Month: October 2007

Categories
How-To Guides

Business Success Tip #1 – How To Declutter Your Computer

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Each month, on the first Friday of the month I meet with my mastermind group. It’s a small group and we’ve been together for about 5 years. We begin each month writing down our list of promises – what we intend to take action on in the next 30 days.

Well, I just couldn’t get my arms around what I wanted to focus on this month. It’s not that I can’t think of things to do, I’ve got plenty.

Nothing felt particularly inspiring – no passion, no real juice!

Then I realized that my focus has been divided by things I’ve been meaning to follow up on. My email inbox is filled with more red flag on emails that need follow up and each time I read my emails I am reminded that I still haven’t gotten to them. The flags keep multiplying and they have really piled up.

Not only that, I have tons of reports, ebooks, music audios I’ve received from free promos as well as things I’ve bought that I haven’t even looked at or listened to. I have no idea of their real value because I haven’t made the time to go through them. And I am constantly receiving invitations for more stuff!

Now, I’m pretty good at decluttering and I can see I’ve let things pile up that are affecting my ability to focus on what I really want to do for marketing and growing my business. So, I am dedicating the month of July to clean up my computer files NO EXCUSES.

If you’re feeling a lack of focus, ask yourself if you need to do some computer decluttering.

This includes:

1. Emails that require a response. I recommend staying on top of your emails by responding within 48 hours max.

2. Creating email folders with common themes and sorting through your files to organize them into new folders (great for both your email and computer files). Remember to declutter the folders regularly too. Moving them out of your inbox can invite clutter accumulating in your folders.

3. Weeding through your emails and deleting the ones you no longer need.

4. Backing up important folders and files regularly. I do this each time I add something new. Organize them into themes (Marketing, business development, client resources) so you can find them!

5. Reviewing your cache of reports, pdfs, and audios you have been meaning to read and listen to. Schedule time each day or each week in your calendar to sift through the materials.

6. Dumping whatever materials you know you won’t use for yourself or clients.

7. Staying alert to adding more stuff that you really don’t want or need. I know the tendency is to grab material especially when it’s free. Ask yourself, “Is this really info I need and will make use of?” If not, let it go. I guarantee you that opportunities will keep comin around for you to find material you need if you start having buyer’s (or keeper’s) regret.

I recommend decluttering your computer at least once per month to stay productive and focused.

Well, gotta go. Have some decluttering to do. Leave me a comment. Tell me what you think of this post!

Categories
Work Life

Prepare For Your Career

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I’ve analysed what is happening and begun to point the way for those who want to pre-empt the changes rather than wait until they are overtaken by them. Now is the time to decide which category you come into.
Those willing to plan will be rewarded; those not willing to do so will have to take potluck. There are six essentials for your new work life:
Be a specialist in one area but make sure you are more widely qualified and trained than just for your specialisation.
Understand yourself as thoroughly as you can.
Doing this is not a ‘one-off’ operation. We all change as we learn more and grow. Now is the moment to find out what you really want to do. Those who are ambitious to make money have a chance to get themselves equipped to take advantage of the new workplace. Those who want to help socially can prepare themselves for the new needy. They will be quite different from those we think of as ‘poor’ today and their requirements will be much more challenging. Those who seek to advance science or enjoy an academic life will have to be closer to the application of their studies and teaching.
Write a career plan.
It doesn’t have to be a major document, bound in silk. One page should be enough to tell you where you are heading and how you are going to get there. But it has to be a well-thought-out page. You should take stock of your career at least once a year, however well you are doing. You wouldn’t leave your money unattended for any longer. Why leave your career to find it’s own way.
Based on your career plan, equip yourself with the qualifications you need. You don’t have to leave work to do this. There are many courses you can take outside work hours. Select the ones that will benefit you in the portfolio of jobs you will most likely be doing to which I referred previously.
Train and re-train so that you keep your skills up to date.
Just as a building needs retrofitting quite frequently, so your skills need honing and polishing, especially when they are concerned with the new technologies. Sales personnel who don’t know their products are going to the wall. Surgeons who don’t keep up with the new developments are going to the courts.
If you are not already equipped to handle the main new technologies, remedy this failing without delay. You are going to need all the resources you can muster. I already notice people who can’t or won’t understand the new communication technologies falling well behind their rivals – and that applies at the top of the organisation as well as at the bottom.
Prepare the family to be part of the work team.
Yes, even the young children should understand that the breadwinners are working for them and they must help in their own ways. You couldn’t prepare them better for their working lives.
Establish and cultivate your network.
Networking is already important – we all know that. In The New Work World it is going to be even more so. This aspect of your preparation for dealing with The New Work Revolution is so important that I am going to devote the next article exclusively to it.
JohnBittlestonPhoto.jpgJohn Bittleston blogs at TerrificMentors.com, a site that provides mentoring for those who wish a change in career or job, wanting to start a business or looking to improve their handling of people (including themselves).

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Tell Them About Quality

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Small Business Buzz: The number one rule for advertising quality in your product or service is to not use the word “quality.” Because this word is overused by the general business public, consumers ignore it. In fact, using the word “quality” can often invoke suspicion, much like when a business uses the phrase “you can trust me.”
Here are some tips for effectively conveying quality to potential customers:
Alternative Descriptions
The word “quality” in general is a limiting term, despite the negative connotations that it’s overuse has produced. It’s hard to do (I just caught myself using the term in my own advertising for my photography services), but instead you should go with alternatives like these:

premium, unparalleled, superior, impeccable, exceptional, unmatched, excellence, distinguished

Also, keep in mind that, the more expensive your product/service, the more sophisticated your “quality” word should be.
Speaking of Price. . .
Accept the fact that, if your product or service is truly of the best quality, then it won’t be the cheapest on the market. It takes money to provide a worthwhile product, which means that you will have to charge your customers a bit more. But, if you do things right, your customers will understand that they are getting what they pay for. So be careful. Saying that your product is “inexpensive” or cheap implies poor quality to the consumer. You cannot use the two concepts together. Instead, try words like “affordable” or “reasonable.”
Advertising Quality in Your Product [Small Business Buzz]

Categories
Business Ideas

101 New Business Ideas for Retirees: Festival Businesses

101-retirees-business-ideas.jpgDuring the summer months, every large city in America is filled with hundreds of festivals. If you are an entrepreneur looking to get into a retail business, these festivals can be an inexpensive way to test out your products to see if it will really attract a large enough customer base to warrant a year around business. But remember when you are writing your business plan; you have avoided a lot of the costs of a permanent location by having a festival business.
You pay a small fee to the festival and have not encountered rent and utilities, which are some of the high expenses for a fixed location. You have also not had to do much in the way of advertising. The festival had done advertising and has a client base that will show up. You only need to have an attractive booth to entice the customers over to your location. Make sure your signage looks professional and is viewable from major traffic centers for the festival.
But many people get into festival sales as their business instead of a trial for their business. With a number of calls you will find a listing of the festivals in a newspaper calendar or an on-line calendar of the festivals for the year. You will see that you can find festivals going 30 weeks in some of the northern climates up to every week of the year in some of the moderate climates. You can work as much or as little as you want or whatever season you want to work by starting a festival business.
There is a lot of work in these businesses that everyone should consider. With a store, you just open the door each morning. But with a festival business, you will have to unload and set up your merchandise every morning and put it away every night. Make sure all of your display methods are bought with this in mind. Items on wheel that you can move along a rough terrain are great. Make sure you have an adequate vehicle to carry all of you set up and merchandise and that you have an easy way of loading and unloading it.
Unsure if you want to get into this business? Go to a festival in your area. During some of the slack time, ask some of the booth owners a lot of questions about their business. Also you may fine one that is willing to hire your for a nominal fee or as a volunteer to help them with the next weekend’s festival. Work a few festivals unloading and setting up each morning with the owner to make sure your really want to do that many weekends during the year.

* * *

This new weekly column, 101 New Business Ideas for Retirees, is compiled specially for GetEntrepreneurial.com readers by Stan Spector. View all articles in this column by Stan Spector.
StanSpectorPhoto.jpgStan Spector is the author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income – Over 100 Part-time or Seasonal Businesses for the New Retiree”. The book’s website can be found at StanSpector.com.

Categories
Starting Up

Things to Consider before Starting a Business

consider-starting-business.jpgQuite often, when I talk to potential founders, I hear them say: “I have an idea. I guess, now I need a business plan.” Yes, right.

But before jumping straight into such an exercise (which most people by far underestimate in terms of time and effort required), there are a couple of completely non-business questions to be answered. Whenever you have trouble answer them, make sure to get them resolved before continuing, as they have a huge impact on any business plan:

Why do I want to do this at all?

A lot of aspiring founders are stumbling on that one already. To make a living? To get rich? To improve the world? To become famous? Just out of curiosity to see whether it would work? To earn some money on the side?

This question alone has some implications for your business plan: the aggressiveness of the plan, or the underlying business model (it’s not that difficult to make a living out of a one-person consulting business, but probably it will not make you extremely rich).

What price I am willing to pay?

Everything in life comes attached with a price tag, although not necessarily a monetary one. The price one has to pay while founding a business can be high. Reduced spare time, long working hours even on weekends, reduced time available for friends and family, financial uncertainty. The higher the price you are willing to pay, the better your chances are for succeeding.

What do my family and friends think about it?

This question has two aspects:

– What do they think about the business idea?

This gives you a first feedback from the market, at least on a high level (at least if you plan to have some kind of consumer business in mind). If all your friends and family tell you “Founding a travel agency selling trips to Mars is stupid” – you should at least evaluate their feedback. If they just don’t understand your business because it is some highly advanced biotech concept, you should seek feedback from people more familiar with the particular area you plan to start your business.

– What do they think about the fact that I want to start a business?

This is an important fact as you will need at least their understanding or – even better- their support in the upcoming months or years. It can be quite annoying when you hear every time you meet friends things like “Did I tell you already the story of the guy who went bankrupt when trying to start a business?”

Honest feedback is important, but it is much better to receive it with a “You can do it” rather with a “You are doomed” attitude.

How much risk can I bear?

This highly depends on your current circumstances and your financial resources. If you are single, just out of university and little monthly running cost, you probably can take a higher risk than somebody who has to earn money to support a family of five. But if the later has already made a fortune, the situation might be just the other way around…

Can I do it alone or not?

In general, I highly recommend to not start a business alone (unless you plan just a one-person consulting business). But whenever your idea gets more complex and goes beyond freelancing, sharing the burden with enhances the chances for a successfully start. If – you partner with the right person.

Do I partner with the right people?

I always say that starting a business with one (or more) partners is like marriage without a separation of property: You stick together for a major part of your time, a “divorce” is not easy and is usually painful. So, make sure you team with the right people.
Some criterias are:

– Although tempting at the beginning, partnering with friends is not always the best idea. Friendship can make you blind for some important aspects to consider.

– Diversity of skills: Does your team has all the necessary skills you require? Business, marketing, technical skill, whatever is required. Chances are that your friends have similar skills if you know them from studying or former work.

– Same level of risk tolerance and same motivation: Make sure the people you partner with share both your willingness and ability to share risk( e.g. live of from savings for some time) and the same motivation. If one of you wants to build the next Google, while the other juts wants to do something next to his regular job, a major clash is just a question of time.

What are my No-Go criteria?

My last (and probably most important) advice is to clearly define No-Go criteria even before you start, and make sure that everybody on the team subscribes to them. This could be a deadline for a agreed business plan, for getting funding, for a technical proof of concept. Not every idea is as bright as it seems at the beginning. More often than not, founders find out during business planning that their concept does not support a company, has too little room for growth or faces high technical risks. Have the courage to pull the plug early on. When you willing to do that, based on clear criteria, you can be sure you continue building your business on a good foundation.

KlausWiedemannPhoto.jpgKlaus Wiedemann is Founder and Managing Director of Daisho Blacksmith GmbH, a product and consulting company dedicated to support todays professional with software and methodology to sharpen their competitive edge. He blogs regularly at Not For Slaves, focusing on the working environment of the 21st century and its implications and opportunities for the individual.