Virtual Office Space

With the economy in turmoil, and an increasing number of corporations cutting back, the unemployment rate keeps on rising.  Do you have a plan in place should the cutbacks affect you?  The reality is, one of people’s biggest problems today, is that they are saving less and less, leaving many vulnerable and economically unprepared.

The first step in becoming economically sound, is to start saving today.  If you do not have a minimum of three month’s living expenses stocked away into savings account, this is where you need to begin.  There are many different ways to start to save, here are a few tips to help you begin:

1.) Every month, separate your income into three categories: Expenses, Paying off debt, and Savings.  Once your expenses are paid, spend 40% of the remaining income on paying off your credit cards and other debt, and place the remaining 60% in to a savings account.

2.) Once your credit cards are payed down, stop using them!  Pay with cash, check or debit card to keep the interest monster at bay.

3.) Save money while you are with your friends by changing that night out on the town, to a fun night in, where everyone brings something to share.

4.) Have your paycheck automatically pull out a percentage for your 401k.

5.) When making large purchases, research the options thoroughly to seek out the best price.

6.) Get out there and network!  Building your own network has obvious career benefits, so don’t let opportunity pass you by, get your name out there.

Hopefully these tips will help you to start to save your way to a successful future.

I read a book recently by David Cottrell, called Monday Morning Leadership, an informal business guide to developing leadership skills, and effectively managing teams/groups.  In the book, Cottrell introduces the reader to Jeff, a successful middle manager for a lareg corporation, who has hit a major wall in his career. Until recently, Jeff has been leading his team to sucess, and has show increased sales, quarter after quarter, for several years…Until now.  The tricks that Jeff used in the past to motivate his team and produce results no longer seem to be effective, and Jeff is overworked, overstressed, and understands that his professional and persoanl lives are at risk.

To help gain some insight into his situation, Jeff reaches out to Tony, an extremely accomplished executive, and old friend of his father’s, for advice.  Tony agrees to meet with Jeff every Monday morning for ten weeks to help him turn his situation around and get his career back on track.  During the course of these sessions, Tony imparts to Jeff the “real” secrets of leadership, through tough lessons and self-discovery.

Here are a few of the key lessons that Tony taught Jeff.  I will share more in one of my next posts, along with Tony’s “real” secret to leadership.

Lesson 1: “Getting Past Splat”

The primary message behind this lesson is understanding that as a business person, you are going to make mistakes.  Some will be small, some will be career-altering.  The key, is understanding that you can’t go back, once a decision is made (splat), you can only go forward, so take a deep breath, and devlop an action plan to “get past splat.”

Lesson 2: “Escape from Management Land”

This lesson is meant to make managers remember that there is no escape from the everyday problems that comes with being a manager.  Along with sales responsibilities, Jeff was also responsible for managing his team, hiring, firing, performance reviews, etc, and these responsibilities were dragging down the rest of his performance.  What Jeff learned from this lesson, however, was that in order to be successful, a manager must hire good people, coach everyone, and de-hire the people who are not covering their share of the load.  Jeff’s job was not to lower the bottom by adjusting and accomodating what Tony called “falling stars,” as he was doing in the past.  Instead, Jeff needed to be raising the top by recognizing and rewarding his “shining stars,” which in the end would motivate everyone on the team to excel.

Hopefully these learning lessons will help you on your journey to become a better leader.  Stay tuned for next week, when I impart some more key leadership lessons, and tell you what the “real” secret to leadership is!

Building business in challenging economic times is absolutely possible. The critical issue is a willingness to evaluate your products and services with absolute objectivity and a new knowledge of the marketplace.

Let’s start with evaluating your products and services. If you have been in your current position, or are the owner of your own company, it can be easy to slip into status quo mode. Making the same products and providing the same services is part of how a company maintains stability and focus on their mission. But difficult times require creative, out of the box thinking.

Now is a great time to reach out to your customers for product development and improvement ideas. Look for low hanging fruit, ideas that could be implemented with little effort for great results. Also, keep an eye open for patterns, which might indicate market changes or trends. While you’re asking for their feedback, take the time to let them know how valuable they are to your business.

Next, scan the marketplace, take a look at competitors and new, successful businesses. What direction are they taking? Evaluate their ideas and compare them to your customers’ suggestions. Create a list of minor and major changes that your company could make in response to market shifts. Gather your staff or supporters around for a brainstorming session and see what arises. Be open to new information and ideas.

Take the results of your market research and brainstorming and evaluate it with a critical eye. Be flexible and responsive in order to create opportunities for company growth. Think twice before making large changes with high risk. If, after thorough research and planning, that kind of change makes sense, embrace it and move forward. The key to your success is in flexible thinking and nimble responses…now is the time for objectivity and excellent market analysis.

Part II of this series will explore building your customer base in niche markets.

In the technology driven world we live, and work, in, it is easy to get swept up with the tide, and rely on modern technologies for interpersonal communication between colleagues.  Email, social networking sites, instant messaging, and SMS (text) messages, now rule business communications, due to their efficiency and availability of use.  You can now communicate with anyone, anywhere, as long as you have a strong phone or internet signal.  Unfortunately, one of the downsides to this technological revolution, is the decrease in 1 to 1, personal communication.

Gone are the days of walking two offices down to ask about last week’s report.  Now, businessmen and women are sending an instant message on their computers, or shooting off a quick email, and as a result, missing out of that 30 seconds of relationship building that occurs during a personal conversation.

Now don’t get me wrong, utilizing updated technologies to improve inter-office efficiency is a great tool for businesses, but the key is remembering that on the other end of that email or SMS message there is another person, who is communicating back to you.  Here are some tips for optimizing technologies for communication, while not forgetting about building the personal relationships one needs in the business environment.

Use proper email etiquette. By using email (and other messaging technologies) properly, you can convey a professional image for both yourself and your company.  Keep your emails concise and professional; avoid the usage of phrases like “lol” or  “TTYL,” as well as though fun little emoticons…  ☺

Send emails or technological messages when you need to track responses or provide a data trail for future use, but use your legs when you can. One of the best (and worst) things about communicating via technology is the ability to track and store messages & responses.  Use these new technologies when you think you need to keep a virtual paper trail, but if no trail is needed, pick up a phone or walk down the hallway to communicate.

Ask how your colleagues & business partners how they would like to be communicated with.  I had an old manager who loved to be updated via text message, but wouldn’t read emails fro days at a time.  Until I had a conversation with him on how he preferred to be communicated to, I was sending him emails that ended up lost in his inbox.

Hopefully these tips will help you manage the balance of technology and interpersonal communication for your business.  Do you have other tips to share?  I would love to hear them.

Brand monitoring has become an essential task for any individual or corporation. Marketers must understand that conversations are being held on the web with or without our consent, and when conversations start on the web, like a forest fire, they travel very fast and wreak havoc along the way; what might start out as a mere tweet, may turn into a blog post and potentially national news. Yesterday I told you about how to effectively listen to your audience.  Read on to learn how to properly respond.

Talking Back
Once you have set up an effective monitoring plan, and you have listened to what the community is saying, it is time to talk back.  Here are some guidelines for communicating with online users about your brand.

• Respond quickly to criticism.  If you don’t respond quickly to criticism, you can lose control of the conversation.
• Admit your mistakes. Why is this so difficult for brands? When you mess up, the only—and I mean ONLY—acceptable response is to take full ownership, explain what went wrong, and share your action plan for fixing the mistake.
• Empower your employees to become problem solvers. As a customer, there is nothing worse than having a full-on collision with bureaucracy. We’ve all been there. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’ll have to check with my supervisor.” Or worse, “I’d like to help, but we have a policy against that.” Tim Ferriss, author of the bestseller, “The 4-Hour Workweek”, tells his employees and contractors, “Keep the customers happy. If it is a problem that takes less than $100 to fix, use your judgment and fix the problem yourself. This is official written permission and a request to fix all problems that cost under $100 without contacting me (p. 105).”
• Exceed your customers’ expectations. Every customer problem is an opportunity to create a new amazing experience. But it’s not enough to meet their expectations, you have to exceed them. Anything less is merely restitution.

Conclusions
Understanding brand monitoring and its impact on your business is critical. Static websites are no longer the pinnacle of communication, as today’s consumer seeks engagement and two-way conversations.  As consumers are increasingly empowered to take control of brands online through user generated content, blogs, forums etc, marketers must adopt new ways of approaching brand management and marketing their products/services.

Brand monitoring has become an essential task for any individual or corporation. Marketers must understand that conversations are being held on the web with or without our consent, and when conversations start on the web, like a forest fire, they travel very fast and wreak havoc along the way; what might start out as a mere tweet, may turn into a blog post and potentially national news.

Why is this Happening?
Until recently, information was dispersed and controlled by mass media networks of television, radio and print, where large corporations could control the mass media with the right combination of public relations and marketing.

Now, however, the Internet has fundamentally transformed the way in which information is created, distributed and consumed. In additional to marketers losing much of their control of bramd image, they are also facing a larger variety of marketing channels than ever before.

The modern consumer has developed greater immunity to the constant barrage of advertising messages.  Increasingly, consumers are turning to online communities, consumer writers and fringe media as trusted sources of input on everything from what to buy to how to vote.

What Can You Do?
Developing a brand monitoring plan should be one of the most important pieces of a company’s marketing strategy, not an after thought. All too often I have seen companies fail because they have not listened to the buzz in the community.

All successful brand monitoring plans have two critical pieces: Listening & Responding.

Listening
Listenting is the gathering of online information about your brand.  It is simply put, listenting to what is being said about your products/services/brand online.

Once you have sucesssfully listened to what is being said in the market, you can begin to respond.  Check in tomorrow for part two of this post, and to learn tips for responding to all the chatter.

With the economy in turmoil, and an increasing number of corporations cutting back, the unemployment rate keeps on rising.  Do you have a plan in place should the cutbacks affect you?  The reality is, one of people’s biggest problems today, is that they are saving less and less, leaving many vulnerable and economically unprepared.

The first step in becoming economically sound, is to start saving NOW.  If you do not have a minimum of three month’s living expenses stocked away into savings account, this is where you need to begin.  There are many different ways to start to save, here are a few tips to help you begin:

1.) Every month, separate your income into three categories: Expenses, Paying off debt, and Savings.  Once your expenses are paid, spend 40% of the remaining income on paying off your credit cards and other debt, and place the remaining 60% in to a savings account.

2.) Once your credit cards are payed down, stop using them!  Pay with cash, check or debit card to keep the interest monster at bay.

3.) Save money while you are with your friends by changing that night out on the town, to a fun night in, where everyone brings something to share.

4.) Have your paycheck automatically pull out a percentage for your 401k.

5.) When making large purchases, research the options thoroughly to seek out the best price.

6.) Get out there and network!  Building your own network has obvious career benefits, so don’t let opportunity pass you by, get your name out there.

Hopefully these tips will help you to start to save your way to a successful future.

As we usher in 2009, many of my clients are beginning to weigh the pros/cons of moving out of their home offices and into a “real” office space for their business.  For many of these clients, a virtual office would be a better fit for their needs, however, some still do need a permanent operations headquarters that is their own.  Here are some of the benefits of utilizing a virtual office:

• Not having to battle through traffic every day to commute to and from your office space.
• Monetary benefits from savings in gas, wear and tear on your car, business clothing, and lunches out
• Reduced stress (always a good thing)
• Increased opportunities to hire part-time or contract workers

On top of those benefits to you, a virtual office can also offer:

• A prestigious office address you may not be able to otherwise afford– not just a P.O. Box but a permanent address for your business at an office building.
• Professional reception service, without renting a physical office. That means someone will be there to greet your guests for business meetings.
• Meeting and conference rooms that you can use as needed without having to rent out office space full-time.
• All the amenities of a larger office, including fax machines, break rooms, copiers, and other services.
• Mail and package pickup and delivery – you no longer have to rearrange your schedule so you don’t miss the UPS truck.
• Mail Forwarding / Shipping Services

All in all, virtual offices provide a professional presence in a commercial environment, for a fraction of the cost of a permanent office space.  Not a bad deal for small entrepreneurs…

As the holidays approach, many businesses stay open on December 24th, and 26th, even though these are not truly busy working days.  If your company is staying open, one of the best things you can do on these days is to take advantage of the slow days by running your spring cleaning a few months early.

Here are some tips to help you clean up and get organized this holiday season.

• Sort and file all your old paperwork.  If you have files that are not in use or have not been in use for over 30 days, if is time to find them a home.  Start a short-term filing system that will help you stay organized into the new year.
• Move out all of your technology (i.e. phones, computers, laptops, scanners, etc) and wipe down all of your surfaces.  You will be surprised how much dust and dirt collects under all your devices, and if not cleaned properly, it can actually hurt your equipment.
• Clean out your computer files.  Go through all of the files on your computer or laptop and see what can be deleted or filed.  One option is to purchase an external hard drive for your computer - it acts like a digital storage device for computer files.

By cleaning out your office now, instead of waiting until the spring, you can start your year off fresh and clean, and prepared for new business.   Good luck, and Happy Holidays!

One of the challenges that small businesses face is staffing.  A lot of the times, small businesses don’t use the standard hiring mediums of large corporations.  Instead, they rely on networking and job referrals to find the right person for the job.  An article on BusinessWeek.com’s website insights as to where to turn to find the top talent out there looking for a job.  Here are their suggestions.

“Small businesses should enlist their current employees as recruiters, essentially selling friends and contacts on the benefits of working at their company,” says Chris Collins, associate professor of human resource management at Cornell University’s school of Industrial & Labor Relations, for BusinessWeek. “Take the price of that ad you were going to run and give it to the person who identifies the candidate who eventually gets hired,” he says. “You’ll probably get a better pool.”

Small businesses can also find quality candidates by working with local and state universities, and recruiting graduating students.

Begin the hiring process before you need to fill a position.  Don’t wait until you are desperate for a  or your business could suffer.

Lastly, utilize the social networks, like LinkedIn, to find the right professional for the job.  There is a wealth of information available to you out there, along with a large amount of potential candidates looking for a job.

Do you have tips for a small business owner?  Leave me a comment and I will  include them in future posts!