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The Six Disciples has a great entry on change in 2010.

Seven Steps To Effective Change in 2010

The year is now more than half over and its time to sit down and evaluate the year so far.

What has gone right, what has gone wrong, what did you do that benefited the business, what could you have done better?

The most important thing to do is be honest with yourself. Do not look through rose colored glasses or be extremely negative.

Once you evaluate the first part of the year decide what you want to accomplish in the second half of the year and what you can do to make it happen. Take a look at the Six Disciplines blog and get some ideas to a better second half of 2010.

Employee Theft

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One of the things we don't like to think about but must is the possibility that one of our trusted employees is stealing from us. However, during tough economic times employees that may not have consider stealing in the pass may do so now.

Recently I dealt with a case were an employee with a company for 17 years was caught stealing magazines, books and dvds. The person had been a good employee for many years but started stealing about 3 years ago.

While a few dvds and magazines here and there don't seem like much they can add up. In fact this person caused annual loses of maybe ten or more thousand dollars.

You need to protect yourself and your company. Now I am not saying you need to paranoid, but extra vigilance should always be taken to protect your company.

The Risk and Business Blog has more on this subject.

Beware of work place theft

Relaxing on Vacation

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The Positivity Blog had a great entry a few days ago about relaxing on vacation.

The Short and Simple Guide to a Relaxing Vacation

I know, as a small business owner vacations can seem like a daunting task with so much on your plate. However, you must take a vacation in order to recharge your batteries and have time away from the headaches of day to day operation of your business.

One of the hardest times I have on vacation is relaxing. I normally put so much on the plate I come back as tired if not more tired than when I started out.

However, on my last vacation I did not schedule anything. I did spend a few days in a hotel were I was not pressured to go out and do too many activities. It was nice have a nice relaxing vacation and I did feel revived when I came back.

So got out and take some time off...

Looking for a web designer?

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Are you looking for a web designer? Then the Small Business Branding blog has some questions that you will ask any web designer that you are looking to design your site.

10 Critical Questions To Ask A Web Designer

While the task of designing a website may be daunting for those that have not experience in it, you need to remember the KISS principle when it comes to web design: Keep It Simple Silly. Some web designers what to put all the coolest stuff onto your website but all it does is drive away traffic.

While your website is under design, make sure to get feedback from your customers on what they think of the proposed design. If a sampling of your customers is negative, you need to go back to your web designer and find out ways to make it better for your customers.

You do not have to become an expert in web design, but become familiar with what constitutes a good website so that you can ask good questions and insure that your designers do not go overboard with what they design.

Inspiration

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One of the more favorite blogs that I just love to read is the Zen Habits blog. The blog always has something on it that can inspire you. One of the more recent blog entries from the blog is about inspiration.

What actions do you take to inspire you? One of the ways I found to stay inspired is have certain items around that inspire me. Above my desk is a picture of the new Ford F150 Raptor. That picture inspires me to try harder so that I can purchase one of those and go to Moab.

Need some help with inspiration? Take a look at the Little Guide to Inspiration on the Zen Habits Blog.

Changing Public Perception

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If you are going to be successful in the long run in your business you are going to need to change public perception.

Now what public perception am I talking about?

The perception that the small business is inferior to large businesses. People have the misperception that small businesses have high priced, are run down and are an indication that the place you are located is going down hill.

Now in some cases this perception has been earned. There is plenty of examples of small businesses that have let their place run down and not took care of things. But then again I know of a major grocery store chain that sold several of their stores recently most of which are less than 5 years old and the new owners that are local are spending thousands of dollars in repairs for non-existent maintenance.

It is ironic that many people complain every day about the lack of service and poor quality at some of the major chains but continue to purchase the same products for those stores because they are "cheaper".

So how do you change this perception?

First of all this is not a perception that is going to change overnight. It has taken years for the perception to become ingrained in peoples minds so don't expect it to change tomorrow.

Second you need the power of word of mouth. If people experience that your business is clean, has friendly employees, and is taken care your customers will tell their friends about you.

Third, if your area has a locally owned business organization such as Local First Utah that is a group of small businesses working together to promote locally owned business you need to join. If your area does not have this type of organization think about creating one.

Not only will the organization is a way to market your business, but it is also an excellent opportunity to network with other small business owners to learn from their successes and mistakes.

You need to change the perception about small businesses.

The Vendor Balancing Act

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While most people think that one of their more difficult relations is with customers, in the long run they may find that their most difficult relationships will their vendors. In a perfect world the vendors would treat you like you are truly THEIR customers but in reality many vendors act as though it is the other way around.

Of course some vendors are much better than others and it will take some experience to find out who the better vendors are.

Then there comes the balancing that you will have to perform. If you find that a vendor is taking advantage of you, what do you do? In most cases you would assume that you drop the vendor and find someone that will treat you better. The problem arises when that vendor is the only source of an important product.

Let’s use electronics as an example. Let’s say that you currently stock brand “A” electronics which is one of the more popular brands in the industry. However, “A” products does not allow you to return defective products to them causing you to eat the product. Now you will have to analyze if the amount of sales created by having product “A” in your stores is enough to justify you losing some money on returns.

If the amount of sales justifies you keeping that product then you will want to plan for a certain amount of returns that you will have to mark off. Of course you can probably find a technical school that would love the donations of the defective product in order to let students experiment with them and thus giving you some goodwill.

On the other hand if the amount of sales and the hassles created by them do not justify you taking the losses on their product then dump them and find another vendor. However, I would let the company know why you are going to drop them and see if they will do anything for you.

In addition, vendors used to have reps that would come and visit local stores, building displays and building relationships with the companies that sold their products. However, these days’ vendors have been cut so severely that they may only visit major stores once a month or have cut out some altogether so the chances of them coming to your independent store may be slim and none.

You will defiantly want to cultivate a relationship with any vendor that does take the time to come visit you. They are an excellent source of information and if they take the time to visit you then they are probably a vendor you will want to focus on.

Also, depending on the products you sell; look for smaller vendors that may not have the name but will have the ability to service you better.

Remember, you are the vendor’s customers so find vendors that treat you that way.

Evalutating your Goal Setting

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How are you doing with setting goals?

Hopefully by now you have started writing your goals on a regular basis. At first your excited to do it but it is also hard to get in the habit of doing them on a daily basis until you get in a rhythm and start seeing some success with them.

After you have been setting goals on a regular basis for a couple of weeks, it is time to review your progress. See how many goals you are setting on a daily basis and evaluate how well you are performing.

If you find that you are accomplishing all your goals in a couple of hours and it feels like no effort at all, then you are not setting goals that are tough enough. After a short period of time you will have no sense of accomplishment because your goals are not set high enough to give you that “I did it” feeling.

On the other hand, if you reach the end of the day and most of your goals have not been checked off, then you may be setting your goals too high or trying to accomplish too much in a period of time.

While you want to set high goals, you also much remember that your goals need to be realistic. Your goals need to be reasonable or else frustration will set in and you will quickly abandon the goal setting process.

What it comes down to is that not only will you have to set your goals and write them down on a daily basis, but you must also evaluate your performance and make changes in order to perfect your system and get the most out of your goal setting.

Yes, goal setting does take effort but over time that effort will pay off.

Here is another video on how to start a small business which comes from Australia. The video is just under 7 minutes but gives some good information in that time.

Are you Outsourcing?

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The word outsourcing will make most people cringe including myself because of what some companies have been outsourcing, but outsourcing should not be a bad word but you have to do it right.


Outsourcing has gotten plenty of publicity lately especially with so many companies outsourcing their customer service functions to places like India. Recently I had issues with my Internet Service Provider and it turned out the company I go through has outsourced everything to India. This is where the problem arises because the guy on the other end of the line only knew what the computer told him to do; by the end of the day I changed ISP’s to a company that does not outsource their customer service functions.

That is where many companies are absolutely failing when it comes to outsourcing. Instead of outsourcing functions that do not directly affect the customer, they are outsourcing their direct link with the customer and putting their customers and their futures in other’s hands.

So what should you outsource?

As a small business owner there is plenty of areas that you can outsource that will not affect the service your customers get but improve your operations and finances.

An example of outsourcing that a small business owner should seek is accounting services. While I have extensive experience with numbers, many small business owners are not numbers people and should try to find someone that could do their paperwork better than they could.

Another popular source of outsourcing for small businesses in the last few years is virtual assistances. Virtual Assistants do a large range of tasks that will free your time to build the business.

In other words outsource tasks that someone else can do better than you can or that will free up your time to be more productive. What you do not want to do is outsource anything that will affect the level of customer service that your customers will receive.

There are other side benefits of outsourcing including giving business to your fellow small business owners, having more people who know about your business and if you treat them right will talk about your business, and finally another source to network with.

So by all means outsource, just make sure you do it right.

Prioritizing your Daily Goals

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Now that we have talked about the importance of goals and the different time frames, we will discuss the daily goals in a little more detail.

As mentioned last time you should have long term goals, medium range goals, and your short term goals that should be broken down even farther into monthly, weekly, and yes especially daily goals.

You should get up every morning, or better yet write down your goals for the next day before you go to bed. So that you can see the big picture I suggest that on divide a piece of paper with several columns with sections for the priority, what the goal is and most important how that goal relates to your long range goals. That way you can see how accomplishing that goal will build you toward the place you want to be in five, ten years or more.

You will also want to write down the goals you have for the day that may not directly tie into your long range goals but before long you will see that everything you plan to do that day will start fitting into those long range goals.

The next item on the agenda is to prioritize your daily goals in order of importance. I usually letter them A, B, and C. If something is a lower priority than a C, then it really is not important at all and should not be a goal for the day, correct?

Next take a look at the A category. Is there anything on there that is something you’re not looking forward to doing? Then do that item first so that it is over with and you do not have to think about it for the rest of the day. Do the same thing for the other three categories of priority so the stuff you’re not looking forward to is done and over with first.

At the end of the day go through your goal list and note anything that you did not accomplish that day. Figure out what you did get that goal accomplished:

1. Will it take longer than done day to accomplish, then try dividing the goal up into several sections and completing a section each day.
2. Something that you were trying to avoid, once again get this done first so that you do not have to think about it the rest of the day.
3. Too many goals for the day? We will go over this next time.

As Rick Pitino says in his book “Success is a Choice” you need to go through your goals and not what you accomplished and figure out what you did not accomplish and figure out why and how you can do things differently tomorrow.

If you are seeing to many A or B items not get done then you should evaluate what is keeping you from accomplishing important things. Are you getting distracted? Are you being interrupted by outside influences? Trying to bite off more than you can chew?

After a few weeks you will have a better idea of how a goal setting system will work for you and get you on the road to accomplishing more.

Being a smart shopper for your business

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Too many small business owners fall into the trap that they have to have the biggest and the best equipment to operate their business.

Whether it is buying the latest and greatest computer, having the new, trendiest office furniture, or going out and leasing the copier that will do everything for you including make coffee; many small business owners fall into the got to have it trap.

I am not saying that you should go out and buy cheap crap that will not last you however; you need to become a smart shopper.

Let’s take a look at office furniture. If your customers will not see your office, then there is no reason for you to spend thousands of dollars on new office furniture. The desk I am currently using was purchase for just over a hundred dollars and has served me for more than 6 years now.

If your business is in an industry where clients or customers will see your office then you will want to find something a little nicer. However that does not mean you need to go out and buy new furniture.

There are plenty of stores around that sell used office furniture that will look nice but not cost you an arm and a leg. Another great source for furniture is on line ads. One of our local television stations provide classified ads and has become a major source of good used items at really good prices.

It comes down to figuring out your true needs for the next couple of years then being a smart shopper and finding the best product for your money. Don’t spend more money than you need to in order to get the furniture and equipment you need.

More on goal setting...

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Last week I discussed the importance of having goals. Today I will go over the different ranges of goals and how they interrelate to each other.

First you have your long range goals. These are goals that are more than five years away. While it seems like a long time, your other goals are ones that build up to these goals. For example you can have a goal that in ten years you want to be able to sell your business and retire. Another long range goal could be to have a certain amount of money in the bank for your retirement.

On the personal side you could set a goal to have your child’s college education funded by a certain time. Another example would be that you plan to have your dream home in 7 years.

You need to take the time to deice where you want to be in 5, 10, 20 years and so on and what it is going to take to get you there.

Next down the list is your short range goals. These are goals that you want to achieve in 5 years but will not be accomplished in the next year. They are goals that are stepping stones to reaching your long range goals.

For example, if you set a goal to have enough money in the bank to retire in 20 years, in 5 years you need to have a certain amount of money in the bank. Or you can set a goal to be debt free in the next 2 years that will set you on course to hit your big goal of retiring without having to worry about Social Insecurity.

You could set a business goal that in five years you want your business to be making 2 million dollars or you want to move into a new building in 3 years.

Finally you have your short range goals. If the medium range goals build you toward your long range goals then you probably can figure out that short range goals build you toward your medium range goals. These are goals that you plan to accomplish in the next year.

Short range goals are broken down even further to year goals, monthly goals, weekly goals, and daily goals. Once again you look at where you want to be in the next year and plan your goals accordingly.

What do you have to do this month in order to reach your one year goal? Once you know what you have to do this month, you want to break it down and figure out what you will have to do this week.

Of course you know what is coming next, once you figure on what you need to accomplish this week then you want to break it down and figure out what you have to do today to reach that goal this week and so on.

At this point you probably feel overwhelmed. It will take too much time to set all these goals, and you don’t have the time.

You will be amazed what you can accomplish when you are actually setting goals for yourself on a daily basis. You begin to realize what is important and what you just do not need to do.

Other great thing about short range goals is that they get you excited. When you hit that short range goal it energizes you and the next thing you know you are busting out the next you and the one beyond that.

Now there will be days that you are just hit with multiple road blocks and it seems that nothing will go right. You have your goals but you just cannot hit any of them that day. That is when you need to take a look at your long range goals to get some motivation. Also take a look at what goals you have accomplished to see how far you have come.

Starting a small business video

Are you thinking about starting that small business? Here is a short video I found that may have some helpful information for you.

Can you Change your Niche?

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You have your niche in the marketplace, but you decide that you want to head a different direction in order to capture a different part of the market. However, if a major corporation such as Wal-Mart and Nordstrom’s failed at changing their niche, is it possible for the small business owner to change their niche? Yes, it is possible but you have to do it very carefully.

First of all let’s take a look at what happened to Wal-Mart and Nordstrom’s.

As anyone who has been alive for the last 20 years knows, Wal-Mart’s niche has been the lowest common denominator, the lowest price shopper. Not the smartest shopper who wants value for the dollar but the customer who only looks at the price and not what is in the package.

The problem with having this niche is that there is not a lot of margin in this market. Realizing that they are quickly hitting market saturation in the United States, they knew that they would have to make more money off of their products in order to continue improving income.

Seeing the success that Target was having, they decided to move that direction. However, in the stores that they tried to upscale, they lost their core market and sales begin to flounder and the experiment was stopped. Wal-Mart is now moving more upscale but doing it much more slowly and not trying to alienate its existing market.

Nordstrom’s has always been known as the customer service retailer. You did not go into Nordstrom’s for low prices or the hippest fashions; you went in there if you wanted good service. Seeing that their core market was aging that they were not brining the younger market Nordstrom’s decided to change their focus by bring in the hip and trendy. Once again it failed as Nordstrom’s core market was alienated and sales went down not up.

The lesson to be learned is that you can change your niche but you cannot alienate your existing market. You can slowly bring in or start building new items, but you also want to keep your existing customers happy with the products they have been buying all along.

Take time if you want to move your niche and don’t alienate the people who have kept you in business.

You Need an Emergency Fund...

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One of the things I have discussed in the past I am going to do it again, and that is the importance of an emergency fund.

Recently there was a story on the news about how businesses are being affected by road construction. Most of the businesses are hurting loosing a large part of their regular business.

While all of them are hurting, several of them are weathering the storm better than others and they specifically mentioned that they had an emergency fund to deal with situations like this.

You cannot hide your head in the sand. One day the road in front of your business will be torn up. You can scream all you want but the work will and needs to go on.

However, it is not just construction that can affect your business. You need to be prepared for any eventuality.

A good emergency fund of three to preferably six months of expenses will get you through most of these kinds of emergencies. If you road in front of your business is going to be torn up for a year, that means that you could have a 50% drop in business and still survive the work. Or if a natural disaster happens and you are not able to open your business for a few weeks, you will be able to deal with the emergency.

Having an emergency fund may be the difference between you staying in business and putting out the going out of business sign.

While mostly focusing on personal finance, Dave Ramsey is a good source of information on getting your finances in order and showing the importance of having an emergency fund.

A goal, not a resolution

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To be successful you must have goals. In your business you need to have a business plan which will set out the goals for your business and the numbers behind them. You also need goals in your personal life which will set you apart from most of the population.

When most people think of goals they think of New Years resolutions that they usually break in the first week. But a goal is more; it requires more of you so that you can get more out of it.

Here is the heart of a goal so that you can start putting some together.

First of all a goal must be written down. By writing the goal down you are making a commitment to accomplish it.

Second a goal must have a time period. Someday just does not work when setting a goal. If you want to loose 20 pounds then you must set a realistic timeline to accomplish it. If you want to do it in one week you are not being realistic. If you set a timeline of one year, you are not taking the goal seriously.

Third a goal must be specific. You must have a specific target to hit. If you want to loose 20 pounds you cannot set a goal that says that you would like to loose some weight. Saying that you would like to pay off some debt is not a specific goal, but saying you would like to be debt free in 24 months is a specific goal.

A goal must also be realistic. If I set a goal to be a player in the NBA by next year, the goal will not be realistic. First of all I have only played basketball a few times in my life. Second I am older than players coming into the NBA and third my height would be an issue.

So you have the basics of what needs to make up a goal. Now get some goals written down.

For more on setting goals head over to the expert goal setter himself Zig Ziglar for more ideas.

How clean are your facilities?

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How well are your are your facilities maintained?

One of the several things that I hear mentioned when it comes to small business is the perception that their facilities and stores are dirtier, older, and not as well maintained as other stores. While you can question the validity of the argument, it is still important that you maintain your facilities to the highest level possible.

It goes without saying that you want to clean your store every day. In addition you want to have a regular schedule of more extensive cleaning of shelves, counters, and anything else that a customer comes in contact with.

Another way to keep your facilities looking fresh and clean is to do regular painting. I know that you are busy people but it will pay off with your store or other facility looking more presentable to the public. The cost of the paint is small compared to how well your store will look with some regular coats of paint.

Also when it comes to paint, stay away from colors that look old or dirty very easily. White is a prefect example of a color that just does not hold up. You will want to insure the colors wit with your clientele. If they tend to be more conservative, stick to colors that are more conservative. If your niche is a younger crowd, then more radical colors would work.

A little effort goes a long way to making your store more presentable. Remember first impressions are everything so make sure your store is providing the right one to your customers.

Wages...

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Right now it is not a good time to be an employee for many companies. Many companies out there are cutting wages and other benefits right now using the economic times as a way to cut costs on the backs of their employees.

Many companies have freezed wages, lower starting salaries, and cutting any benefits they can. One of the major retail chain went through and fired all their store employees then required them to reapply for them at lower wages and fewer to no benefits.

Compare that to what a grocery store I shop at has done. They went through and gave EVERY single employee in their store a $2.00 an hour wage to help them out during these tough economic times. Many people seeing that will probably think that this was some PR thing that they did. However, the company has not publicized it because they did it to help out their employees.

If you were an employee, which company would you want to be working for?

Your employees are the biggest assets your company has, yet so many companies just look at employees as a wage cost and don't see the value they bring to the business. Is it any wonder that there is so little employee loyalty?

I am not saying that all employees are perfect and you will have some bad employees, but if you treat your employees with respect and treat them like the assets they are, you will have a better group of employees.

If you want the best employees, you need to treat them like they are.

Social Newtorking can be your friend...

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While many think of social networking sights as a place for friends and meeting people, there is also many opportunities to build your business and take care of problems before they arise. I will go over ideas that you should be looking at to build your business and reflect back on the situation in my previous post on how it could have been taken car of as a win-win situation.

1. You need to have a blog. I know, you are a busy person and don't have time for worthless prattle in a blog. Instead you need to look at a blog as a way to personalize your business. In your blog you can discuss new items in your store, let people know about special offers, explain how to use some items, let people know about recalls, and other information that lets them know more about your business.

2. You can also Twitter. Many people still think of Twitter as something for useless talk, but it is another opportunity to network with others and let people know what is happening with your business. You can include links to postings on your blog or to the websites of companies you do business. One thing to avoid is too many posts directing people to your website and nothing else. If that's all you post and you do it too frequently (there is people out there doing 20/30 posts and hour with this kind of stuff), then you will loose followers and your message will not get out.

3. Get yourself on Facebook and MySpace. I deal with Facebook more than I do with MySpace but make sure you have a presence on them. You can also set up your facebook account so that your twitter messages will show up on your facebook page. Not only should you have a personal page on Facebook, you should also have one for your business so which will allow people to become fans of your business and to get more information about it.

Now lets go back to the situation mentioned in my last posting. The customer who was upset with the business told all his friends on Twitter and Facebook excactly what happened. Even though the business was also on Twitter and a follower of that person, they did not respond in any way shape or form. The customer is a member of a close nit group who is the main niche of this store. While some people may continue doing business with this store do you think that some of the people that followed the customer will stop doing business with said store? Of course they will and the silence made the situation worse.

So what should the store have done? They could have made a blog post and posted links to their other social networking sights telling their side of the story and what they tried to do for the customer. Once you make your statement you do not want to say anything else. The other person will most likely want to get in a shouting match with you but no one will win in that situation. It is easy to get emotional in these situations since the person is putting down in your business but the best thing to do is sit back, let others see your side and make their decision from there.

Use social networking sights to your advantage. It is an opportunity for your customers to know you better, find new customers, give your customers more information about your business to your customers, and deal with your customer service issues.