The question of “who handles your business when you are away?” was discussed in one of my business development groups last Wednesday.  It was posed to those who may be sole practitioners to see who had a contingency plan for taking care of their customers needs while they were away. Perhaps you are one of those folks who simply doesn’t take time off because you feel you can’t. Well this might be an opportunity to change that or to make sure that you are not losing customers when you do go away.

A funny thing happened yesterday. I experienced this with a company I do business with. I stopped by and no one was there, so I called and got a message saying no one would be there until next week. That’s not what you want to hear and as much as you want to be nice and maintain loyalty, sometimes it’s just not a reality.

A simple solution is to develop a relationship with someone you trust. Many businesses do this and it works well for them, but it certainly requires working with someone you can trust to not steal your business. Of course, your good customers should alert you to this if someone would try to steal them away, but as my old boss used to say “if you can steal my customers from me do it because it means I am not serving them well enough for them to want to stay with me.”

No matter what industry you are in, it’s important to have a backup plan. Whether you are a local electrician or a web designer, your customers want to know they can reach someone that they can trust when they need professional assistance.

If you don’t have someone you can use as a backup, start your research today. It’s better to have one before you need one.

If anyone is qualified to talk about focus, it’s the guy who has struggled with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) for several decades while launching, growing, and selling multiple businesses. And yes, that someone is me. For those who don’t know (which is most of you) I have one of the worst cases of ADD; it actually measures near the top of the spectrum.  I have come to learn that many successful people have also struggled with ADD, so I know I am in good company.  I used to wonder why such a large percentage of business owners seem to have ADD, then I realized it’s probably the fact that not much else can keep their attention, give all of the various hats one has to wear as a business owner.

You don’t have to have ADD to have a lack of focus. Sadly, I have seen many business owners fail to thrive, or totally fail because they were sidetracked by another (seemingly greater) business opportunity.  I have even done it myself, but thankfully, I have seen what focus can do for a business, so it helps keep me on track. Trust me, I get lots of offers for lots of seemingly great opportunities (and of course, many that are simply garbage) but now that I manage my schedule according to what will serve my business, I simply don’t have time for other things.

If you are not meeting the goals you desire for your business, take a look at where you are spending your time.  It’s not normal to pursue building multiple businesses all at once; you simply can’t divert the energy required without burning out or getting close. Some of my greatest moments of peace have come from letting go of opportunities and projects that I thought I could not live without.

If you are involved in multiple projects of ventures that you can’t walk away from, them find a trusted partner to carry on your role.  I happen to be involved in a few business ventures, but thankfully, I have aligned myself with great team members who can help keep the projects going without them being a burden so I don’t get distracted from serving my clients which is my primary focus. In the end it’s about achieving success, not striving and getting burned out. And if you are married, your spouse will appreciate not having to compete with your business for your time.

Regardless of whether or not you have a diagnosed case of ADD or not, lack of focus can kill a business. Often times, it just takes having good people in your life and some humility to keep you on track. If you don’t have that person in your life to keep you on track, perhaps you should consider hiring a business coach to help keep you focused.

If you find yourself buried in projects; just take inventory of what is paying your bills and put everything else on the back burner. Trust me, you won’t regret it. And even good things (like volunteering and church involvement) can detract from your success, so make sure that whatever you do, you are living a balanced life with regard to your time.

You only get one chance to enjoy this life and being a workaholic is not conducive to living a fulfilled life.

I hope that speaks to someone.

Before I joined a trade exchange, I had some not so great experiences in trading services.  I learned that this was because for some reason, many business owners want to treat transactions differently when they trade services instead of perform services for cash. It says that they don’t respect the trade revenue as much as cash, and this might be true for a multitude of reasons.

Doing business through a trade exchange can minimize many of these issues because it makes the transactions equitable. You don’t have to discount your fees just to get someone else’s services, nor do you have to ask them to do the same. The term I have heard used is, “it’s business as usual.”  This means that you give estimates, invoice your customers, provide good service, and ask for referrals, just like you would otherwise.  Some people say that doing business on trade is better because it makes the transaction more personal. If someone brings you business and wants to pay with trade currency, you will likely engage them in a conversation and ask what they do to earn that currency, whereas if they paid cash or used a credit card, it’s not something you normally bring up.

So how does doing business on trade get such a bad rap?

Lack of Education
It would seem that most people have not been taught how to effectively do business in their trade network. They are NOT doing business as usual. I recently heard of a case where someone discussed a service with a provider and did not know the price until after it was performed. Both parties failed there. Would you ever spend cash that way? I hope not.  Again, I cannot emphasize enough, it’s business as usual. Just add “trade” as a form of payment on your invoice and do nothing else differently.

Another lack of education is not knowing what they can spend their trade currency on. I have heard business owners say that have “too much trade credit.” I usually ask them if they have all of the business they want, and they always say no. I have no vested interest other than promoting trade as a great business practice, but at that point I tell them to call their broker and find out how to spend that money to get new business. Trust me, they would want more trade dollars if they knew how to spend it.

Desperate Business Owners
On more than one occasion, I have heard someone say that doing business on trade actually hurt their business or somehow damaged them financially. This usually means they were not already a solvent business and could not pay their expenses, but somehow thought that a miracle would take place. I have seen it quite a bit, and more so with restaurants. For some reason, business owners get this idea that perhaps joining a trade network will save their business. If a business is failing, there are probably several other areas that need to be addressed to keep it going.

Typically, it is taught that no more than 15-20% of your business should come in the form of trade currency. Once you learn the secrets of converting vendors, suppliers and other providers in combination with some cash conversion strategies, you might be able to ramp it up to 40-50%. It also depends on the kind of business. If you have more fixed costs, then you need to make sure you have the cash to cover those expenses. If you perform service work (such as a home electrician) and you have free time in your schedule, I say “trade away!”

I hope you found this helpful. My goal is to see fellow business owners thrive, no matter what the economy looks like and a good trade exchange is another tool that can help. Let me know how I can help you. I am free for consultation, and I will even accept your trade dollars no matter where you live in the US – assuming you are with a trade network that is a member of NATE or IRTA.

Special Thanks
I would like to thank Bryan Moody, my broker at Tradesource and Kyle Morgan, Collaborative Business Guru at The Angle Group, for educating me in how to do business on trade. Through their expertise, this skeptic became a raving ambassador for practice of doing business on trade.

Many business owner trade services in lieu of spending cash, also known as bartering. Very often this is not an equitable transaction, poor records are kept, and in the end it can damage relationships.  I have bartered the old fashioned way in the past, and I had some bad experiences myself. I usually felt that I gave more than I received, and it would be interesting to see if the other party felt the same way.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. I learned that there was a better was to barter and that was by using a professional business barter network  (a.k.a. trade network/exchange.)  Using a trade exchange allowed me to bill for my services and collect money in my trade account and then spend it with any other vendor that I wanted. Now, I did not have to try to keep track of everything myself or have those difficult conversations. Best of all, working through the trade network has truly helped to grow my business by connecting me to a whole new network of businesses; most of whom know other people who pay cash. Imagine that? Doing business through a trade network can lead to new cash business!

Here are some additional benefits of bartering through a professional trade network:

1. Education. Many people fail in the world of trade because they simply don’t learn how to use it effectively.

2. Tracking. Every month, I get a statement telling me what I have earned and what I have spent.

3. New Business Resources. Through my trade network, I have developed several new business relationships where I can leverage my trade dollars to reduce cash expenses.

4. More Business. If you have any un-billable time, unfilled restaurant seats, or unsold event tickets, you can benefit from turning that into trade revenue.

The bottom line is doing business on trade works, and it works well. In fact, many Fortune 500 companies trade services as a normal business practice. If it works for them, why wouldn’t it work for you?

Whether you own a local pizza restaurant or a small business accounting firm, I am 100% confident that your business can benefit from joining a trade network. If you have any questions or want a referral to a trade network that serves your area, please contact me.

There are many keys to doing business successfully, and one of them is the different ways you are able to accept payments from clients.  Perhaps its obvious that if you can take more forms of payment, you can do more business. What may not seem obvious is all of the ways that you can take payment and how to get started. I will list several and give some tips, as well as pros and cons, for each.

Cash. It’s been said that “cash is king” but it’s not always easy to get cash from someone, especially if they don’t live in your state or if you want to do business online. On the plus side, if you can get it, you most likely won’t have any problems redeeming it.

Checks. While checks seem to be a great way to take payment, they are not timely and not 100% reliable. Case in point, I am waiting for a check that someone told me they sent last Wednesday from about 15 miles away. My suspicion is that I am not being told the whole truth, and my prayer is that it shows up at all. With the advent of technology, taking checks by phone or electronically might be an option as well.

Credit Cards. There is no reason as at all that a business owner should not be able to take credit cards. There are at least two options that will allow any business owner to accept credit cards. One is PayPal, which isn’t optimal but it gets the job done and the second is Square which is nice if you are in an environment where you see customers and can swipe their cards. Square allows you to take payment using your smartphone, which is nice and if you don’t have the customers card, you can do a manual entry, but it will cost you a little more in fees. That aside, it’s not that difficult to get a traditional merchant services account. In fact, if you want a referral to the company I use and recommend (First Data), just send me your info using my contact form and I will have my rep contact you.

Trade (a.k.a. Barter). Talking about doing business on trade, elicits many different responses based on your experience with trade transactions you have done in the past.  I know because when I first met by trade broker (who is now a close friend and professional colleague), I had thoughts of those unbalanced trade deals and other trade deals gone bad. Regardless of your experience, doing business on trade is a good thing. You can choose to believe it or not. In fact, I am going to do a series on the benefits of accepting trade  as a form of currency to help business owners understand how they might be missing out. One of the companies I own generated 27% of it’s business through the trade network that I am a part of, and the best part is that it included lots of cash paying customers. Stay tuned for that series, especially if you are a skeptic. I know I was, and not I am a believer and one of the biggest advocates of doing business on trade.

I hope that this is helpful to someone and perhaps you can earn some more business simply by taking credit cards if you weren’t or joining a trade network if you are not in one. If you have any questions about trade networks, feel free to contact me and I will share what I know. Also, please subscribe to my blog or Facebook Page to make sure you get all of the follow up posts in the “business on trade” series.

For many business owners, this week is one where they will sit back and relax assuming not much happens between Christmas and New Years Day. I am working today and will work through Wednesday, before taking off a few days for a much needed getaway.  I want to encourage you to take this week to reflect on 2011 because what you learn by analyzing your activities and results will help launch you into an amazing 2012.  I did this last week and I already know the following:

1. All of the sources of my business (and what percent each contributed to my bottom line.)

2. How many clients were served, and the percentage of growth.

3. What my #1 source of business was; and I have already thanked them profusely.

4. What percentage of my business came from Web Marketing and Social Media Marketing.

5. Who I need to follow up with in 2012 (the list of prospects that did not close business  in 2011.)

6. Roughly how much money I made (December’s not over yet, but I do know it’s my biggest month of the year!)

Armed with this information, I am able to go into January feeling very prepared, and not like I have to get a game plan for 2012. My game plan is perpetual because I plan the business out in advance and re-evaluate along the way during the month.

If you need any help with business planning for 2012 or even analyzing your results from 2011, please contact me and I would be happy to discuss how I, or one of my colleagues, might be able to help you achieve the success you deserve in 2012.

Joining Toastmasters was one of the best business decisions I made. It helped me to become a better communicator and learn the things I never bothered to learn in school about public speaking. I also met some great folks, and that is simply priceless.

Here is the problem, however. I am now ruined because I can’t listen to most people speak. These are people who are supposed to be professional communicators, but I now realize that nearly every fifth word is a verbal pause (“ahh”, “umm”, “you know” or the like.)  If you take note, you will hear that many professionals struggle with their words and let you know it by the consistent verbal pauses they use.

• Newscasters.
• Politicians (ok, I really want to say The President).
• Preachers
• Instructors
• Other speakers
• People giving “elevator pitches”

It’s ALL AROUND US! And until I joined Toastmasters, I never even realized it.

The worse of them all is when I catch myself doing the same thing because I know it’s simply annoying. Sadly, we work schedule has recently taken me away from my local Toastmasters group and I have caught myself on occasion with a dreadful verbal pause or two. It makes me thankful for what I have learned and desirous to get back to the group.

I would encourage every professional to visit a local Toastmasters club. It’s free to visit and can only benefit you. Mastering the art of oral communications will give you more opportunities, but will help you conquer one of the biggest fears that plagues mankind. That fear is glossophobia, or the fear of public speaking.

I no longer fear public speaking; I fear using a verbal pause while speaking or having car trouble on the way to a speaking engagement.

Starting a business is technically an easy thing to do. Generally, all you need is for someone to pay you for a product or service, and you are in business. Yes, I left out a few steps such as registering with the state or getting a sales tax license, but for the most part these are simple processes.

When you start out in business, unless you take the initiative to form a business entity such as a Corporation or an Limited Liability Company (LLC) you are deemed to be a sole proprietor. you don’t even need to get an Employer ID number (EIN) if you are not hiring employees, you can simply use your Social Security Number to file your taxes.

Here are the problems with taking such a route:

1. You have no legal shield. If someone sues your business, they are actually suing you personally.  This means as a sole proprietor the business assets and your assets (including bank accounts, property, etc) and all fair game to go after in a lawsuit. Operating under a legal entity provides a shield between your personal assets and the business assets.

2. You can get a business loan. If you apply for a business loan as a sole proprietor, you will end up applying for a loan that is personally guaranteed. This means the loan will be based on your personal credit and it will not allow you to build credit in the name of the business, which can be crucial should you decide to expand down the road. Many business owners don’t start out thinking of needed a loan and then when the time comes, they learn the hard way that they are not set up to get one.

3. Other companies or big clients may not take you seriously. It really does not require lot of money or effort to form a business entity and get an Employer ID Number from the IRS. In fact, the last one I did took 4 days, $86, and less than two hours of my time  – including driving the paper work to the Arizona Corporation Commission to file it. If someone is going to partner with you or pay you lots of money, they want the reassurance that you are a “real business” and if you have not take these simple steps, you aren’t projecting the most professional image.

4. You’ll Have to “Re-Launch” Your Business. Once you decide to form a legal entity, you now will have to get a new bank account, and start to change over your accounts to the name of the new entity. From a business credit history standpoint, you will be starting over as of the day of the new entity.

Let me close by saying, I am not a lawyer and I cannot advise you on how to set up your business legally. If you are a business owner and want access to a local lawyer who can answer all of your business questions as well as review documents for you to keep you out of trouble, I highly recommend getting a business legal plan with Pre Paid Legal Services. This is something I can help you get. I have been a happy customer of theirs for over a decade and they have saved me thousands of dollars both personally and professionally.

So many people have lofty ideas of what it means to be a business owner. Some think it equates to automatic riches, and others think that just by “opening shop” the customers will come. Neither could be more wrong assumptions, and sadly it is a lack of proper planning that causes greater than 50% of small business to fail within the first 5 years (according to the Small Business Administration.)

I have been an entrepreneur for most of my life. I have owned, managed, and sold several businesses over the past two decades and I have learned most of what I have learned from the “school of hard knocks,” and it is from those experiences that I want to share some tips for anyone considering starting a business.

1. Start Part Time. If you have a job that pays your bills and provides you with benefits, I highly recommend keeping that income source while you build your business. Chances are you will not have enough initial business income to pay for your benefits, so you will go from having benefits to not having benefits, on top of going from having an income from a stable company to not knowing where your next check is coming from in many cases.

If you are starting a business in the same field that you are employed in, this might not be possible due to actual or perceived conflicts of interest, in which case you need to make sure you are prepared in every other way as you will read below.

2. Get Out of Debt First. Having debts means you need to take more money out of your business to pay your bills, which reduces the chances of the company surviving. This is another great plug for starting part time, because you can use that income to pay off your debts prior to making the leap from your job to your business.

3. Maintain a Solid Personal Credit Rating. While it is possible to get business credit, most investors and banks will want to either have your loan secured by collateral (often the house you live in), or they will want a personal guarantee. A personal guarantee basically means that you would agree that if the business fails, you will still personally pay back the loan. If you have bad credit, they will not lend you money based on a personal guarantee.

4. Talk to a Business Start up Coach. Your expertise is crucial to the success of your business, but you also cannot succeed in business without having a marketing plan, knowing how to structure the business, and knowing how to maintain your business finances. These are three areas where many business owners either fail or neglect and it can be very costly to backtrack and try to get help in these areas. This is where having a business coach can help.  Have them all ask you the hard questions and then make sure you have the answers before launching out. Any money you spend with a business coach in preparation to launch your business will be well worth it in the long run and could be the difference between success and failure.  I am happy to offer you a complementary start up business consultation to help make sure you are pointed in the right direction. You can contact me to set one up if you are interested.

5. Have a Business Plan. Whether you plan on raising money or not, you need to have a business plan. There are many reasons, but if you have a solid business plan, it will serve as a guide to keep you on track. Also, even though you may not want to raise money, you may find that it makes sense to and going back to the drawing board will be a setback because you will have to stop or slow down actual production to write the business plan or pay someone to do it.

6. Do Not Operate as a Sole Proprietor. Let me start by saying I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. The basis for this is that fact that you will not be able to establish credit as a business without having a legal entity, even if you have a separate Tax ID Number for the business. Because I had started one of my most successful businesses as a Sole Proprietor, I later made the mistake of starting another similar business as a Sole Proprietor. The difference was that I was building this business more aggressively and without business partners, so the need for business credit was much greater from the outset.  It took me over a year to realize that I was off track and it cost me a year of business history because creating a new entity meant that essentially the business was new from a business credit standpoint.

7. Don’t Forget Hidden Costs When Setting Your Prices. Many small business owners price their products and services with an employee mindset, meaning that they have an idea of what they want to make and set out to calculate what that looks like from a consulting standpoint, but they often fail to forget many expenses. The most common are taxes, administration, and technology. A good rule of thumb is to determine how much money you want to earn per year as personal income and double that to estimate how much money you want the business to bring in.

8. Remember, You Always Have Work. If you don’t have clients, your job full time job is finding them.  Your phone should always be ringing, if the calls are not coming in, make sure they are going out.

9. You Will Have to Work Harder As a Business Owner Than an Employee. There are some who will disagree with this statement; they are called “former business owners who are once again employees.” Trust me, even if someone gives you a $100,000 loan, you will need to do everything to can to turn that into $300,000 in order to pay it back and still make a profit. And if you aren’t willing to work hard, there are others who will do it for you… they are called competitors. 

10. Guard Your Time Wisely. I believe in working hard and playing hard, but if you aren’t making money, you will never feel free to take time to play.  There are so many potential distractions to your work day, that you really need to have a daily plan to stay on task.  When you start your day, make a list of the tasks that you need to accomplish for that day. Two things in particular that I recommend being cautious with are phone time and Internet time.  If your friend calls you in the middle of the day, the best course of action is to not take the call and call them back after your work hours. This will condition them to not call during your work day, and also it will help them see you as a business owner and not just someone who quit their job recently.  With Internet time, there is a temptation to spend time online and call it work. The simple way to figure it out it to stop and ask yourself how the last 10 minutes online contributed to your businesses growth. If it didn’t, make sure whatever activity you were doing stay off of your work time to do list.

I hope you found these insightful. If you take them to heart, you will increase your chances of success. It is far less costly for you to learn from my past failures than to go out and waste your money to learn the hard way. If you disagree with any of these, or have any questions, post a comment below and I will gladly respond.

Amidst all of the hype about online marketing and social media marketing, it would seem odd for someone to say you don’t need a website.  Truth be told, they are spot on.  The goal in business is getting enough paying customers and turning enough profits with those customers to meet your businesses financial goals.  If you can do this without a website, then so be it.

A bigger problem comes when a company thinks they have to have a website, so they build one on a “free site builder” template and now you have people who might have done business with them, feel like they are dealing with a company that is struggling because they could not afford to pay a professional to put up a website (which can be done in many cases for $500 or less).

Should most businesses have a website? Absolutely! People will want to learn more about your company even it the web is not how you acquire customers and this is a great way to get your information in front of them as quickly as possible.  At a minimum, you would want to claim the dot com domain name for your business so no one else can. And if you do, spend $200 to have a nice one page brochure built for the company.

Last night I was at one of the largest networking events in Phoenix (the quarterly Networking Phoenix mixer) and I met a guy who I was interested in doing business with.  I took a look at his website and that pretty much ended any interest in their company based on what I saw. Some might think that’s unfair, but I call it protecting your reputation by only doing business with companies that project a professional image. In particular, this company is in the financial arena and my company could be liable for any damages to our customers that would do business with them. Yet, another factor to keep in mind when considering new business alliances.

If you need any resources to affordable and quality web providers, do not hesitate to contact me. Have a great day!