Business Owners Toolbox Blog Discussions and articles to help the small business owner solve the challenges they face as they grow their business.

August 4, 2009

Do I Have to Work All the Time?

“For the Self-Employed, It’s an Endless Workweek. Recession Takes Away Vacations, Weekends as the Consequences of Missing a Business Opportunity Mount”
Sarah Needleman, WSJ Small Business. 8.4.9

In this article, solopreneurs tell us why they can never take any time off. Here’s my response.

I think the folks described in this article have fallen into a bad “24/7” habit. It’s unnecessary, and damaging to their business prospects.

Back in boom times, people said, “There’s so much work, I’ve got to be available 24/7 to handle it all!” Now they’re saying, “There’s not much work, so I’ve got to be available 24/7 so I don’t lose out.” I see many people like this who wear it as a badge of honor that they are on call all the time.

A solopreneur who gets stuck in this vicious circle virtually guarantees he or she will remain a tiny operation. Why? If you work all the time, when do you do the strategic thinking and planning? Develop strategic alliances and new ways of doing business? Train or groom skilled associates who can take part of your load? When do you recharge your batteries, and leave time for creative insights?

That’s the job description of a successful entrepreneur who is intent on growing the business, putting more money in their pocket, and not having to work so dang hard. The 24/7 worker bee never gets to this place.

I use this parable with my small business owner clients:

The Zen master says,
“Every day I meditate an hour,
no matter how busy I am.
Except on those days when the crush of work is overwhelming.
Then I meditate two hours.”

The “hour” is figurative: you set aside the time you need—even during the toughest of times.

Some simple rules:

— Don’t stay a solopreneur. Have a collaborator so you can energize and back up each other. Can be a colleague, a “partner,” or an employee.

— Tell your clients when you are available and when you are not. Mostly, they just want to know ahead of time. I do not believe your clients disrespect you for taking time off.

— Think you always have to be available to Client A even if you have something personal scheduled? Try this simple test: Suppose you have a meeting Tuesday with Client B. Then Client A calls and says, “I want to get together with you Tuesday.” Do you break your Client B meeting? No, of course not. You tell A, “I’m booked for Tuesday; what about Wednesday?” Treat your own appointments with equal weight.

— Feel you absolutely must stay in touch during vacation? Then do so, but limit it. My wife and I  (both consultants) take weeks in Hawaii. We tell our clients when we’ll be gone, and say we’re available only for brief urgent contact. Our insight: we’d rather spend an hour during the morning fielding emails via laptop while sitting by the beach than not go at all. And there’s a subtle joy from billing for $175 while sitting under a palm tree in your swimsuit!

*      *      *

If you’ve read this far, and you’re shaking your head and thinking, “No, no, this doesn’t pertain to me. I really do have to work all the time,” then respond and tell me why. If I can’t give you a way out of your vicious circle, I’ll send you a free copy of my “Recapture Your Time” book. But of course you wouldn’t have time to read it . . .

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June 29, 2009

Most bang for your marketing buck — right now!

“As a small business in the current economy, how have you modified the advertising portion of your marketing budget this year? How has it been working for your company so far this year?” (Question on LinkedIn)

Melissa,

Hopefully, nobody says, “Business is down, money is tight, so let’s cut advertising.” But you SHOULD ask, “Where do we get the most bang for our scarce marketing buck?” Then examine advertising along with your other options.

Ads or promo? Direct mail or email? Internet outreach?  Networking or public speaking? Asking for referrals? Cross-selling current customers?

And not just about advertising in general, but for each type of ad placement.

To figure this out, I would create a grid: Down the left column, write every every type of advertising, and every other marketing activity that attracts business for you. Then across the top, head columns by the most important criteria for you, such as:
– How much you’ve spent on this, in both dollars and time (Put a dollar value on an hour of your time.)
– Size of customers or sales this brings you
– Number of customers per time period
– Desirability of the customers
– Lead time till you get the customers
– Its potential to bring you more in the long run
– (add your own)

Then rate each marketing activity by each criterion. Add up the totals and see what gets high and low scores. This is an eye-opening exercise.

This approach is over-simplified. It ignores interactions among types of marketing, and ignores strategic marketing with a long lead time. But it gives enlightening answers to the question, “What marketing gives me the shortest route to cash flow now?”

May 28, 2009

Why Businesses are Going Under

Filed under: Thrive in tough times — Mike Van Horn @ 12:56 pm

People say, “A rising tide lifts all ships.” Except, of course, for the ones that have sunk! As the recovery kicks in the companies that have gone under will not be coming back.

Many recent business failures I’ve seen are due to other issues that are exacerbated by a downturn in sales, even though the sales decline was not enough to knock them out.

• They expanded too much in recent years, then with business downturn they could not sustain their high overhead, even though sales still seemed pretty good.

• The owner/founder is nearing retirement and decides it’s just not worth the hassle to continue, and closes the doors.

• Poor management and administrative practices that worked okay during good times became much more apparent during bad times.

• Partners have a falling out, partly over needed tough money decisions.

• During boom times, companies took any project that came along, and never developed a strategic focus. In down times, lacking this clear image in customers’ minds makes their marketing task much more difficult.

I Survived the Crash of ’09!

Filed under: Thrive in tough times — Mike Van Horn @ 12:48 pm

Here’s how some of the small business owners I work with have managed to pull through the last few months:

Savings. “Over the years, every time we got a big job, I put some money away. That savings saw me through. During the first quarter, sales were terrible–and we can only cut back staff and overhead so much. Without that savings to dip into, I might not have made it.” Custom interiors

Hire sales rep. “Our new sales person has been with us a couple of months now, and she’s beginning to bring in the business. Before, selling all fell on me. She’s best at bringing new people in, then I can concentrate on doing the proposals and closing the deals.” Business insurance

Pay cuts. “At the beginning of the year, we cut everybody’s pay 20%, including mine. Everybody was okay with it. Then, a couple of months later, we cut it another 20%. We were down to 60% pay—working 3 days per week. But my best people stayed with me. And now, orders are trickling in again. With every big deposit check, I’m increasing hours.” Contract design firm

Develop new products. “Business has been very slow this spring. But ’08 was strong, so we had a cushion. My partner and I decided to take a couple of ‘retreats’ from the business and develop new materials. We never had time to get this done before.” Consulting firm

Focus on healthy part. “Our wholesale business has been way down. So we put the focus on our retail shop. We created promotions such as special products and live music on Saturdays. Retail is more profitable than wholesale (even though it has less growth potential). So, it has carried us throughout this down time. We’re actually more profitable now than we were a year ago. The rule for us is ‘go with what works.’” Specialty foods manufacturer

Diversify. “Smartest move we made was to hire a guy in 2007 to focus on commercial moves so we weren’t totally dependent on residential. Beyond that, we had steady military business, plus storage. So, diversification has saved us.” Moving and storage

Cut to the bone. “I kept cutting back on our crews until we were down to just one—but it was composed of all our best people. Even so, I was only about one payroll cycle from being broke. Now, some of those jobs that have been orbiting around for months are beginning to land. As I build up our crews again, there are certain people I’m just not bringing back.” Contractor

Reduce prices. “We cut prices 40%. This attracted a lot of people who were otherwise just not signing up. It wasn’t very profitable, but it allowed us to keep the doors open. I’ll continue this through June.” Training company

Does this list stimulate any ideas? It’s not too late for you to put some of these in place in your own business.

May 27, 2009

How to Thrive in Tough Times

Filed under: Thrive in tough times — Mike Van Horn @ 11:32 am

Lessons from Successful Business Owners

To Survive Now
Keep your customers
Protect your cash
Sustain your team
Focus your head

To Thrive Later
Seek new opportunities
Ready your recovery fund
Inspire your team
Envision your recovery
Snap up resources

In the business media, it’s all doom and gloom and hunker down. Yet many small businesses are doing well. They are taking measures to protect themselves, yet making money and preparing for recovery.

Here are a few things owners I work with are doing right now–in marketing, customer service, finances, staffing, and operations. You can apply many of these ideas to your business tomorrow.

A year from now, the people thriving will be those who plan for recovery now.

Lesson #1. Banish “doom and gloom” mentality. At each Business Group meeting, members say, “Things aren’t going too badly. But we constantly hear all these horror stories on TV. We’re running scared. When will it hit us?” If you’re on your own, it can defeat you. Don’t hang with doom and gloomers; stick with the problem solvers.

Lesson #2. Keep you current customers. Meet with them individually. “How can we save you money? Here’s a suggestion how we can keep giving you what’s most important to you now, and cut back on these other items for now.” “So that your expenses are predictable, we’d like to shift from time and materials to set a monthly fee.”

Lesson #3. Ask, “Who’s buying?” Too often, we focus on who’s NOT buying. Sure, your big customers from 2006 are long gone. So raise your antennas and see who IS buying what you offer, and how you can refine what you offer to meet their needs and desires.

Lesson #4. Go for cash flow. Ask yourself, “What’s the shortest route to cash-generating sales?” Create a table with two columns. In the left column, write down all the marketing actions you do—or could do. In the next column, write how long it takes for each of these to pay off: “One week,” “a month,” “3 months,” “a year” and so on. Go after fast payoffs to generate cash flow now. This can give you financial breathing space to focus on long lead-time strategic initiatives. I call this “marketing triage.”

Lesson #5. Don’t take on unprofitable work. During the last downturn, a BG member watched with dismay as he lost job after job to desperate competitors. As recovery gained momentum, he was swamped with business from people who had previously gone elsewhere. Why? “You are the only one left!” they told him. Lesson: lowballers go belly up.

Lesson #6. Don’t keep unnecessary labor. 1st, let go of people who aren’t cutting it. 2nd, be frank with your good people. “Times are tough, but we can pull through it if we share the pain. We need to cut hours by 20%. If possible, I’ll make it up to you when the market recovers.” We’re afraid they’ll quit but where will they go?

Lesson #7. Envision your recovery. How do you want it to be in a year? Let your imagination run free and visualize without blinders. Don’t make decisions with long-term implications based on near-term negative outlook.

Lesson #8. Focus on running your business. Get yourself out of the minutiae. Do the things that are the most important to preserve health and stay forward-focused. Hand off the other stuff, or let it go for now.

Lesson #9. Watch your money like a hawk. Where can you save money without sacrifice? Look at each line item on your Profit & Loss statement. What outside services do you pay for that you use infrequently or not at all? Call your vendors and ask how they could save you some money. This includes your insurance carriers. The phone company. Yellow pages. Landlord.

Lesson #10. Collect money faster. Stay on top of your accounts receivable. Give an extra collection effort. Encourage payment by credit card to your merchant account.

Lesson #11. Don’t stop paying yourself. Pay yourself first! You are the most important person working for your company.

Lesson #12. Lay groundwork for recovery. At the end of a downturn is the best time to add needed people and resources that can help take you to the next peak. Locations, people, customers.

May 6, 2009

Pay yourself first, even in tough times

Filed under: Thrive in tough times — Tags: , , — Mike Van Horn @ 3:42 pm

Re: “Entrepreneurs Cut Own Pay to Stay Alive” by Simona Covel, 5.6.9 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124053156953150693.html

“A number of small-business owners have stopped paying themselves as they struggle to keep their companies afloat,” the article starts. She quotes a business owner: “All those small-business books say, ‘Pay yourself first.’ [But] not paying myself enabled me to keep a couple of other people around.”

I am author of one of the “Pay Yourself First” books referred to above (How to Grow Your Business without Driving Yourself Crazy), and I’m sticking by it.

Owners, if you stop paying yourself, it can have a devastating impact on your morale, drive, and productivity. Same as if you stop paying one of your other people, but the company absolutely depends on you.

Here’s what I’m advising my small business clients:

— Cut unneeded labor. If you don’t have the work, what are the people on your payroll doing? Find the level of operations that allows you to sustain your company.

— Don’t use your credit lines to meet payroll (except to cover a short-term receivables gap). And NEVER use your credit card balance for this.

— If you borrow money now to cover payroll or other expenses, then when business picks back up, you’ve depleted your credit, and you’re dead in the water.

— Cut everybody’s pay (after you’ve laid off the expendable ones). Either work 4-day weeks, or just reduce pay by 10 or 20%. Your good people know what’s up, and they know 80% is better than 0%.

— Then perhaps reduce your own pay by the same percentage.

— When all else fails, try some marketing! It amazes me how many owners are still marketing like it’s 2006, when we were all so busy we’d just wait for the phone to ring. But now, how many of us are still spending too much time in our office and not enough out schmoozing with customers, prospects, and referral sources?

— Don’t stop marketing. I read a quote this morning attributed to Henry Ford: “Cutting your marketing to save money is like stopping your clock to save time.”

— What are your customers buying these days? There’s a lot of business being done right now. See how to refine what you sell so that it meets the needs of those ready to buy this month.

— You might have to cut prices, but don’t take on unprofitable work. Don’t compete with the lowballers. If you can resist this temptation, when the recovery comes, they’ll be gone, you’ll have less competition, and you’ll have the finances to take advantage of it.

mvh

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