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
Staying Sane: Being Productive, Even in the Slow Times
So you just submitted a big proposal to a prospective client who could really make a difference for your business. If this one comes through, it could make your year – or at least it could cover your payroll for the next few months. You are naturally patient, understanding that it will take time for your prospective client to consider your proposal and potentially review competitors’ proposals.
Rather than waste this “waiting time” with busy work, why not make the most of it? Avoid going stir crazy – by making your time as productive as possible, you’ll feel better and you’ll likely be moving your business forward by acquiring new leads or cultivating existing ones.
Tips for Tapping into Time
We’ve outlined some key tasks that will not only make you feel productive, they will actually produce results. From contacting prospects to getting your business organized, the following tips are all key investments in your business and future.
Schedule a minimum of two hours a day for phone calling
Make your phone calls in the morning while you are your referrals are both fresh and alert, treating this time as you would any important appointment. Your objective for your calls is to create interst, gather data and make an appointment. You’ll feel good when you can get those parts completed.
Call your best customers
When’s the last time you talked to them? They are your best business asset, so invest time into them. A simple phone call is always appreciated. See how they’re doing, what’s new and if there’s anything you can do for them (and don’t forget to record new information into a customer profile!)
Go to industry or association events
Usually, networking activities are the first thing to go when we get busy. Now that you have some space, get up and get out. Talking to people – whether colleagues or potential clients – is not only good business relationship management, but a welcome social outlet.
Work on your customer database
Now is the time to start recording all of the interactions, phone calls and lists that have been either stored in your mind or on disparate pieces of paper. Taking the time to organize in a database (Microsoft Excel or Access are completely sufficient) will pay off in the long run.
So, did you get the call back? If it’s a good answer, great! If not, don’t take rejection personally. It is to be anticipated and is a natural part of the selling process. Learn from it by using it as a valuable feedback tool and keep persevering!
Making Ideas “Stick”
Over the years, numerous business ideas, philosophies and approaches have flooded our world, particularly with the proliferation of the Internet. But what makes one idea catch on with the masses and others fall to the wayside?
“Made to Stick,” by brothers Chip and Dan Heath, is an attempt to explain this peculiar fact and many others like it. Why is it that some ideas “stick,” remaining vivid in memory and calling on people to act, whereas others just fade away? Is it in the nature of the ideas themselves, or does it have something to do with how they are “packaged”? And if the latter, are there lessons to be learned about packaging that will help people who are trying to influence public opinion and action?
The brothers – who are experts in organizational behavior — have written a book that lays out the six core ingredients and illustrates them with powerful examples. A useful mnemonic device, the components are organized by the acronym “SUCCES.” To stick, ideas should be Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotion-evoking and entrenched in Stories.
We’ve provided a brief overview of the book and these six basic principles:
Principle 1: Simplicity
How do we find the essential basis of our ideas? To narrow an idea down to its core, we must prioritize and narrow thoughts. Saying something short is not the goal. You need a one-sentence statement so insightful that a person could spend a lifetime learning to follow it.
Principle 2: Unexpectedness
How do we get our audience to pay attention to our ideas, and how do we maintain their interest when we need time to get the ideas across? We need to be counterintuitive. We can engage people’s curiosity over a long period of time by systematically “opening gaps” in their knowledge- and then filling those gaps.
Principle 3: Concreteness
How do we make our ideas clear? We must explain our ideas in terms of human actions, in terms of sensory information. This is where so much business communication goes awry. Mission statements, synergies, strategies, visions-they are often ambiguous to the point of being meaningless. Speaking concretely is the only way to ensure that our idea will mean the same thing to everyone in our audience.
Principle 4: Credibility
How do we make people believe our ideas? Sticky ideas have to carry their own credentials. We need ways to help people test our ideas for themselves-a “try before you buy” philosophy for the world of ideas. When we’re trying to build a case for something, most of us instinctively grasp for hard numbers. But really, the goal is to ask help people ask questions that inspire them to think how an idea might apply to them on a personal level.
Principle 5: Emotions
How do we get people to care about our ideas? We make them feel something. Statistics usually don’t elicit emotions. We are wired to feel things for people, not for abstractions. Sometimes the hard part is finding the right emotion to harness.
Principle 6: Stories
How do we get people to act on our ideas? We tell stories. Research shows that mentally rehearsing a situation helps us perform better when we encounter that situation in the physical environment. Similarly, hearing stories acts as a kind of mental flight simulator, preparing us to respond more quickly and effectively.
To read further, visit www.madetostick.com.
Finding the Elusive Balance
“We do not remember days, we remember moments.”-Cesare Pavese
Long, long ago, employees worked from 9-5, Monday through Friday. Sure, there were occasional exceptions, but most of the time, the boundaries between home and work lives were clear.
Those were the days.
The world certainly has changed, and in many ways has made our lives easier with technological advances making our lives more efficient. But at the same time, the boundaries between work and home are blurrier for many workers, especially if you own your own business and/or work from home. The challenge ahead for many of us is to strike that balance to create the meaningful moments in both our work and home lives that keep us going.
By strict definition, work-life balance is a person’s control over the conditions in their workplace. It is accomplished when an individual feels dually satisfied about their personal life and their paid occupation. It mutually benefits the individual, business and society when a person’s personal life is balanced with his or her own job. The work-life balance strategy offers a variety of means to reduce stress levels and increase job satisfaction in the employee while enhancing business benefits for the employer. In our increasingly hectic world, the work-life strategy seeks to find a balance between work and play.
It isn’t easy to juggle the demands of career and personal life. For most people, it’s an ongoing challenge to reduce stress and maintain harmony in key areas of their life. Here are some ideas to help you find the balance that’s best for you:
- Keep a log. Track everything you do for one week. Include work-related and non-work-related activities. Decide what’s necessary and satisfies you the most. Cut or delegate activities you don’t enjoy, don’t have time for or do only out of guilt. If you don’t have the authority to make certain decisions, talk to your supervisor.
- Manage your time. Organize household tasks efficiently. Doing one or two loads of laundry every day rather than saving it all for your day off, and running errands in batches rather than going back and forth several times are good places to begin. A weekly family calendar of important dates and a daily list of to-dos will help you avoid deadline panic.
- Rethink your cleaning standards. An unmade bed or sink of dirty dishes won’t impact the quality of your life. Do what needs to be done and let the rest go.
- Fight the guilt. Remember, having a family and a job is okay — for both men and women.
- Nurture yourself. Set aside time each day for an activity that you enjoy, such as walking, working out or listening to music. Unwind after a hectic workday by reading, practicing yoga or taking a bath or shower.
- Set aside one night each week for recreation. Discover activities you can do with your partner, family or friends, such as playing golf, fishing or canoeing. Making time for activities you enjoy will rejuvenate you.
- Get enough sleep. There’s nothing as stressful and potentially dangerous as working when you’re sleep-deprived. Not only is your productivity affected, but you can also make costly mistakes. You may then have to work even more hours to make up for these mistakes.
- Read up on it. Some good resources are “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” by Richard Carlson and “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” by Dale Carnegie.
How To Hire & Manage Interns
Small businesses in Northeast Ohio – and across America, for that matter – have long used college student interns and recent grads as a helpful, low-cost human resource. Student interns are capable, motivated and – if well managed – highly valuable to your business. A great number of high school, college, graduate and vocational school students are eager to take advantage of the real-world business opportunities offered to them by local businesses — during the entire academic year and not just during the summer months.
With the University of Akron, Walsh University, Malone College, and Kent State (Stark) just down the road, local businesses access to a huge pool of talent.
An increasing number of students today are capable of far more than just clerical work. Many can competently handle complex projects in such areas as finance, public relations, event planning and Web site design/development. And, many students choose internships at small companies instead of larger ones because of the hands-on experience they can get.
The trick is the “well-managed” part. Small businesses too often hire interns without a plan. Success with interns requires finding the right people and creating a system that cultivates interns’ capabilities.
Creating Your Intern Program
Interns can help you and your employees be more productive by freeing up their time – all while providing valuable learning experiences for the intern. Take an inventory of substantive work you need done. Ask other employees what tasks an intern could perform – especially those “back burner” things that nobody else has time to complete. There are many things that interns can help with – however, to make it a mutually beneficial experience, consider setting up some of these tasks: Interns can help you and your employees be more productive by freeing up their time – all while providing valuable learning experiences for the intern. Take an inventory of substantive work you need done. Ask other employees what tasks an intern could perform – especially those “back burner” things that nobody else has time to complete. There are many things that interns can help with – however, to make it a mutually beneficial experience, consider setting up some of these tasks:
- identify prospects
- pursue business leads
- write or send press releases
- plan events
- identify news media for publicity
- prepare award submissions
- do Web research on your industry or competitors
- refresh Web site content
- assist with presentations, design charts, graphs and posters
- recruit the next interns
Getting Started
To help get you started, we’ve compiled some key steps to launching and managing your intern program:
- Attract candidates by posting internship positions online. Some internship sites let you post positions for free, others have small per/month charges for a listing. Employers can also post internship positions at Internships.com where a month-long listing is $10.
- Contact the internship/career offices of local high schools, colleges, universities, vocational schools and graduate schools. Internship coordinators help match students’ abilities with employers’ needs.
- Assign someone in your business (it may just be you) to have overall responsibility for your internship program, and be allotted the time and resources to properly manage it.
- Determine if you have adequate workspace with access to computers and other tech tools.
- Interns need a clear sense of guidance and structure, as they may be in a business for the first time. Schedules, work plans and deadlines will help.
- Documentation is very important for effective learning to take place. It is strongly advisable that an employer and intern create mutually agreed upon learning objectives.
Using interns in your organization can result in many benefits. It is important to do some careful planning before creating your internship program. You can be sure to continue recruiting from your pool of internship candidates and foster positive public relations by implementing an effective, thorough internship program.
Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan
The Small Business Owners Daily Work Plan
We all have emergencies that enter into our world. But if we let ourselves be driven by the latest & loudest, we never make progress towards our long term goals.
If we’re going to ‘advance the ball’, we need to Plan Our Work & Work Our Plan.
Successful business owners wake up each morning, assess their progress towards our goals, and make darn sure they take one step – as small as it may be — towards that goal.
Each day builds on the success of the previous day.
Unfortunately, most of us start our days just by picking up what’s left over from yesterday. We scan our emails, we pick up the latest emergency, and we let ourselves be victims to all the stuff coming at us.
If our work has no context – no meaning – we end up feeling overwhelmed. Worse, we don’t advance the most critical projects to our success and happiness.
It’s what Stephen Covey called putting the ‘Big Rocks First.’
In a famous example from his book, First Things First, Covey tells the story of a teacher in front of a class with a wide-mouth gallon jar. Next to the jar is a pile of fist-sized rocks.
After filling the jar to the top with the rocks, the teacher asks the class if the milk jug is full. The class answers, ‘Yes.’
The teacher then takes out a box of tiny pebbles underneath his desk and then places them into the container, topping it off.
The teacher asks again if the container is full? Tentatively, they answer ‘Yes’ again.
The teacher then takes out a bag of sand and pours it into the container filling it to the top. Then he takes water and pours it into the container.
He says ‘Ok, NOW it’s full?’
Using an Egg-Timer To Increase Productivity
Procrastination can sneak up on us when we least expect it. Certainly, we’ve all been in situations where we’ve raced against the clock to finish tasks, only to find we could have done a more thorough and complete job – with more successful outcomes – if we had planned and prioritized better.
But never fear – there are simple yet powerful tools you can use to overcome procrastinating habits and make them a thing of the past. For any given task, using these strategies can make all the difference in achieving the real business outcomes for which you have worked so hard.
1. Set a budget for the task. You can think about this in terms of a time budget as you would for budget money items you would purchase. For time budgets, list out your tasks with the “budgeted” or approximate amount of time you think it will take to complete it. This places the task in perspective and may prompt you to prioritize your time differently. Read more
10 Mistake Small Business Owners Make (And How to Avoid Them)
Well, here it is. Our FREE 26-page eBook
‘ 10 Mistakes Small Business Owners Make (And How to Avoid Them)‘
Simply register for our Web site and you’ll get the full report.
What’s more…you’ll be added to our mailing list which will keep you in the loop on all future business networking and education events hosted by Office Space Coworking in Akron. THE place where Akron Small Business Owners meet, work, and succeed.
Who This E-Book Is For
This book is for people who started their business wanting one thing: INDEPENDENCE.
For many that may mean financial independence. But, I’m talking independence in truest form.
I’m talking about the freedom to work WHEN you want, WHERE you want, HOW you want, and with WHO you want. I’m talking about the freedom to work on things that EXCITE you.
And YES, I’m talking about making as much money as you dream about making in the process.
This book is for people who got into business to so they can build the lifestyle they’ve always dreamed of having.
What is this book ultimately about? Connecting the dots.
Your greatest challenge as a business owner is taking the vision you have for you, your business, and your family and making them all work together.
Your job is to take that vision and make it ACTIONABLE. Your job is to focus on your long term goal while taking incremental steps towards that vision each and every chance you get.
This E-Book Is NOT For
- People who believe you need to work 70 hours a week to be successful
- People who believe their job is to sit at a desk and ‘get stuff done’
- Anyone who dismisses Vision as ‘hogwash’
- People who define success solely by how much money you have in the bank
About the Author
Kelly Brown, founder of the Office Space Coworking, has 20 years of experience leading entrepreneurial organizations.
Kelly founded Office Space Coworking in 2008 after serving several years as the Chief Operating Officer and Marketing Director for a publishing organization based in Canton, Ohio. Under Kelly’s leadership net operating profits doubled and ROI from marketing activities increased by over 150%.
Kelly is also a CPA. While he no longer practices public accounting and feigns ignorance when asked for tax advice, he does know his debits from his credits and is a whiz when it comes to P&Ls and spread sheet analysis.
Small Business Owner
Kelly started his first business at age 16 then started his second at age 26. After deciding to sell the business and take a leadership position in the purchasing organization. While he enjoyed the comforts of the traditional corporate environment, he felt the itch to start his third business, Small Business Guru, in 2006.
Small Business Advocate
Kelly’s passion is business. He loves teaching others how to grow and manage their business and has spoken at meetings and conventions across the United States and in Canada. His goal? To give entrepreneurs and small business owners affordable access to the same high-level management expertise that only large companies with big budgets can afford.
‘Business is Simple’ Approach
Kelly is ‘old school.’ He ascribes to philosophies of the Carnegies (both Andrew & Dale), Deming, Drucker, Wunderman, Covey, & (most recently) Allen (GTD).
Kelly believes business owners should seek to be their own guru through education and peer interaction. The answers are out there and are as old as time, you just need to know where to look and who to ask.
