Spacing Out: A Common Dilemma

As a purveyor of shared office space, we definitely hope that anyone reading this will consider the services of Office Space Coworking with offices in Akron, Cuyahoga Falls & Canton.  But our vested interest aside, we are committed to helping small business owners & entrepreneurs find the right office solution to meet their needs.

We’ve talked a lot about the pros and cons about working from home. As a small business owner, you either started out at home and/or you’re still there. But for some, it might be time to consider making a move out of the extra bedroom to their own office space – even if it’s only a one-person show.

This question is a fairly common one for many small business owners. Some need to move because of growth, others because of loneliness or a need for stimulation. Regardless, the cost of office space is a variable that can have a big impact on a business’ bottom line, so it’s not surprising that it ranks near the top of the list of owners’ concerns. If the time is right, the key is to find a space that meets your business’ needs without breaking the bank. Location is important (especially for retail), but so are issues such as usability, cost and condition.

Decisions, Decisions

The advantages of moving out of your home office boil down to increased professionalism, more space to work and unlimited growth potential. Of course, with any advantage come a few disadvantages, but nothing that can’t be overcome:

• Your daily commute will be longer, but if your office is located near your home, the lost time and frustration should be minimal.
• You may need to furnish your office professionally (unless you go with a shared office solution like Office Space Coworking)
• Your overhead may increase, but your revenues could grow proportionately as you attract larger or more clients.

Here are few points of thought we’ve compiled to help guide you through your decision-making process:

Luxury or necessity: First, it’s important to determine whether or not your business is at a stage where finding an office is a luxury or a necessity. If it’s just you, and you have very few interruptions, you may be fit to stay. However, if you’re overseeing four employees who are working out of their homes, you have a communications disaster waiting to happen. Moving to a central location will most likely improve communication and create new energy in the business.

Assess your space needs: If you’ve made the decision to rent of lease space, the next step is to assess your company’s needs. If you’re business is not retail, you do not need a high-end space. But at the same time, you don’t want the space to be so inexpensive that it is depressing for your employees and potential buyers. One alternative might be to find less expensive space that can be transformed into an environment that stimulates creativity. Or, if you’re looking for a more formal environment consider choosing a reasonably priced office space that can be broken up into different areas. Invest more resources in meeting rooms that will be used by potential buyers, and less in rooms that will be used by employees.

Consider alternative options: If the budget is just not going to work, but you still need an “outside” space, consider some other options. Business centers, for example, are temporary offices that provide traditional office space for you to work in and usually come with amenities like Internet access, videoconferencing, conference space, copiers and sometimes, receptionists.

And then, there’s always the option of spicing up what you have. Reinvent your present office by hiring a professional organizer to help you make the best use of your space. Or, think about outsourcing work to other free agents instead of trying to squeeze employees into your already packed space. The options are limitless – it just takes a bit of time and vision to do what’s right for your business.

Monday Motivation – February 15, 2010

To get what you want; stop doing what isn’t working.
–Dennis Weaver

You have your To Do list.

Do you have a Not To Do List?

Jim Collins’ book Good To Great was the first time I was introduced to this concept and I found it fascinating.

The basic concept is we all have idiosyncrasies which sap our productivity day by day. Usually these are seemingly little things but they add up quickly.

If you can identify where some of the holes are in your productivity, you can set yourself up for success by avoiding these items altogether.

Do you frequently get sucked into email strings that have no bearing on your original work plan for the day?

Do you find yourself obsessing about little gaffs you may or may have not made in the last to call to a customer?

Have you ever caught yourself whiling away the hours surfing YouTube for the latest Britney embarrassment?

Simply put: If they aren’t helping you accomplish your goals, stop doing them.

Some Additional Take Aways:

*A great Not To Do List can be found at 52 Projects

*Try to identify distractions that take away from your focus for the day.

*Reference and add to your list on days where you feel didn’t get as much accomplished as you would have liked.

Project Management – Part 3: Alternative Tools

Beyond Microsoft Project: Alternative Project Management Tools

When we think about project management, we often go straight to images of Gantt charts and Microsoft Project. While these are extremely useful tools and ways of thinking about project management, there are alternatives to these approaches that may approve more useful for you, depending on your learning and doing styles as well as your clients’ approaches to communication and project management. In this report, we’ve outlined various tools and processes that we encourage you to explore. Also, feel free to customize your own project management approach by borrowing elements of each – remember, it’s most important that the project is completed effectively, and it’s your job to make that happen in a way that works for you and your clients.

David Allen: Getting Things Done (GTD)

In previous articles, we’ve lauded the ways of David Allen and his “Getting Things Done” approach. While some of his approaches can be geared toward individual productivity, many can also be applied to project management.

With Allen’s “Getting Things Done” approach, you make your work/life/responsibilities into real, actionable items or things you can just get rid of. Everything you keep has a clear reason for being in your life at any given moment—both now and well into the future. This gives you an kind of confidence that a) nothing gets lost and b) you always understand what’s on or off your plate

Also built-in to the system are an ongoing series of reviews, in which you periodically re-examine your now-organized stuff from various levels of specifics to make sure your focus is on track. Similarly, Allen has put together a “project planning checklist” to help individuals consider the various ideas to be considered when creating and managing projects. These can be helpful triggers to help you create a customizable project management process. His project planning checklist includes thinking about:

Resources

• Whose input do we need?
• Whose input could we use?
• Has anything like this been done before?
• What mistakes can we learn from?
• What successes can we learn from?
• What resources do we have?
• What resources might we need?

Executive issues

• How does this relate to the strategic plan?
• How does it relate to other priorities, directions, goals?
• How will this affect our competitive position?

Administration

• Who’s accountable for this project’s success?
• Communication and reporting – methods and processes
• What structures do we need?
• What planning is still likely to be required?
• What people do we need?
• What skills are required?
• What training do we need?
• How do we get it?
• What other communication do we need?
• Who needs to be informed as we go along?
• What policies/procedures affected? What needed?
• What about morale? Fun?

Finance

• What will this cost?
• How do we get it?
• What might affect the cost?
• Might we need additional $?
• What are the potential payoffs ($)?
• Who signs the checks?

Operations

• What is the timing?
• Hard deadlines?
• What might affect timing?
• Who’s going to do the work?
• How do we ensure complete delivery?

Quality

• How will we monitor our progress?
• How will we know if we’re on course?
• What data do we need, when?
• What reports, to whom, when?

Politics

• Whose buy-in do you need?
• How can you get it?

Stakeholders – Considerations?

• Board
• Stockholders
• Employees
• Suppliers
• Customers
• Community

Legal

• Issues?
• Regulations?

Research

• What might you need to know?

Public Relations

• Is there value in others knowing about this?
• How do we do that?

Risks

• What could happen?
• Could we handle it?

Creative thinking

• Who would have concern about the success of this project?
• What would they say, ask, or input, that you haven’t yet?
• What’s the worst idea you can imagine, about doing this project?
• What is the most outrageous thing you can think of, about this project?
• How would a 12-year-old kid relate to this project?
• What would make this project particularly unique?

Online Project Management Tools

There are also a number of Web-based project management tools that may prove better aligned to your ways of work. Clarizen is an example of on-demand solution that allows you to effectively manage all your projects and resources with a dynamic, collaborative solution that incorporates the user-centric, interactive nature of the Internet with powerful project management tools.

Clarizen’s web-based project management solutions can help to manage the complete project life cycle from inception through to completion, to capture templates and best practices for future replication, and to connect team members across departments, functions, geographies and organizations.

For more information, and to participate in their free beta trials, visit www.clarizen.com.

Professional Project Managers

You also have the option to hire a professional project manager as an adjunct to you and your staff. There are likely significant costs associated with this option, but if you are strapped for time or resources, or if your project requires intense project management skills, this could be your best option. Visit http://www.pmi.org/info/default.asp to connect with a professionally certified project manager. Whatever your method, make sure it works for you. Nothing can compare to effectively manage projects. Remember, doing it well means more business from the same client referrals to others. It’s not a skill or process that can be overlooked, so make sure you invest the time into creating the process – whether traditional or alternative – that works for you.

Swipe Files: Your Marketing Toolbox

Simply put, the best way to learn about marketing is to watch and learn from what others do. This is where a swipe file can play a huge role in getting your creative juices flowing. A swipe file is a file or collection of marketing messages, headlines, techniques, etc. Essentially, whenever you see an example of great marketing you add it to your marketing collection. Anyone who has been involved in marketing, online or off, for any length of time knows that creating a swipe file is a huge help when it comes to designing your own marketing campaigns.

Before the Internet, a swipe file would contain a bunch of direct mail marketing pieces, newspaper ads and postcards. Today you can still have a file folder full of those kinds of things, but you should also consider starting a digital collection where you can put great examples of email marketing, headlines, digital sales letters, etc. Some of the best marketing messages that I’ve seen were only presented in an online format.

Leafing through a collection of marketing materials will likely bring on a deluge of ideas for how you can position, write about, or promote your own product — and that’s why you should create your own collection. Remember, you’re just looking for inspiration. Some find it useful to have a digital swipe file as well where they save email messages, article resource boxes, sales letters, great headlines, and other promotional materials that they find good and effective. Remember, a great marketing piece doesn’t have to relate directly to your chosen market to be useful to you… so save any marketing piece that works, regardless of the product.

Read more

The Ins and Outs of Solo 401Ks

One of the frightening things about launching your own business stepping away from your corporate sponsored 401k plan. Historically, the options available to small business owners for tax deferred retirement savings have been minimal.

But now, new options are available in the form of the “solo (or, one-person) 401k plan.” In the article below, we’ll provide you with an overview of what a solo 401K plan is, how it compares to other retirement options and additional resources for you to gather more information.

Solo 401K: The Basics
The solo 401k plan is suitable for businesses in which the owner or owners are the only employees.

This plan works in a situation where there are no common law employees. This means the plan can be used by the business owner, his or her spouse if working at the business, and any partners in the business and their spouses who work at the business. It could work well for businesses such as sole-practitioner professionals, partnerships, manufacturer’s representatives, small retail owners, freelance writers, computer consultants and electricians, to name a few.

Contributions to a solo 401k plan are based on revenue generated by your business. With a solo 401(k), annual contributions consist of two parts:

1. You can contribute up to 100% of the first $15,500 of your 2007 compensation or self-employment income ($20,500 if you’ll be 50 or older at year-end).
2. You can contribute and deduct an additional amount of up to 25% of your compensation income, or 20% of your self-employment income. This second part of your annual contribution is like what you can do with a traditional small-business retirement plan

You won’t be forced to contribute more than you can comfortably afford in years when cash is tight. You can always pay in less than the tax-law maximum or even nothing at all. In other words, the solo 401(k) lets you rack up major tax savings in the good years, while leaving you the option to contribute less (or zero) in the lean years, when conserving cash is your highest priority.

Read more

Parenthood and Entepreneurship: Is Work-Life Balance Elusive?

For most of us working out of our home is a massive advantage – and we wouldn’t trade it for the world. But as a parent, maintaining a barrier between work and family is a significant challenge. Just by being home you open yourself up to running your kids’ errands, myriad homework questions and the overwhelming blare of video games in the background.

It isn’t easy juggling the demands of parenthood with those of running your own business, but it can be done. What are some guidelines you can use to get the best of both worlds: being there for your kids while still maintaining a work environment in which you can be productive?

The most important thing is to be realistic about what you can achieve and whether you are prepared to infringe on family time to achieve it. From personal experience and feedback from numerous other entrepreneurs, we’ve created a few guidelines for you to consider:

1. Separate your time. Try separating work days and family days. An answering machine with a business message takes care of business phone calls on family days.

Of course, sometimes you can’t avoid doing work on family days. If you need to, make sure it doesn’t become a regular thing and try and arrange for some fun time for the children, either while you work, or when you have finished. You don’t need to mention to your clients and prospects that your day is filled with ballet practice and visits to the park. Just say that your calendar is full on that day and suggest another day and time.

2. Child care can be a good thing. Don’t feel bad about leaving your child in someone else’s care. It pays off to put some real effort into finding the quality care, even if it’s just one day a week. While you’ll likely do research and have some referrals, trust your instinct on the places you visit and the caregivers you interview. We’re all different and only you know what’s right for you.

3. Manage time with thoughtful goals in mind. Even when we are efficient in using our time, we may not be effective—we “do things right” but we don’t do the right things. Often, we don’t plan and schedule activities that move us toward our goals, especially our personal ones. We simply move from one reaction to the other, never really giving much thought into the fire drills we’re responding to – whether work or personal ones.

Try thinking about your children as an actual goal, much as you would your work. Similarly, treat your business like one of your children by giving it some of your undivided attention and letting it grow at a pace to fit in with your family.

Being a business parent means that there will be times when you just can’t avoid parental responsibilities, especially when children are sick. If you have a large network of family and friends to call upon, this may not affect you too often. For the most part, people will be understanding and will appreciate your honesty.

Most important, take it easy on yourself as you begin to establish a new routine around your business’ and children’s needs. Know that with these important tips in mind, you’re well on your way to establishing a healthier, more productive and balanced lifestyle.

Tax Time References for Small Business Owners

I can guarantee that tax time will not make your top ten list of exciting things to do. However, the pain of putting it off may be greater than actually doing it.

Our goal here is to provide you with some helpful tips and resources, specifically designed for the small business professional, to make the process as painless as possible!

Use Free Resources: Make the most of the Internet-based resources out there. One highly recommended one is Taxsites.com (http://www.taxsites.com). You’ll see links to lots of resources, however there are specific small business-related sites and documents that will offer the most value. Try http://www.taxsites.com/topicssmall-business.html.

Also, the IRS has a specific resource for small businesses at: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/index.html.

Free Your Calendar: A big culprit to procrastination is time. Take a look at your schedule and block out a specific day as tax day. If you need to close shop or get help to free your time, do it.

Start Small: Remember back to your company start-up. If you thought of all the tasks to start, you probably would have been paralyzed with fear. You succeeded by taking one step at a time. Apply the “start small” tactic to your tax preparation. Start with a simple task such as organizing your files and build from there.

Get a Bookkeeper: Being plagued by the amount of work to finish your small business tax return might suggest the need for a bookkeeper. He or she can help you organize your business, so every April your tax matters are easier to manage.

Use Tax Software: Tax software can automate many of the routine calculations of your tax return. Many programs come with all the necessary forms to ease the trouble of tax preparation.

Find an Accountant: As your small business grows, an accountant can help you avoid mistakes and frustration. An expert also can aid in other areas such as cash flow planning and providing practical advice.

Hire Yourself: What are you worth to your company? Calculate your earnings over the last year and divide by the time worked to get your hourly rate. Now estimate your tax return dollars divided into the hours to complete your return. If your figure is higher than or equal to your hourly rate, it should motivate you to start your tax return.

Get an Extension: Time is a rare commodity for most small business owners. Your tax procrastination may add more pressure and little time to your business. Consider filing an IRS Extension of Time to File Your Tax Return form.

Take a Tax Course: A lack of understanding often leads to delay. A one day course on small business tax can provide you with more knowledge and confidence. Consider the free IRS Small Business Workshop available online or through various partner organizations. Topics covered: recordkeeping, income, expenses, employment taxes, filing, and much more.

When you’re done with this year’s preparation, it doesn’t hurt to start thinking about next year. Some tax management basics like records management, especially for small businesses, can make a world of difference when April 2011 rolls around. All too soon.

Monday Motivation – January 23, 2009

It takes vision and courage to create — it takes faith and courage to prove.
—Owen D. Young

The traits of a successful business owners vary across the board. But common to all are vision, courage, and faith.

It takes vision to see the possibilities before you. To sense an opportunity where some may only see a ‘problem’… to take an idea that may seem ethereal and understand what it will take to make it real.

Proving out your ideas takes faith. Too many entrepreneurs fail because they give up too soon. They underestimate the sacrifice in the early years and they forget why they signed up for this gig in the first place. What else would you call the act of marching forward when the road seems so long, the challenges seem so daunting? That, my friends, is an act of faith.

You need courage to put your shackle up and go it alone in the first place. It takes audacity to walk away from a steady paycheck and a 401k plan. You need the wherewithal to hang on when others may have given up.

Not everyone can do it. This is your unique challenge.

Good luck and have a great week.

Thinking ‘Small’: Why Bigger Ain’t Better

We’ve all heard the saying, “Bigger is better.” Or is it?

In relation to companies, big has mattered. Big companies are associated with wealthy Fortune 500 conglomerates where value can be added due to large numbers of employees making functions more efficient. Such economies of scale made sense for growth’s sake. Small startups were traditionally always encouraged to get big quickly, primarily because large companies can go public and acquire more capital. Fancy stuff.

Yet, interestingly enough, small businesses are the backbone of the economy. The U.S. Small Business Administration says that small businesses create two of every three new jobs, produce 39% of the gross national product, and invent more than half the nation’s technological innovation. Simply because you operate a small company doesn’t mean you are unimportant.
Read more

Tips for Combating Buyer’s Remorse

So you closed the deal and you’re thrilled. For many, that’s the time to take a moment to take a breath and enjoy the success. You’ve established a solid foundation of valuable customer relationships.

Or so it seems.

What about how your customer is feeling? Whether it’s their money or the money of the company they work for, they’re prone to the common emotion that is known as “buyers remorse.”They’ve just made a big commitment to you — and now you have to come through. Of course, most customers want to avoid a bad experience — but many don’t relish the thought of having to tell you when your product or service isn’t meeting their expectations.

At this point, your job is to make them feel as comfortable as possible about their decision. This is particularly important for your small business, since much of your ongoing business will—and should—rely on customer referrals and repeat purchases from loyal customers.

This means going above and beyond the specifics of the product or service you just sold them. Your job is to make the experience so enjoyable that they can’t wait to brag to their friends and colleagues about how smart they were for picking you — which isn’t bad for your business either.

Why Do People Have Buyer’s Remorse? While it’s a natural human reaction, buyer’s remorse is an emotional state where a person feels regret after the purchase of an item. It’s usually associated with the purchase of higher value items, such as property or cars. An equally common source of disquiet is a sense than one cannot actually afford the item or that it represents more of a want than a need, despite any protestations to the contrary.

Basically, buyer’s remorse occurs out of a sense of caution. The bottom line: developing a trusted relationship with your customers at the outset will ease any potential worries they may have. However, buyer’s remorse can destroy many seemingly successful sales. Lack of referrals, talking bad about the company, and outright canceling the order are all symptoms of buyer’s remorse. It only takes a few extra steps and a head full of brains to stop its development within your customer.

Here are some ideas for pre-emptying possible customer remorse:

Create a “Thank You” packet:
The goal of the packet is to show your customer that you are grateful for their business. This is a tactic that many auto companies use after customers have purchased a vehicle. It can be as simple or complex as you’d like, but possible items could include gift certificates or inspirational books. If you have a more intimate knowledge of their interests, cater a gift or note to meet that need. It reinforces the relationship with your customers and validates their decision to buy from you.

Communicate with them:
Send a personal e-mail to your customer immediately following the purchase. It’s really that simple. If you have the resources, you can give your customers something to say by regularly communicating with them post-purchase via e-newsletters. Not only will it demonstrate that you are engaged in a dialogue with them, it gives you the chance to demonstrate your expertise with your product or service, which will further assuage their concerns and build confidence. Include other customers’ testimonials or stories about how other customers are using your product or service in unique ways. Ultimately, this helps to reinforce that they are not alone.

Make customers partners:
Actively solicit feedback from your customers, both good and bad. Let them know up front that this is something you regularly do and request that they partner with you. Not only will they provide insight on how you can improve your product or service, they will feel like trusted partners in your business.

And that’s your ultimate goal: to become the trusted agent that your customers come to rely on. For the long-term.

Next Page »