to deliver exceptional customer service?

Here are a few steps:

Training - Provide customer service training to your employees. Ensure all employees are consistent and provide the same image of your organization to the customer.

Communication - Keep your employees up-to-date at all times; ensure you communicate with your employees on new products, services, any communication to clients etc… so they can answer any potential questions from clients.

Monitor/Coaching – Listen to calls and face to face interactions and coach your employees on delivering top notch service. Ensure you walk the talk by providing exceptional service yourself as a business owner.

Incent – Encourage and reward your employees when exceptional service is noticed. Clients often share their best customer service experience so it is critical to your success that you ensure your customer service heroes are appreciated and recognized. It does not have to be big – a low denomination gift certificate does the job.

Support – Ensure your company’s policies and processes support your employees to provide outstanding service. Give your employees the empowerment necessary to make decisions and break the rules when appropriate.

Happy employees equal happy customers. Follow these steps and you will notice an immediate change in your employee’s motivation level. Have fun delighting your employees and customers.

Differentiation and Advertising

Matthew_Young — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:40:03 +0000

As the economy tightens and competition stiffens there’s no better time to start getting creative with your marketing approach to ensure you are filling the distance between yourself and your customers.

A strategy that has worked well for us is being where our competition is not and doing what others are not. For example, when the industry’s main magazine contacts us with the classic ‘we’ve offered add space to the top gyms in Vancouver and we have one space left”, we politely decline to participate. Why?

1st – who has researched who / what / why the top gyms are the top gyms? No one. It’s the gyms who are already out there that are being contacted. Truth is, everyone should believe they are the top gym – so there’s no differentiation.

2nd – The target audience of the publication was with existing Fitness professionals. This made little sense in terms of marketing dollars going straight to customer acquisition. We did spend 3k on a profile in the magazine to track our ROI which simply confirmed our initial assessment.

3rd – and more importantly that the above semantics, why would we want to advertise on 1 page of 7 with 12 of our competitors? Each promising the same outcome, using a variety of tactics that both support and detract from our collective credibility. Why not be where they are not appealing to the audience we want?

Over a decade of business, our two most valuable sources of advertising were partnering with the right charities (next blog) and a radio advertisement campaign where instead of talking about ourselves, we let our customers speak about their experiences.

Having the customers provide testimonial not only differentiated our value proposition, but it put the focus squarely where it belonged. On the customer! So, when thinking about how to differentiate yourself from your competition, think about whom you want to reach – where they are and how you can most effectively resonate with them!

Think SEO!

Recruiting_Team — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:28:54 +0000

It is pretty much a known fact that posting your jobs on web sites will reach a larger group of audience….but aside from that, you need to make sure that you reach a specific target group of people that you are looking for.

The most effective way to reach those people is to make sure you are ranked highly on leading search engines. You will want to make sure you are closest to the top of the page as possible when being searched as most people wouldn’t bother to go past the first or second page. Being visible will direct more people to the site and increase the traffic flow.

Search-engine optimization (SEO) is something that is commonly used nowadays. It’s just an easier way to work directly with Google, Yahoo and Ask.com – and the bonus is…you don’t have to pay! Below are some tips that you can use to boost traffic flow to your site profile:

1)   Use a Unique Name – make your website interesting. Give a unique name so that it actually means something so that you can get noticed and stand out from your competition.
2)   Key words are crucial – think carefully about the type of key words you want to use. You want Webcralwers to be aware of your page so insert keywords into each pages’ title tag. If you are stuck – look at your competitors’ page to see what they have down.
3)   Change the Title tags – try different words and play around with them. If you use the same title – Webcrawlers might categorize them as all the pages are the same, and that case, the pages might not get indexed.
4)   Meaningless Key Words – don’t over do it! If you have too many keywords it can actually degrade your site rating. So choose your words carefully.
5)   Build a Site Map – this will help the Webcrawlers to find all your pages. If you have a smaller site – you may also use a navigation bar (its just as good!).

How to pay your bills and invest too!

afadaie — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:02:30 +0000

There’s no doubt about it, making ends meet is tough. And getting ahead?—well, for many Canadians, that’s a desperate dream for tomorrow when every day brings the reality of mortgage payments, car loans, lease payments, large credit card balances, and other demands on your hard won earnings. Sure, you’d like to start an investment program or add to the small investments you’ve already made, but there just never seems to be anything left over once you’ve taken care of the essentials.

And in a world that runs on credit, it’s too easy to carry too much debt in too many places. If you’re staying awake at nights trying to map a way out of the dreaded debt spiral, to say nothing of stretching your income to cover an investment program that could help you realize your dreams for the future, debt consolidation may be just the ticket.

Debt consolidation can increase your ability to invest

Debt consolidation simply means paying off a number of higher interest rate loans or other high-cost debt by taking out a single loan for a consolidated overall lower monthly payment.You can choose to consolidate such unsecured debts as medical bills, car payments, education loans, credit card payments or lines of credit—and the benefit is a single, more affordable monthly payment, that is usually much lower than the many monthly payments you were making previously.

It’s an effective way to regain control of your finances, ease your cash management, generate savings and reduce stress—as well as establishing a repayment plan that will move you beyond simply servicing your balances to actually eliminating them.

Managing your money

If you own a home, you can consider consolidating your debt using a home equity loan. Your loan is secured by your home and there’s no doubt you’ll be paying a much lower interest rate than you do on your credit cards which can range from 19 percent to over 28 percent for a retail card. By keeping your amortization period the same, but with a lower interest rate, you’ve created additional cash flow that can be used towards other financial goals. ehens

An easy investment strategy that works

Once you’ve got your debt under control, it’s time to bring discipline and consistency to your investment life.An easy way to do that—and enjoy significant long-term returns—is through dollar cost averaging. This simply means making regularly scheduled investments for a set amount of dollars. It’s a trouble-free investment plan that delivers some powerful benefits:

·         Your investments are automatic— you choose an amount that is debited from your bank account and invested on your behalf on a regular basis, such as each month.

·         You are free from scrambling to buy lump sum investments at irregular intervals in an attempt to ‘buy low and sell high’, your automated investments take place on a regular basis.

·         You are able to acquire a greater number of securities—say, mutual fund units—when the price is lower and a lesser number of securities when the price is higher.

·         Over the longer term, your average cost per unit should be lower, and your overall returns will usually be higher. Dollar cost averaging is a great way to ramp up your RRSP nest egg—and, along with debt consolidation, is one of the many personal financial solutions that can make your dreams for tomorrow realistically achievable through the actions you’re taking today. We can help you gain control of your financial life and improve your prospects for the future.

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS NOT FINANCIAL OR LEGAL ADVICE FOR ANY PURPOSE. The information available at SageSpark.com is of general application and for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as financial, tax or legal advice. Sage strongly recommends that you consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction or certified financial or tax advisor regarding your specific circumstances..

Dream Stage

Josh_Melvin — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:43:22 +0000

This is a really fun part of building a business. First you have to have a clear vision of what you want your company to look and act like in 5, 10, 20 years. This process should be given a lot of thought and don’t hold back. Think of what you want out of a business, whether it’s money, freedom, social or philanthropic reasons. Decide on what you want and plan around that. You may find your self thinking “I can’t make this happen because of that” or “That won’t happen because of this”. When the time comes, you should view all those excuses as an obstacle to take head on, overcome, and learn from - not a barrier that stops you in your tracks, especially at this stage. Things like money, time, resources, poor economy, all minor details. There is a way to get what you want, and you’re the only one preventing you from finding it.

You have to ask yourself, after you know what you want your company to look like, what would a company like the one you’re trying to build act like, smell, feel, and sound like. What will people think of when they think of your company? How will they remember you? I say these are fun questions to answer because it requires you do some research and to dive a little into the human psyche.

We know that certain colors, smells, and sights cause an automatic response in people and that response varies depending on a person’s background. So keep that in mind when determining how you will set up a business that portrays the image of a company you’re trying to build.

Consider this when choosing the way your company looks, smells, and feels like to the outside world. When IBM chose the color blue for their logo they didn’t do it because the owner liked the color blue. They did it because the color blue they chose enacts a sense of trust in people (in North America, it’s different in other parts of the world). And when KFC installed fans in their kitchens that blow the chicken stink out into the streets they weren’t trying to keep their employees cool, they wanted to remind people of the sweet, sweet smell of the greased up bird. Or when a car company chooses the music for a commercial, they use sounds that enact the feeling they’re trying to attribute to that particular car in the commercial. These are only examples of how other companies help create their image. Some will work better and some will be less effective for your business.

It’s not as if when someone sees the color blue they fall into a trance and will believe anything you say. Or when you catch a whiff of fried bird you immediately have a craving so deep you’d sell the neighbours dog for a bite. Or when you hear the soft sounds in the new car commercial you think how much more tranquil your life would be with such a fine piece of machinery in it. But with enough repetition and consistency it can leave a definite impression - or at least that’s the goal.

The Five Biggest Boomer Entrepreneur Mistakes

Tony_Wanless — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:33:34 +0000

1. Believing that because you were somebody once, you’re somebody now. Many new Boomer entrepreneurs are guilty of the sin of pride. But the minute you walked out the door of that corporate gig, you became just another entrepreneur trying to start a business. You may not have changed how your see yourself, but the way the rest of the world sees you has. If you can’t start over with a new and clear sense of yourself, you’re in for a big letdown.

2. Believing that your expertise is good enough. Highly educated people with much expertise can sometimes live in a bubble. But you have to recognize that because you are good at something, doesn’t make you good at everything. To your expertise, add education on entrepreneurial business operation, finances, working with people, and humility.

3. Believing you don’t have to market. This is a corollary to No. 2, and it also revolves around pride. Many Boomers who leave high corporate positions feel they can easily create a service and business will automatically flow to them. But even the most successful of businesses have to market somehow. If you think marketing means hard selling, and you’re too embarrassed to do that, give your head a shake. There are many ways to market that don’t involve the hard sell. Neither do they involve endlessly lunching with old colleagues.

4. Believing that you can ignore your rolodex. It’s your best asset, but some boomer entrepreneurs want to make a clean break from their former lives and completely dump it. That means you’ll be all alone and friendless in the big new wide world. If the old life was really that bad, okay, but if it’s simply about starting a new one, then pick the best allies for your new business from your contact list, talk to them and learn from them. And don’t be embarrassed to ask for business. Some might even become clients.

5. Believing you’re John Wayne. The strong, silent, and aloof persona might work if you’re a CEO, supported by a superstructure that allows you to occupy the ivory tower in the corner. But when you’re in your own business, you have to get involved – in everything. It’s been said that the entrepreneur has more than 40 different job descriptions, and yes, that includes cleaning up and taking out the garbage. Dignity has nothing to do with it: it just has to be done.

Employee Referrals = Saving Time & Money

Recruiting_Team — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:29:19 +0000

Have you ever thought about where your best employees came from? Regardless of the size of the organization, there will always be employees internally who know someone or a contact that will be a fit for the role. And if the person they referred aren’t a fit, then at least you made a new contact for a future role that may come up.

Through numerous studies, it shows that employees who join a company through an employee referral will have a stronger performance and will have a longer duration at the company. When they do stay with the company, it reduces the turnover, and will save the company costs of turnover and replacing the headcount.

Its important to invest in an employee referral program. Employees usually don’t expect much in return but it does help that they are compensated for their referrals. Gift cards and referral bonuses may be some options to compensate the employee for their referrals.

Good employees will generally refer good candidates so make sure you reach out to your employee base to help you out.

Part 5 | The 6 W’s – Questions to Ask Before You Start: WHERE?

Penny_Seto — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:26:50 +0000

WHERE is a two part question…
WHERE will your business live physically? And, WHERE is your target market located geographically?

Let’s take a look at the business itself. To some of you, the idea of working from home while caring for your young children may be an ideal scenario. However, any amount of research on the internet will tell you that if you want to work from home you need to set some ground rules. Without doing this for yourself and your family, you will all quickly define some bad habits that will not only be hard to break but will make it hard for you to maximize your true growth potential…and keep your family sane. After all, you’re doing this to spend more time with them, right?!

The most important rule of thumb is: “Work time” and “family time” are just that. When the two get too mixed up, it makes everyone unhappy and you less productive and loving of both. So, take a divide and conquer approach and be your best at both!
If you want to be a professional, you have to play the part. Consider the following tips to get you off on the right foot.

1. Dedicate an area of your home for your office. Consider whether you need room to store samples, products or supplies. It’s ideal if you have all of your business located in one private space instead of scattered around the house. Set clear boundaries and do not allow family distractions to enter this space (ie. Family bills and paperwork, children’s toys, laundry etc.) Make sure your space is inviting to YOU!

2. Use a dedicated phone line with a professional voice mail message – a phone that is only answered by you or someone that you hire. Don’t risk having your business calls answered by a family member or babysitter. This could result in missed messages, or worse, unimpressed clients. First impressions in a new business can make or break you.

3. A professionally designed website with a domain that matches your business name is a must in this age of technology. It must clearly define your business’s products or services and include your contact information or an online contact form.

4. Use a domain email account, not a Hotmail account.

5. Schedule dedicated time to return phone calls and emails when you know you will not be interrupted.

6. Shut the computer off when family time starts and avoid being pulled away to check messages and emails. Trust me, though it may not seem possible, you will be more productive if you do.

7. Set rules for (if and) when your children are allowed to enter your work space and what they’re allowed to do while they’re there.

Spilled Milk: Having your own business is like having another child. You’ve given birth to the idea of it. You want to nurture it. Protect it. It’s hard to walk away. Know in your mind from the start that you can walk away from the business each day and it will be waiting for you with open arms when you return. Your family, though loving and supportive, is much more likely to hold a grudge if you keep sneaking off to check your email!

In my next post, we’ll consider the second part of the WHERE question, 'Where is your target market located geographically?'

The Boomer Entrepreneur’s Guide to Lead Generation

Tony_Wanless — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:05:57 +0000

As we have said often, operating a boomer business is different than running a more traditional one.

Your business goals are usually different: You’re concerned as much with exploration and as you are with making vast amounts of moolah.

But you still have to make a little bit and that means you have to sell your services. The only way to do that is to generate leads – potential customers who might be interested in actually paying you for doing something you love.

Now, there are thousands of marketing operations around that will give you advice on how to go about this. That advice ranges from the latest whizz-bang social media technique, to the very loud and usually ineffective advertising or direct sales message.
I’m not saying you should ignore it all, but I do suggest you pick whatever is relevant to your business, and put the rest far into the background.

Generally all this marketing advice is a waste of time for a boomer business, because it’s aimed at the mass. You only want to talk to a few of this big herd.

So, top lead generation techniques for the boomer entrepreneur include:

1. Working the Rolodex: By your age you’ve probably amassed a wide network of contacts in all areas of business. Even better, they know you, if only distantly. So why not market directly to the group where you have the best chance of success? Prepare a summation of what you can offer and go have a visit with long-time friends. You have to ask for the business, but try to keep the hard sell pitching to a minimum. If they can’t use your services, ask them if they know anyone who can.

2. Social Media: I’m not saying you should plaster yourself all over every social media website out there. But you might want to pick one or two popular blogs or websites where your prospects are most likely to be, and start having conversations (again, not hard sell pitches). It is after all, free, except for your time. But be careful to manage it and not get caught up in the trivia.

3. Speaking/Writing: Your’s is probably a business based on your expertise, so you have to find only the customers who can use it. There’s no better way to do that than to speak on the subject or write articles for magazines, newsletters, or blogs that focus on your area. It’s called expertise marketing, in which you show your stuff as an expert to potential customers. Your goal should be to become the answer person in this area.

Small Businesses & Social Media

Matthew_Young — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:08:07 +0000

Much has been made about the need for small business to embrace technology, specifically social media, but how much is marketing and how much is useful?

If we take a cross section of relevant social media applications; Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and You Tube the burning question should be of all these, which is the best return for our investment of time? After 6 months of deliberate study these were our findings.

1. You Tube: A picture is worth 1000 words and for service businesses, there’s no better way to showcase your differentiating factor than visual support of your written promise. B+

2. Myspace: Really nothing in this application that isn’t covered better in Facebook. Younger demographic, niche to music and the needs of that age group. If your business caters or relies on this population, there’s no sense missing out, but there are better ROIs for your time. C

3. Twitter: If you’re business is on the go (real estate esp) and/or relies on current information now, this is a useful application. Caution: twitter can be overused and the trick here is to be relevant and timely without becoming overbearing. A-
4. Linkedin: The business professional’s social media application is somewhat useful in networking with established people but misses the boat on most small business needs. B

5. Facebook: With hundreds of millions of eyeballs across all demographics coupled with their ability to incorporate other social media applications Facebook is still king / queen of the small business applications. Gone is the join the group, replaced by become a fan and with this massive engine and global connectivity, your small business can remain top of mind (if used well) for existing and future customers. A+

The best feature of all elements is of course their cost (zero) and as a small business where advertising dollars are discretionary, arbitrary and tight, there is no reason to avoid these great outlets.

During our study we found we were specifically able to a) keep existing customers engaged at a higher level b) increase our referrals and c) reach audiences outside of our existing geography and monetize them. which… is the name of the game!

Innovative Fitness - Fan Page on Facebook

Secrets of Succession

afadaie — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:50:50 +0000

Owners who plan avoid future turmoil

Your business couldn’t be better and then it happens: a co-owner suddenly becomes disabled or dies.that could mean the disruption of your business, your income and possibly even a comfortable carefree retirement.

Good Business

That is why business succession planning-including a well constructed buy-sell agreement – makes good business sense, for both co-owners of a partnership or a corporation. Using a sports analogy-in any sporting event, if there’s a conflict, it’s resolved by going to the rule book. Think of a buy-sell agreement a s a rule book for resolving conflicts and other issues in your business. The difference is that, in business, co-owners themselves nutually agree on how the game will be played by writing the rules in advance and in anticipation of certain events, particular needs and desires.

In agreement

Buy-sell agreements-sometimes included as part of shareholder agreements-can provide clear rules for succession upon death or some other triggering events, and benefit the interests of all shareholders. Such an agreement can play an important role in the preservation of a business and in providing financial security for the business owners and their families. You and your co-owner(s) establish the rules by creating and entering into a buy-sell agreement that sets out firm commitments and obligations for buyer and seller and their respective heirs. A properly drafted agreement will set out provisions for triggering events, like the death or disability of a co-owner, retirement, divorce, bankruptcy of a co-owner or a falling out between co-owners.

For the fund of it

If one party dies or becomes disabled, where does the surviving/healthy co-owner(s) get the money to acquire that party’s share of the business? You can use your own money if you have the liquidity. Or, you can sell off the other assets, but in most cases these assets will not bring full value in a forced sale situation, so these are usually not attractive options.

You can borrow the money, but given that the principal must be paid back with after tax dollars and is not deductible, that’s not usually considered an optimal solution either.

The most attractive option is usually an insurance policy, a relatively inexpensive way to help fund the buy-sell agreement. This option guarantees cash in lump sum at exactly the time when it is needed to be used by the surviving or healthy co-owner(s) to purchase the business interest from the disabled co-owner or the deceased co-owner’s estate.

Insuring protection

A buy-sell agreement, paid for by insurance, creates liquidity for the business interest, and reduces or eliminates loss of business value that can occur as a result of a forced liquiditation or failure in the aftermath of an owner’s death or disability. It can also remove the risk of friction between the surviving owner(s) and the deceased owner’s heirs, and stabilize the ongoing operation of the business without the need to share decision-making or profits with inexperienced heirs. The buy-sell agreement may also be structured to provide life insurance proceeds to redude business debt and offset expected reductions in sales revenue due to the death of a co-owner who is a key person in the business operation.

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS NOT FINANCIAL OR LEGAL ADVICE FOR ANY PURPOSE. The information available at SageSpark.com is of general application and for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as financial, tax or legal advice. Sage strongly recommends that you consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction or certified financial or tax advisor regarding your specific circumstances..

How to Go Under in a Recession

Fiona_Walsh — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:28:09 +0000

James Surowiecki recently wrote a piece in the New Yorker discussing how two companies—Post and Kellogg—reacted very differently to the Depression and what happened. "Post did the predictable thing: it reined in expenses and cut back on advertising," he writes. "But Kellogg doubled its ad budget, moved aggressively into radio advertising, and heavily pushed its new cereal, Rice Krispies."

The strategy paid off. "By 1933, even as the economy cratered," he continues, "Kellogg’s profits had risen almost thirty per cent and it had become what it remains today: the industry’s dominant player." I bet most of you reading this article have a box of Kellogg’s cereal in your cupboard right now.

If you have stopped spending on marketing during this recession – you are making a big mistake! Lots of studies suggest why a company that doubles down on advertising will tend to outperform competitors during economic downturns, and will often emerge stronger than before. According to Surowiecki:

Recessions make the strong stronger, and the weak weaker. "The strong can afford to keep investing," he explains, "while the weak have to devote all their energies to staying afloat."
When the weak scale back on advertising, the campaigns of strong companies have a greater impact.

Yes, you want to be careful about where you do spend your marketing money, but the point is that you should still be spending. Cutting spending drastically may simply help your customers to forget about you or help your competition gain a bigger presence in the market.
Even in a recession, there are opportunities to make money. As he points out both Miracle Whip and the iPod were introduced during recessions. So get out there and find those opportunities before your competition does!

Boomer Entrepreneurs To Lead Recovery?

Tony_Wanless — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:29:40 +0000

A study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation points to an explosion of Boomer entrepreneurship in the coming years.

In fact this explosion is so prevalent that the foundation postulates that Boomer entrepreneurs will actually lead the US to economic recovery.

The foundation’s Dane Stangler writes that the US population is rapidly aging, which would normally point to a tentative and sluggish recovery because of the large numer of people expected to “retire” in the coming years.

But, says Stangler, mid-life workers have been changing for some time and have outpaced younger workers in business formation. Research has shown that in every single year from 1996 to 2007, Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 had a higher rate (about one-third more) of entrepreneurial activity than those aged 20–34.

Combine that trend with increasing health among boomers, changing views of the “lifetime job” concept, recession-led layoffs of older, knowledgeable workers, new technology that makes it easier to get into business, and a larger appetite for risk among older entrepreneurs, and it’s likely that we will see increasing entrepreneurship among people well into their 70’s, the foundation says.

Countering this optimistic view are other economic opinions claiming that while entrepreneurship may increase generally, it is unlikely to lead a recovery because it will not result in much new hiring of workers. Entrepreneurial businesses rarely hire more than one or two people, they point out.

It seems to me, however, that these are not opposing views, but an example of the changing nature of the labor force from employment to self-employment, a reversion in a sense to the US employment picture at end of the 19th Century when most Americans were self-employed or operated businesses of some sort.

Under old scenarios, recovery was measured by how many people were “employed” by companies. But new measures might have to look at how many people are employed by themselves.

Under that measure, the millions of Boomer entrepreneurs who are moving into the marketplace, will likely rapidly boost “employment” numbers.

New features deployed July 2, 2009

billingboss — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:12:11 +0000

5 invoice templates are now available. You can see a list of templates after you save an invoice. Just click on the name of the templates to see what it looks like.

One other significant feature is when you add a new line to an invoice. the quantity field is set to one be default so if you are charging a fixed fee, it saves you some typing.

Other changes are mostly behind the scenes like security improvements, inconsistent layout issues.

Tell us if you like the choices or if you will like to see more.

Billing Boss Blog has a new home

billingboss — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:02:01 +0000

Billing Boss Blog has a new home on Sage Spark. Sage Spark is a community for business owners who focused on success. Billing Boss is only one of the tools and services available on this site. Please check out our other tools and services here.

Come back and check our blog regularly. There is also a forum dedicated to Billing Boss on this site . You can post your questions and suggestion here.

Are You Seeing the Business Right Under Your Nose?

Fiona_Walsh — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:05:15 +0000

Most of the clients I see in my coaching practice want to build their business and their focus is on finding new prospects. Finding new customers is great, but landing a new one takes a lot more time and energy than expanding your business with existing customers. Did you know research indicates that it costs 8 times as much to land a new customer, than it does to sell more to an existing one? That means a lot of YOUR time and money.

As business people we are all guilty of overlooking the gold in our existing networks. In this economy, one of the first things I get all clients to do is to look at their existing database to see what opportunities they might be missing out on. It is a simple process. Go through your Outlook, your day timer, your notebooks for the past year or two. Make a list of those people you have not spoken to in a year; see who you want to connect with. Get in touch and remind them of what you are up to and see if there are any opportunities to do business together. Almost every client ends up uncovering some new business and they are always surprised at how easy it was. So there’s your June challenge – go find the business right under your nose!

Have You Looked Internally?

Recruiting_Team — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:21:32 +0000

Sometimes the best talent is already right at your finger tips. They may be a person who is onboard and working already at an entry to intermediate level in the company. Current employees may be fully trained on the internal processes, product or skill sets that you may be looking for. It may be more effective to bring someone with the knowledge and skill set into a role where you can groom them instead of looking externally. Most employees are seeking growth and are looking for a career path so it may be worth it to invest in your own employees. This way, you are also able to offer new challenges and give them new responsibilities as well.

If you do decide to move someone into a new role, you still would need to fill the gap that you originally set out to hire. The thing is, it may be easier to fill a role that is at a entry to intermediate level now that you have moved that individual into a more difficult to fill role. When you recruit for the new opening – you will be able to tell them why the position opened up and the type of opportunities this position offers when stepping into this role.

It really does pay to invest in your own employees rather than having to be paying agency fees!

Hiring a Customer Service Representative For Your Business

Sylvain_Deslongchamps — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:14:14 +0000

Are you looking to hire a customer service representative for your business and don’t really know what to look for?

Customer service representatives are usually the face of your business so careful consideration should be taken in ensuring you hire the right people for these roles.

When hiring for this role, look for the following skills:

Listening Skills: Will they hear the client fully, not only words but meaning. Can they read between the lines?

Oral Communication Skills: Are they able to express themselves well verbally in person and over the phone? Do they have the ability to calm a customer down if upset?

Problem Solving Skills: Are they able to evaluate a situation and provide appropriate resolution/recommendations?

Initiative: Can they provide alternative solutions to clients? Are they someone that will go a step above the call of duty?

Patience: Will they make the client feel welcome & provide their full attention?

Assertive: Will they make decisions to ensure the client is satisfied, without having to always rely on a manager to get approval? (Provided you have given the representative guidelines to follow)

Tactful: Do they have the ability to provide negative results in a manner that will not be hurtful to the relationship you have with the client?

Customer service representatives are often the first person and sometimes the last person your customers deal with. You want to ensure you hire the right person to represent your company. The best way I find that helps in evaluating these skills is to ask scenario based questions. A scenario could be “how would you respond to a client that approached you and mentioned that they want to get a refund for their purchase?” What questions are they asking? Are they offering alternatives? Are they empathizing enough?...

You are now ready to go and hire!

Do You Chase Butterflies Every Day?

Fiona_Walsh — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:08:55 +0000

A butterfly chaser is a person who will spend time generating leads and then abandon them if they do not make the sale immediately.

This behaviour is costly to your business. Generating a lead and building a relationship with a customer takes time but it does pay off in loyalty and sales.

It can take an average of 4 or more contacts before a sale is made. 46% of people call once and quit. Only 25% contact a prospect twice. Are you quitting on a prospect too soon? Are you letting business go to your competition?

Be quietly persistent and show a clear interest in understanding the customer’s needs and how your product provides a solution to them. Then you will close the deal more often and your bottom line will grow. There is no big secret to making more sales, other than generating prospects and closing them.

Like a Rotten Apple Slowly Decaying the Rest Of the Basket

Josh_Melvin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:15:05 +0000

It’s hard to find good people, people that share your company’s dream and help your company achieve its goals, but as hard as it is you should always be firm on the type of person you let work with you.

A staff member not following the policies you set forth as a company will only encourage others to do the same. Someone that speaks poorly of management or your business to other staff members or clients is extremely damaging to your company and counter active to your efforts. Do not compromise on this! Having a million other things to do, it’s hard not to push finding a replacement for a staff member to the bottom of the list especially when “the job is still getting done” but your job as the person that’s building the business is to put all the parts together and to make sure each part is doing it’s job and people are big parts. So when you have an employee, contractor, or any other person or business you deal with that is only alright, “good most of the time”, “is really good at this part of his job but bad at others, so it balances out” don’t settle, fire them now. Find someone better and learn from your mistakes. Note characteristics that were good and bad about the person or business and determine ways to detect these in other candidates.

Change for Fun and Profit

Tony_Wanless — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:50:16 +0000

Change can be a frightening thing, especially for “experienced” people who have established habits over many years. Experience is all about constructing habitual and mental frameworks in order to process information quickly. Without such frameworks, you’d be overwhelmed.

But these frameworks can also form a trap, a kind of mental straightjacket that restricts the ability to change when it’s required. It is for this reason that mature or older people are often viewed as hidebound, inflexible, and unwilling to entertain any other viewpoint than the one with which they’re familiar.

But if you’re thinking of starting a retirement business, or have already done so, you’re probably already caught up in a massive wave of change that’s upset the comfortable frameworks that ruled your thinking for so long.

At the same time there is an outside change that is probably also affecting you. The savage recession has had a destabilizing effect, attacking financial cushions, toppling iconic landmarks, and for all intents and purposes, turning the familiar world on its head.

Put these together and anyone making a major life shift such as is occuring among many baby boomers should be almost paralyzed. But many aren’t because they have learned the secret to conscious living.

This secret is simple: Conscious living is living in the here and now, not in the past with all its patterns, or in the vague and undefined future. It’s separating reality from real or imagined fears. It’s planning for the future, but living in the present.

Some suggestions for boomer entrepreneurs who are facing the analysis paralysis that can come from too much change include:

Make a plan. There is nothing that forces you to examine under a realistic light like making a plan that maps out a direction for a business, or just simply for living. For example, all plans demand a situational analysis which forces you to do some self examination, which in turn will lead to recognition of your strengths and weaknesses.

Examine your bad behaviors. Over time bad behaviours creep into the consciousness of all of us. We find a well-defined and familiar groove in being critical, dour and gloomy, constantly sour, or squelching all ideas because they’re different. These self destructive behaviours can be changed if we practice. If you find yourself being a sourpuss, start practising this minute on how to be open and receptive. Slap a smile on your face even if you don’t feel it inside. Eventually, it will become familiar.

Create goals. If you have defined behaviour you want to change, set a clear and tangible objective for that change and map out a plan, with goals, to achieve it. This goal setting exercise should be detailed, with checkmarks that indicate you are on course or need to correct. For example, if your objective is to get in shape and lose 20 pounds, you might set up an exercise program with the goal of running a half marathon. Your achievement plan would include all the training that would go into that.

Recruiting through Social Networking – Part 2

Recruiting_Team — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:24:00 +0000

In my last blog, we had talked about using social media to connect to passive candidates. The great thing about social media is that there seems to be endless amounts of people that you can connect yourself with. So the more people you are connected to, the larger the candidate pool gets.

Make sure you build a solid pipeline of online network candidates and prospects. Whenever you speak to a candidate, ask them if they are on any of the social networking sites, and if they are, let them know that you would like to add them on your list. You just never know what kind of positions you may have in the future so it’s beneficial for both the Recruiter and the candidate to stay in touch. This way, there is a source of connection without having to disclose personal information. Passive candidates are already expecting that the Recruiter will be in touch for future openings so it really keeps the door open for both ends.

The Value of Feedback

Matthew_Young — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:17:34 +0000

“If I had 4 hours to chop down the tree, I’d spend the 1st 3 sharpening the axe.”

~ Abe Lincoln

The man knew a thing or two about leadership and this quote could not be more appropriate when giving feedback to ANYbody in business (employee, customer, supplier, etc). The certainty is there are going to be times when people meet your expectation and times where they don’t. Knowing how to pass on that feedback is critical to your success.

Remember the gen X’rs have been defined as trophy kids. Nobody failed, everyone was great, ‘no one gets left behind’. In theory that’s well meaning but in business it can be crippling. One of the first things we do during our hiring process is speak about feedback. There are 3 types of feedback. Positive, negative and constructive.

Positive feedback is affirmation and accolades, “great work – you did that very well!” Negative feedback is beratement and personal attacks. There is no room or reason for negative feedback in any work environment. Constructive feedback (often confused with negative feedback), is feedback given with the purpose of making someone better. The challenge is guiding someone with little experience with constructive feedback (gen x’rs) through constructive feedback without shattering their ego or confidence.

By front ending the three types of feedback and using the appropriate modes of communication (discussed last blog), we can significantly increase the likelihood of our messages getting across in a manner which benefits both parties. We assure you, failure to do your homework on who it is that’s coming to work with you, or front ending ‘exactly’ what the expectation is, will cost you valuable time, money and energy – that you don’t have time to waste.

Check out this video from 60 minutes to meet some of the people in your workforce.

New Ways to Do Old Things

Tony_Wanless — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:46:01 +0000

Among my many pursuits as a reinvention consultant and coach, I write a blog called Retrain the Brain.

It’s about training yourself to examine old habits and knowledge and apply it to new situations.

It’s very apropos to Boomer Entrepreneurs, who are essentially reinventing themselves, often after spending decades in other careers.

When boomers leave those careers and go out on their own as contractors or business operators, does this mean they have to forget everything they learned in those careers?

Not on your life. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

After years of work in the trenches, you’re an expert in some aspect of business. When you leave that career and embark on a new one, you don’t suddenly lose that expertise. You just apply it differently.

Metaphorically, the structure might change, but the foundation remains intact. Your new job is to build a new structure on that foundation.

For example, if you managed a department at some company, you probably have two areas of expertise – the domain knowledge as the venture capitalists like to call it (your deep knowledge of a particular area, such as manufacturing or software development) and your knowledge and experience as a manager, which involves a more interpersonal, or human, dimension.

Both are valuable skill sets that can be applied in many different ways, combinations, and settings. For example, if you were the sales manager for a manufacturer, perhaps you could apply that knowledge of sales and management to another area as a consultant. Your understanding of the rigorous manufacturing process might be valuable in the services field, which is often much looser and could probably use some rigor.

So what if you don’t know anything about selling services? You can research it and get up to speed quickly. You will probably also have to determine the nuances of your new field, and shed some of the ingrained habits from your old career that don’t apply.

Can this be done? Certainly. Almost everyone can retrain themselves with an open mind and a little effort.

You simply have to learn new ways to do old things.

What Does it Take to be an Entrepreneur?

Josh_Melvin — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:09:02 +0000

What does it take to be an entrepreneur?

• Opportunity: Identifying needs, new business relationships and promotional avenues is essential in developing new revenue streams and growing your business.

• Independence: Entrepreneurs enjoy being their own boss, are self motivated and goal orientated. Being independent can also be a harmful characteristic as well. It’s impossible for any individual to do everything on their own. It’s important that you learn to delegate responsibilities, hire the right people, define their working parameters, provide them with information and give them the opportunity to improve on where you left off.

• An appetite for hard work: Most entrepreneurs start out working long, hard hours with little pay and some never leave that stage. My personal motivation for building a business is to be able to not have to work hard. I like to work and creating things but I also don’t want to be old and slinging steel so I try to follow the work smarter not harder motto.

• Self-confidence: Entrepreneurs must demonstrate extreme self-confidence in order to cope with all the risks and stress that comes with operating their own business. You also need to be confident and believe in what you’re doing in order to get other people to believe too. When your staff and clients believe in and support your business you’re winning.

• Discipline: Yeah,you get to set your own hours, hire and fire people, and basically you run the show but like Bob Dylan says “everyone serves someone”. Having the option to do what ever you want but recognizing you still have responsibilities shows a great deal of discipline, that is if you chose to do the thing that’s best for your business and not go to the beach.

• Judgment: It’s important that you spend time wisely, make informed decisions, and have an end result you base your decisions on. One bad judgment call can potentially close a business.

• Ability to accept change: Change occurs frequently when you own your own business, especially in the art industry and new industries like body modification. It’s important that you create infrastructure to your business, develop systems of control, procedures, and set company policies. This applies to implementing change as well. Set a schedule to analyze your business and your competitors. Track your changes and their effects.

• Need to achieve: The bottom line really is the bottom line in business but what drives an entrepreneur isn’t only money. Hard working, dedicated people generally succeed in what ever they do so if money was the only motivation they would become a lawyer or a Doctor. Entrepreneurs take pride in making their dream a reality, creating something from an idea.

Conditioning for the Sport of Business

Fiona_Walsh — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:24:02 +0000

I was the typical entrepreneur when I opened my business 4 years ago. I worked 7 days a week and never had time to work out. About a year ago, I decided enough – it was time to get back into shape and started working out with Cord Reisdorf, owner of Peak Fitness Management. I have never looked back! I have tons more energy, sleep better and feel fabulous which has impacted my business in a very positive way. So I asked Cord to talk about the connection between being fit and being successful in business in today’s article. Over to Cord………

It is easier to condition your body to be a professional athlete than it is to condition yourself to be a business owner. Let that sink in for a moment.

But how could this be true? Professional athletes are prime physical specimens (Offensive Linemen and Bowlers notwithstanding), they put hundreds or thousands of hours into training for their sport and their bodies are their business.

True. But that said, they also (for most sports) have a lengthy off-season in which they regenerate, have a team of professionals to take care of their physical needs (trainers, physiotherapists, massage therapists, personal chefs et al) and their off-season workday may only be the 2-5 hours they spend physically conditioning themselves for next season, while the rest of the day is spent recuperating.

Their in-season conditioning programs become less intense and less frequent as they spend more time competing in their sport. And if that chosen sport is football, hockey, soccer, basketball or golf, their contests are usually less than 4 hours.

Let’s compare that with a typical business owner. First, in business, there is no off-season! Second, a typical workday can be anywhere from 8-14 hours. Third, during the workday, an entrepreneur needs to be mentally sharp and agile in order to make good decisions quickly, all day long. Very few have an entire team of health professionals tending to them yet the mental and often physical demands (think travel, long hours, time zones, inadequate sleep) rival and surpass that of most athletes. Add all of this to the wireless age where work is never more than a belt-clipped BlackBerry away and it is not a stretch to see the correlation between pro athletes and business owners.

So what is the solution for the business brawlers?

Physical training. Conditioning the body so that the mind has the opportunity to do what it needs to do. And not just any physical training, but intense physical training in the right doses at the right time with the right frequency.

Beyond slimmer waistlines and bulging biceps, it’s well documented that optimal fitness levels will increase everything from energy & stamina, to mood and a general sense of well-being. If you don’t have the physical wherewithal to endure long days, arduous meetings and the typical daily grind, you will not have the energy to go the distance…whether that means closing the deal or making the sale.

When we are fatigued, we make poor decisions. Athletes don’t just train so that they start every game in their best shape; they condition themselves so that in the 4th quarter they are able to make good decisions because their bodies are still fresh. This allows their minds to be clear and focussed on the task at hand, rather than being preoccupied with how fatigued they may be.

Do you have as much energy and stamina as you would like? How would your next meeting or negotiation go if you were as fresh at the end as you were at the start? Perhaps increasing the intensity of your current exercise routine (or starting a new one) will give you the edge you need to help you perform at your peak.

Cord Reisdorf is the Principal of Peak Fitness Management. For more information, visit www.peakfitnessmanagement.ca or reach Cord directly at cord@peakfitnessmanagement.ca

Recruiting Through Social Networking

Recruiting_Team — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:38:42 +0000

Social Networking has been the up and coming way of recruiting in a cost effective way and targeting potential candidates who are not necessarily looking in the market (passive candidates). These sites have tons of profiles which include their contact information, work history, and usually we are able to see a bit of their personality through their content. It gives us a glimpse of what they are all about, and allows us to also see their networks, contacts and even some of their references.

Social networking sites are often separated by someone that you know, so when you think about it, it really does give you a large pool of candidates to work with. Usually their profiles are completed with their information so its pretty safe to make the assumption that passive candidates are open to hearing from you. It definitely helps when they see that you in some way connected to someone that they know.

Recommended social networking sites: Linkedin, Facebook, Naymz, Doostang

Watch What You Say & How You Speak

Matthew_Young — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:58:05 +0000

My responsibility as a manager & leader is very simple. I must communicate when people have done well in order to promote that behavior and have it be repeated and I must communicate when people have not done well, with instruction on how to be better.

By now, most of us are in tune with the types of communication (verbal & non verbal, 1 way, 2 way and transactional) but as we evolve into the age of technology, another paradigm has emerged around the mode of communication. By mode of communication we refer to the internet, the telephone, and face to face.

Where there seems to be an emphasis on getting and receiving information quickly, many have turned to the internet as the preferred mode. “it’s quick & it’s easy”…. or is it? We can’t recall how many times an email message has been misinterpreted, back and fourth only to eventually lead to a face to face conversation anyway. This takes up valuable time.

A simple rule of thumb that’s been successful for us is choosing the mode of communication depending on the type of feedback we are sending. If we are sending positive feedback, email is great. In fact, the more people we can share that with, the better. If we are sending constructive feedback, phone is better and face to face is best. This way, little is lost through translation.

If we are sending emails, bullet points are more effective than paragraphs, and succinct is better than novels. Gen X’ers are used to receiving information fast and moving on. It has been said that the reasonable man adapts himself to the rest of the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the rest of the world to him, therefore for all progress depends on the unreasonable man. This pertains to us with tools like Facebook and other communication advancements. It requires a change in mindset and the reality we either change or die.

Communication is the single biggest asset one needs to learn to do effectively if they are going to have a successful business and you would think with all of the available tools to facilitate this, giving and taking feedback would be easy. It’s not and next blog we are going to discuss why.

How to Create a Customer Service Culture

Sylvain_Deslongchamps — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:03:15 +0000

Have you ever been dissatisfied as a result of calling a business and talking to a customer service representative who was not able to help you? Saying something like “I am sorry but I am not able to help you because…” You were probably very upset and asked to speak to a manager and most likely got want you wanted.

To prevent this from happening within your business, create a customer service culture where everyone in the organization is customer focused, trained and empowered to satisfy clients.

Below are some tips to create a customer service culture:

Start from the top – You, as the owner, must embrace customer service. All decisions must take the customer into consideration and demonstrate customer commitment to all employees within the business.

Hire the right people – hire for attitude. During your interview ask scenario questions to find out how they would respond to different situations.

Provide Training – train all of your employees with customer service training – ensure employees understand your processes and are empowered to provide excellent customer service.

Measure – ask your clients to provide feedback on their experience by having them complete a survey.

Review the customer survey results with all employees – ensure everyone within the organization is aware and measured on customer satisfaction.

Establishing the above tips will help you create a Customer Service Culture and will bring your organization to the next level!

Goal Setting and Time Management

Matthew_Young — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:19:57 +0000

IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN YOU ARE PLANNING TO FAIL.

Every member of our team knows that saying like it’s the national anthem of our business. Goal setting and time management is a multi-million dollar industry from Tony Robbins “Get on Track” programs to Steven Coney’s famous 7 Habits of Highly Successful People.

It is unbelievable how much time and energy people spend being unproductive - or worse, counter productive in their daily lives. Like most things in your own business, it’s not their problem – it’s “ours”! Rather than offer our rendition of how to (as they are all similar and familiar to us), we’ve short listed a few key notes.

•   A goal or a plan is a blueprint for personal success.
•   Without a blueprint or map there is zero probability that you will reach your destination.
•   Goals should be anchored with a personal mission statement: this statement reinforces what your life mission is and enables you to focus on the proper map for your destination.
•   Goals should be broken down into long-term and short-term categories, in order to a) remain consistent and b) positively reinforce your progress.
•   Roles need to be factored into goals to ensure that you are maintaining focus with all of your responsibilities (as a husband, mother, soccer player, friend or employee.)
•   Timelines need to be attached to your goals in order to maintain accuracy and accountability on your journey.
•   Checking off your short-term accomplishments is a great way of rewarding yourself and reinforcing that you are on the right track.
•   Once you have reached your initial destination, it will be time to prepare new goals in order to facilitate further growth.

Thoroughness entails committing to a task with 100 percent certainty and effort. Failure to do this simply means that someone else will have double the duties, which wastes valuable time and money.

By far, the best thing you can do after you have determined the right fit for your culture is educate or review that the person is aware of personal and professional advantages of goal setting and time management. We encourage goals to be set in November for the upcoming year, Thursday for the upcoming week and the day before for the next day.

You are either on the path from A-B or you are dead ending at the side street.

Age Quake: The Opportunity

Tony_Wanless — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:11:11 +0000

Some demographic statistics in Canada point to a glowing future for boomerpreneurs in that country as well in the U.S.

The age wave that’s coursing through North America means that in less than 20 years, Canadians over 65 will account for 22 per cent of the population.

Canada has a slightly higher concentration of Baby Boomers than the U.S. but the trends are similar in the two countries. In all, there are roughly 90 million boomers in North America.

Statisticians look at these numbers and worry immensely about the future labor force. They’re predicting that the proportion of the population aged 15 years and more in the Canadian labor force will decline to about 58 percent in 2031 (from 67 percent in 2005). While there are four people working for every “retired” person today, there will be two in 2031.

Note the use of the word “retired”, however. It skews these alarming statistics considerably because it relies on the traditional assumption that these boomers will stop working after “retirement”.

Most won’t. In fact, several surveys have shown that around 70 per cent of boomers say they’ll continue working after normal retirement age. Many will do so in their own businesses. In fact, more than 30 per cent plan to be consultants after they leave their careers.

So while these statistics frighten those who study economic growth patterns, they spell enormous business opportunities for boomerpreneurs.

If there aren’t enough workers, there will be a corresponding high demand for those who can supply services that require knowledge. And, because of the increased connection power supplied by the Internet, they’ll be able to supply these services as part time contractors, often by working from home.

The Youth Quake of the 1970s and 1980s is turning into an Age Quake of the 2000’s. And, as always in the midst of massive change, opportunities will abound for those who want to seize them.

Hiring 101

Recruiting_Team — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:26:52 +0000

Hello, I’m Yvonne Wu. As an 8 year recruiting veteran and Senior Recruiter at Sage Software, I’ve witnessed the ups and downs of the marketplace for candidates throughout numerous economic climate changes, and one thing is for certain: it is definitely not an easy task to find the right candidate and the right fit for your organization.

Most of the time small to medium sized businesses don’t have the luxury of a dedicated recruitment department. One thing to recognize is that employees are the most important component of a company. So sure, we all hire and hire often, but finding the right talent is critical to the success of any company.

I’ve got a few tips that will save you time and money!

Create a Clear Job Description – It’s important to know exactly what you are looking for. Make sure you are clear about what you want from a candidate. This will help you attract the type of talent that is right for your company and the position you want to fill.

Pre-screen Resumes – To avoid wasting your time on interviewing under qualified candidates, do a phone pre-screen. This will help filter out candidates before bringing them in for a face to face interview.

Temporary to Permanent Options – Rather than bringing on full time employees, you may bring on a candidate on a temporary basis with a specific time frame to see if they are suitable for the role. This will allow both the employee and the employer to determine whether or not they are a good fit for each other.

Check References – When you think you have found the right person you may be tempted to rush through the hiring process but make sure you check their references first! It’s important to call their previous employers/managers to find out how they performed in the past.

Remember to take your time to make sure you find the right person. Rushing through a new hire will cost you a lot more than just upfront time and money. Be sure to find out everything you want to know about a candidate and set clear expectations.

I’ll be posting more useful recruiting tips soon! Until then, do you have any recruiting information you would like to share with the community or comments on this posting?

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE FOR ANY PURPOSE. The information available at SageSpark.com is of general application and for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal advice. Sage strongly recommends that you consult a licensed employment attorney in your jurisdiction regarding your specific circumstances and applicable legal requirements.

What Is Your Candidate Looking For?

Recruiting_Team — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:13:30 +0000

So you are trying to bring in top talent for your organization and at this point, you know what you are looking for in a candidate. You also need to think about what that candidate is looking for in an employer. But what is most important for the potential candidate? You want to make sure you attract the right people. Lots of things go through a candidates mind as they evaluate their decision to be a part of your team during the recruitment process.

Is there any potential for growth? Is there going to be a work life balance? Is there going to be stability? Will this company be able to provide me with the challenges that I need? Will the company nurture my talent?

If you are able to answer these questions in confidence then make sure that every aspect of your recruiting process conveys that starting from the beginning to the end. Candidates seek reassurance when they are learning about a new opportunity to make sure they are making the right decision. It’s important for them to feel that they are making the right choice.

Everything that you do and say matters in the recruiting process. Be sure that the littlest details are taken care of and are properly explained. Candidates will notice the smallest gestures and will appreciate the way they are treated throughout the process.

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE FOR ANY
PURPOSE. The information available at SageSpark.com is of general
application and for informational purposes only and should not be
relied upon as legal advice. Sage strongly recommends that you consult
a licensed employment attorney in your jurisdiction regarding your
specific circumstances and applicable legal requirements.

Networking For the Right Employee

Recruiting_Team — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:30:02 +0000

There are so many ways to find talent without having to spend a lot of money. Networking is one of my favorite ways to find talent - it’s a proactive way to get out there and to meet people in the industry that may be a good fit for a position that you are trying to fill. Most of the people out there are not actively searching for work so networking is a great way to reach out and let people know the great opportunity that you have available. It also allows for you to have some initial interaction with a potential candidate to gage whether or not it’s the right person for you.

Networking can be done online or on a face to face basis.

Do some research and find out the type of groups you would like to join. There are a lot of specific target groups, communities or events that you may join or attend. As long as you are registered with them, you will receive updates of where their next events are or the latest news about them. Some times it may cost money to join a group but there are always alternatives and similar groups that are available that don’t require a fee to sign up.

You will also see names and contacts of other members in the group that may be of interest to you. It may be easier to approach or break the ice with a group member since you know that you already have the one thing in common – you are in the same interest group! Its always beneficial to network. Even if you don’t have the right position for the person you are talking to, there may be something else that might come up. Who knows? They might even have a contact or a referral for the position you are hiring for now!

Part 4 | The 6 W’s – Questions to Ask Before You Start : WHEN?

Penny_Seto — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:09:25 +0000

WHEN will you run the business?

Think of the “free time” you calculated in WHY? Now imagine fitting in: research and development, meetings at the bank and business centre, sales calls, production of your product or execution of your services, marketing, accounting, and oh so much more! Remember, if you have a child at your side, anything can happen!

At the beginning, it’s easy to think that you can fit it all in but it’s really important to be realistic about your time. There are distractions. Everywhere. And, I don’t just mean twitter and Facebook or other world wide web “time sucks”. While they can and do provide value, until you have a solid grasp of your business’s basic needs, stay away! Far, far away. You can schedule time for that later!

I highly recommend using an easily accessible, multi-functional calendar to keep you on track. Google Calendar is a great tool for this! You can set up individual calendars for different aspects of your business (ie. meetings, production schedules, events, marketing campaigns, projects) AND your personal life, all in one place. Each calendar can be color coded and viewed together or individually. Share it with your team and your spouse. Send yourself reminders. Access it from anywhere!

When you’re first scheduling your business time, fill your calendar with “black-outs” – anything you have already on the go that you can’t give up. Look at the year as a whole. Think of children’s school schedules and activities – especially Pro-D days and holiday closures, family vacations, “me time”, spouse’s work schedule (even better if you can get him/her to use the calendar too!) or anything else that is important to you and your family.

Will you have time for yourself? “Me time” is important for any one but especially for a working mom. Juggling family and business often leaves “me” last. When that happens, things start to fall apart. Fast. “Me time” can be small but it has to have value to you and only you.

As time goes on, you’ll find that you’ll need to do the same for your business. I have some tips for that in a future post.

Spilled Milk : Some time ago I stopped doing what I loved most – sports. Now, many years later, much of my life is scheduled around “me time” – twice a week at the gym. It is definitive time and easy to schedule. Three hours out of my week make a world of difference in all areas of my life.

In Part 5 of this six part series, 'The 6 W’s - The Questions to Ask Before You Start', we'll consider the question, 'Where is your target market?'

Catching Customers in a Recession

Fiona_Walsh — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:40:29 +0000

Customers today are being more careful with how they spend their money. In a recession, the focus is no longer on luxury and 'I deserve it'; it's shifted to saving money and getting more value for every dollar spent. This means tougher times for small business owners. The cost of running your business this year hasn't probably changed a lot from last year and you may find your sales are not as high as you want them to be. Customers want sale prices but you need to make a profit so putting all your products on sale is not the answer.

Here's three ways you can attract bargain-minded customers without losing your shirt:

1. Play the coupon game. Thanks to the recession, coupons are hot again! People are using them more than ever. And one of the most surprising marketing facts I just learned is that the biggest users of coupons are 18 to 34 year olds! More and more businesses are using online coupons - this is a growing trend and makes creating a coupon program more affordable, for any size of business.

2. Create specialized price promotions. Slashing your prices on everything does not help your profitability. But creating special promotions will catch the eye of customers looking for sales. Think of the sales rack at a Gap store. You can offer short-term price reductions on popular items to get people buying. Or you can bundle a combination of products together at a special price to get people buying. One bookstore increased their traffic by simply adding a 'sales shelf'. Customers drop in on a regular basis to see what is on the shelf and end up buying because the book is on sale. The store wins because they are moving inventory. Figure out what your customers want and then provide it at a price they like.

3. Co-promote with another business. The best way to make your marketing dollars go further is to do a co-promotion with another non-competing business that is servicing the same customers as you. I just saw a produce store do a coupon program with a bakery; every customer who bough more than $25 of produce got a coupon for a free loaf of bread. 90% of those coupons were used. The produce store saw their average purchase size go up and for every free loaf given away, the bakery sold an extra 2 loaves. In this economy, co-promotion makes sense - you share the cost and the work, reduce your marketing cost and everyone wins!

3 Deadly Sins of Prospecting

Fiona_Walsh — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:29:31 +0000

When seeking out new customers, small business owners routinely commit one or more of these three deadly sins:

1. Not having enough prospects in the funnel: Too many entrepreneurs don't do enough prospecting. They wait for orders to come in or just have 3 or 4 leads sitting there. To grow your revenues, prospecting has to be a daily activity. And you have to qualify them quickly.

2. Not having clear criteria for who your ideal client is: Especially in the early days, business owners don't clearly define their niche market, so they end up chasing too many prospects with low chance of success. This wastes time and energy and money. Your selling efforts will be more successful if you focus on highly qualified prospects that want what you have.

3. Giving up too soon: Too many times, I see people give up after one contact. It takes an average of 7 to 8 touches before you usually catch the interest of a prospect and start to engage them in the selling process. If you are a one-hit wonder, you are likely missing out on landing some great customers. Be persistent - get the message to them of why they want to do business with you.

The key to successful prospecting is clearly identifying who your ideal customers are and why they want to buy from you. Once you understand what that looks like, it is easy to figure out who should be on your prospect list.

Part 3 | The 6 W’s – Questions to Ask Before You Start : WHAT?

Penny_Seto — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:40:49 +0000

WHAT are you going to sell?

Even if you have your mind set on a product or service, ask yourself, "Do I really 'know' what I'm selling?"

•   Is your product safe? Does it pass government standards?
•   Can you legally, and economically (to you and your customers), import from/export to other countries around the world?
•   Is someone else already selling it? Is there a market for it? Is the market already saturated?
•   Buying a ready-made product direct from suppliers? Do you know if they follow government standards? If they disappear, can you find replacements?
•   Designing and manufacturing yourself? Do you have the capacity to keep up with demand if your product takes off?
•   Contracting out the manufacturing? Do you know how to find a manufacturer? Do you know what they do and don't supply? Can you meet their minimums? Do you have or know how to find suppliers for the rest?
•   Do you have to manufacture large quantities and therefore have a large financial output to get started? Where are you going to get the funds?
•   Providing a service? How many customers do you have time to schedule and does your fee make it worth your time?
•   Are you planning to attend tradeshows in different cities or countries? How will you ship your products? What are the legalities?
•   If you’re selling to stores, how will they display your merchandise? Packaging or no packaging? Does it need to hang in a store, sit on a shelf, etc.?
•   What are your true costs? Profit margins? Breakevens? What if you wholesale? How do you set your pricing so your costs are covered, you make a profit and your customers will buy?

Those questions just strike the surface and are meant to get you to really think about situations that will come up. Many of these questions are ones I wish I had known to ask myself when I started.

It’s very important to believe in what you’re selling. Whether you are seeking financing from a bank or selling directly to consumers, at the end of the day, you are your best sales person. If you don’t fully believe in your product or service, your consumer won’t either. And, it will be obvious from your first impression…a chance you don't get again.
Small Business BC is a great resource for evaluating and even protecting your business idea.

Do your research! Ask your support system to be your consumer and have answers to questions before they’re asked.

Spilled Milk : We started with one idea that quickly grew into ten by the time of our launch. Inventory control was difficult at best but mostly, very time consuming and, expensive to sit on! Varieties of colors, sizes and styles means money sitting on the shelf until it sells. IF it sells. The beginning is where you make the most mistakes and therefore adjustments. You don’t want to have a bunch of stuff that becomes obsolete before you know it will sell.

In Part 4 of this six part series, 'The 6 W’s - The Questions to Ask Before You Start', we'll consider the question, 'When will you run the business?'

This Is Costing You

Fiona_Walsh — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:35:45 +0000

Is your business growing? Feeling a little out of control? You're not as organized as you need to be? But you don't have time to get organized because you are busy, so you keep putting it off.

If this is you, I have some great numbers for you to ponder - thanks to my buddy, Linda Chu of Out of Chaos Professional Organizing (www.outofchaos.ca). I took them from her article at www.sheteam.com

Two trillion - the number of pieces of paper estimated to be generated by American offices.

Six weeks - the amount of time the average American executive spends looking for things in messy desks.

Twenty-three - the percentage of adults who pay bills late because they've lost them.

Twenty-five - the percentage of US workers who store their paper in piles, rather than archival files.

If you are not organized, you are wasting time and losing money. You are also working way more hours in your business, which likely means less time off than you would like.

Most business owners I meet think they are too busy to get organized. This kind of thinking will come to bite you in the ass as your business grows. You will simply waste more and more time looking for stuff, wading through piles, and losing opportunities and revenue. Plus customers and staff know when you are disorganized, which is not the kind of impression you want to leave with people. So get a system in place and stick to it. You will be able to work less hours and have more time to hang out with family and friends.

Reinventing Through Passion

Tony_Wanless — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:48:40 +0000

Elsewhere on this site, there is a blog by Matthew Young about reinvention through fitness. Excellent concept, and it is one method of creative reinvention.

As an entrepreneur reinvention coach, I have to point out that there are many methods of reinvention. Most of these involve reinvention through ingenuity, which can then be applied to entrepreneurship.

To invent is to produce or create something by using the imagination. To reinvent means to make over completely, also through ingenuity and imagination. Ingenuity and imagination always involve an element of passion.

So boomer entrepreneurs are all about reinvention. Almost all of them are leaving one life and reinventing themselves in another. Most often this is manifested as leaving a corporate gig and striking out in your own business.

Boomers do this because they want to be more creative with the last decade or two of their working lives. They have probably been stuck in a rut – even the most exciting task becomes the same old, same old after it’s done a thousand times – and want to rekindle some passion in their work.

For example: Recently, I ran across a former real estate developer who now promotes health and wellness services. He makes a fraction of the money, but he’s much happier because he’s doing something he’s passionate about.

And so it is with most boomerpreneurs. Making money is only one goal, and often a low priority one. Often, the high priority goal is to work again with a passion, with a belief in something.

It’s like when you first started your working life and you were willing to spend many hours at something because you revelled in it. When you’re in the throes of creativity, time and “return” lose meaning.

This doesn’t mean mid-life entrepreneurism is a piece of cake. Like all new pursuits, it can be hard at times.

But the hardships are easier to weather if you have a purpose rooted in passion.

How to Stay in Control

Fiona_Walsh — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:28:00 +0000

Many entrepreneurs end up feeling like the business runs them, rather than the other way around. Here’s 5 tips to put in play to get that control back.

1. Keep focused on your most profitable business. The 80/20 Rule really does apply in business. As an entrepreneur there are a million calls on your time and energy. You cannot possibly do it all. Do you know which customers or products are your most profitable? Keeping them happy should be your primary focus.

2. Celebrate your successes. Take a moment at the end of every day to review what you have accomplished. Celebrate your victories, especially the small ones. Too many of us never take the time to recognize what we have accomplished – we’re too focused on all the stuff still left on the to-do list.

3. Just touch stuff once. Don’t re-read emails or documents a dozen times; don’t listen to voicemails partially and skip over them. Most of us can end up wasting up to an hour every day handling the same stuff over and over. Make yourself a new rule that you only pick up an email or piece of paper or listen to a voicemail if you have time to take action right then. Otherwise leave it till you do have time.

4. Work less hard. There will always be more stuff to do as a business owner – the pile never goes away! And you always have tomorrow to tackle that next thing. Life passes quickly. Go home at a decent hour every day and spend time with those you love.

5. Recharge yourself. You don’t try to run your car without gas, so why do it to yourself? You are the most valuable asset your business has, so make sure you take time to recharge. Find a hobby, an activity that gets you to unplug totally, so you are not thinking about work. Recharge yourself on a regular basis and you’ll be surprised at how creative and refreshed you will be when you are at work.

Ignore The Financials At Your Peril

Fiona_Walsh — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:09:40 +0000

I’m always surprised by the number of business owners I encounter who do not have any financial statements generated for their business. Or if they do have such records, they never look at them. That is rather like getting on a flight and having no idea what destination you are flying to.

A kitchen design company hired me a few years back because they weren’t profitable, in spite of sales having grown from $80,000 in the first year of operation to $300,000 in year 2. Sales were increasing rapidly. The marketing program was running. So it made no sense that there wasn't profits. Yet there weren’t any.

When I examined the business what I found was that expenses were way too high and the hourly rate they were charging wasn’t high enough to cover all the new staff hired to meet the sales demand. Invoices were slow going out and payment collection was not consistent. Essentially the owner was running a non-profit without any of the tax benefits. Every time she took on a new client, she was losing money out of her own pocket.

She had not noticed any of this because she had no financial statements done on a regular basis. She assumed increasing sales meant that the company was growing. But strong sales and marketing alone are not enough. You need a good grasp of your cash flow and financial health to know if the company is running in the right direction. Once her financial statements were done, we were able to fix things and move the company into profitability.

A smart business owner works closely with a bookkeeper and an accountant. These professionals will advise you on financing your business, tax minimization strategies and help you grow a healthy company. Get a monthly cash flow statement prepared so you know where your company is flying to!

Opportunities For Franchisors and Business Owners In the Current Economy

Fiona_Walsh — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:55:47 +0000

There is a lot of fear right now about what is happening with the economy, and with all the layoffs that keep getting announced in the news. Without discounting the challengers, there are some great opportunities for those who are ready to take advantage of them – it’s above all a matter of not getting caught up in the fear, and instead continuing to drive your business strategy. To that point I asked Katryn Harris of Open Box Integration (http://www.openboxinc.com/franchise), to join me for a second interview. As an expert in building profitable franchises, I wanted to hear her suggestions for thriving in this tougher economy, so here are her 4 tips:

1. Potential Franchisees
For franchisors, there is an opportunity in the number of layoffs happening right now. Good people are being let go because of the economy, and they are looking around for what to do next. Some have sizeable severance packages, many have a lot of valuable skills, and some are using this time to determine what they really want to do & what is satisfying. This combination of factors means that franchisors have a lot of good prospects out there. To take advantage of this combination of factors, some franchisors have gotten very creative; speaking to companies that are in the process of completing mass layoffs, setting up partnerships with employment counselors, and doing online marketing campaigns to reach this pool of potential franchisees.

2. Is Cost Cutting Your Opportunity?
I was speaking recently with a very successful entrepreneur who said that she sees this time as a huge opportunity for smaller, leaner organizations to break into the big times. As everyone looks to cut costs, there may be openness to newer companies, and a willingness to look around, that wasn’t there before. When times were good, risk reduction meant going with the large well established companies with a great track record. When times aren’t so good, innovative leaders are looking at whether this is the time to go with smaller companies with lower overhead, lower costs, and potentially just as much creativity and ability to deliver. Position your company for the big times, but be very careful that you can deliver what you promise. Get your company noticed and this may be just the time for you.

3. Increased Focus on Efficiencies
Capital has become much harder to come by, investment levels are dropping and people are holding back to ‘see what happens’. So where does that leave franchises that may need investment for growth? The smart ones are focusing on growing their internal efficiencies and developing and fine-tuning their systems. This can be done at a relatively low cost and it can generate cost savings, as well as spur sales. At the same time, increasing efficiencies sets your franchise up to be stronger and healthier in the long run, so that when the money is flowing again, you will stand out from your competitors as having put this time to good use.

4. Social Media
The last opportunity that I have seen in action relates to social media. Traditional marketing and advertising costs large dollars and it can be very hard to measure the concrete return on investment. Social media can be done at a much smaller cost (setting up a blog, getting a twitter strategy, using the Google tools and search engine optimization), but because it is fairly new, some organizations were a little leery of trying it out. However, the current stresses make this a great time to sell the use of social media within your organization. They also make people more open to trying this low-cost strategy, and there are many good companies out there that can help you build your customer base even in these tough times. Even better, Social Media Optimization’s results can be measured closely, and have a long tail – spends in this area continue to pay off over a long period of time.

Hire Those Who Share the Vision

Matthew_Young — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:50:56 +0000

We asked 10 teammates, 20 business owners, 15 managers, and 12 customers what they thought were the characteristics of the “right person” for any company. We used their responses, along with what I learned from my reading on the topic, to come up with the following criteria.

Passion: The right person is passionate about what they do. They are here because a) they enjoy the product and service experience first and b) the financial reward second.

Personality: The right person is outgoing, easy to communicate with and initiates verbal communication with their teammates and customers.

Perspective: The right person enters the workforce with experience in the three main areas of growth - challenge, adversity and victory.

Team player: The right person has played on a team before and understands the dynamics of cooperation, communication, feedback, losing, winning and sacrifice.

Humility: The right person has the ability to remain humble regardless of their achievements. This humility translates to loyalty as the person doesn’t become too big for their own good.

Knowledge: The right person isn’t necessarily equipped with knowledge of the entire business, yet they listen and implement what is taught at a high level. Knowledge is the last criterion on the “right person list” because knowledge can be taught, while the aforementioned traits must be learned. If the right person has to learn all of those traits after joining the organization, we would all be stuck in the driveway for a long time.

So.. when looking for the right people to communicate your values and ideals – use this check list to gage their competency. If they pass this litmus test, you can progress to setting some pretty specific goals (which we will touch on next blog).

Oh No! Not a Customer Complaint?

Sylvain_Deslongchamps — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:05:19 +0000

Oh no, not a customer complaint… is it what you say to yourself when you get a call from an irate client? I hope I will change your mind for any future escalations.

As a business owner, a customer service representative or anyone dealing with customers, the thought of receiving a complaint should be a positive one. Why?

Complaints and negative feedback should be treated as gold as clients are going out of their way to help you improve the quality of your products, services and or processes instead of plainly moving on to your competitor.

Most clients bring forward legitimate issues and are not there to get something for nothing. Of course, sometimes the issue may be that a client is not using the product the right way or has different expectations as to what they believe the product should be capable of doing. The most important thing is to respect the client’s feedback and ask questions. For example, ask about the instructions, were they clear enough? What about the sales and marketing processes, was there confusion as to what the product should do in the messaging?

Encourage your clients to provide you with feedback; survey your clients on your product and service.

Thank them for providing feedback, and reassure them that you have heard their feedback and will take action in solving their issues.

Review and investigate their complaints and review/modify your products, systems and processes to eliminate these issues from happening in the future.

This is a great opportunity to build a strong relationship with your clients. Keep them informed of the initiatives you will be implementing as a result of their feedback.

Instead of dreading a complaint, welcome it as it is a great opportunity to find out how you are doing as a business and what the gaps are to address. A complaint is a chance given by the client to make it better before loosing them to a competitor.

Handling Customer Complaints – with the LAST technique

Sylvain_Deslongchamps — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:57:34 +0000

Last week I visited a friend and parked in front of her place as per her suggestion. After my visit, I returned to my car to find a parking ticket on my windshield. I was very surprised to see this violation as I did not see an indication that is was pay parking and thought it was guest parking for my friend’s building.

Upset, I contacted the Parking office:

The customer service representative LISTENED to my issue. She was very professional and never doubted what I had to say. She asked me questions to understand my problem.

She APOLOGIZED that the signage was not adequate and was difficult to see. She took full accountability for the issue and made me feel great.

She SUGGESTED if it would be satisfactory to me if she would charge my credit card for 2 hours ($4) as if I would have paid for parking and she would waive the fine of $40. Wow! I was so impressed and pleased with this level of service.

She mentioned that she would provide my feedback to the parking planners to ensure they review the signage to prevent future confusion.

She THANKED me for bringing this to their attention.

I call this excellent customer service and going above the call of duty! I was not expecting this and was delighted by the outcome.

Listen, Apologize, Suggest alternatives and Thank your clients in order to make your relationship LAST!

Delighting Your Customers

Sylvain_Deslongchamps — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:47:01 +0000

What are your customer’s expectations? How can you delight them and make them want to return? There are basic needs clients expect organizations to deliver:

Appreciate
Clients want to feel welcomed and appreciated - offer a smile, greet them with enthusiasm and by name if you can.

Understand
Clients want to be understood and respected, the want to he heard – ask questions to identify their needs, rephrase to ensure you fully understand their concerns.

Reassure
Clients want to know that their concerns are or will be addressed. Provide the steps you will be following to solve their issues. Let the client know you fully understand and you will solve their problem, no matter what. If you have to research or call them back, set a time and ensure you call them back on that time.

Win/Win
Clients want options on solving issues – offer alternatives. Ask the client how you can solve their issues and try to provide a solution that will be mutually agreeable.

Honest
Clients want to be told everything, even if it is not going to be good news. If you are going to be late for an appointment, or you missed the courier to ship their products, give them a call letting them know and apologize for the situation. They will be more than understanding and appreciative if you are proactive.

Guidance
Clients want to be guided, trained and hand held. Go the extra mile by providing clients tips and tricks on your products / services, so they can get up to speed quickly and easily.

I hope these needs and examples will help you exceed your client’s expectations. One thing to remember “clients sign your pay cheque!” Without clients, no business!

Work With Me

Tony_Wanless — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:50:15 +0000

One of the hardest parts of becoming a 50+ entrepreneur is the recognition and understanding of new landscapes.

Most of us have been ensconced in familiar settings and mindsets for many years. It can be a shock when you escape the comfy corporate couch, hang out your own shingle, and discover that your philosophies are out of sync with the larger world.

For example, except for the brief period of “Age of Aquarius” thinking, most Baby Boomers have generally been instilled with the concept of competition. Because there have been so many of them they’ve had to compete for almost everything in their lives – jobs, mates, houses, career advancement. Life was usually about winning or losing.

But a third option is rapidly emerging in the 21st Century landscape. Today, it’s more about collaborating so that everybody wins. It’s no longer me or you, but me AND you working together for mutual benefit.

Habits die hard, however, and it can take some time to lose old thinking. So when someone comes to you and says, let’s link up and explore how we can work together, your first response might be to guard your expertise, and yourself -- to think that this person “wants something” from you.

In some cases you’ll be right – not everybody changes at the same pace. But in many, you’ll be dead wrong and will appear as some kind of aloof and out-of-it old warhorse.

If you want to see where the philosophical landscape is going, study the social networking movement (if you’re reading this blog, you’re probably already familiar with some of it). It’s all about sharing and openness.

Watch today’s young people interact. They implicitly don’t like competition, and recognize that they will achieve more results if they work together.

If there’s one overall tendency in your new world, it’s collaboration. You’ll have to learn to work with others as an ally, not a competitor.

Hire Me!

Matthew_Young — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:31:46 +0000

Check out the webcast produced by Matthew Young of Innovative Fitness available in our Learning Centre now!

Hire Me!

The Economic Downturn: A Boomerpreneur Opportunity

Tony_Wanless — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:59:37 +0000

Experts say the economic crisis that’s affecting most of the world is putting retirement plans on hold for most people over 50.

There may be some truth to that: After all, if your plan was stop working and live off your savings, which have likely been hurt considerably, you’re probably seriously rethinking that strategy. Suddenly, you’re going to have to wait around much longer than you thought while your portfolio recovers to the point where it can fund that life of leisure.

But many Boomers aren’t planning to retire in the traditional sense. Instead, they plan to leave one career and start another, probably as entrepreneurs. And that’s an entirely different scenario that seems to be missed, or ignored, by all the experts out there who are in the business of selling financial products that fund retirements.

If you’re looking forward to or have just started a second or third, or maybe even a fourth career, as so many boomers are today, economic turmoil won’t necessarily put your plans on the shelf. In fact, it might do the opposite and spur them on.

Most Boomerpreneurs have some particular skill or expertise that they plan to sell as independents after they leave the corporate world. But another important skill they possess is dealing with hard times, which in the long boom that preceded this downturn was never learned by today’s emerging corporate workforce.

Boomers are familiar with the downturns of the early 90s, and the early 1980’s. They know that harder times require adjustments, but don’t end everything. They can keep their head when everyone else thinks the sky is falling.

This is a valuable skill in today’s paralyzing climate of fear, and when combined with other skills, will make a boomerpreneur a prized commodity.

In troubled times, people often turn to sages, or people who hold wisdom, for guidance. So there’s no better time for a boomer to become that sage.

Hiring: Right People vs. Right Systems

Matthew_Young — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:33:19 +0000

Last blog pertained to the topic of culture and how important that 2nd step is in terms of really setting our business up for success.

[As an aside you will note a few key points through these blogs and although subtle, they are very effective]

1.   What / Why / How. Each time we make a point we try to be very clear with what the point is, why we are making it and how it benefits you.
2.   Language. You will notice we use the words “we” vs “I” or “me”. This is critical in developing that sense of team & culture we spoke of in the last blog. People are generally more receptive to literature that embraces and welcomes them in as a part of it instead of listening to a me-talk about all the things I, I, me, me, have learned and done. Consider this in your business when managing team mates. [Team mates instead of staff, Support Centre instead of Head office, customer instead of client] – all support a team approach.
3.   Sequence. You will notice these blogs are written in sequence from start to finish based on the parameters of self / team / operations and customers (which are ultimately the 4 key areas of every business). We will speak specifically why we think this to be true in an upcoming blog.

Back to today’s post; right people vs. right systems. It’s a point of contention for us as we were at a top 40 forum in Toronto and employer after employer spoke about the right people. “you’ve just got to get the right people”.

While we fully agree the right people make & shape your business, it’s important to think about how people become the ‘right person’. Is it through an interview process? Is it through an introduction, their track record, a crystal ball? Of course it isn’t. Our point is the right person becomes the right person when they come in and follow the systems you have laid out to a ‘t’. Hence, we should focus on the development of the right systems prior to focusing on finding that right person and let the people identify themselves through a defined ‘system’of weeding out.

In our instance, we know that from the 20 people we interview, 1 makes it to the training floor and .5 makes it past 6 months. Those are staggering odd’s but again, we are in a service - people on people on people business and are essentially training employees to be managers over a short period of time.

The main take away from this is document and define your systems early. This will greatly help you identify the right person, who again… is the one who comes in and follows your systems! Next blog we’ll share tips on the criterion for assessing potential
team mates but check out what Olympic CEO has to say to people entering the workforce.

Learn By Doing: An Introduction

Josh_Melvin — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:01:24 +0000

Hello all! My name is Josh Melvin and I own and run a Tattoo studio called The FALL. I’m writing this blog to try and give some insight on small business from a young entrepreneur’s perspective. Now, I don’t have any degrees in business or any formal training at all. I don’t have years of experience or a bunch of money. Actually, when I started, I had no money at all, but here we are one year and 2 months later and still open.

Let’s get the boring stuff over with, a little background on me. I started The FALL Tattooing in 2006, when I was 25, with a partner and friend. I grew up in a very small community in New Brunswick, moved out when I was 16, and then spent 10 years working for small business mostly in the computer and construction industries. When we started The FALL I had no official training in business and some would say no related experience in my industry but we learn from all of life’s experiences.

How did I get here? Basically, I took 5 weeks and rode my motorcycle across Canada (and just let me say we live in a beautiful country!) Once I got to the West Coast I took a job as a metal fabricator, worked there for a couple of years. That job wasn’t as much fun as it sounds (okay, so it doesn’t sound all that fun either.) I also spent just under two years as a swing stage rigger. I would build and rig those platforms you see hanging off the side of skyscrapers for glazers or painters to use. That job was actually quite fun! Because of that job I’ve been on the top of almost every building over 100 feet in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. Vancouver is awesome!

Next entry I’ll give you some background on The FALL and its conception then we’ll get into the good stuff. Thanks for reading.

The History of the FALL

Josh_Melvin — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:05:50 +0000

So, a little background on The FALL is in order. The FALL actually started out as Tribal Convictions in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia around 1995. I was only 14 at the time so obviously I didn’t have much to do with it. Approximately 5 years later the investors had changed, the studio was moved across the bridge and just on the outskirts of downtown Halifax. The name changed too and The FALL was born.

In 2001 I took a friend to The FALL to get an infinity sign tattooed on the back of her neck. I figured this would be a good way to test to see if I wanted to get my work done there. I had plans to cover my arms and legs for almost 3 years at that point. The artist that worked on my friend was Paul Tynes, owner of The FALL. Paul and I bartered.Over the next couple of years Paul worked on my tattoos. I taught him computer skills and traded parts and service for his time.

The FALL had become a second home and the people that worked there were like family. One morning after an art class I walked to the studio to finish taking some photos to find the building and two adjacent buildings engulfed in fire. Paul was living at the studio at the time due to personal reasons and had no insurance. It was devastating, shocking, and life changing.

Next post I’ll get into how The FALL was reborn, bigger and better, and how it came to be here in Vancouver.

Beginning Again in the Perfect Location

Josh_Melvin — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:08:01 +0000

About a week after the fire Paul took what little money he had and flew to Vancouver. We lost contact after that and while he was dealing with his own stuff I was finishing school in Halifax. The next summer I loaded my bike with about a weeks worth of clothes, some camping gear and my girlfriend and left for Vancouver on a 5 week cross country tour. I had a 1998 1100 cc Honda Shadow Aero. It was freaking awesome!

When I arrived in Vancouver I spent the next couple of years working labour jobs to pay off debt. It was a hard time for me. I spent most of my time working and was too tired to doing anything fun when I wasn’t. I don’t mind work. I actually prefer to be kept busy but I felt I wasn’t getting out what I was putting in… So when Paul and I met up again about a year after I arrived in Vancouver we started planning the reopening of The FALL in Vancouver.

It took a year to do research and write a business plan and another year to raise money and find a location. It was still another six months on top of that to get the lease and finish renovations before we could start up shop.

When Paul and I started looking for a location I did a lot of research on traffic counts, pedestrian counts, available transit, lease prices, what other business were in the area, which ones had come and gone and why, where the competition was in relation, who owned the property, City development plans for the area, and what ever else I could find out. After knowing the advantages and disadvantages to various areas in Vancouver to open our studio we started walking up and down every street in the areas we liked. We would pick areas on random days at random times and just watch traffic for an hour just to see what types of people were walking by. Rent is killer in Vancouver and especially down town so I wanted to do as much research as I could before signing anything but when I started making phone calls I noticed a lot of people had issues with leasing to a tattoo studio, or maybe it was my age. Either way, we found out our next big obstacle was going to be discrimination, and what do you do about that? I don’t know what you do about that. We got lucky and found a place that was great but no one else wanted. Basically the space came with a max five year lease because the owner was developing the property into condos in 2012 and the space needed extensive renovations, more than what most people would want to put in if they only had the space for five years. Luckily Paul and I had enough experience to do most of the renos ourselves and knew people in most construction fields to fill in the gaps so we knew we could make it work. And we pretty much had too. After obtaining the start-up capital the clock was ticking and we would soon have to start paying back. I’ll touch on how we raised our start-up capital next post. Thanks for reading.

Google Roundup – Some Great Tools For Business Building

Fiona_Walsh — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:28:26 +0000

In this economy, everyone is looking for great marketing ideas that don’t cost a lot, so I went to technology expert, Katryn Harris, Principal of Open Box Integration , to ask her to share some key tips on Google tools that are great for marketing. Open Box specializes in building strong systems for franchises and companies that make them efficient and profitable.

Here’s what she had to say:
“Google has some great tools for small businesses that everyone should be taking advantage of. The simplest take minutes to set up and use. The more elaborate ones take more time but also give business owners and entrepreneurs great information.”

Here are some of her favorite tools, organized by the length of time it takes to get up & running with them:

Google Alerts
Taking less than 1 minute to set up, Google Alerts are a great way to keep on top of trends in your industry, keep an eye on your competition and get instant, daily or weekly updates on anything coming out online that relates to your area of interest.
To set them up, go to www.google.com/alerts, put in the term or terms you are interested in, set up how often you want them, and put in your email address. Then click on the confirmation email that comes in to your inbox, and you will get regular summary updates. To make the process even better, set up a simple rule in your inbox, to move all your Google alerts to one separate folder so you can review them at your leisure and keep your inbox lean.

Google Maps
Google maps are intended to help customers find you. They take about 10 minutes to set up the basics, and then every time people search on your industry in your area, your business will show up. You can add to the effect by creating online coupons, asking customers to write reviews of your company, and regularly updating your online information. Google maps are another not-to-be-missed component of a good online marketing strategy.
To set them up, go to www.google.com/local/add, sign in with your Google account (or set one up) and then put in your basic company information (address, web site, hours of operation, etc). This will give you a basic listing. To kick it up another notch, ask your customers to go to Google maps, find your business and write a review. Then look at the options for online coupons.

Google Adwords
For those who aren’t familiar with Google Adwords, they are a form of pay-per-click advertising that makes your business show up when a potential customer searches on the keywords that you have selected. Your ad then shows up on the right hand side of the screen. Costs and efficacy depend largely on your industry and the time you put into selecting the right keywords. You can limit the cost you are willing to pay per click, as well as the daily total cost that you are willing to pay. Google Adwords can be very cost effective if you are able to select highly targeted keywords that are not in huge demand.
To set them up, go to http://www.google.ca/intl/en/ads/ and click on Google Adwords. A little time put into testing the keyword suggestion tool, and developing good marketing copy will pay off. You can also set up alternative campaigns and compare the results to see which one is leading to clicks. You can even (with a little website development assistance) track from the clicks through to sale completion.

Google Analytics
If you have a website, you need to know whether it’s paying off. Is the website generating traffic or sales for your company? Does the marketing copy work? Do people even visit your website? If you don’t know the answer to any of these questions, then check out Google Analytics. It takes about a half hour to set up, and needs to be done by your webmaster. You sign up for an account, then put a small snippet of code on each page of your website, and Google does the rest of the work.
They have tools that show you where people are clicking, how long they stay on your site, where they are coming from, what they are searching for, what pages they follow through the site, and much more more.
Be Aware: Google Analytics numbers are known to be much smaller than the numbers that show in your web logs (or your web host’s statistics). Google says this is because they filter out duplicate visits from the same computer and provide a much more accurate reflection of the real traffic to your site. This is fine as long as you’re aware of it. After all, you measure trends on your website over time, right, rather than the numbers at one point in time?

Google Webmaster Tools – Advanced
When you’re ready to move your web presence up a notch and really want to start working on search engine optimization, then you want to know about the Google Webmaster tools. As a business owner, you probably won’t set them up yourself (and you may not even look at them). But they will help your web master to ensure that you have no broken links, that Google is notified of updates to your website content, manage how Google indexes your website, and generally optimize the site for traffic.
To set them up, go to www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ and sign in using your Google Account.

Define Different As Culture.

Matthew_Young — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:49:13 +0000

It’s one thing for us to think and be different, it’s a whole other to recruit, teach and empower others to do the same. What we noticed early on is the fact we had 4-5 people in a hypothetical 8 person rowing scull rowing on one direction while the others rowed in a completely different direction. The end result was limited to zero forward progress.

There are a number of reasons for this and in fact Patrick Lencioni does a great job outlining them in his book: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. In a broad sense, we hadn’t made our individual ‘different’ a collective culture. Our focus would shift to ‘how to’.

There is plenty in the way of literature, consultants and stories on how to create a collective culture, and we are going to speak about the right systems, the right people and how to hire in upcoming posts. The focus of this blog is to make sure we define our differences as a culture and ensure that culture is deeply seeded amongst all who chose to deliver it.

For us, this was easy. We would target the just finishing school-er who wanted to travel, but wanted to pay off their student loans at the same time. What we said was "hey – here’s a job where you can make money and travel all over the world for free at the same time. No lag time." Bingo! From there, we would use the stories / testimonials from those who came in and participated in the traveling and share them with future potential recruits. Now people are thrilled to combine their personal and professional planning and subsequent growth at the same time.

We challenge people in their daily training sessions leading to fantastic destinations and travel the world spreading health and wellness. That’s not difficult for people to get on board with. At every opportunity, we reinforce our key messages by featuring others speaking about and practicing our collective culture. This video is our 2008 Christmas video. Check it our and see how many times, destinations, team, victory & trust the systems & people are reinforced. It’s intentional.

2008 Year In Review

Be Different

Matthew_Young — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:59:10 +0000

“Facilitate personal re-invention through challenge, adversity and victory”. Not what you would expect when you think of personal training is it? When my partner and I came into the industry post University, we wanted to bring opportunity, credibility and viability of personal training as a career. Right away we knew we had to differentiate ourselves.

Differentiation is a critical element of any business plan that is most often an afterthought. The difficult part of differentiation is that it can’t be here today, gone tomorrow or hocus-pocus. It has to be tangible and that takes foresight. How am I going to stand apart from others in my industry?

As an example, personal training was & still is a very ‘individual’ operating business. In most cases it’s about the trainer and how good he or she is. Because there is no governing body to manage the industry, the barrier to entry is low ("I look good, I should be a trainer.") We came into it with a team mentality. It wasn’t about ‘me’. It was about the customers.

In addition to this mentality was the actual science (or lack thereof) behind the business. We came into personal training during the boot camp era; I am being pushed hard, therefore I must be getting my money’s worth. This quickly changed with the onset of the core in early 2000, which changed again to functional fitness (fitness movements that mimicked real life movements). In each instance we positioned ourselves ahead of the game and this lent a great deal of credibility in our customers eyes when they would read about a new trend they had been doing for months.

We would continue to re-invent ourselves each year by studying industry trends, collecting customer feedback and utilizing the contributions of our team mates. Now, we have pioneered “destination fitness” as our caveat. Don’t just come to train with no goal; have a goal and make your training relevant and meaningful. It’s taken off and because there are no limits to destinations and experiences, we will never rest on a plateau. There’s always a ‘next’.

Remember, successful people do what unsuccessful people don’t and in order to stand out… you need to think about what is going to make someone come to you vs. your competition. For a quick peak into the magnitude of our destinations, check out this link

Sahara Run

Part 2 | The 6 W’s – Questions to Ask Before You Start: WHO?

Penny_Seto — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:03:15 +0000

WHO are you going into business with?

With so much at stake, it's not a question to ask lightly.

Think you want to (or can) do it alone? Are you considering a partnership?

There are pros and cons to both and it's important to find out which will work best for you before you get too far. I've done both and, honestly, I haven't found that one is better than the other. They're just different. And, each one affects individuals differently at different times in their life.

Ask any entrepreneur if they're running the business solo and, ultimately, the answer is NO. Every entrepreneur needs and has a support system. Yours might include a spouse, family and friends, past colleagues or moms in your baby group. A support system is crucial to your survival and most importantly, to your happiness. You need people you can trust to be there when decisions get tough or are completely beyond your means; people that inspire you and will be there to cheer you on.

When you start out, you may find yourself wanting all the control and profit. There's nothing wrong with that, as long as you remember that running a business solo leaves only one person holding the responsibility...for everything - the good and the bad!
An official partnership can be a blessing and a hindrance. Like a marriage, it takes work to build and maintain a successful partnership. It's important to have an open and honest, 'this is business' communication policy. A life-long friendship can turn nasty if there isn't clear communication and re-evaluation of the business and each other's needs. Like any relationship, a partnership stops working when the communication stops.

Most important - it doesn't matter if you need a partner for financial backing or just to help you get stuff done, every partnership must, must, MUST have a partnership agreement. It doesn't have to be complicated, it just has to be. You just never know what the future will bring!

Whether you go it alone or with a partner(s), look for business networking groups that support women in business or simply seek out women you admire and give them a call! Women in business are very supportive of each other and often become the foundation of the support system. Word of caution - keep in mind that when you ask others for business advice, you shouldn't expect them to open their doors if you aren't honest with them. It's not polite to call up your direct competition and ask for help!

There are endless resources and opportunities in established networking groups and business coaches. Participating in a program like the Forum for Women Entrepreneur's mentor program can provide valuable insight for little financial output.

Small Business BC was invaluable to us when we were getting started. It's a trustworthy resource that offers seminars to get you started or help you grow, a one-stop shop to register your business, and endless business FAQs and links.

Spilled Milk: At the beginning, when I didn't think I could do it alone, I had a partner. From day one, we built a large and very strong network of women that, to this day, we network with regularly. As the business and our families grew, our needs changed and we chose to dissolve the partnership. At that point, I needed my support system more than ever! With my cheerleaders at my side, I felt I was strong enough to continue on my own. I am fortunate that, regardless of the dissolved partnership, my partner, many friends in our network, and I will be life-long friends!

In Part 3 of this six part series, 'The 6 W’s - The Questions to Ask Before You Start', we'll consider the question, 'What are you going to sell?'

From the Beginning

Penny_Seto — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:08:22 +0000

I'm from a small town on Vancouver Island. The kind you'll miss in the blink of an eye. As the only family member to have escaped Island life, I often get the impression that my family doesn't understand how we live in our chaotic little world here in the big city. Vancouver Island is beautiful and I love to visit, but as a teenager, I always knew there was more out there for me to see. I love my life but now, nearly two decades later, there are many days that I also wonder, how do we do it?!

I had two goals in high school: 1. go to graphic design school 2. get off Vancouver Island. Fast. My love for sports, especially skiing, landed me a diploma in Ski Resort Operations and Management and five fun years in Whistler, BC – learning, working, skiing and, of course, partying with life-long friends – LIFE WAS GOOD!

In 1996, I made a quick jaunt home to re-group (read: grow-up – thanks Mom and Dad!) before making what was meant to be a temporary escape to Vancouver to help run a group of high-end retail stores while they found a new manager. The hunt was off after the first day. Glamorous fashion and jewels. Movie stars. Commutes home by private helicopter. Big city pay. Highly educational and very exciting! Within two months I met the man of my dreams and, not surprisingly, 8 years later, I was still in Vancouver. You might be asking, "what more could a girl want?" A family of course!

While on maternity leave in the summer of 2003, I met my Milk Factory co-founder at a baby group. We were new moms and spent hours sitting on the grass, wishing for gear that was better suited to life on the go and that got the wheels spinning.

We tried to balance returning to work with family life but the entrepreneurs in us took control. I wanted to spend time with my family when it suited me, not a 9-5 clock. I left my lucrative career to become my own boss – I've never looked back and have never had more fun! In the fall of 2004, we launched Milk Factory Designs.
Milk Factory launched as a web store and, although we sell our products many ways – e-commerce, wholesale, consumer and wholesale trade shows, and custom manufacturing – our primary goal has always been to educate the end consumer, moms, dads and caregivers alike, and offer top-notch customer service because, in the end, we're parents, we're all busy and we all want to be happy!

I love the flexible time that my business offers and also to network with the many fascinating women (and men) I meet on the road to entrepreneurial success.

I invite and encourage you to leave comments and contact me if you are starting or running your own small business. Everyday I am networking with others, mostly women in the baby industry, but everywhere I go I see opportunities to learn from and share with others in a way that will help me with my business. Many of the future posts will encompass things I learn from others' experiences, as well as my own first hand knowledge.

Look for posts every other Friday on topics like:

•   you have an idea but you have kids, now what?
•   the ups and downs of running your own small business
•   pros and cons of partnerships vs. working alone
•   the importance of networking
•   how to ask questions without getting the door slammed in your face
•   mentoring
•   helping others while helping yourself
•   where to find support and motivation

Pick and Stick

Penny_Seto — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:00:14 +0000

You have an idea or two but you also have kids. Now what?

The first thing I say to women that ask for advice on starting their own business is - Trust yourself. Respect yourself and others. Be brave. But mostly, do it because you LOVE it!

When you are cultivating your ideas, be they products or services, it's really important to pick one thing and stick to it. Pick something you have a passion for; something you believe in and want to share with others because you know it will make their lives better.

When thinking of different products and services consider how you will market them. Who will be your target market, and how you will reach that market? Sometimes looking at existing products and seeing a gap in the offering is a useful way to fine tune your ideas. Consider issues like manufacturing, packaging, shipping and your time as you place a value on your idea.

The consumer marketplace is HUGE and competitive! Make life easy for yourself and focus on being an expert at one service, or initially offering only a small collection of products. Be unique but necessary.

Offering too many things from the start as a means to please everyone, or worse, guess at what you think will please everyone, will set you up for potential failure. At the very least, you'll be frustrated, uninspired and quickly out of money. Think of it this way: Would you cook a different meal for each family member? Crazy, right? You're already busy! Once you say 'yes', it's hard to say 'no'. And, it's OK to say 'no'. But remember, before you make a decision and become emotionally (and financially) invested in your idea, do some research. Seek feedback from friends, family and consumers. They have unique perspectives and will tell you what works for them and what doesn't – things you might not be able to see.

A great tool to help keep you focused and remember all your brilliant ideas is an inspiration board. Include sketches, fabric swatches, photographs, inspirational quotes, magazine clippings of ad layouts you like...anything that inspires you now, as well as ideas for the future. You need to keep things fresh so that consumers keep coming back.

Spilled Milk : Milk Factory Designs started as an idea for a family size, water-resistant picnic blanket - the SpillProof Blanket. During the development stages our one really great idea quickly jumped to ten. That ten, when you looked at styles, sizes and colors within, became 333 different items. Add depth to that and we had thousands of units on hand at any given time. We didn’t exactly have an inspiration board…we tried to do it all!

It's time to ask yourself some serious questions! Stay tuned for a six part series, ‘The 6 W’s’, where I'll help you explore Why?, Who?, What? When? Where? and How? of starting your own business.

Part 1 | The 6 W’s – Questions to Ask Before You Start : WHY?

Penny_Seto — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:04:20 +0000

Starting a business is a big decision. It's scary, exhilarating and frustrating, often, all at the same time. And, because it's potentially life-changing, it's really important that you ask yourself, “WHY do I want to go into business for myself?”

Do you have a deep-seeded desire to keep yourself busy?

Then self-employment is for you! BUT you must be disciplined and organized because busy you will be!

Do you have a great idea, think you're the first and know it will sell?

Research! Research! Research! The idea. The competition. The market.

Is it for purely financial reasons?

Keep in mind that, on average, most small businesses take from 3 to 5+ years to turn a profit. Yup, scary!

Do you want to spend more time with your family?

I challenge you to dissect your average day and see how much ‘free time’ you have. What must you change or juggle for the business to fit with your lifestyle? Remember to value your time and needs in this process. Sure, you can work from midnight until two in the morning now, but that doesn't mean you'll be able to (or want to) do it forever. Giving up things that are important to you and make you who you are isn't going to make anyone happy – especially you!

Consider starting the business part-time or as a hobby until you have the kinks worked out. Allow yourself enough time to research every aspect of the business. You need to know what you have the skills to do and what you don't. Be realistic about what you have time for and who you can afford to hire for the things you don't.

It absolutely can be done! But, explore your ability to hold up through the tough times before you get started. Many women I've met chose to start a business to spend more time with their families, but they admit they really didn't know what they were getting their family into.

Spilled Milk: I wanted to spend time with my family when I needed to and not by the 9-5 clock. When I had my first son, my career offered little flexibility so I chose what was best for my family. Reality played out a little differently. In the beginning, even with a partner to share the workload, I was pulled in many directions at the same time, sourcing fabrics, designing and redesigning prototypes, applications and permits to start the business, branding, sales strategies, accounting, marketing.... And, not necessarily in the right order.

Each day was a juggling act to fit appointments with suppliers, banks, and web designers between feeding, napping, and changing diapers. Not to mention, the daily list of household chores already on my plate that, when combined with a baby and a husband who worked most evenings, made even showering a luxury. Add in a business, and 'free time' quickly disappeared.

If I had it to do again, I would focus on fewer products and have solid systems and sales strategies in place before expanding the product offering and purchase options.

In Part 2 of this six part series, 'The 6 W’s - The Questions to Ask Before You Start', I'll share some thoughts on 'Who are you going into business with?'

It’s Your Money!

Fiona_Walsh — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:36:07 +0000

Today’s posting is about collections – the word that creates dread in so many entrepreneurs. I recently met with an owner of a 10 year old business; this person is a sales genius, having grown sales to nearly $2 million. He’s built strong customer relationships, has an excellent reputation in the community and has no problem finding new business. All of this is great, except for one thing. In spite of the fact that sales have grown at a very healthy rate, profits haven’t.

His challenge is the same as so many other entrepreneurs. He’s got a great product; he gives great customer service and he knows many of his customers on a personal basis. He has a system for invoicing, so the bills go out on time. But a percentage of customers are not paying on time - some of them, not for a long time.

He’s making two serious mistakes. First, he doesn’t want to upset his customer relationships by bugging them about paying. He figures if he does a great job, people will pay. Some of those outstanding invoices have been unpaid for 3 to 6 months. That is a lot of his money that is being tied up by these non-payers. I reminded him that it is hard to keep a good relationship with someone who takes your product and then doesn’t pay you. In a retail setting, that is called shoplifting.

Second, he did not have a clear policy on how collections would be handled. He abdicated it to the manager and the office administrator, by making vague references to invoices that hadn’t been paid. But both employees also hated collections, so they each assumed the other one was taking care of it.

So he picked up the phone and started calling customers last week. What happened? In two days, he collected nearly $40,000, which was great for cash flow. Plus customers were happy to talk to him! No one screamed or swore at him. Most of them had simply forgotten to pay the invoice. He’s learned that it is acceptable to collect payment and that you can do so, without damaging customer relationships.

Moving forward, he has implemented a collections policy. One particular staff member is responsible for tracking invoice payment. If payment is late, they make a phone call. If things don’t get resolved within 2 weeks, he steps in to handle it. And he reviews his receivables on a monthly basis now.

Remember - for every dollar you have in receivables, that is one less dollar in cash. Make sure you collect on your invoices in a timely fashion.

Part Two: Who is Your Customer?

Fiona_Walsh — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:36:10 +0000

So now that you have a clear picture of your three niche markets, here’s what you do next to start doing business with them.

STEP 3: Identify different ways you can reach your niche markets. What organizations or associations do they belong to? What trade shows or conferences do they attend? What trade publications do they read? What blogs or web resources do they read? Do they use LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter? What newspapers, radio or TV?

You want to identify places where they would get information to make buying decisions. Keep in mind that 70% of business buyers use the web to get information before they ever contact a vendor.

STEP 4: Describe the products or services you will provide for these niche markets and the benefits to them of buying from you. Getting clear on the benefits is key to being successful in encouraging people to buy from you.

Take a bookkeeper as an example. The benefit to a business owner of hiring a bookkeeper includes less stress, fewer mistakes, more hours to run your business, not having to spend night and weekends doing accounting means more family time. No last minute scrambles getting stuff together for GST and tax returns.

STEP 5: Come up with 5 ideas on how you can establish yourself in each niche market. Some examples for you to consider:

•   Join a Chamber or trade association and get involved in a committee
•   Identify networking events you can go to every month
•   Write an article for a newspaper, newsletter or blog that your target niche is reading
•   Attend or present at a trade show or conference
•   Find 10 other companies that are servicing the same niche market and look at partnerships that will add value to their clients
•   Establish yourself on LinkedIn and answer expert questions
•   Build a Facebook Fan club

The key is to take the time to write down detailed profiles of your niche markets and only then, do you figure out how to start selling to them!

Business Plan or Strategy?

Tony_Wanless — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:07:58 +0000

If you’re aiming to be a mid-to-later life entrepreneur, or maybe you are one already, you’ve probably heard a lot about business planning.

Forget most of it.

Business planning is a big industry that operates on the principle of mass: Everyone gets the same methodology training, no matter what their individual circumstances. Planning consultants (Full Disclosure: I’m one) may customize a business plan for complex individual businesses or sectors. Generally though business planning follows the same structure.

The main purpose of this plan is to generate financing. Some also use the process to force careful examination of a business ahead of time in terms of functions such as marketing, operations, and IT.

But, if you’re a 50-plus entrepreneur, much of this is irrelevant.

You’re not building Acme Manufacturing Corp. here so your situation is considerably different. Your venture is likely based on some skill or knowledge; you’re probably in a micro business to finance a lifestyle. Exploration and adventure may be as important to you as “success”.

This isn’t to say you don’t need to plan at all. You do – every venture, whether going out for dinner or pursuing a business idea, needs a direction and some planning. Without it, you’ll be very frustrated and probably fail.

However, what you probably need isn’t a traditional business plan, but some form of strategy (mission, definition, and direction setting) and strategic plan (a list of tactics to achieve that vision.)

One way to plan this kind of business is to answer three basic questions:

What do you do? Example: I deliver specific financial advice. This is an outline of the service you’re going to deliver.
Who do you do it for? I deliver specific financial advice to retiring workers. This is your market, and guides your marketing efforts.
How do you do it? I work with human resources departments to deliver financial advice to retiring workers in groups, one on one, online (or whatever). This is your method of operation.

Put more flesh on these answers, and you’ll have most of what you need to operate your business.

Coming Soon: The Great Adventure

Tony_Wanless — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:09:57 +0000

Millions of North Americans are beginning to unleash a movement that is going to change the business world forever. Several surveys indicate that as many as 30 million Baby Boomers plan to start their own “semi-retirement” businesses over the next 10 years.

Some of these 50+ entrepreneurs, like me, already have.

Entrepreneurship is hardly new in North America, but it is for many Boomers, who, because of economic structures in place when they began, spent most of their careers in corporate settings.

For many, entrepreneurship will be a great adventure that will make the last third of their working lives as exciting as the first. For others, it will be a severe shock that involves a steep learning curve.

Fifty-plus entrepreneurs have many advantages:

Their major life responsibilities such as child rearing, mortgages, and the need to save for retirement will be behind them.

They are often “battle-scarred veterans” with many years of experience. They have learned how to navigate, a valuable wisdom that will be much prized by younger business people.

For the most part, they have financial resources that provide them with a cushion as they launch businesses.

They often value learning and exploration more than very high income.

However, these new entrepreneurs also have challenges.

Because most come from corporate structures and careers that feature support systems, they will be unprepared for the flexibility and agility demanded by entrepreneurship.

They will be astonished at the ferocity of competition that is the entrepreneurial life today.

They have not been adequately schooled in the new pace and methods of doing business.

Because entrepreneurship today and even more in future will be about collaboration, they will have to give up the Lone Ranger myths that have guided them for most of their lives. Men will have a harder time with this than women who are more familiar with communal thinking.

Demystifying Customer Service

Sylvain_Deslongchamps — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:46:12 +0000

Have you ever been to a grocery store, placed your items on the counter and as the clerk punched your items into the cash register they talked on the phone to a friend? As if that wasn’t bad enough, they then expected you to magically know how much the total was? How did you feel? Not very good I am sure! Have you been back? Probably not.

On the other hand, have you been to a restaurant and the owner welcomed you with a smile and by name – asked you how you were and also asked about your latest trip to Spain? How did you feel? It doesn’t take a genius to determine this interaction would evoke a positive feeling.

The above is what customer service is; an interaction between a company and a client and how the client perceived their needs being met by the company.

My name is Sylvain Deslongchamps and I am looking forward to sharing some of my customer service experiences with you. I have been in Customer Service and Support for the past 14 years. I will be sharing customer service best practices in my future blogs, providing you with tips and tricks on topics like how to handle irate clients, how to get client feedback and the net promoter score concept.

Enjoy the next couple of weeks… and think about your client’s needs.

Catching Those Customer Dollars

Fiona_Walsh — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:43:49 +0000

Everyone is looking to save money these days. In a recession customers get tighter with their money – they buy less and they are way more picky about what they spend their dollars on. In a recession, it seems customers expect the whole world to be on sale.

This is tricky for you as business owner, because you need to get customers to spend their dollars with you to survive. They want savings. You want profitability. What do you need to do to catch those customer dollars?

Create Special Promotions. DO NOT simply cut all your prices across the board. This gives people the impression you are in trouble and hurts your cash flow. Be more creative. Know what products are the most popular with your customers and provide savings on those. Bundle together services or products that will attract your target market and offer them at an appealing price. One spa I passed today offered a great pedicure, manicure, back massage package at an amazing package – I walked right in and booked an appointment. If it had just been the usual manicure/pedicure package, I would have kept walking. The massage was an unusual twist and the great price clinched it.

Use your website as a marketing tool. Most customers do their research on the internet before they ever step into a store. I’ve lost count of the number of times I see small businesses that don’t bother to put their sales and special promotions onto their website. That’s a mistake. Think of your website as free advertising space. Make sure visitors to your site know what promotions you are running. Send emails to your customer list informing them of any specials.

Coupons are sexy again! Launch a coupon program. A recent ICOM survey showed that two-thirds of shoppers plan to use more coupons. What I found really interesting is that the group most likely to use coupons are the 18 to 34 year olds! And they like downloadable coupons the best, which means you don’t have any printing costs involved. This survey also showed that coupons were equally attractive to upper and lower income households which makes them a great marketing tool.

Part One: Who is Your Customer?

Fiona_Walsh — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:10:33 +0000

One of the biggest challenges I see new businesses facing is a lack of clear niche markets to focus on. They launch their business and when asked who their customer is, I hear vague answers like: “small to medium size businesses”, “anyone with a garden”, or my personal favourite – “everyone.”

To grow a successful business, you have to choose niche markets to focus on. You can’t tackle the whole world. You have limited resources so you need to choose specific markets to market to, so you get the biggest bang for your money and time. Many new business owners are reluctant to pick niche markets because they worry about all the other customers they might miss out on. This is crazy talk. Talk to any successful business and you will find they have clearly defined customer segments that they sell to. It is those groups that they focus their sales and marketing efforts on.

We tell all Ghost CEO coaching clients to pick 3 niche markets. So, how do you pick a niche market?

STEP 1: A niche market is a focused, targetable portion of a market segment. It has to be large enough to be profitable. It is core groups of people that have similar occupational and lifestyle characteristics that you can target with excellent results.

To identify niche markets, break your target market into as many subgroups as you can and see if you can find specific subgroups with similar needs for your product. Pick the top three that will be the most profitable.

STEP 2: The better you know your niche markets, the better you can reach them. For each niche market you have identified, describe them. What are their demographics? What is their income? Where do they hang out? What do they read? What challenges or needs do they have?

The Golden Tool for Sales Success

Fiona_Walsh — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:58:45 +0000

There are a ton of resources out there on how to sell effectively – books, courses, newsletters, and DVDs. Some of them tell you that prospecting is the key; others say it is being able to close; others talk about knowing the personality style of your customer and how to adjust your sales pitch.

All of these are important tools but as a small business owner you have limited time and resources. You can’t afford to spend one to two months doing sales training before you get out there. You need to be selling from day one.

The one tool you need to start off with and use day after day, no matter how big your business grows, is a sales funnel. Every single client in the Ghost CEO™ coaching program (www.ghostceo.com) uses a sales funnel to track their success.

Successful sales growth depends on you being able to do 3 things effectively:

-   Prospecting: always identifying potential customers
-   Presenting: making contact with prospects to present your benefits and tell them why they want to buy
-   Closing: turning them into paying customers

A sales funnel allows you to track all of these 3 parts. The first column is for Prospects – a list of potential customers you want to sell to. The second column is In Action – these are prospects that are considering buying from you after you have done a presentation or quote or meeting with them. The third column is Clients – people who have bought from you. You can keep your funnel on paper or as an excel spreadsheet. Keep it simple – you do not need a CRM when starting out. Using a sales funnel every day will keep you focused on growing sales and profitability.

Do You Have What It Takes To Get Lucky?

Fiona_Walsh — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:47:50 +0000

“For the ones who won’t succeed, it will be because you get in your own way, not because the world stopped you.” - Warren Buffet

What separates those entrepreneurs who build highly profitable businesses from those who eke out a living? A lot of people think it has to do with being lucky. I don’t think so. Neither does Larry Farrell, author of “Getting Entrepreneurial” who outlines 4 traits all highly successful business owners have:

1. Sense of Mission: Their whole focus is about creating value; they passionately believe that what they do is important. They have a strong vision of what they want to build and are extremely driven to make it happen. They do not make excuses.

2. Customer/Product Vision: They have a clear vision of their niche market, who their customers are and why they buy. They dream and talk about what they are building all the time. They are experts in both product and marketing. Having a great product is not enough – you have to be good at catching market attention. Lee Valley Tools is a superb example of this

3. High Speed Innovation: These entrepreneurs move quickly to respond to opportunity. They don’t get bogged down in a lot of research and analysis and “thinking about it”; they go for it! This mentality of speed is the simplest way to beat the competition.

4. Self-Inspired Behavior: All great entrepreneurs are highly self-motivated because they know that they live or die by the consequences of their behaviors. If they don’t create a product the market wants, if they don’t get out there and sell, if they don’t invoice and collect, their business won’t survive so they do what needs to be done.

Who We Are

Matthew_Young — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:47:16 +0000

It was shaping up to be just like every other Wednesday except this Wednesday I had reached my breaking point. So… as our cherished customer walked into the gym for his regularly scheduled training / whining session, I found myself walking away from him while asking “what are you going to do about it?”

Shocked, he looked at me as if I had insulted every effort he had ever made in managing his Type One diabetic 12 year old. “What the hell do you mean what am I going to do about it? I’ve been waking up every night in the middle of the night for 12 years just to check and see if she is still alive!” I explained that wasn’t quite what I meant. What I meant was how were we going to do something that led us closer to a solution, as opposed to managing the symptoms?

10 months, 8 days and 6700kms later we had set a Guinness World record for the fastest ride across Canada by a relay team of 5 riders and more importantly raised the bar on Juvenile Diabetes awareness and donated over 1 million dollars to Juvenile Diabetes research.

When people ask me what we do I don’t say I’m Matthew Young, UBC Kinetics graduate, “personal trainer” and founder of Innovative Fitness. I tell them I am part of a team that facilitates personal re-invention through physical challenge, adversity and victory.

In my next blog I’m going to elaborate on specifically what we do, how we do it and it’s relevance to not only our business, but how you can think about business, differentiation and the business of differentiation in a very competitive workplace. In the meantime, check out this clip

Teamh2v

Consulting

Tony_Wanless — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:46:24 +0000

Of the 70% or so of Baby Boomers who plan to work in “retirement”, more than 30% say they’re going to be consultants.

That stands to reason, because many Baby Boomers today possess knowledge they have aquired in some corporate setting. Many business process skills, especially those used for service businesses, can be sold on a freelance basis after leaving the 9-5 world. Engineering, law, accounting and other such professions especially lend themselves to part-time consulting after retirement.

Many people believe that consulting is merely going back to your former employer, or a couple of ancillary companies, and doing the same thing as they did before. The truth is that those who go into consulting after retirement often discover that it’s a different game completely.

Quickly, they realize that the people they are consulting to have suddenly changed. When they were an employee, these people were colleagues and so shared a similar mindset. Now as a consultant, that collegial view changes to one of any other service provider.

And those new clients are going to strike as tough a deal with you as they do with all their other service providers. In short, you’re going to have to convince them that you’re offering value for the money they’re supposed to hand over to you for your knowledge.

For people who have been employed for most of their lives, needing to prove ones self continuously can come as a bit of a shock.

Another shock happens when these new consultants discover they will be paid for their time instead of at the flat rate of salaried employees. This means they’ll have to take care of all the expenses themselves. For this reason, determining what the hourly rate is becomes that much more important.

Consulting is not simple advising or knowledge transfer. It’s a business, and there’s a methodology to it. Anyone who expects to go into consulting after fleeing the corporate nest better learn it.