If you think that offering excellent reasons for your thinking will change anyone’s mind, you might be new on this planet.

In business, it’s important that you understand this because it relates to how you turn prospects into customers. That is, what type of arguments should you be presenting to convince someone that your product or service is worth spending their time and money on?

The key is that while facts cannot be ignored, they’re also not the most important piece of your marketing and sales pitches. Purchases are driven by emotion, and so you have to connect with your prospects at an emotional level. Sure, you need the facts to back you up, but they should not be the basis of your arguments.

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My friend asked me, since I’m in the same industry, what I might suggest for her. The truth is, from the description about, there are two possibilities for what’s going on, and each has a different approach.

The first possibility is that her prospects all require her services as well as the complementary service, and will generally only work with firms or freelancers who can provide both. The solution here is simple in concept, though execution can be tricky. Find another business which offers the complementary service, and start sub-contracting that portion of the work to them. In return, that business will send you work in a reciprocal agreement.

While you are unlikely to get an exclusive agreement like this, it can help bring in new business that you would otherwise have never seen, as well as enable you to close contracts that might have been lost.

However, there is another possibility, and it needs to be considered carefully. It is possible that the prospects she has been in discussion with are not her ideal clients. I’m often surprised by how many people in business do not understand who their perfect clients are, and spend great efforts pursuing the wrong types of clients. The perfect client is going to help your business grow in the direction you want it to go. If that client is asking you for something your business does not provide, and does not want to provide, then that is not an ideal client.

In this particular case, I believe the first answer is the better one. Many people in her industry either offer the complementary service themselves, or have a list of providers they use who can. When the menu is lacking, you have to choose to either supplement with an insert from another company, or redefine who and what your busienss is, and what services belong on the menu.

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At some point during the life of a business, the amount of work coming in the door will exceed the limits of the business. Product based businesses will see this when demand outstrips their ability to supply, service-based businesses will see this when the demands on their time exceed the number of hours available to work. In a large business, this issue may have already been solved, either by having a process for increasing the supply, or by increasing the price to reduce demand.

However, smaller businesses walk with trepidation when faced with this issue. On the one hand, their ability to increase supply is severely limited – they may not have the necessary cash flow to handle additional hires, or to front the money required to pay for additional goods. On the other hand, the inability to supply the increasing demand may hamper their ability to expand, and may result in a negative impact on their existing business.

Additionally, there is the inability to see the future, which means that the business owner trying to decide whether or not the sudden increase in demand justifies hiring another employee must guess (hopefully with some helpful data) whether the sudden demand is merely a spike in activity, or if it is sustainable. This has ramifications on what is needed to ensure that the decision is made with appropriate resources allocated to support it, should the spike in demand be followed by a dip.

To determine how to best handle the spike in demand, it is necessary to look at the goals for the business. If the aim is to grow by hiring more people, to increase the supply, then the spike in demand can be one way of moving toward that goal sooner than expected. If the aim is to reach a certain level of activity, or, in other words, to cap the supply at a certain point (for example, to work 40 hours per week), then the decision that needs to be made is only how to go about reducing the demand – should you raise your prices, or merely refuse to take on additional customers?

Others, though, are stuck between the two decisions. While they don’t mind working more than a certain number of hours, or, in other words, to work with an expanding business, they also may not be actively looking to expand. As a result, they are unprepared for the expansion, both from a fiscal point of view, and psychologically as well.

Some may choose to bridge the gap by using sub-contractors to take on the work they are unable to do. This can help defer the decision until it is clear whether or not the increase in demand is going to be enduring, but it also exposes the business owner to various risks associated with delegating work (the quality may not be up to standard, managing the contractor can be complicated). Others may raise prices moderately, in an attempt to drive up margins while they debate internally how to handle the demand.

What would you do? How have you handled sudden spikes in demand beyond your abilities to provide?

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The suggestion I made came from a piece of advice provided during a course on business planning, and that was to pick 3 marketing methods they wanted to use. One would be their primary method, being allocated 50-80% of their marketing budget. One would be the secondary method, garnering 15-30% of the budget, and the third would be a minor player, getting as little as 5% of the budget.

The result of this breakdown is that each aspect to their marketing plan will be given its best chance to succeed. The method deemed to be likely to see the widest success (in their case, creating channels to promote their product) would be given the highest priority. The method which is likely to do somewhat well gets just enough resources to be useful, but not so much as to detract from the primary marketing effort.

The third marketing channel is what I call the wildcard. There is the off chance that something a bit different will work. It might be a pet theory of the business owner, or something a manager in the company stumbled on and wants to try. Rather than risk the entire venture on this, a small budget (and corresponding time and effort) is given to the plan, just enough that it can succeed, but not so much that it interferes with the other, more central plans.

I found this interesting, because there are many things in business that deal with the number three. Timelines are often short by a factor of three, budgets in the initial years can be off by as much as a factor of 3. Strategies are made in groups of three – this week, this month, this year.

Marketing is just one more aspect of business that should be running off the number 3.

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However, if the new product or service is sufficiently different from the existing business operations, then trying to run with it within the existing business structure may not make sense. Even if legally this is possible (that is, you are not operating with a regulated industry which may object to running the two businesses together conceptually), there could be other reasons to run them independently of one another.

For one thing, isolating the two business operations from one another, when being run within a single business entity, becomes difficult, if not impossible. There is a strong bias toward using existing resources for the new venture, which can negatively impact existing operations.

Second, determining the true value of the business can be difficult, since there is no clear demarcation between businesses.

However, the mere existence of an independent business entity does not mean that the business will be any easier to manage, nor does it ensure that true measures of costs and income will be any easier to calculate. However, if the business succeeds, then spinning off the business to be operated independently, or to be sold, or to acquire an investment, becomes a lot simpler to do.

The advice I would suggest, though, is a cross between the two. Internally, consider the business to be separate, operating off its own accounts, with its own books, and “renting time” for any shared resources with other parts of the business. That way, even if the same people are working on the new idea, their contributions can be measured accurately.

If, after some time, it is determined that the business will succeed, then the effort can be made to set up a proper corporate structure for the business which will further isolate the separate business units. If the business does not succeed, then there has been no harm done, and the idea can be easily discarded.

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First, my goals for 2010 were accurate as of the time of writing, though priorities changed over the year, and with good reason. To recap the goals, and my current status with them:

• Learn PHP and Zend to a reasonable degree of proficiency – this has gone well, and while I would hesitate to call myself an expert on either, I am comfortable programming a web application using those technologies. I’m still working on getting the turn-around time down, but it’s moving in the right direction.
• Launch Client Data Tracker – this has not happened, because priorities change. The project turned out to be significantly larger than I anticipated, and I put it on the side because I didn’t feel I could do the project justice.
• Continue side development until I’m doing in excess of 30 hours a week of billable time – this has happened, and I’m now working solely on a contract basis. Happily, I’ve been able to leave the corporate setting.
• Complete the work required for KNIRL.com – this has not happened, though we learned a lot of interesting pieces of information and technology working with it.

Overall, 2010 was a good year for business, and looking forward, 2011 looks like it will be even more exciting:

• Launch the product I’m working on for my primary client before the end of the first quarter;
• Learn the intricate details of a fairly large industry to determine how to be able to carve out a niche in it;
• Solidify my knowledge of certain technologies I use frequently to the point I would call myself an expert.

What are your goals? Do you have a way to measure yourself against them?

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In reality, for many businesses, this can break the bank and drive the business under. The reality is, competing based on price is simply a game of chicken – each competitor lowers their price in turn, until the last business standing takes all the customers. This is a very costly way to eliminate the competition, assuming you win, and there’s no assurance that another competitor won’t arrive to repeat the cycle.

That being said, this does not eliminate the offering of discounts or sales, but the reason should not be simply to be competitive. As an example, a chiropracter might offer a 20% discount on your first session because you’re a new customer. A printing company might offer a 10% reduction in the printing price for orders of over 10,000 prints. In other words, the reason for the discount is not in order to be cheaper, but because there’s another benefit to the provider to giving that discount.

Additionally, even if you intend to give a discount to the client, make sure that you inform the client of the value they’re getting before they’re informed that you’ll give them a discount. Once the subject of price comes up, you won’t be able to negotiate based on anything else. As well, if you’ve assigned a particular value to your work (e.g. $75 per hour), then you can always offer a lower price later, but you cannot raise it. If you start negotiating price too early, then you risk being trapped with having lowered your price below what the client would have paid, had you explained the value you provide in advance.

Compete based on value. As a business, you offer a mix of quality, service, and price. If you fix quality and service, then the price you should be offering should be set as a direct result. Offering a Rolls Royce for $30,000 will immediately make the potential buyer doubt its authenticity or quality. If the quality or service is higher, then the price MUST be higher too. Lowering your price will negatively impact your credibility, and thereby be unlikely to benefit you in any way regardless.

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Perhaps the author was unaware of the implications of their message, though I find that unlikely, and suspect that author was perfectly aware of the implications of the appearance of the landing page. The result was a marketing pitch that had all the appearances of a scam.

If you’re in business and looking to design your website, there are better ways to get people’s email addresses and communicate with your target market than to offer them something free before you’ve convinced them that value exists. As such, there are a few fairly simple rules to follow when designing your site:

1. Keep the design simple, with subdued colors. The page shouldn’t appear to be shouting its message, but rather to be displaying its message in a cool and calm manner.
2. Provide information, or something of value, without asking for anything in return. This can be pages of your site with tips and suggestions, a public blog, or a free PDF that can be downloaded in a single click.
3. When asking for an email address, explain what you’re going to do with it – what kind of emails will you be sending, how often, and will you share the address with anyone?

Failure on any of these might gain you addresses in the short-run, but you will find that people will either ignore your emails when they start arriving each morning, mark them as spam (which eventually can impact people who actually read your emails as well), block you, or report you. As well, if the people who’ve given you their emails are active on any of the social media sites, they may pass along the information about your practices to their friends.

Perhaps this is the confusing aspect to this form of marketing. Your website is a place where you can post information about yourself, what you’re selling, and your expertise. Social media is a place where you can interact with your target market. However, pushing a hard-sell at your target market is little different from being an aggressive telemarketer – and most people have learned how to block such people out of their lives.

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A few days ago, the owner of one of those businesses came over to me to ask if I could take on working for one of his clients, who had been looking to extend one of their websites to a new market. I took a quick look at what was needed, and realized that while part of the project fell within my area of expertise, a major component did not. I was also aware that he had another option – his network of vendors included someone with expertise in this particular area, though that vendor’s prices were significantly higher than my own.

However, I didn’t feel that I could justify working on his project, or at least, not on the portions outside my area of expertise. While I was confident that I could complete the project, there were two reasons not to take on the work:

First, the amount of time it would take me to do the work would be much longer than if he used the other vendor, and ultimately might have cost the client more.

Second, I didn’t really want to learn how to do the portion of the project that I didn’t currently know how to do.

I declined the work, and he asked if I could do the part of the project which I did know how to do, to which I accepted. By declining one part of the project, at the risk of losing the other part of the project, I gained the trust of a client.

Sometimes, the gains of saying no to a client are known almost immediately, and sometimes, you just have to trust that the gains will come. When you inform a client that something falls outside your area of expertise, they will either ask you to do it anyhow, ask you to find someone who can do the work, or find someone else themselves. In any of these situations, you stand to gain – either immediately in the form of being able to subcontract work that you might otherwise not have been able to do, or in the long run with customer referrals.

When you gain the trust of a client, it will last longer than any satisfaction they get on a given project. It will translate into more business, references for more work, and many other long-term gains. But to gain this kind of trust, you need to teach yourself to be able to say no.

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The interesting thing to note here is that creating a fitness agenda for a client lends itself to defining a SMART goal. Every aspect of setting such an objective highlights one or more proper goal setting processes.

For example, a common request to a Personal Trainer is to “get into shape” which is not measurable, making this goal impossible to be achieved. By clearly defining what the goal is, for example, to lose 20 pounds, or to be able to run a marathon, a measurable goal is created.

Taking the example from the opening paragraph, this goal is not sustainable. While there are ways to lose that weight in the specified amount of time, evidence shows that without changes to lifestyle, the weight will not stay off.

Removing a target date, though, may make the goal realistic, since it would eventually be possible to achieve that goal. However, since there is no date attached to the goal, it is no longer timely, and therefore is not a real goal.

Realism is also evident in setting fitness goals, with some people setting goals which are not physically possible to accomplish. One needs to look at their own reality to determine what might be a realistic goal for themselves. This is unlikely to be the same as the realistic goals for the next person.

Last, some goals are not actionable, in that they rely on an event outside the control of the person setting the goal to occur – for example, being selected to be part of a particular team. While the level of fitness to be selected might be actionable, the selection itself is not part of a SMART goal since someone else will be making that decision.

In business, goals are exactly the same. They need to be realistic, not idealistic. A classic example of this is with sales projections – many small businesses project to take over an entire market, but this is idealistic, not realistic. A realistic goal might be to become a major provider of a service within a specific geographic region.

Likewise, the goal should be measurable. Carrying on with the previous example of sales projections, the goals should include a way to measure the success of the business in reaching those goals. They should also include a time frame for reaching those goals – 6 months, a year, some fixed period.

The goals should be based on actions that are under the control of the business. Setting a sales goal is only SMART if a means of reaching those goals (for example, increasing the conversion rate on the business website) is part of the goal.

Last, make the goals sustainable. It doesn’t help you in the long run if you misrepresent yourself in the short-term.

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As it turns out, when he started drawing Dilbert, he had no experience with cartoons either. Before he landed his first paid speaking gig (which paid him $5,000 for an hour of his time), he had no experience with public speaking beyond a couple generic courses. He recounts many of his successes, and makes the statement:

To put all of this in context, I remind you again that I fail miserably about ten times for every one success. (That’s an accurate estimate. I’ve literally kept score.) The failures always involved activities for which I was completely qualified. Ironically, I couldn’t even “keep my day job.” On the other hand, my successes have all been in areas in which I had no obviously relevant background or experience whatsoever.

This statement is incredibly interesting for a variety of reasons.

First, however, this cannot be taken to mean that if you were to try something for which you have no qualifications that it means you will succeed. In that, Scott is an exception, though I do believe his recipe for success can be duplicated. While Scott did apply himself to a variety of endeavors with no qualifications, he also did not attempt the impossible, merely the improbable.

What Scott is saying here is that success and qualification in a particular area have little to do with one another. While those two factors may not be mutually exclusive, they are also commonly not found to coincide with one another. Simply because one is qualified does not mean that success is probable, and the inverse of that is also true.

The pattern in what Scott has done is that in each case he has set himself against probability, but had a motivation to succeed despite the odds. Winning contests with some element of skill involved is not impossible, even if there are millions of other contestants. It’s unlikely, not probable, but still possible. One can succeed and win.

While I’m sure Scott has not included every endeavor of his in his introduction to his book, he has described a sufficient number to indicate that while he was not particularly qualified to excel at any one of his successes, he was not unqualified either. That is, he may not have been considered an expert in the field, but he would not have been described as incompetent in that area.

Success is not a function of what you’ve been trained to do. You can succeed at something for which you have no background, provided, that is, that you are prepared to apply yourself. The path may be difficult, but it’s not impossible. Some things you may find yourself struggling with, but in other areas, where the “professionals” would have stopped, you may persevere and succeed.

Perhaps that’s actually a limitation in an ability to succeed. The more documented a background you have in an area, the less likely you may be to push the boundaries of what can be done. By not being qualified (and recognizing that fact), you prepare yourself for the long, hard road. If you’ve found a way to motivate yourself, to convince yourself that you can succeed, then you may well endure along that path until you do reach your eventual success.

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Vaporware describes products not released on the date announced by their developer, or announced months or years before their release… Vaporware first implied intentional fraud when it was applied to the Ovation office suite in 1983; the suite’s demonstration was well-received by the press, but was later revealed to have never existed.

The current usage, though, is more along the lines of creating a website promoting a product, and seeing how many customers attempt to purchase it. This tactic can be used to determine how much interest there is in the product, and whether or not the price is suitable.

The risk, of course, is that once a tactic like this is used, any trust between the company and the potential customer is lost. The customer has been led to believe that they were purchasing a product, only to find out that the product does not exist. While this is not fraud, since the customers are not actually paying for anything, it isn’t honest.

However, the problem remains as to how to go about measuring consumer interest in a product that has not yet been created.

One approach, perhaps a bit naive, is to go out and find some customers who are willing to pay for your product. Ask them for prices they would be willing to pay, and use that as the basis for your business model and income projections. The problem, however, is that until a customer is asked to put out money for a product, any statement they make regarding pricing has to be taken with a grain of salt. This is, in fact, the basis for the statement “Put your money where your mouth is”.

Customer surveys in which information about the potential product is provided, and general statements regarding pricing have similar problems. While this can help narrow down the range, it does not validate that a particular price will work, for the same reason as asking customers to name a price won’t work unless they are prepared to back that statement with cold hard cash.

The approach that does work, though, is to find some actual customers who will state that not only will they purchased your product at a specified price, but will actually lay out at least some of the money up-front. Such validation indicates that these users are prepared to believe in you and what you can build, and that they see a specific value in what you’re building.

The risk, of course, is that if the product does not get built, you have to return the money. Be careful using this approach to ensure that quantifiable milestones have been defined for the product development, and that it is clear how the product can be assessed objectively to determine whether or not it has met the goals defined during the research stage.

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I was forwarded a talk by Jason Fried about Why Work Doesn’t Happen in the Office, in which he discusses where people like to go when they need to get some work done. Interestingly, the answers he got were pretty much anything but the office.

The question is the same as Jason’s question:

Where do you go when you need to get some work done?

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The first thing that needs to be realized is that getting validation that the idea is a good one has ramifications for how to proceed. Some potential clients can help by working with you to refine the service or product. Other times, you have to go off on your own and figure it out.

One of the biggest mistakes someone new to the business world can do is to go out and try to raise capital. The reason is quite simple – you don’t know yet if you actually need any. Sure, it would be nice to have a budget of millions that you can spend on fancy offices and a huge staff, but do you NEED it?

The first approach, therefore, should be to determine how much of the product or service can be developed with what you have – namely, yourself (and any partners you may be working with). Commonly known as bootstrapping, you should be trying to build out with the minimum amount of resources possible.

If that’s not possible, see what you can get by reaching out to your network. People don’t expect to work for free, but you may be able to barter something of value (and note that shares in your business currently have little value at all) for work.

Don’t forget that you need to be thinking about multiple aspects to your business. You need more than just an idea, product or service – you need to be able to sell it. If there are legal ramifications to that, make sure you work them out up front. You may need a marketing plan, you might need to work out pricing schemes. If you know someone who’s been in business, talk to them – you should try to get a mentor if you can, if only to steer you clear of issues that you might not need to face.

However, start your approach with an eye toward frugality. That doesn’t mean trying to pay less than the value of a given item, but rather determining if you need the item in the first place. There’s a gray area between good enough and perfect, and usually, perfect isn’t worth the effort over good enough (though of course there are many exceptions to this).

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Thank you for ordering with Business X Delivery! Your order has been received and is being processed.

Your order is scheduled for delivery on the following dates between the hours of 9:00 am and 5:00 pm, pending credit approval and inventory confirmation. A contact person must be available to accept the delivery by signing for and confirming the items you have ordered.

Below please find the items you have placed on this order and the corresponding delivery date(s). If there is a problem with your order, you will receive a follow-up contact.

Below listed the details of the order, including the fact that I had requested an alternate delivery address, since I did not intend to stay home all day, and could not recieve the package at work. I took this to be a confirmation that the delivery would be made.

A short while later, another email arrived:

Hello,

Please be advised that we are unable to deliver your laptop to an alternate location other than the billing address. If this is not possible we can have it delivered to a store location so you can provide photo id and credit card. Please advise how you would like to proceed with the order. Your order will remain on hold for 48hrs. Please reference order 1234567890.

Thank you

I was somewhat confused, as I had ordered a desktop, not a laptop, and it was the only item in the order. That is, the store should have known when I placed the order that alternate delivery locations were not supported, and informed me then.

I resigned myself to sitting around all day, and replied to the email that it would be okay to deliver to the billing address. I waited for a confirmation that the package would be delivered, but nothing came. However, past experience told me that deliveries in my area are usually made around 7:30 AM, so I hoped I would be able to go into the office in any case.

When 11:00 came around, and still no package, I began to wonder. The store had not confirmed that my package was no longer on hold, so perhaps I was waiting in vain. However, a quick call to their service line reassured me that it was showing up on their system as “On Delivery”.

The package did arrive eventually, but it also convinced me not to order from this store online anymore. The experience was too broken for me:

1. I should have been told about the issue with delivering computers to anywhere other than the billing address when I placed the order;
2. The email confirming the delivery time should have indicated this as well;
3. The email informing me that the delivery would have to be made to the billing address should have provided information about how to confirm the delivery (there was nothing else in the email, so I assumed I could reply and that would suffice);
4. There should have been a follow-up to my confirmation that delivering to the billing address was okay to reconfirm the delivery date;
5. There should be a service on their site to enter an order number and see the status;
6. The delivery window should be a lot smaller than 9 to 5 – at a minimum, choose morning or afternoon.

Any one of these items on its own would not have been a big deal, but the experience worsened at each turn. Other sites have learned how to make the ordering process as customer friendly as possible, providing information whenever appropriate, and making it easy for people to look up status of their orders, and being clear in all communications.

This company has a lot to learn about caring for its customers.

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There are a few factors to consider here, and unfortunately, few solutions offered. However, bearing this in mind, it can help in alleviating client concerns when planning is done for this dreaded eventuality.

First, many clients will be reasonable if you get sick – it’s a risk they take working with a freelancer, and therefore they have already accepted that this may happen. As such, for non-urgent requirements, a quick email letting them know that you’re ill will usually suffice to remove the mundane tasks from your schedule as you recuperate.

Second, since you may get sick, it is prudent to avoid working to deadlines. With being ill occupying up to 2-3 days, a wise approach would be to target all deadlines to 3 days prior to the client-designated deadline. If you finish early, you can fine-tune for the last few days, or give the client the work ahead of schedule. If it requires an extra few days of work, you’ve built that into the schedule. And if you get sick, that’s okay because you still have some time for that.

Third, when emergencies come up, be prepared to work despite being sick. You might not be able to get out of bed, but your laptop may join you there as you log in remotely to the system and do what needs to be done.

Alternatively, have a network that you can fall back on in case you are unable to work. This network may not be able to help you for major projects, but if you are in a support role with fairly standard emergencies arising from time to time, then if you can find one or two people you can call on in a pinch to backstop you, it would help you in reassuring your clients as to what will happen if you should suddenly be unavailable.

In short, don’t wait for the inevitable to happen to start your planning – as the expression goes, an hour of planning can save you weeks of work.

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For a variety of reasons, I don’t want to leave my current office space – besides getting along with all the other people working there, we’re great resources for one another, especially when a little bit of expertise is needed that can save hours of time. Additionally, with the number of projects being worked on which involve people from different businesses in the office, it’s more than a little convenient that we’re all in the same room.

However, productivity is the price paid for this convenience, as more frequently, I find myself being distracted, or, as often as not, the one doing the distraction. In an attempt to increase productivity without compromising the benefits of the shared office space, the alternatives were examined. This introspection I believe will benefit anyone looking to set up office, and wondering which of the alternatives below may best suit their needs.

Home Office

As I live in an apartment, this is something that was a moot point. My home computer can be used for work, but the environment is generally not productive, and so I try to keep the work at home to a minimum. A requirement for a home office is that the space designated for office be isolated from the space designated for home. This requires, among other things, the ability to visually block the two areas from intruding on one another.

If you have the space to create a home office, ensure that you are, in fact, able to isolate the office from the rest of the home. To this end, ensure that the room has a door, which, when closed, is considered a clear indication to the rest of the family that you are not to be disturbed.

Coffee Shop

The home of many starting businesses, coffee shops offer the convenience of a place to meet clients in what is perceived to be neutral ground. In an effort to have more people spend their days in their shops, many coffee shops offer Internet access, making it an even better place to work, not to mention the constant availability of your favorite form of caffeine.

The downside is that the shop is not your own space, and therefor imposes limitations on what you can and can’t do there. At the end of every day, you need to gather your notes, pack your bag, and leave, returning the next day to repeat the cycle. Additionally, the ambient noise can be pleasant at times, but it can also be a distraction, often when you most need it not to be.

Business Office

If your budget can afford it, a personal business office may be what you need. This will give the solitude that you need to be productive, a place where you can bring clients for meetings, and a place you can call your own. The downside is that you’re now responsible for the space, and the costs can be prohibitive. While this may be an eventual move, especially if you start bringing other employees into your business, it is, perhaps, the one to be avoided while it’s possible.

Shared Offices

This is most similar to the situation I described at the start of this article. Sharing space gives you the benefit of working with other people, but at the same time, reduces your overhead and responsibilities in terms of caring and maintaining the offices. The downside, though, is the same as that of coffee shops – when you need to focus, it can often be quite distracting.

My Balance

My situation is being resolved with a balance between a few of these options. While I continue to work primarily from a shared office space, I also have given myself the ability to work from anywhere – namely, a laptop set up as a desktop replacement. When I need to focus, I can always leave the shared space and find a quiet corner for a few hours or days. Since I’m leaving my comfort zone to do this, I can use a coffee shop as a temporary office.

If you’re looking for some options, look at what co-working options are available in your area. If you can find two, then consider using one as a primary office, and the other for the days you’re just trying to buckle down and get some work done.

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I was asked recently regarding an inherent bias toward hiring people from my community. While many of the people in my office are from my community, there was actually another reason for this that had little to do with nepotism. It was more a matter of convenience, which, after a few years of operating this way, has demonstrated certain limitations.

The convenience is the fact that these people are easy to find via existing community listings and mailing lists. An email to my network can produce several responses with resumes, usually within a couple hours. If background information on a candidate is needed, it’s usually pretty easy to get that information.

However, the cost is in regard to time away from work – as the employees all are from the same community, their holidays all coincide, and they will all have the same restrictions regarding when they will work.

That’s not to say that I would not hire within my community or network, or even that I would not give preference to someone from that group over a candidate from without. However, the evaluation, to avoid the accusation of nepotism, must start with qualifications for the job, and then the cost to the business of hiring each candidate. Only when those two qualities have been met can nepotism raise it’s head to make a choice.

Businesses do not succeed because of nepotism, but rather, despite nepotism. Success is found by hiring the best qualified people, factoring in their existing skills, their dollar cost, the amount of training they will need, and how they will fit into the culture of the business. Hiring family or friends will often (though not always) meet the last of these criteria, but this is only one of several factors to be considered.

Only once all factors have been considered, and the candidates have been found to be equal in all other respects, can you fairly say “It’s not nepotism, he’s my brother!”

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I believe the minute you begin to think that way is the minute you begin to erode.

There’s another saying that I think reflects this thought quite well:

If you’re going to dream, dream big.

If you are aiming high, then your success is a function of your ability to reach those lofty goals. If you find that you’re reaching your goals easily, then perhaps you haven’t set your goals high enough. Goals are made to make you stretch, to push the boundaries of what you can do. If you aren’t stretching, then you may very well be contracting.

If you start to look at your life, and think about how far you’ve come, then that can be motivating to push yourself further ahead. However, if you start thinking along the lines of “I made it!” is an indication that you have not set your goals far enough, as you have time to go further, but don’t have anywhere to stretch.

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People who are good at time management have learned how to allocate their time and attention to what they need to work on, and how to delegate the rest to people around them. As the number and the nature of the items demanding their attention changes, so does the nature of what they can delegate, and who the people are to whom they can delegate to.

However, when there is a sudden change in the sheer volume of items to be dealt with, even this system will break down, until a new equilibrium is established. Eventually, of course, the status quo becomes capable of handling a fairly large volume of fluctuation in demands on a person’s attention.

During the sudden increase, though, even people who are good at managing their time will struggle, since they will have more work in front of them than they can manage (there is a limit on the number of hours in the day) and will not yet have the infrastructure around them to handle the excess. Until they can get more people near them to whom they can delegate tasks, the volume of work can become daunting to the point of panic.

The good news is that this breakdown in effectiveness is caused by success – that is, more people want to give you the type of work you want to do.

The good news is that once you figure everything out, you will be positioned to grow your position even further.

The bad news is that you have to figure out how to handle your workload in the interim.

It was suggested to me by a colleague that the approach he has found useful is to first assign some time to panic, perhaps 15 minutes. He goes for a walk, or reads some news items, or does anything other than actually work. At the end of that time, he picks one item from his list of things to do and works on that. He then picks something else. He may not finish the first item, but he forces himself to be productive, and to focus on that item alone. The time for panic has passed.

This process may continue for hours, days, or weeks. But the panic itself has been allocated its own space, and has been given priority over other tasks, because it can hamper you until you deal with it.

So get the panic out of the way, and then just pick something from your list of things to do and finish it. When you’re done, you can move onto the next thing. But the panic has been dealt with.

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