Taking Care of Business

I'm sitting here at my desk on a Sunday afternoon, taking a few moments away from my tasks for the day to jot a few words down. Why am I sitting here on a gorgeous California Sunday afternoon? Why am I not at the park with my kids, or at home doing any one of a hundred more exciting tasks? Because I have to take care of business. Yes, like anybody else, I have bills to mail, mail to open, records to organize.

Small business owners find it easy to get excited about the sales and marketing part of business. When you make a sale, you see money come in. That's exciting!

Dealing with the paperwork is not exciting. That's why most new small business owners tend to let it go.....and that is a terrible mistake.

Not only can you get caught watching money go out (late fees, penalties and interest to the IRS, etc.) if you don't take care of business, but if you don't stay on top of your financial records, it's very difficult to make appropriate decisions for operating your business.

I struggle with this side of business a lot. I have learned some important lessons the hard way.

This might be a good time to read some articles I have written on staying out of trouble with the IRS. The first one is called 10 Ways Small Business Owners get in Trouble with the IRS. The second is a page from the Your Small Business Guide website that focuses on what you need to know as you start a business.

Do yourself a favor. take a few minutes every day to stay on top of the business side of your business. You'll be glad you did.

Your Small Business Guide is Now on BlogTalkRadio!

Starting this week, Your Small Business Guide will be hosting a series of talk radio shows on BlogTalkRadio!





The schedule for this week includes:

• Tuesday, Sept. 16th - 12:00 noon PST - An Introduction to Starting a Business Online
• Friday, Sept. 19th - 12:30 p.m. PST - Building a Web Presence
• Monday, Sept. 22nd- 12:00 noon PST - The Marketing Benefit of Writing and Distributing Articles on the Internet.

You can access full descriptions by of each show by clicking on the BlogTalkRadio button above or the one to the right.

Remember, the times are all Pacific Standard Time.

If you listen to the shows live, you can also call in to ask questions! If you miss the live shows, you can listen to the archived recording. The player will be here and on the Your Small Business Guide Radio Show page.

MLM's Dirty Laundry on Display

Recently Randy Schroeder and his wife, Tara, left AGEL to pursue a business opportunity with MonaVie. You may not have been aware of this development. You may not care, but you should.

Why?

Randy Schroeder was one of AGEL's big names. As a successful and inspirational leader, he also became a powerful force in the multilevel marketing (MLM) industry as a whole.

It has not yet been made clear publicly exactly why Randy left AGEL for a competitor, but we do know that AGEL has filed a lawsuit against him for Trademark Infringement. While Randy once spoke against MonaVie, he now embraces its business model.

Which brings me back to why you should care. . .

People move around among mlm opportunities all the time. The moving and shuffling usually happens among the lower ranks in company organizations, as people who are relatively new search for more lucrative compensation plans or easier to sell products. What is unusual in this case is that someone so respected and so high up in the organization has made the decision to move. As a result, the stakes are higher for everyone. So people (and companies) start to get ugly as the dollars at stake grow higher and higher.

I am sure that the folks at AGEL are concerned about how many distributors will move to MonaVie with Randy. He is, individually, not the big loss for AGEL - the loss is the portion of the organization that will go with him.

Of course, AGEL needs to protect its brand and trademark, but the dirtier and uglier the "divorce"gets, the more mud gets splattered on the MLM industry as a whole.

The general public already has a baseline level of distrust for network marketing. It seems like everyone knows someone who has tried an mlm opportunity at some point and failed (which is not surprising, since 97% of people who start out in network marketing don't succeed). Many of us have been duped into attending a business opportunity pitch by an eager friend or family member who learned the wrong way of recruiting prospects. Many have been turned off to network marketing forever by these experiences.

Given this environment and existing levels of caution about the mlm industry, none of us wins when a big name in the industry has a public battle with a company. The parties in the dispute both lose (regardless of what the courts rule) and the whole industry ends up looking a little sleazier.

The end result is that people who really may have done well and benefited from an excellent business opportunity may be even less likely to give it a look now because they see the dirt and don't want any part of it.

No one should be celebrating this turn of events - not Randy Schroeder, not AGEL, not MonaVie - no one.

Tips for Getting Over the Frustration Hump in Your New Online Buisness

Building a Successful Business is a Long Journey

I chatted with a man yesterday who is about a year into his small business, and he is frustrated because of his lack of sales and income.

I understand his frustration completely. When he started building his new online business he was full of hope and excitement and sure that it would be a success. A year later, he is frustrated, tired, and ready to quit.

He was not expecting to "get rich quick," but he wasn't prepared for doing it slowly either. Here are some tips for him, and any of you who may be experiencing what I call, "the new business frustration hump." This is the plateau many new business owners hit after their initial flurry of set-up and activity.

1- Remember, it takes most small businesses five years to really come into their own. You may say that you haven't fallen for those get rich quick stories, but if you are expecting riches in a year or two, you really have fallen for them. It takes time to build a business.

2- Go back to basics. Take another look at your business plan. Review your marketing strategies. See what you may have missed during the flurry of start up.

3- Get some training. There is so much online training available now that there is really no excuse for learning some of the skills you need to succeed. If yours is a new online business, there is no doubt that you have some additional skills you need to develop. Get to it!

4- Focus on income generating activity. If you have been following my blog or my website for a while now you have heard me say this over and over again. There is activity and there is income generating activity. You want at least 80% of your activity to be of the income generating variety. You should have developed an action plan for achieving your short and long term goals. Take a look at those plans and focus on those activities that are closest to generating money.

5- Stay active. This is especially important for people who are starting their business part-time. It is easy to think you are working on your business "all the time" when, in reality, you are not devoting much time to it at all. You should be doing something every day to grow your new business.

6- Log your activity. Try logging your activity for a month. the simple act of writing down what you have done for your business each day actually leads to an increase in activity, and it can help you get a clear picture of how you may need to refocus your activity.

7- Ask for help. Too many of us are afraid to ask for help because we think it will indicate that we don't know what we are doing or that we are somehow not as advanced as we should be. That's just not true. If you need help, ask for it! Send me and email or post a comment here if you'd like. I'd be glad to give you some personalized advice. That's what Your Small Business Guide is all about!

8-Remind yourself about why you started your own business. Remember when you first started and how excited you were? What were the reasons you wanted to do it? What were your goals then? What are your goals now? Write down your goals and post them around your house or office.

9- Be prepared for the long haul. This business of building a business is a marathon, not a sprint. The winners are those who stick with it with consistent effort.

Read more about this in my Hub on the Not-So-Secret Keys to Business Success.

Reputation Matters

I'm having some renovation work done on a building I bought a little over a year ago. It is a gorgeous little cottage in the downtown area of the town where I live, and my plan for the building is to convert it from residential use to commercial use - and relocate my office to that building.

I have spent the better part of the last year dealing with the city, and permits, and contractors.....and we are very close to being finished. However, something has frustrated me through this whole process.

It seems that my general contractor and at least two of the subcontractors we have worked with keep having, as my husband calls it, "misunderstandings to their favor." This is to say that their memory of things we discuss seems to fade when "forgetting" will benefit them financially. We have conversations about detail work being included in their bid, and then later they charge extra for it, or they don't do it and claim that we never had the discussion.

Funny, though - we have never had a single one of these "misunderstandings" that was in my favor. For example, none of them have gone the extra mile or added a little something extra and then said later, "Oh, didn't we agree that would be included?" No, it's always in their favor, which of course, makes it very, very suspect and sleazy.

I was discussing this with a friend today and he mentioned that this very thing has been the reason why the reputation of the home building and repair industry has replaced used car salesmen in terms of public distrust.

I know exactly what he means. In fact, we have bought our last few cars from the same guy at the same dealership, and you know what? He was a very trustworthy and honest man. He pointed out things we might not like about vehicles that he could have easily sold us. In fact, in several lengthy transactions, I cannot recall any "misunderstandings" that worked in his favor or the favor of the dealership. In fact, communication was terrific, and there were no misunderstandings at all.

I have actually referred quite a few people to my car salesman, and his dealership. Will I be referring anyone to my contractor and his subcontractors?

Absolutely not!

(O.K., I'll keep an open mind. If they do something to come clean and demonstrate some integrity between now and when we finish the job, I'll consider it, but it is extremely unlikely at this point.)

So, what is the point for small business people? These contractors and subcontractors are small business people themselves, but they seem to have forgotten that in the small business world, reputation is extremely important. Word of mouth travels like wildfire.

You have heard that "the customer is always right." I have bent over backwards to make something right when a customer was not satisfied because, in terms of your reputation, the customer is always right. They will relay their perception of you to their friends, families, and associates regardless of your opinion of the "misunderstanding" or issue.

It is definitely in your interest as a small business owner to make sure your clients trust you and have no doubts about your integrity. The extra dollar or two you may be able to make now by being a little sleazy is absolutely not worth it in the long run.

The loss of your good reputation will cost you a lot more.

Marketing Is Like A Big Umbrella

I was surfing through ezine articles tonight, trying to find something to inspire an idea, and I came across this very cute and helpful article by Lisa Almeida entitled How to Give Your Clients Exactly What They Want.

In addition to the cute imagery she uses in the article, she gives some simple and useful tips for sorting out all the marketing choices you have and focusing on who your customer is and what (s)he wants.

Of course, those are exactly the things you need to know if you expect any of your marketing techniques to be effective.

Take a few minutes and read her brief and informative article.