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 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 barter 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 barter network can lead to new cash business!

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

1. Education. Many people fail in the world of barter 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 barter 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 barter 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.

Barter. Talking about barter elicits many different responses based on your experience with barter or 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 barter deals and other barter deals gone bad. Regardless of your experience, barter 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 barter  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 barter 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 barter.

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 barter network if you are not in one. If you have any questions about barter 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 barter 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!

If you are in sales or in business, chances are you have offered your services to a prospect who said NO.  What was your response to that? More importantly, what should your response be?

Sales is a numbers game and one of the best lessons I ever learned in sales was from Tom Hopkins (the real estate trainer).  He taught me that every “no” puts you one step closer to a “yes.” I have learned to appreciate the “no’s” because you have to have them to win. In fact, Tom taught his students to put a value on a no response by calculating the average revenue per sale and then dividing that my how many “no’s” you had to get before you got a “yes.”  If it took 25 “no’s” to get a yes and the “yes” made you $2,500, then every “no” is worth $100. That might be a new and welcomed perspective for some of you.

This morning I was blessed to get two “yeses” before I got a “no.”  I got two new clients for my Internet Marketing firm, and one person said no to a business offer.  It was a loss for him and a win for me; he lost a great opportunity and I got a “no” out of the way.

If aren’t hearing “no” you aren’t asking for the business.  In fact, a “no” often just means that you have not educated your prospect enough or provided them with enough perceived value for parting with their money.

If you “really” want to put this into practice and you sincerely are not getting enough opportunities, then pick up the phone and start calling people to offer them your services. Just remember, a hangup isn’t a no because they didn’t have the chance to hear your offer.  Yes, cold calling is tough, but the strong survive and make money through cold calling. I have done it in various forms for decades and it works. Thankfully, most of my business comes from referrals so I have not had the need to do it.  Truth be told, it can be a rush, especially when payday comes.

If you make it a goal to get 5 “NO’s” everyday, chances are your business will grow.

Some of the most successful people in the world would tell you that one of the secrets to their success is having good mentors and coaches. For example, professional athletes have coaches and those coaches help groom them into multi-million dollar empires.

Most of all, if you are trying to accomplish something you have never done before, having a coach who has either successfully accomplished the goal, or successfully coached someone to that goal would be a big help. On a personal level, if you have a goal of losing 100 pounds, chances are you don’t have either the skills, knowledge, or self discipline to make that happen.  Hiring a trainer or fitness coach will help you reach this goal by showing you the simple steps to making it happen.  At my gym, the wall is plastered with people who have been successful losing weight with the fitness coaches. This includes people who have successfully lost over 100 pounds.   In fact, my gym’s motto is “Results ARE typical” (as opposed to most diet plans who are required to disclaim that the results are not typical).

So let’s get back to your business. Have you earned your first $1,000,000 yet? If not, do you have a plan to make it happen? I can tell you it is not as hard as it would seem, but it does require a realistic plan, hard work, focus, determination, proper mindset, and accountability. Once you earn your first million, you will realize that the second and third are much easier. Why? Because not only have you developed a plan, but now you have a new mindset. Before, you didn’t really think you could do it, but once you saw it, your mindset changed and then you KNEW you could do it. If your business coach helped you accomplish your goal and changed your mindset in the process, it would prove to the one of the best investments in your business you ever made.

There are two principles here. The first is you will likely do better with a coach, even if it just someone to hold you accountable to reach your goals. A good coach will actually fire you as a client instead of just taking your money if the relationship is not working out.  If week after week you just don’t make time, or are not doing what you said you would, then you clearly are not ready for success and your coach should let you go (if they have integrity). The second principle is mindset. I will tell you that by changing your mindset alone, you will accomplish more than you’d think. It is the subconscious mind that often holds us back. Changing that will change your destiny.

In closing, I will leave with you with these three resources:

1. A Free Consultation. If you want to chat about what goals you are trying to accomplish, contact me to see how I might be of help to you.

2. Two great books that will help you develop a winning mindset:

• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

• Millionaire Habits in 21 Days by Scot Anderson

If you have not read these books, you need to move them to the top of your list today… if you want to see results.

I wish you the success you deserve!

It’s the first of the year and a time when people often reflect on successes and failures of the past year in hopes of making change.  Many refer to these as “new years resolutions” but many have gotten away from this all too common phrase due to the underwhelming success that people have in fulfilling their promises to themselves. I would like to share not only how to effectively set goals, but how to increase your success rate in keeping them.

1. Your Goals Must be Written Down. A study was done on the effectiveness of writing goals by Harvard Business School in 1979 and the results were that those that wrote their goals down earned about 10 times more than the 97% that did not write their goals down.

Your goals need to be specific & measurable in order for you to monitor your success.  For example, if your goal is “to make more money” that’s not very specific, but if your goal is “to increase your net revenue by 25%” that is something which can be specifically measured.

Your goals should also be realistic.  If you have never earned $100,000 in a year, it might be unrealistic to have a goal of making $1,000,000 in a year. Setting realistic goals help you not get discouraged.

Don’t be afraid to make changes along the way.

2. You Need to Know Your WHY. This is a very powerful part of setting and achieving goals.  If you are trying to set a goal to please someone else, it can be a recipe for disaster.  Your WHY answers the question “why do you want to accomplish the goal?”  Some examples might be:

- to make more by working less
- to buy a nicer home
- to take more vacations
- so your spouse does not have to work
- to retire early
- to send your kids to college
- to buy your parents a retirement home

When things get tough and you want to throw in the towel, it is your WHY that can give you the extra energy to keep on going.

3. Have a Plan. Having goals is great, but if you do not have a solid plan that you can take to accomplish your goals, you will most likely not reach them. If you don’t have a plan, this is where working with a business coach can help.  Someone who has accomplished what you are seeking to accomplish can show you the fastest road to getting there and save you lots of money and hard lessons.  Some people actually like learning the hard way because they feel that it helps them learn better.  Notice I said feel, because that’s all it is; a feeling. It is certainly not the truth.

4. Have Accountability. Years ago I heard the saying “without accountability there is no motivation to change.” I don’t know where it originated, but I use it often.  Having a business accountability partner (i.e. business coach) can certainly help keep you on track by helping you monitor your progress and celebrate with you as you achieve your goals.

Keep in mind that you need to have both long term and short term goals for your business, which includes your exit strategy If you want to start the year out right, give me a call and I will be happy to discuss goal setting and how I might be able to help you accomplish more in 2011 than you ever have before.

I wish you success!