Realize Your Business

Hi everyone -

I have not been on this blog much lately. The good news is: I got a large consulting contract for my company. The bad news is: I am one of the consultants. Do not get me wrong - I love consulting! But doing the work means I do not have time to build the business. It is a common problem for small businesses owners - you can do the work to make money for your business, or you can run the business. So far in my career, I have alternated between the two.

I have found that when I am working as a consultant, I spend 40 hours or so a week on work for my client. Then I spend time in the evenings and weekends doing administrative work for my business. This does not leave much, if any time, to work on the things that will increase my business.

One way to help with this is to hire people to do some of the work. This year I hired a CPA to help with taxes and business planning. This is a great investment for me. I also hired an accounting company to do the bookkeeping. So far, this has not been as useful. I have to spend so much time preparing information for the accountant, that I could have done the work myself. I am trying this service for a year - there is some amount of time you have to allow to get the relationship with the other company working smoothly. After 5 months, I am seeing some decrease in the amount of work I have to do.

My company is very virtual, which is more of a challenge. The tax and accounting laws are all designed for physical businesses. There is a lot of paperwork that is required. And it is physical paperwork. So when I have work out-of-town, the paperwork tends to get behind. One thing I have learned is that I need someone locally just to handle the paperwork.

As I try working with these other companies, I am learning what I really want someone else to do. I am learning what I can effectively outsource, and what I really have to do myself. I have found that lot of what needs to be done is just opening letters and deciding if the letter has to be disposed of, filed, replied to, or given to the accountant. This is the same if the letter is physical, email, or even a telephone message. It may have been better for me to hire a good administrative assistant who could also do simple bookkeeping, rather than hiring an accounting company.

In all cases, I am trying to not hire an employee to do the work. Rather, I am contracting with other companies to provide these services. The reason is the tax laws for employers. I once had one employee of my company. She was great. But the additional paperwork, reporting, taxes, and insurance was so burdensome that after she took another job, I never hired another employee.

Each company is different, and you may have different needs from mine. I hope this article gives you some ideas of the process I am going through to get other people to do my work, so that you try the same kind of things for your company.

Remember, the point of getting other people to do your work, is so that you have the time to grow your company, the time to do the things you need to do to effectively run your business.

================================================

Now it is your turn.

What are the things you do that take up a lot of your time, that someone could do equally well for you?

Have you thought about outsourcing that work? Would you hire a company to provide the services, or would you hire an employee?

================================================

You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…

START BYLINE

* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Realize Your Business website at http://www.realizeyourbusiness.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as the Owner/Manager of a small business.

END BYLINE

Author: Geri Schneider Winters

I’ve talked before in this blog about how you might use a free blog - such as on MySpace, Zaadz, or Facebook - to promote your business. But you have to be careful how you go about doing that, or you will find your account terminated.

I was just reviewing the terms of service for MySpace (all the membership sites have similar terms) and found these uses of a social networking site are explicitly prohibited. You cannot use your account at a social networking site to (I have summarized a bit):

• solicit passwords or personal identifying information for commercial purposes from other Users
• perform commercial activities and/or sales such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising, or pyramid schemes
• advertise to, or solicit, any Member to buy or sell any products or services. (note you can be charged $50 per email for sending this kind of message to other members)
• interfere with, disrupt, or create an undue burden on the Services or the networks or services connected to the Services
• display an unauthorized commercial advertisement on your profile, or accept payment or anything of value from a third person in exchange for your performing any commercial activity through the unauthorized or impermissible use of the Services on behalf of that person, such as placing commercial content on your profile, posting blogs or bulletins with a commercial purpose, selecting a profile with a commercial purpose as one of your “Top 8″ friends, or sending private messages with a commercial purpose

What does that mean for you?

1. You cannot set up a form on your account asking for name and email for any reason.You cannot offer any kind of product, whether or gift or free, through your account.
2. Don’t get too popular, or you might create an undue burden on the systems!! Nice problem to have. If you are that popular, get your own domain somewhere - you can afford it!
3. You cannot post anything that looks like advertising.
4. You cannot send email to your “friends” or other members that looks like advertising.
5. You cannot post advertising for another company (such as promoting a company of which you are an affiliate)

So what can you do?

I think you are still fine with posting informational articles. The articles should have good content and should not appear to be advertising in disguise. Then I like to put a footer at the end of my article, such as this one I use at the end of all my articles:

You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your
publication or website, as long as the article is intact and
you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links)
after each article you use…

START BYLINE

* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Realize Your
Business website at http://www.realizeyourbusiness.com This website
of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as the
Owner/Manager of a small business.

END BYLINE

Notice that I am not directly selling a product or service. Am I a commercial concern? Yes. Do I sell things? Yes. But I am careful to not “sell” using the membership site. Rather, I share information that may be of interest to other people and if they want a further relationship with me or my company, then they go to my website to do that.

I think the concern of the membership sites is that their servers get overwhelmed with traffic, and that traffic is spending money somewhere else (not on the membership site).

So be considerate of the needs of the membership site - they need to make money to keep their servers running. You can help do this by providing great content that brings visitors to the membership site (who may click on the ads and spend money). But then take care of yourself, by making it possible for those same visitors to find your commercial website where you can turn them into customers. Think of using the membership site as a way for people to find you and get to know you. Use the membership site to develop relationships, then these people will more readily become customers at your own commercial site.

This is a win-win-win situation - the membership site gets visitors and makes money, you get customers and make money, and the customers get your great product which helps them solve some need or problem.

================================================

Now it is your turn.

Do you have a membership at one or more social networking sites? Are you familiar with the terms of agreement for those sites?

How are you effectively using your account to develop relationships with potential customers, without violating the terms of agreements of the sites?

================================================

You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…

START BYLINE

* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Realize Your Business website at http://www.realizeyourbusiness.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as the Owner/Manager of a small business.

END BYLINE

Author: Geri Schneider Winters

An important thing in your business is to understand your customers. Previously in this blog I discussed using a game to get information about your customers and their needs. Another technique that can be helpful is to write a Persona about your typical customer.

You write a Persona when you want to understand your customers better. This Persona is a story you will tell about a typical (but not real) customer. The Persona is a composite story about your typical customers, made very lifelike.

One of the markets I work in is people who are Business Analysts. I started off by imaging a relatively young person in this market who has some work experience, who is really comfortable with the computer and internet, and who readily goes online to find information at any time a question arises. Now I imagine some real people and write their stories.

© Christophe Baudot . Image from BigStockPhoto.com

Karen Carmichael is 27 years old. She graduated from a U.S. college with a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Information Systems. She has worked as a Business Analyst for a large bank in Chicago, Illinois for the 5 years since graduation on a wide variety of software projects. Karen is single and loves sports. She is a member of her company’s softball team in the summer, and an avid football and basketball fan in the fall and winter.

Karen feels that she received a fine education in college, but working on real projects for a major corporation is quite different from her school projects. She has many peers at her bank that she can talk with, but often situations arise that are not easy to resolve.

Karen is quite comfortable with a computer and searching for information on the internet. She really likes to be able to open up a search engine and find the answer to any question right away. The problem with search engines is that she often gets a lot of unrelated information in response to her queries. Karen has a number of sites bookmarked on her computer for her favorite sports teams. She wants to create a similar set of bookmarks for sites that have information for Business Analysts. When she has a question, she can just open a web browser and select a couple of those sites to find the information she needs.

© Mateusz Zagorski. Image from BigStockPhoto.com

Raj Reddy is 32 years old. He graduated from a prestigious Engineering College in India with a B.S. in Computer Science, and worked as a programmer in India for 3 years. He then came to the US and completed an MBA with the goal of managing software projects. He has been working as a Project Manager for a major health insurance organization in San Francisco, California for the last 5 years, taking on roles of increasing responsibility. Raj is married and his wife is in India. He wants to return to India to join his wife and family, and to bring what he has learned about software development to some of the smaller companies in his home state.

Raj plans to be a consultant and carry a computer with a wireless card everywhere he works. He wants to be able to quickly find information on the internet to help him in his job. This will include information about Business Analysis, because he often finds that the roles of Project Manager and Business Analyst overlap, so he needs to know how to do both jobs.

When he is not as busy with work, Raj likes to continually learn new things. It is hard for him to sign up for classes, because he may not be available for every class meeting. So having the classes online in a self-study format is a great solution. He wants to be able to study the material whenever he has time, and does not want to have a deadline for when he has to complete the class. Raj is a friendly guy, and fears he will miss the daily interactions with people at work. He is looking for an online community that he can access any time he is online to chat with other Business Analysts.

===============================================

Now it is your turn.

What information do you have about your customers? Try writing one or more personas about your customers so that the people and their needs are more real to you.

================================================

You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…
START BYLINE

* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Realize Your Business website at http://www.realizeyourbusiness.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as the Owner/Manager of a small business.

END BYLINE

Author: Geri Schneider Winters

Sometimes when running a business you may come up with a need for a relatively small amount of money for a relatively short time period. You may not qualify for a regular bank loan, so what do you do?

Traditionally, many of us small business owners have turned to family and friends for these kinds of loans.

This can lead to problems. For example, there may be bad feelings if the terms of the loan and repayment are not clearly spelled out. Or you may not have family or friends who can afford to (or want to) loan you money.

There are some good solutions available, that are growing in popularity. This article reviews the solutions available from three very different companies: Virgin Money, Prosper, and Zopa.

I have not used any of these services yet myself, but they all look interesting to me for different reasons. And I see that they have all been favorably written up in the media, and have been in existence for quite a number of years. If any of these interest you, definitely do your research on the companies and what they offer before making a commitment.

First is Virgin Money (formerly CircleLending) owned by Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic airlines, etc.). The purpose of this company is to document and manage loans for you. The basic service they offer is to do all the paperwork to formalize a loan between two parties who have agreed to the transaction. So for example, let us imagine that your father agrees to loan you $10,000 for your business. Then you and he would contact Virgin Money to write up all the loan documents, showing the loan amount, interest rate, and payment schedule. For an additional fee, they will also manage the loan, by transferring the payments from you to your father, and sending year end reports showing how much interest and principle you paid.

This is a good service if you already know someone who is willing to loan you money (or someone you want to loan money to) and you just need help formalizing the agreement. You might want to make the agreement more formal to avoid any misunderstandings about payment terms, or because you want the formal document to put with your business papers in case of an audit.

The home page for Virgin Money is http://www.virginmoneyus.com/
Virgin Money is available in several countries around the world, including the US and UK.

Another company that helps people borrow money from other people is Zopa. This works very differently than Virgin Money. Zopa is a membership community. Through this community, you become a member of a credit union. If you want to borrow money, you get a loan from the credit union. You can also post your loan on the Zopa site. Then other Zopa members can help you get a lower interest rate for your loan (which may mean you will qualify for more money). Back to how this works in a minute.

If you are a person who has money to lend, you also join Zopa as a member and become a member of an associated credit union. You invest the money you want to loan into a Certificate of Deposit (CD). You look through the posted loans on the Zopa site and indicate which loan you want your money to fund. Then you say what interest rate you want on your CD. If you choose a below market interest rate, then the person whose loan you are funding gets a lower interest rate on their loan.

In this Zopa model, the person investing in the CD will make the rate of return they choose, around 5% or less at the time this article is written. In return, the CD is insured up to $100,000 by the federal government of the US, and the rate of return is guaranteed.

You can get more information at the Zopa home site https://us.zopa.com/index.aspx
Zopa is only available to US residents. To apply for a loan, you have to be 18 or older with a FICO credit score of at least 640.

The last company I looked at is Prosper. Again, it’s model is very different than the other two. This is a real person-to-person model. Borrowers and Lenders both sign up to be members of Prosper. A member who wants a loan makes a post on the Prosper site saying how much they want to borrow, the maximum interest rate they will pay, and what the money will be used for. Prosper runs a credit check and based on the results, assigns a credit rating to the borrower - AA, A, B, C, D, or HR (High Risk). AA is the best rating, which means the person is almost certain to pay back the loan, based on their credit history.

Let’s say you want to loan money to one or more of the people listed. You select the loans you are willing to fund based on how much risk you want to take, or how much their story touches your heart. For each loan, you say how much money you will loan (it does not have to be the full amount), and the minimum interest rate you want to receive. Many people can “bid” on the same loan. Prosper picks the bids with the lowest interest rates that make up enough money for the loan.

Prosper handles all the payment processing, collection of bad debt, and the website, by charging a small percentage of the amount of the loan as a fee. If you are a lender, you will typically earn a better return on your investment by loaning money through Prosper than through Zopa, but you also take a higher risk of potentially losing the money. If you are a borrower with a low credit score, you may find people willing to invest in you here, if you cannot find a loan other places.

You can get more information about Prosper at their home site http://www.prosper.com/
Prosper is available to US residents only.

================================================

Now it is your turn.

If any of these companies interest you as either a borrower or a lender, I encourage you to go to the sites and investigate further.

It is also wise to check with the Better Business Bureau to find out more about the companies.

If you are not in the US, then see what opportunities exist in your country. You may be able to find something similar, depending on the banking laws in that country.

================================================

You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…

START BYLINE

* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Realize Your Business website at http://www.realizeyourbusiness.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as the Owner/Manager of a small business.

END BYLINE

Author: Geri Schneider Winters

Everyone says you need to document your business processes some how. There are many ways you can do this, including use cases, process maps, and mind maps. The big difficulty many people have is not the tools, but getting started. How do you know what to document? How do you get the information? I work with a lot of people to document their business processes, and here are some things I do:

Determine what your business activities are

Get in the habit of writing notes about what you do all day long. This does not have to be time consuming. I do it once an hour, or whenever I finish a task and start a new one. Just make a note in a calendar or time management program or on a piece of paper. I like to put it in my PDA calendar, because that is very convenient for me. Write something like - “3 -4 pm Wrote Newsletter Article and posted it to autoresponder.” This does not tell you in detail what you are doing, but it will provide you a list of the activities you do all day long in your business. Try this for a week, then at the end of the week, make a list of the things you have done for your business. Each thing on that list can be documented as a business process.

You will probably need to do this for longer than a week, because there are cycles in a business - some things you do daily, some weekly, some monthly, and some yearly. If you ever think you will want to do consulting or mentoring, then get in the habit now of writing a note about everything you did and how long it took. You will need that when billing customers for your time.

Write how you do each activity

Once you have a list of the things you do, then you can write notes about how you do those things. Look at one thing on the list and write some notes about how you do it. I like to do this while I am doing the activity (if that is possible) because then I will write all the steps of what I do.

If you are not sure how you do the activity, or you are having trouble writing the information, then enlist the help of a friend, family member, or business partner to find this information. The easiest approach is for you to demonstrate what you do while the other person takes notes on how you do it. Alternatively, another person can interview you, and you can describe what you do to them while they take notes.

When I work with people to determine what they do, my preference is to sit with the person and have him or her show me what he or she does. My second choice is an interview. My third choice is to make a guess about how the process works, send that guess to the person, and ask them to make corrections.

You will get the most accurate information if you (or someone else) write notes while the activity is being done.

Make a manual

Now that you have the activity written, you can review your notes to see if that is the best way to do the job. You might want to make changes because there is a better way. Once you are happy with the process, then you can make a page for a manual. This might be just text, or you can take the written notes and put them into another form you like, such as use cases, process maps, flow charts, or mind maps. You might add screen shots to help explain the process.

This manual is something you can use for yourself for tasks that are not common. I frequently forget exactly how to do some things because I only do them once or twice a year. My notes from the previous year save me a lot of time. You can also use the manual to train someone to do those activities the way you want them done.

================================================

Now it is your turn.

If you are not recording how you spend your time, find a way to make this easy for you to do, and start doing it immediately.

Once you have at least a week’s worth of business activities, make a list of all the things you do for the business.

Once you have a list of the business activities you do, start making notes about how you do them.

Over time, you will create a manual of operations that you can use for yourself or any employees you hire.

================================================

You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…

START BYLINE

* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Realize Your Business website at http://www.realizeyourbusiness.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as the Owner/Manager of a small business.

END BYLINE

Here in the US we are celebrating Thanksgiving day November 22. It is a time when we get together with family and share the things we are thankful for in our lives.

Of course I am thankful for my family and my good friends. Their support and encouragement led me to where I am today.

I am also thankful for the many people who read my blog. The information is for you, so I really appreciate knowing that it is useful to you, enough for you to take some time out of your day to read it. You give me the gift of your attention, and for that, I am most thankful.

Geri

This is an artcile I posted on one of my other blogs. I thought you would enjoy it too.

==============================================================

Author: Geri Schneider Winters

I was recently helping a friend staff a fairly large project with a team of very experienced, very skilled people. I mentioned that people were really excited about the opportunity. He asked me “Why are they excited? What is it about this project that makes people want to work on it?”

That led us to a discussion about teams of highly skilled people and what motivates them to want to work on a project.

I believe several factors come into account. Very skilled people like to work on projects with:

• Other very skilled people
• Confidence in the success of the project
• An atmosphere of mutual respect
• A long enough duration to build relationships

Very skilled people like to work with other very skilled people. You might think, “It must be aweful having all those big egos together.” In fact, I have found the opposite. I have found that when someone is truly very good at what they do, they are very easy to work with. It is the people who are not really all that skilled, who are afraid someone will find out they are not all that skilled, who exhibit the “ego problems” on a project.

This does not mean everyone on the team has to be very skilled, but it does mean that several people should be at the same high skill level. Very skilled people love sharing ideas with other very skilled people. They are typically patient with someone who is really trying to learn. Very skilled people have very little patience with people who claim to be experts, but who are really not that good, and who refuse to listen to anyone else.

Another thing that attracts very skilled people is confidence in the management team. Everyone likes to be on a successful project. Very skilled people are no different. If they believe that the management team has the skills to be successful, and that the project has support from upper management, then they will be very interested in the project.

Long project duration can be appealing, especially for contractors. It is very interesting to work on the whole project rather than just a few weeks at the beginning. You get to find out “how the story ends”. Also, a long project gives an opportunity to build relationships, especially with the other very skilled people on the team.

An atmosphere of mutual respect is critical. When the project team all respect each other and the stakeholders, magic can happen. A cohesive team will outperform other teams every time. An atmophere of mutual respect is vital to creating a cohesive team.

Will there be disagreements? Of course! And those disagreements will sometimes be loud, simply because you have a number of people with very strong opinions. But if everyone has respect for each other, those disagreements will be worked out without animosity and to everyone’s satisfaction.

Where have I seen these kinds of teams in practice?In musical theater with actors, on software projects with developers and with business analysts, in startup companies of various kinds, and on various kinds of team projects at universities. The basic appeal is common in all these situations. Very skilled people like to work on projects with:

• Other very skilled people
• Confidence in the success of the project
• An atmosphere of mutual respect
• A long enough duration to build relationships

===============================================

Now it is your turn.

Have you worked on a team with very skilled people? Have you had to put together a team of very skilled people? What do you think motivates them to join your team?

================================================

You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…

START BYLINE

* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Resources for Business Analysts site at http://www.writingusecases.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as a Business Analyst in IT.

END BYLINE

Before I left on my recent vacation, I sent a note to my readers about a book I’m reading by Paul Lemberg called “Be Unreasonable”. I have been reading it - slowly because I really was on vacation and was very lazy!

Well, reading it slowly is a good idea. This book is packed full of a lot of thought-provoking ideas. Things like:

• question conventional wisdom
• think of your exit strategy
• think bigger
• take complete responsibility
• don’t think so much - take action
• demand accountability

There is A LOT more in this little book, along with some really nice examples of unreasonableness and how people used it to grow successful businesses.

You can get your own copy, and some really nice gifts, here:
Be Unreasonable

I’m off to read some more and put his ideas into action!

Geri

Author: Geri Schneider Winters

Have you given much thought recently as to *why*you are trying to build a business for yourself?

You may be trying to start a business while working for someone else, or maybe you quit your job to pursue your dreams. You are probably putting in a lot of time, effort, and money to build a business for yourself.

What is it all for?

If you do not keep you attention on your ultimate goal, then it is hard to stay motivated when sales are not as good as you expected, or you are tired from working so hard, or your family complains you do not spend enough time with them.

I like to say “The race is won by the stubborn.” I have seen this true so many times, the person who just sticks with it when times are tough is the person who ultimately succeeds. That kind of motivation comes from having a dream, a goal that you will not give up no matter what.

When I was a young child, my father was discovered to have a deformed heart. The doctors said he would live no more than 10 more years. My father with his bad heart worked 2 jobs and my mother worked one job so that they could provide for us and put some money aside so my mother could continue to provide for us alone. It was that important to my father - to provide for his children - that he worked 2 jobs in poor health.

A friend of mine is a dancer on Broadway and in the movies. When he was born, his legs were very deformed. The doctors said he might never walk. But he wanted with all his heart to be a dancer. His grandmother believed in his dream, and they worked together to teach him to walk and to dance. He lives in constant pain, but when he dances, he forgets the pain, because he is doing what he loves.

What is your dream? What do you want so fiercely that you will do whatever you need to do to achieve that dream?

What will you NOT do to achieve that dream?

My dancer friend is a kind and gentle soul, who helps each person in his life do his or her best. He is not someone to stab others in the back, his success did not come from hurting anyone else. He achieved his dream while maintaining the values that are important to him.

What will you do to achieve your dream? What will you NOT do?

Do you have this written? Do you review it often? At least once a week?

Knowing what you want to ultimately achieve, and what you will and will not do to achieve it, is useful information when planning the systems of your business. Putting together systems for your business is something you will have to do if you wish to have a successful business.

But first, know what your goal is, and know what you will and will not do to achieve it. Write those things on paper and review them.

Then you have a basis for making plans to achieve your goals and setting systems in place to implement those plans.
================================================

Now it is your turn.

If you have your goals written, take some time today to look at them.

If you have not written your dream, the reason you are working on your own business, then take some time today to write your dream on a piece of paper.

If you have never thought about what you will not do to achieve your dreams, now is a good time to think about that, and to put some thoughts on paper. Ask your friends and family what they think you would not do to be a successful business person.

================================================

You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…

START BYLINE

* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Realize Your Business website at http://www.realizeyourbusiness.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as the Owner/Manager of a small business.

END BYLINE

There is a thing called the 30 day challenge starting Aug 1. It is really for teaching people how to build an internet business, but they are extensively using Web 2.0 technologies and teaching everyone exactly what these things are, how to find them, and how to use them.

So even if you are not running an internet business, but you just want to learn a lot more about what all this Web 2.0 stuff is, go here to sign up for the 30 day challenge:

http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com

There is no charge for it, you can get as involved as you want to be, or not. I have just been going through the “preseason” videos and there is a lot of good information in there already. And they promise much more over the next 30 days. If they keep to the same quality of information, this will be a fantastic resource for learning Web 2.0 technology.

Best!

Geri