• You want more interaction
• You want more effective positioning
• You want more promotion
• You want more of your personality injected into your relationships
• You want to put your finger on the pulse of who is listening

… And an event can do that.

In this article of Tips In Ten I’ll give you a few ways to promote your event. If you have all the details already worked out, you can do a fairly significant amount of promotion in just ten minutes thanks to a variety of social media tools.

What kind of events am I talking about?
An event would be any time-specific situation where you gather a group of people together. Events could be online or offline or a mix; anything from a teleconference, teleseminar, or webinar to a face-to-face meeting or an after-hours networking event at a local cafe. It could be a large event or a small one. It could be an open-invitation event or a closed invitation event. It all depends on your business and your market. Here are some examples of events I’ve seen or participated in:

• A time management coach who is trying to create some local interest for his or her coaching services might put on a free seminar at a local library.

• A social media consultant who wants to introduce newbies to the world of Twitter and Facebook might put on a webinar.

• An entrepreneur who has a big list of clients might rent out a café or bar one evening and invite people for some networking and finger food.

• A freelancer who is just starting to work with a brand new client and wants to meet his or her team for the first time might hold a teleconference to introduce themselves.

If you are looking for some effective ways to grow your business, consider the following kinds of events:

• Phone-in teleseminars where people call or email their questions and you answer them.

• Seminars (or webinars) where you dish out advice on hot topics that people need answers about.

• A collection of speakers or experts who can share insights or field questions.

• A networking event where like-minded people share and connect with each other and promote themselves.

• Webinars to walk people through a complex idea or situation where showing is more effective than telling (and where showing a bunch of people at once is faster than showing them one at a time).

• Meeting a group of people at once (such as in a project management setting or a sales presentation).

So there are a lot of reasons to have an event. Use your imagination and create regular events to grow your business.

So, let’s say that you have an event and you want to promote it to get people to come to it. What do you do?

What you need before you promote it
You need to set up the event. Know the date, time, venue (Online? Offline?) and how people can get there or connect to it. You need the topic and a compelling title. If you’re creating an online event, don’t forget to keep time zones in mind. (Scheduling a meeting for 9AM Eastern on a weekday might sound like a great idea to get a good start to your day but you won’t make any friends with the people in Pacific Time who are just crawling out of bed and trying to get breakfast for the kids.)

I won’t give you a lot of details on how to develop and create an event because this Tips In Ten is about promoting your event, not setting one up, and those details really depend on how you are going to deliver your event. But you need to do that part first.

Then, write down these four things and they will become the core of your ten minute promotional blitz:

• What: What is the event called?
• Why: Why should someone go?
• When: When is it?
• Where: Where do they go or click?

Now it’s time to promote your event.

Promoting your event in ten minutes

Email your list. (Duration: 2 minutes). Obviously, you should email your subscribers, clients, and prospects with short, friendly invitation. Something along the lines of: “You’re invited to my teleseminar on time management next week. We’ll talk about the 5 ways you can get more time out of your already busy day and the 3 resources you absolutely need if you hope to be more efficient. To attend…”. It’s clear and straightforward.

Blog about it. (Duration: 1 minute). Easy: Copy and paste your email into your blog. Maybe add some flair (or don’t if you’re pressed for time). Again, you’re just communicating the what, why, when, and where. If you don’t have a lot of people to invite, you may need to write a little more sales copy into your work to “sell” your readers on why they should be there.

Tweet it. (Duration: 15 seconds). Easy. Just tweet the main benefit, the date and time, and how to get there. Or, if you don’t have enough space in your tweet, try something like: “Free webinar on time management” with a link to the blog post you just wrote (above). Schedule regular tweets to promote your event.

Post the event on Facebook. (Duration: 2 minutes). Facebook is an easy way to promote events to friends and fans and the general public. Sign in to Facebook. On your home page, you’ll see “Events” on the left:

When you click on it, you’ll get to this events page:

Click the “Create an Event” button. And that will take you to the events creation page:

On this page, just follow the instructions, most of which you already determined when you were setting up the event. Add a picture if you want. You can select guests from among your friends, invite others with an email address, and add a personal message if you’d like (which you can rip off from the email you’ve already sent out). Choose whether or not to make it a public event and whether or not to add the guest list to the event page. When you’re done, click the blue “Create Event” button.

… And you’re done. Easy!

Post the event on LinkedIn. (Duration: 3 minutes). LinkedIn has a similar event creation interface so if you are holding an event with a business purpose, LinkedIn gives you exposure to a wider audience. Sign in to LinkedIn. Along the top of your Account interface is this menu:

Hover your cursor over the “More” link and you’ll see “Events” on the list. Click it and you’ll end up here:

Select the “Add an Event” tab (as shown) and simply put in the information you’ve already been disseminating elsewhere: The name of the event, the date and time, the venue name, etc.  And if you click on “Add more details”, you get the following:

That’s it. It’s pretty easy to get your event out there in front of your prospects and clients and generate an audience.

Of course there’s more that you can do if you have more than ten minutes to spend (or if you delegate this part to someone else).

Check out social media event sites like:

www.eventbrite.com
www.meetup.com
www.eventful.com
www.upcoming.org

These event sites might be appropriate for you (although some of them are more applicable to in-person events than online events).

Related posts:

1. Running a Fan-Attracting Facebook Page in 10 Minutes a Day
2. How to Get ‘LinkedIn’ like a Superstar… in Ten Minutes a Day
3. Ezines in 10 Minutes a Day- Part 2 – Picking your Software

As I help develop productivity systems and procedures for entrepreneurs and small business owners, I’ve found myself developing another type of project management system – one I call the “self-direct project management system” – for business owners who need to share their projects with staff.While most small business owners run their own businesses, they often bring in others to work for them. For example, they might have a virtual assistant a few hours a week, or they might have a web development freelancer take care of their website, or they might outsource some of the preliminary work performed for a client deliverable, or they might have a couple of staff members. Even if you are a solopreneur running a sole proprietorship, you’ll still probably have some kind of “employee” or outsourced vendor at some point in the future. In all of these cases, it’s handy to have a system that is visible for each person so both they and you can see what is going on. That’s why I call it a “self-directed project management system”, because your staff can manage their own project management and you can keep an eye on everything.

(By the way, I’m going to use the term “employee” throughout this issue but be aware that I could mean employee, virtual assistant, freelancer, outsourced vendor, or whomever you might hire to do the work).

There are several project management programs out there and many of them are pretty good. If you wanted to just use one that already exists, and if you were willing to invest the money for it, you might consider some of the following, which I’ve used:

• BaseCamp
• Wrike
• Intervals
• Zoho Projects

I’ve tried these and there are good points and bad points about each one; it really depends on your business and your work style. Also, in a lot of cases, these only give limited access for free and you need to pay to create more projects or use more features.

One complaint I have with a couple of these systems is that there are too many bells and whistles for some entrepreneurs. Some of my clients want a really simple, straightforward system that is easy to use, easy to share, and easy to customize if necessary, and they don’t want to pay money for many of the extra features that they may not use. And that’s the system I’m going to show you in this issue of Tips In Ten.

The system I’m going to show you can be set up in moments, it only takes ten minutes a day to manage all of your projects, and it is free and really simple to use. Not only that, it is far more customizable to your business than the project management systems I’ve listed above. It’s very light, and although there are no bells and whistles, it works. (And I’ve discovered that something nice and simple that works is far better than something you pay for with lots of nice features that you never use.)

System Set-up (Duration: 10 minutes)
Setting up is really easy and only takes two minutes.

Sign into GoogleDocs and open a new spreadsheet. Save it as your Master Project Management Template.

Edit it like this: In the “A” column, write “Project” then “Goal” then “Measurable” (x 2) then “Task” (x 20 or so), as I’ve done below:

Save it and you’re done.

You’ve set it up in less time than it would take you to search for and buy a piece of project management software and try to figure it out!

Apply to roles (Duration: Varies. Only a few seconds per role)
When you bring someone on board in your business to get them working for you, just open the spreadsheet, click “File” and select “Make a Copy” (which is like “Save As”). When you’re prompted to name it, give it a name related to the project team or employee it is for.

If I was going to use this for a web developer/internet marketer I’ve hired, I would save it with that role as the name: “Web Dev and Internet Marketing”.

Then, just share it with that person by sending an invitation via email.

Creating projects (Duration: Typically less than 10 minutes)
When you’ve assigned and shared a project management document with a particular employee, you can quickly and easily add projects.

Step 1: List projects: Open the file for that role (“Web Dev and Internet Marketing” in the example I’ve given) and list the projects you want them to work on across the top (“Projects”) row. In the example I’m giving, let’s say that I want them to do 2 projects – design a new website and do some internet marketing.

Step 2: Write down your goal: I like giving people the big picture of whatever project they are working so I try to put down a goal for each project.

Step 3: List measurables: Measurables are important ways for people to know if they are being successful or not. Certainly not every project has a measurable – some are as simple as “just get it done” but I’ve suggested 3 spaces in case you want to put something in.

Step 4: List tasks: This is really easy to do. Just write the due date and the task in one cell and put them in order.

Other tips
Easy color coding: When your employees use this system, all they need to do is highlight the particular project they are working in one color (I’ve used yellow) and then highlight it in another color when they are done (I’ve used red). You might also want other colors for “on hold/waiting” but try to avoid introducing too many other colors into the system. Just keep it clean and simple.

Comments: If you need to give more instructions, just use the comments features (Insert > Comment) and type your comment for that field.

When finished: When a project is completely done, just delete the whole column to keep your space uncluttered.

Using the system (for employees)
All your employees have to do is open up the file when they do your work, highlight the project they are working on, and do the work.

Using the system (for you) (Duration: Typically just a few seconds per document)
Using this system is really easy and will rarely take a full ten minutes each day, even if you have several staff. Just sign in and check for the yellow-highlighted cells.

• Are they on track?
• Is the project they are working on going to land on your desk for review?

If there is a project with nothing highlighted in yellow, follow up – they’ve either forgotten to highlight it or haven’t started yet and a quick phone call or email will resolve that.

That’s it! It’s a nice, clean, simple system that allows your employees (even if it’s a distributed workforce of temporary freelancers) to manage their projects and for you to give some oversight to it.

Related posts:

1. Project Management in 10 Minutes
2. Project management best practice: The report
3. Project Management Success Requires Flexibility

I’ve recommended sites like Guru and Elance for this purpose. I like these sites because they provide business owners with an efficient way to get several quotes on their project at once. This is a good use of time and a great way to find the right freelancer at the right price. Of course, there are other sites out there (vWorker and Odesk come to mind) and these ideas apply to most of those sites, too.

In a previous Tips In Ten article, I listed a six step process that you could use to find freelancers or contractors to work on your projects. Step three was creating a request-for-proposal and I talked in more detail about that in the last issue. And that’s where we left off: You had taken ten minutes to post a project on Guru or Elance and proposals (or bids) were starting to come in.

In this article, I’ll talk about comparing proposals and sorting them to ultimately hire the right contractor.

In general, the early stage of finding the right contractor is basically a sorting stage. You’ll have a big list of freelancers who have submitted bids for your project and you need to sort them. The fastest way to start sorting them is into a “definitely no” pile and a “maybe” pile. If you do this electronically, you might be able to just delete the “no” people right away while you keep the “maybe” people.

And how do you choose the “definitely no” people to delete? My advice: Start by eliminating:

1.   People who clearly are not proposing a solution to your problem. Yes, you’ll get some people who will make you wonder: “Did they even read my proposal?”
2.   People whose lack of talent is apparent. This will be easy to spot: If they send you samples that are of extremely low quality, get rid of them.
3.   People with poor feedback. You should be able to see feedback that people have received. If they have bad overall feedback, get rid of them.

After you’ve done that, it’s now time to take that group of remaining “maybe” freelancers and cut them in half.

At this stage, people often look to price as a key indicator, especially if they have never worked with freelancers before. It seems to make sense because it’s an easy metric to observe. However, you’ll find that there is a broad range of talent and it doesn’t always mesh with price: You can find talented freelancers in a range of prices and you can find untalented ones in a range of prices. Automatically sorting by price (at this stage) is a mistake.

So, how do you cut that pool of “maybe” freelancers in half? I’d suggest this simple exercise, which you should do periodically throughout the proposal process: List the names of all of the “maybe” freelancers on a piece of a paper (or in an Excel spreadsheet) and then review their proposals against the following questions, awarding either a 1 or a 0 as a score for each question:

1.    Do they show that they understand the project and have the expertise and samples to back it up?
2.    Do they make proactive recommendations or provide guarantees? (Good professionals will provide these things).
3.    Can they communicate in a way that you understand and can work with?
4.    Do they provide clear financial AND timeline parameters?
5.    Do they fit with your financial AND/OR timeline requests?

You’ll notice that question 4 and question 5 are similar. This is why you need to ask both: Question 4 makes sure that the freelancer understands, communicates, and commits to both financial and timeline parameters. Question 5 compares their view of the project with your own. (It’s possible that you have under-estimated or over-estimated the budget or timeline).

So, by assigning a simple 1 or 0 to each question for each of your professionals, you’ll get stellar rockstars who have scores of five and you’ll find a bunch of mismatches who have scores of zero… and a bunch of freelancers in between. This will make it really easy to eliminate half or more of your freelancers. (I’d suggest that you eliminate any freelancer who scores three or less. If you’re still left with a whole bunch, then eliminate any freelancer who scores four or less. And there’s a very good chance that you’ll end up picking someone who scores four or five out of five on this list.

If your project’s proposal acceptance period has expired then you should have a small pool to draw from. (That’s why doing the above exercise periodically throughout the process will help you to manage the amount of time you spend sorting the professionals).

I keep saying that price shouldn’t be used as a sorting tool, but you will at some point need to think about price. I believe it’s better to do it towards the end, once you have a list of freelancers culled down to a few. But even then, don’t make your decision based on price alone. Instead, make your decision based on the balance between price and return on investment. You might find that one price will give you one level of return but a slightly higher price can give you a disproportionately higher return. In that case, you’ll want to revisit your budget and see if you can rework something to get the return that is better.

As you narrow the field, contact the freelancers and let them know that they are on a short-list and then give them an approximate date that you will have reached a decision. Do not invite them to do anything else to further compete. Just thank them for bidding and give them the brief heads-up. This will do two things:

1.    It will make sure that they set aside the time. Freelancers who are busy will appreciate the notice. (This can help to make sure your project gets started sooner and completed on time).
2.    It will also help you to identify really good professionals who might sweeten the deal or offer additional resources or information for you. (By letting them be proactive, you’ll see who from among your shortlist most wants to work with you).

By using this simple sorting method, it is possible to find the ideal freelancer in less than ten minutes a day.

Bonus Tips:

• Once you know who your freelancer is, give them a timeline to start. Many projects are awarded but never get past that stage so your chosen contractor will be more prepared when you give them a timeline.
• Stay in touch with your contractor. Make sure that they are equipped with all of the information they need to do the job.
• Treat the freelancer professionally and courteously.
• Provide constructive criticism during the review stage. This is far more helpful than “looks good” or “needs work”.
• When the project is complete, pay them promptly and leave feedback.

Some freelancers or contractors might seem like order-takers who simply do the work you need them to do when you need them to do it. Sometimes these freelancers are the kind we want. However, if you find the right freelancer who is a proactive partner, and you treat them as a professional colleague, you will get higher quality work and a long-term peer who truly wants to see your business do well. When they understand your business goals, they can provide a more valuable contribution to your business.

Related posts:

1. Creating Requests of Proposals that Get Results…
2. How to Hire Freelancers and Contractors in 10 Minutes a Day
3. Successful Business Proposals in Just Ten Minutes a Day

There could be any number of reasons why we have to extend some form of credit to our clients: Perhaps all of your competition is doing it and if you didn’t, you’d be out of business; perhaps you are a freelancer who requires payment when the project is complete and not before; perhaps the customer cuts a check on a certain day of the month; perhaps you offer a service in which you collect a fee at the end of the month for usage; perhaps you’re a consultant who collects payment based on the ROI you deliver (and thus need to wait for it to be measured first); perhaps you delivered your product or service and the customer realized that they simply couldn’t pay it all right now… I could go on and on.

Whatever the reason, in most cases, giving customers the option to buy now and pay later comes with the territory. As soon as you extend credit and your customer owes you money, you step into the world of receivables. For many business owners (especially the new ones) this is an uncomfortable place to be. You don’t want to have to send reminders. You don’t want to have to make collection calls. You NEVER want it to get to the point where a customer simply doesn’t pay and walks away with your product or service. As a business owner, it’s easy to take that personally because you pay all of your bills and you treat people fairly and put your heart and soul into the business, so when someone who takes your product or service without paying, it FEELS no different than if someone stole from you.

And yet, you can’t escape it: You need to offer credit. So, what can you do to manage the situation, to avoid people from becoming “deadbeat” clients, and to collect the money that is rightfully owed to you?

The good news is, the work doesn’t have to be as unpleasant as it seems. And it doesn’t have to take as long as it seems, either. In just ten minutes a day you can manage your receivables, and because you are managing them you’ll be more likely to collect more money owed to you.

Get Started

Before you can manage your receivables effectively in 10 minutes a day, you’ll need to have a couple of systems in place first. Set these up and the 10 minutes a day will be time well spent. Setting up these processes might take a week of 10 minutes a day just to work through on their own. That’s okay. These are extremely valuable systems to have in place and they will put you in a good position over the long run to minimize bad debt and maximize the credit you collect.

First, you need to have a list of money owed. Some like a paper list, printed off regularly; others like an Excel spreadsheet; others have a bookkeeping system or invoicing service that will generate a list for them. Pick whatever works for you but at the very least you’ll need a list of people who owe you money, no matter how old that money is, and it would be nice to have it sorted by date. If it’s electronic, it will be refreshed constantly. If it’s in paper format, print off a new list each week. This is your receivables list and you’ll use it when you read the next Tips In Ten issue. So, take ten minutes and get the list and put it in order.

Second, you need to know what your average operating expenses are and how your income is split between immediate payment and receivables. Figure out the maximum amount of credit you are comfortable giving out in a month. This is your monthly risk threshold number. Divide this number by the average amount of credit you give to each customer and that will tell you how many customers you can give credit to. For example, if you determine that you don’t want to give out more than $5,000 worth of credit in a month, and customers are granted an average of $500 credit, then you can’t have more than 10 customers at a time on credit. If you want to give credit to more customers than that number, you’ll need to start collecting a security deposit from each one. By figuring these numbers out, you will avoid over-extending the credit you provide and that will help you to avoid scrambling to cover your operations with loans and credit cards while you get customers to pay. Many businesses fail in their first two years, not always because of a lack of customers, but many times because they over-extend the amount of credit they give and then don’t have enough money to cover operating expenses. Take 10 minutes one day (or over a couple days if you need to) and make sure you know these numbers. As long as there is cash flow, from old receivables being paid and from customers who pay cash, you can extend some credit but you need to find the balance for your business.

Third, put good processes in place including a consistent invoicing process, some payment terms, and a credit approval process. Obviously you don’t want to make it impossible for people to buy from you, but here’s what I would suggest:

• You should have your terms already set out. Know what they are and don’t shoot from the hip. And, if you have to extend a lot of credit, offer incentives to people who pay early or who pay on time or who pay within a certain period. This is much easier and way more positive than charging interest on late payments (although you might have to do that, too, and that’s okay).

• The more someone buys from you, the more information you should expect from them. Verify their phone numbers and email addresses.

• Do some research about them online, if appropriate. Do they have a web presence? Even something simple like seeing how many followers they have on Twitter, how many connections they have on LinkedIn and how many blog posts they have in their blog won’t mitigate every receivable issue but it will help you to know how long they’ve been around and how easy it is to get in touch with them.

• Create thresholds of amounts owing and connect those with payments you expect from them. For example, if you’re going to give someone $1000 credit, require a minimum payment of $250. A security deposit, for example, might be the right choice for your business. And the more credit they need, the more security deposit you require.

• I don’t need to tell you that you shouldn’t extend credit to everyone every time they ask. For example, if someone doesn’t pay one bill for a long time, then pays it and expects credit again – they shouldn’t get credit. Or another example: A brand spanking new client from a business you’ve never heard of before, who approaches you with a huge order and demands full credit. – that’s a no-go in my books.

This might seem like it will take more than 10 minutes but you probably already have some of this in place, it just needs to be formalized.

Lastly, managing your receivables actually starts long before you deliver your product or service, and even before the customer contracts your services. It starts with a relationship. Build one. You don’t have to be best friends with your clients but you should try to connect with them, empathize with them, and be friendly with them. It’s good for all aspects of your business. It helps them to be more loyal, it helps you to understand them better when you need to sell them something, and it helps to diminish the likelihood that they will not pay. On the occasions in which I’ve had non-paying clients, of the ones with whom I never had a relationship, I know that income is gone; but of the ones with whom I’ve had a relationship, I’ve actually had “troublesome” clients call me back a year and a half later and pay me based solely on the foundation of my earlier relationship with them.

When you have these things in place, you’re ready to manage your receivables in ten minutes a day. That’s what I’ll cover in the next Tips In Ten article.

Related posts:

1. Manage Your Receivables like a Rock Star – Part 2: Execution
2. Solve Your Business Problems in Just 10 Minutes
3. Mastering Sales and Selling More -Part 1

I coach a client who is a freelancer. He’s generally productive and looking at different strategies to grow his small business. In a conversation a couple of weeks ago he mentioned that he had just spent an hour browsing through a website that collected and posted complaints that freelancers have about their clients. He related at how funny it was to read these complaints because so many of them mirrored his own experience with customers.

Now, if someone is relatively productive, the occasional internet browsing is okay and it’s nice to take a break to laugh at something funny. But my advice to him was to drop the site from his bookmarks. It’s not that it would make him unproductive – that’s not the issue that he and I are working on. Rather, the site is poison. It’s highlighting something that is negatively funny about paying clients who are very much like his own. While a humorous site is okay, a site like the one he was browsing can bring serious harm to his business because it can highlight things he doesn’t like about customers in general (and his customers specifically!). I’ve seen it happen: Negative talk about customers can turn into negative feelings toward customers. That’s poison.

We all face poison from time to time in our business. It might be a website that poisons us into becoming annoyed at our customers. It might be a toxic relationship with a friend, family member, vendor, or client that derails us from being productive and confident. It could be something big or it could be just a comment made in passing.

You need to identify and eradicate the poison in your business. Start with a list of the things that annoy you. Make a list of the top ten things that drive you absolutely crazy. (Even if you have more than ten, start with the ten most annoying). Is it a customer? Is it something about your processes or marketing? Is it a friend or relative? Is it something you said to someone else that you can’t stop thinking about? Is it a challenge that you face when you try to do something?

If there are several similar things on your list, use that as a warning sign for you to make big changes. You may find that it’s mostly customers. That’s not a good sign. It means that you need to filter your customers better or you need to improve your own attitude about customers in general (as I advised my client to do). Is it mostly receivables? That’s not a good sign. It means that you need to create stricter terms or demand more money up-front.

A more normal situation would be to have a variety of annoyances on the list. That’s okay because we’ll always encounter annoying things. Use the list as a sort-of “to-do” list and deal with each annoyance as it comes. That will help to get rid of poisonous, toxic situations in your life that threaten your business. It will keep stress down and productivity and enjoyment up.

Oh, and once you’ve created your poison list this week and solved it… do it again next week. And the week after. And the week after that. Make it a regular habit and you’ll enjoy your work even more!

Happy Blogging!

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I was recently reading a blog in the New York Times (published October 15th) by a CEO of a NY-based company. She referenced that, in a previous blog (published October 7th), she had written about ways to bypass high-priced agencies and run your own PR. And in that blog, someone had shared with her a brilliant piece of wisdom which sounds like something I tell people every day: In essence, the commenter said “you’re already busy as a CEO; why do the PR yourself as well? Focus on your core competencies to build your business and leave PR to someone else.” Read her original October 7th blog, entitled “Which PR Firm Do You Use?” .

That was her October 7th blog and she followed it up a week later with a reflection on that comment and the challenges she faces in deciding what work to keep and what work to delegate. Read her follow-up October 15th blog entitled “More On Do It Yourself PR and My Role as CEO” .

Finding the delegation balance amidst our busy roles
Many of us have been in her shoes: We’re leading a growing organization and trying to discover the balance between what we should do ourselves and what we give up. Although there are different sizes of businesses – the freelancer who hires a virtual assistant and the CEO of a 15-person firm who hires a COO, and everything in between – the challenge is surprisingly similar: Each leader is busy and has to figure out what to give up and what to keep.

Rules of thumb for leaders who want to delegate
First, give up what you don’t like to do. After all, you should enjoy your work! This isn’t always possible, depending on who you hire, but it might help to influence who you hire. (For example, if you’re a freelancer and you hate selling, you might want an assistant who can handle a large part of your selling process).

Second, give up the work that isn’t related to your core competency. This is easier to do for the freelancer than for the CEO of the larger business because a freelancer can easily identify his or her core competency as the specific revenue-generating activities they do. But a CEO has core competencies that are not necessarily specific to revenue generation, and this is discussed briefly in the October 15th blog I referenced earlier. The CEO is good at PR, even if she’s not running a PR firm. So, core competencies are more “business-growing” activities rather than strictly “revenue-generating” activities. If you’re a CEO and you’re a visionary, then embrace that and hand off the day-to-day to a COO.

Third, give up the work that is your core competency. No, this advice doesn’t conflict with the passage above. I think it’s the “next step” in taking a small business into the big business world. Small business owners do the revenue generation themselves; in big businesses, leaders eventually need to pass off business growing activities to sales and marketing experts, revenue-generation activities to production people, and they even willingly pass off core competency work to others, ideally duplicating their effort by sharing their wisdom. Take a look at a mammoth company like Dell: Michael Dell may have once picked up a screwdriver to assemble a computer… that was a revenue generating core competency of his. However, I’m fairly certain that he hasn’t picked up a screwdriver in a quite a while. And even if he has competencies in other areas (like efficient systems, for example) we can be fairly certain that he has other people doing that too. He’s kept a few things and passed off many other things (business building, revenue generating, core competencies) to other people.

Certainly, there are no easy answers and it does look different for every business owner or business leader. But one answer is clear: You can’t do it all so you have to pass some things to other people.

Happy Blogging!

Related posts:

1. There’s only one thing that can’t be delegated
2. The conundrum of committedness – part 3

It’s true! In the steps between running a business on your own and running a staffed organization, you need to get more done (so hiring makes sense) but you don’t always have the money to hire a part time or full time employee.

There is a step in between that, though, and is called “outsourcing”. This is where you have staff for your business, but they aren’t employees; they are freelance professionals who specialize in the area of work you need. This level of scalability is the perfect way to grow a business while avoiding the high costs associated with adding staff.

Virtual staff might include virtual assistants or freelancers who are hired online and who deliver services that help the business.

There are numerous advantages to this often overlooked intermediate step:

• There are no overhead or equipment costs associated with virtual staff: That’s because they’ll work at their own places of business not yours. This allows you to run a vast multinational conglomerate… out of a spare bedroom.

• Since qualified virtual staff can be acquired through a VA firm and freelancers can be acquired through a freelance site (like Guru.com), a lot of the “footwork” is taken care of: The VA firm hires and trains their VA’s while Guru gives business owners an easy way to view a freelancer’s feedback from employers on past contracts.

• Their time is scalable: With an employee, you need to pay them a minimum number of hours each day that they show up. But if your work is sporadic (which is often the case during the growth period of a business), it can be costly to pay employees who might be needed one week and not needed another week. A VA, however, can have their hours scaled up or down with no expectations. And freelancers who work on a project basis will only need to work when you have a job for them!

These are advantages to any business that needs to make that all-important (and often difficult-to-navigate) step of advancing from solopreneur to multi-staff business. In fact, some businesses get to this stage and realize that all of their needs are met and they can continue to grow with scalable virtual employees.

As a business coach, I see many businesses that use this model successful, with the business owner hiring virtual staff, handing out projects, and empowering the staff to run the business. The job of the owner, then, turns into one of delegator as he or she identifies tasks and manages who receives them and how they are completed.

About the author: Heather Villa, MBA CMA MSM, is a Business Coach and Entrepreneur. She helps business owners achieve success in operations, productivity, project management, and social media. Read her other articles at http://hireheathervilla.com/resources/articles/ and visit http://heathervilla.com for more information.

Disclaimer: © 2009 Heather Villa. Permission is granted to repost this article. Article must be published in its entirety, including author bio, and all links must remain intact.

Related posts:

1. Incorporating Outsource Staff into the Routine of Your Office
2. How to Develop Organizational Culture in an E-Business
3. A Checklist for Staffing Up

Likewise, you will find that some trips are solely vacations. If you take your family to a tourist destination, spend your time on theme park rides or lying on the beach, and do not pack your laptop, the trip is obviously a vacation.

However, for most entrepreneurs, many trips lie somewhere in between. “The gray area” is not a travel destination; it’s a complicated tax situation! The gray area is not quite a vacation and not quite a business trip: These are the trips in which you spend some time seeing sights and doing tourist activities, but you also accomplish a certain amount of work. How do you count these trips for tax purposes?

Tax law is extremely complicated, and it is highly recommended that you seek the advice of an expert tax professional before claiming any business write-offs, especially for trips that are only partially business-related. However, provided here is a general guide to IRS regulations.

Guide 1
: “Business Purpose”: In order to qualify as a full or partial business trip, there must be a clear business purpose for the trip. A freelancer who can perform his work anywhere may not claim business expenses simply because he decided he liked the scenery better in Paris. However, that same freelancer who conducts a research trip for an upcoming project may be entitled to claim business expenses.

Guide 2: Claim Only the Part of the Trip that is Business Related: The IRS website uses the example of someone who travels from Atlanta to New Orleans on business. The hypothetical person stops in Mobile to visit his parents. He can deduct the amount that the trip would have cost if he had gone directly to and from New Orleans. He cannot deduct any expenses for the Mobile segment of the trip.

Guide 3: Primarily for Personal Reasons: If the trip is primarily conducted for personal reasons, but some work is performed, then the travel expenses may not be deducted. However, any specific expenses that are incurred as a result of business may be deducted.

Guide 4 to Business Write Offs
Assistance with Tax Filing: As mentioned above, tax law is extremely complicated. A qualified bookkeeper can help you keep track of those expenses and a certified accountant can help you to navigate the complex tax laws.

It is very important that you keep all receipts and other documentation neatly organized in order to back up your claims.

About the author: Heather Villa, MBA CMA MSM, is a Business Coach and Entrepreneur. She helps business owners achieve success in operations, productivity, project management, and social media. Read her other articles at http://hireheathervilla.com/resources/articles/ and visit http://heathervilla.com for more information.

Disclaimer: © 2009 Heather Villa. Permission is granted to repost this article. Article must be published in its entirety, including author bio, and all links must remain intact.

Related posts:

1. End of the Year Tax Preparation Tips
2. Growing Your Business: Why Separating Business and Personal Finances is Good
3. How Much Does A Small Business Owner Really Make?

When we have testimonials, we can present them in online and offline formats and create a powerfully convincing “chorus” of happy customers. Testimonials are useful, multi-purposed, high value, and convincing. They really are ideal marketing tools.

But how do you get testimonials? And what do you do with them?

If you’re a freelancer on sites like Guru or Elance, there is a feedback loop built right into the system, encouraging each party to leave feedback. I’ll admit it’s not a perfect system but it’s pretty good (after all, not every business encourages that level of feedback). If you’re a freelancer on there, though, you need to do something with your feedback. Take it from that site and repost it on your blog or website, for example, or add it into your printed portfolio.

If you’re on LinkedIn, you can request recommendations from people. This might not be as nice as having unrequested testimonials coming in but it can be a nice way to get testimonials, especially if you’re new in business but have previous colleagues who would be happy to speak kindly about you.

Everyone loves to get testimonials, and even more so when they’re voluntarily given (rather than requested), but they don’t always come to us in a useful form. It’s not easy (or even very nice) to go back to a client and say “Hey, can I reword your testimonial because it had run-on sentences that barely made any sense.”

This problem has been effectively solved by Rhonda Hess, a coaches’ coach, who shows us just how to get LOTS and LOTS of really useful testimonials. Ms. Hess might be a coach to coaches, but her testimonial “system” is enormously powerful for anyone – not just coaches. If you own any kind of small business or professional practice (or big business for that matter), this is the system to use.

First, read her blog post “How to Get High Impact Testimonials from Coaching Clients” (and remember, she’s writing to coaches but I’d advise that lots of small business owners can discover real value with this technique. Read the blog first then come back here and continue reading my blog to see how I’d recommend implementing the idea.

… Good post, right? I thought so, too. Now here is how I would implement the idea:

Second, set up a database where you can collect feedback from your clients. Do so consistently (for example, spend a moment after every interact with a client to see if there is a bullet point you can add to the database.

Third, from time to time (perhaps at the end of a quarter or after a client has bought a product from you or whatever a place in your sales cycle that makes sense), have your assistant compile the bullet points for a client and draft testimonials according to Rhonda Hess’ parameters. Then send them to the client. Believe me, you’ll get more testimonials than you’ll know what to do with!

Happy Blogging!

Related posts:

1. A Great Innovation Strategy
2. Choosing the Right Freelancer or Contractor
3. What should be delegated?