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.

Related posts:

1. Top Reasons to Work From Home and Make It Work
2. The Home Office
3. Working at home

It isn’t easy to tell a potential customer that their ideas are terrible, or to try and make them modify their concepts in order to allow them to work better online.
Part of that is that developers and designers are by nature creative people, and we don’t like raining on somebody’s parade.
Part of it is also the risk of losing a possible customer.

This triggered a brief discussion in the comments about how to learn the skills required for dealing with [potential] clients. It’s not something covered as part of a standard degree in Computer Science or the like. It’s not part of a certification in web development for most colleges. As a result, many would-be web developers working for themselves fall into one of the following two categories:

Customer Management Chart

1. They treat the client’s opinions and ideas like gold, and implement them regardless of whether or not it’s a good idea. While this is good for getting work, it’s not good for developing a business, as you end up spending too much time dealing with the whims of ill-informed clients. This prevents you from developing your business of building quality websites that fill real needs. In the end, your clients are not happy because the site doesn’t live up to their expectations (regardless of whether those expectations were reasonable) and you end up losing the client.
2. You build what you like building, or what you think is a good idea, and if the client likes it, that’s great, and if not, they can go bother someone else. I don’t think this method needs much explanation as to why it’s a bad idea.

What’s needed here is to find a good balance between the two extremes, a sprinkle of tact, and some of your business experience.

Evaluate what your [potential] client is proposing, and try to figure out what the client is trying to achieve. Then confirm your guess with the client. For example, the client talks about creating a blog where every web developer in the world will spend all their time (not going to happen). But what the client really wants is a way to market their new product for web developers.

Now, rather than putting down the idea completely, gather some facts about what the client is trying to do, and what they’re trying to achieve. For example, you might collect some articles about how many web developers have A.D.D. or the fact that there are thousands of sites out there for developers, and the largest such site only has 200K members. Get some examples of how similar products are marketed (e.g. show Eclipse vs. Rational Application Developer for a Java IDE) and what their numbers look like. Try to gather as many quantifiable facts as you are able.

Next, present an alternative to the client, from the perspective of someone who understands what they are trying to achieve. “In order to market your software using various social media platforms, how about we run through some options, and what some companies which are similar to yours are doing.”

There, you’ve said it – what you’re trying to do (market software), there will be choices (some options), and where they came from (other companies). Now, outline the ideas clearly, and demonstrate the breadth and depth of your knowledge by having answers ready for common questions to each option. Don’t show off, just be knowledgeable, and if you don’t know, ask: “Can I get back to you on that?”

Knowledge is Precious

Not every client is reasonable, but then again, not every client is yours. The key here is not to attack their ideas, but to understand where they are coming from. Why did they choose you for the project? It’s because you know more than they do about how to do it. Share your expertise, use your special knowledge. Make sure your opinions are clearly delineated from the facts.

At the end of the day, you may be able to reason with your [potential] client and land a project that is a good idea, that’s well structured, and balanced.

Some [potential] clients will still insist on a bad idea, despite your feedback. However, you’ve already told them it’s a bad idea, just not in those words. You’ve outlined what they’re trying to do, and you got that right. You’ve outlined some real options that would reach that goal, and they’ve been turned down. What now?

Now you need to look at your business, and the impact accepting this client, and their bad idea, will have on the rest of your business. Will it help improve cash flow because it’s a short project (i.e. high profit margin for minimal resources)? Will this client refer you future business, thus making this a strategic move? Is this a client who has other projects with you, thereby putting pressure of losing other contracts?

Or will this project keep you busy, stressed out, and prevent you from pursuing better clients who will help your business reach its goals?

The answer to these questions will help you determine if you should be accepting or rejecting the bad idea. (Note that while you may refuse the project, treat the client with respect, and you may end up with a valuable connection as a result.)

Related posts:

1. The Customer is Always Right… Sometimes
2. Slow Economy and Developing a New Business
3. Customer Satisfaction

Where and how do you network? Why do you network that way, and how could your existing networking be improved? What changes might you make to your networking activities, if you were able to?

To start, I will provide my answer:

I network primarily on a variety of websites, such as Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter. I try to participate in those communities, and interact with the people I’m connected with. I also have a regular networking meeting about once every 5 weeks with several people working in similar fields to my own. On occasion I will attend a business card exchange event. Ideally, I would like to spend more time in face-to-face networking, were time and distance not factors.

Related posts:

1. The Right Time to Network
2. Online Versus Face-to-face Networking
3. Using LinkedIn Effectively

For starters, I work as a Programmer Analyst for the Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company. This occupies me from 9 to 5, and occasionally beyond.

I am also the acting treasurer for my synagogue, handling the recording of pledges, collections, receipts, budget, and so on, as well as maintaining their website.

Third, I do occasional consulting for small and medium sized businesses on the appropriate use of technology and for the development of custom software packages.

Fourth, I am in the middle of developing two websites for launching in the first quarter of next year.

Fifth, I read an fair bit, from books to newspapers, magazines, blogs, and pretty much any form of writing that will stay still long enough. That reading is what provides the content for my two blogs, which is what I spend about an hour every two days working on.

Of course, I spend some time each day with my family, during which business is put on hold.

Related posts:

1. Business Research in Canada
2. Business and Social Media – Part 2
3. Business and Social Media – Part 1

I apologize in advance for what is about to happen. I’m going to be separated from the internet for about 10 days. So if you post a comment, it may take until I get back for me to respond. However, I will respond when I get back.

Recap

When I left off the series, our model business owner, Jane, had started a blog which she uses to hold directed conversations with her readers. She has also started a Twitter account which she uses to post news and links to her articles, and uses the account to see what topics are of interest to people, and then writing about those topics.

Facebook

The largest problem with blogging and Twitter is that conversations are generally one-sided. Jane acan pick a topic to discuss, and interact with her audience regarding those topics. Using Twitter, she can respond to short questions. What she cannot do (yet) is allow her audience to pose its own questions, to hold undirected conversations.

This is where the networking sites such as Facebook and Linked In become important. Both these sites allow groups to be created. The creator of the group can act as an administrator of the group, and encourage conversation and participation among the group’s members. However, each member can start a new conversation, a new discussion, on a variety of topics. They can ask questions.

This will put Jane back to the first stages of becoming involved in social media, in which she interacts directly with her audience, as a member of the audience, but now Jane is in control of the environment. She can market the sites to people who come to her store. She can start getting feedback from her customers on topics she didn’t realize were issues.

Conclusion

Social media is about personal interactions used as a means of promotion. The fundamental component of social media is interactions. Social media is built on socializing. In order to run a successful campaign, you must interact with your audience – respond to their questions and comments, start conversations, ask questions of your own. Everything else is merely a tool to help you interact.

Related posts:

1. Business and Social Media – Part 2
2. Business and Social Media – Part 3
3. Business and Social Media – Part 1

Reading contracts and agreements can be like that. There are lots of sections, paragraphs, and clauses outlining the details of the document. The agreement is intended to sound great for all parties involved. But your gut keeps asking to figure out what the catch is, but you don’t see it.

Enter the lawyer. He or she has read and written many contracts, and can turn the confusing legal language into plain English for you. Based on their experience, they can point out to you what it is about the arrangement that it problematic. They can also tell you what to expect from the agreement as a result of the content of the contract.

Legal bills are expensive, and therefore, many small business owners will try to avoid making use of one. However, while retaining a lawyer may be expensive, be sure you know the phone number of one you can call before you sign anything. It may cost you $500 to make that call and get their opinion, but the risk you face by not doing so is to enter into an agreement that will cost you far in excess of that $500 insurance policy.

If funds are truly an issue, at a minimum, find a lawyer fresh out of school who may be willing to consult for a lower fee. While you will be giving up the experience that a more seasoned lawyer would bring to the table, you would still be sure that you understood the general content of the agreement.

Related posts:

1. A Preferencial NDA Clause
2. The Customer is Always Right… Sometimes
3. Contract Work and Contracts

Note that any clients referred to in these articles are fictitious, unless I specifically indicate otherwise.

Applying the Concepts

The client described in the first post in this series can make good use of the previous article as she develops her strategy. Social Media is built around interactions, so Jane must decide what kind of interactions she would like to foster. She must also look at how each platform is constructed, so that she can play to its strengths.

The Blog

The first step for most businesses starting with social media is to write a blog. If the client is technically adept, they can follow the instructions here on how to set up a WordPress blog on their own site. If not, they can hire someone to set up the site for them. (If you are looking for someone to set up a blog for you, please contact me directly and I can refer you to a reputable company that does this for a minimal fee.)

Before going live with the blog, there are a few things Jane needs to do.

1. Choose a topic for the blog. As the owner of a hardware store, she may feel comfortable writing articles about how to fix some common problems around the house on a tight budget. The title and sub-line for the blog should reflect the topic chosen.
2. Set a schedule for posting. More important than posting frequently is to post on a regular schedule. It is tempting to post each article as soon as it is written, but that may end up causing the blog to die quickly, as the speed of your writing drops. My usual recommendation is to start with one article per week, posted in the afternoon of Tuesday or Thursday. As the number of viewers of the blog grows, the frequency of publishing can be increased to twice a week, then three times a week.
3. Prepare some articles. While Jane has selected a topic that she feels confident she can write about, she does not know how much time she will have available for writing. She should prepare about 3 months of articles (if she’s publishing once per week, that works out to 12-15 articles) and upload them to the site in draft mode.

At this point, Jane can launch her blog. Some companies (including the one I recommend) can do some preliminary advertising for her to increase the number of viewers quickly. Other plugins for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be installed so that new posts are automatically submitted to various search engines. Certain types of content will result in Google scanning the page earlier. A reputable company will help to explain and set up these components.

Jane should also be sure to monitor the number of viewers to the site, and respond to comments on her posts. Writing the article is only the first step – interacting with her readers is more important. While it may take time to convert a reader to a client, if she does not interact at all with her readers, then her blog is merely another form of traditional media.

Jane must also remember to tell people about her blog, and ask for feedback. A sign in her store can drive her existing customers to the site, and they can tell her, in person, what they like and don’t like about the blog. She can ask them for ideas for articles and for suggestions on how to improve her existing articles. They may tell their family and friends about the site. If Jane can establish her credibility as an expert on the blog, then people will be more inclined to come to her store when they need something, or need advice on her area of expertise.

Tweets – Part 1

Now that Jane has her blog up and running, she may want to create her first Twitter account. With this account, she can post links to articles on her blog, talk about those articles, and create an additional community of people interested in those topics. Using various tools discussed in a future article, she can analyze what people are talking about, and write relevant articles on those topics. With this Twitter account, Jane is trying to attract more readers to her blog, to increase the amount of attention on her writing.

What’s Next

In the next article, I will be discussing other uses of Twitter beyond driving traffic to a blog, and the benefits to creating a page on a social media platform such as Facebook.

Related posts:

1. Business and Social Media – Part 4
2. Business and Social Media – Part 2
3. Business and Social Media – Part 1

Note that any clients referred to in these articles are fictitious, unless I specifically indicate otherwise.

The Tools of Social Media

Social media requires, as a fundamental component, the ability for people to interact. Therefore, any tool claiming to be a part of the world of social media must include interactions between the provider and the audience. Each tool will therefore include one or more of the following components:

1. Comments – the ability for the audience to publicly reply to some statement
2. Forums – the ability for the audience to create a statement and then provide feedback
3. Messaging – the ability for people to communicate in real time

Looking at some of the common tools of social media, it is easy to see how they are making use of at least one of these components.

Blogs

Blogs, such as this one, allow their audience to provide feedback on any given article. In this manner, the provider can post a message of arbitrary length, and the audience can then provide feedback.

The distribution of information is weighed strongly in favor of the provider, as they usually retain the ability to edit or select responses to be posted. (As an aside, I do not edit comments to this blog, and only refuse to post those comments which can clearly be seen to be spam.) The provider can control the topic of discussion to some extent, and can choose to incorporate the opinions of the audience in future posts.

Twitter

A form of micro-blogging in which each post is limited to 140 character, Twitter allows its users to post short messages. Conversations can be held by tagging posts, or marking a post as a reply to another user (via the # and @ tags).

Facebook (and other social networking sites)

A page can be created on a social networking site, providing an online location for people with a common interest to congregate. Interactions are usually via a message board, although private messaging is usually available as well. In the example of Facebook, targeted conversations can be created as well using forums.

What’s Next

In the next article, I will be providing an explanation of how the sample client, Jane, can make use of each of these tools to promote her business, and what some of the other tools she may want to make use of to facilitate her use of these forms of social media.

Related posts:

1. Business and Social Media – Part 4
2. Business and Social Media – Part 1
3. Business and Social Media – Part 3

Note that any clients referred to in these articles are fictitious, unless I specifically indicate otherwise.

The Client

Harvey’s Hardware is a small store located on the corner of a busy intersection in a residential neighborhood. The original owner, Harvey, has retired, and the store has been sold to Jane. Jane has an MBA from a prestigious school, and is interested in running her own business after spending over 20 years working for a large multi-national corporation. She bought the hardware store using funds she has saved, and spent the first year after the sale becoming familiar with the store and its clients.

Jane is not technically illiterate, but her use of technology is limited to word processing and checking her e-mail. She is comfortable with her inventory management software.

Recently, a few of her customers asked if she had a website for her store, to which she had to answer no. However, she is interested in creating an online presence, and has heard about social media and would like to become involved.

The Problem:

The real problem, in this case, is that Jane does not understand what social media is, nor how it can be used to help her store grow its customer base. Her first step, therefore, is to learn about social media, and how it compares to the more traditional forms of media with which she is already familiar.

The Background:

Social media, as defined by Wikipedia, is “…online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies… transforming people from content consumers into content producers”. In other words, social media makes use of the internet as a dstribution medium and is based on interactions between people, rather than simply delivering information.

Traditional media including newspapers, radio, and television, are based on information delivery. Information is collected and converted into a message, which is then broadcast to the audience. The audience may be able to provide responses to that information, but those responses are delayed, such as the letters section of a newspaper. Additionally, distributors of traditional media are faced with large expenses in creating and delivering the content.

Social media, on the other hand, relies on the audience itself to both create and distribute information. This has the benefit of incorporating feedback from the audience in the message itself, and in reducing the cost of distribution to a negligible amount.

The downside, however, is directly tied into the benefits. Traditional media, such as newspapers, go to great expense to distinguish fact from opinion, and to verify any facts to the best of their ability. This results in a quality of information that is difficult to find in social media. Since the control over information in social media is distributed among the audience, it is nearly impossible to ensure that all the facts will be accurate.

Another key difference between social media and traditional media is as follows. In traditional media, the creation and delivery of content is where the majority of the effort is. Social media, however, requires more work in following up on content than in the creation or delivery. This form of media bases its distribution on interactions – the more interactions there are, the more successful the distribution will be.

What’s Next:

In the next article, to be published on August 14, I will be giving an overview of some of the tools of social media, and how to use them successfully.

Related posts:

1. Business and Social Media – Part 2
2. Business and Social Media – Part 4
3. Business and Social Media – Part 3

In recent months, we have watched as dozens of people and companies have been charged with unethical behaviour in their business practices. This is a clear demonstration of bad karma -  a company steals money from its shareholders will eventually pay the price (although the shareholders themselves will likely not get their full investments back). On the other hand, companies which have maintained good business practices, along with providing clear information to the public, find themselves able to weather the economic storm, and many of these will survive.

Good karma in a business is not just how you treat your employees, or your shareholders, or your clients and customers. You must treat all of your associates with respect, with consideration. In hard times, you will need to rely on all of these people to help you, even at a cost to themselves.

As an example, I read this morning in the National Post that 800 British Airways employees will be working without pay for up to a month, and thousands of others have agreed to  pay cuts. While it can be argued that this behavior is self-serving in that it ensures that these employees will retain their jobs, the fact that the cuts were voluntary speaks loudly of the good karma British Airways has with its employees.

As an example of the reverse behaviour, here in Toronto there is a strike of the unionized municipal workers, including garbage collectors and daycare workers. Part of the issue which demonstrates the bad karma is the fact that city councillors have the option of a pay freeze (but it is not mandatory), while trying to enforce a freeze or cut on other city workers. While I personally don’t agree with the requests of the striking unions, their argument of unfair discrimination is valid. (It should be noted that several councillors did take the voluntary pay freeze.)

When dealing with employees, clients, and shareholders, it is necessary to look to the future. While at the moment it may be costly to ensure a postive relationship, when the times are tough, it can become necessary to ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf. At this point, they will examine your past behaviour in great detail. If you, as a business owner or manager, were ethical and upfront with all interested parties in the past, you will find people willing to work with you in the hard times. On the other hand, if you were unethical in any manner in the past, you may be looking at spending some time in substandard federal housing.

The past can come back to bless you, or haunt you. Without a crystal ball to predict when the past will return, you’re better off erring on the side of caution and always being ethical and upfront with your actions.

Related posts:

1. Decision Making Process
2. Motivating Employees
3. Business and Social Media – Part 1

Related posts:

1. Business and Social Media – Part 3
2. Business and Social Media – Part 4
3. Business and Social Media – Part 2

As well, we are looking for local sponsors for the event, and for recruiters and headhunters. Contact me directly if you are interested in participating!

Related posts:

1. Post Parnasa Fest Toronto II
2. Parnasa Fest 2
3. Parnasafest Toronto – A Networking Success

These two ideas are linked, but they say two different things.

Meetings have the potential to bring out ideas, but without background research, meetings can also entrench bad ideas. When entering a meeting, if the people have not prepared properly, the meeting will result in uneducated bad ideas that sound nice at the time. On the other hand, meetings in which everyone is fully prepared can provide a medium for a healthy sharing of ideas and getting input from multiple people. However, meetings where the decision has already been made, especially if only some of the people in the room are aware of that fact, are a complete waste of time and effort.

The other type of meeting is the status meeting, in which everyone in the room shares their progress. While it is important that people on a team be aware of what their team members are doing, this rarely can justify a 30 or 60 minute meeting. A more effective way of delivering the same information would be to have everyone on the team submit a short email with their status to one person, have that person join all the individual e-mails together, and e-mail that back out to the group. It might take the one person an hour to get all the e-mails together, but it will only take 10 minutes for each person to read it, saving up to 50 minutes per person who would have had to go to the team status meeting!

When done right, meetings don’t have to be evil. If they have a specific agenda, people are prepared in advance, and they are kept short, no more than 60 minutes, they have the potential to benefit everyone. Once that structure begins to break down, people begin to dread the meetings, and the benefit of getting the team together declines rapidly.

Related posts:

1. Running Meetings Effectively
2. Question: What Plans Have You Made for 2011?
3. Decision Making Process

Canadian businesses aren’t doing enough research and development, and that’s putting the country at a distinct global disadvantage…. despite substantial federal tax breaks and funding.

This article, while fairly short, was of particular interest to me, as this is what my business does. Optimal Upgrade Consulting is all about R&D for small and medium-sized businesses with a focus on technology. Other businesses exist with a focus on other issues.

My belief is that the problem with the lack of Research and Development in Canada is not the lack of companies doing R&D. While the industry itself is not large, it does exist. The problem is that clients are not abundant. While every small business looking to grow will eventually require the use of technology, that does not mean that every business will perform the research into that technology. Nor will they pay for professional advising, but will use their own understanding of the technology (or lack thereof) to make a decision.

Businesses which specialize in doing research, whether into technology, printing, advertising, or any customizable work, can contribute to the solution. Their marketing needs to target the small and medium-sized businesses, explaining why their expertise is needed. They need to educate their potential clients on the benefits of getting custom advise. Rather than focus on landing the few big contracts that are available, they should devote a significant percentage of their efforts to teaching small business owners about the benefits of professional advise.

Landing a small contract today to advise a small business on a common problem may not pay the bills. But if that client sees the benefit of your advise, they will return with a larger contract once the business has grown, and that is what will increase the volume of R&D business in Canada.

Related posts:

1. Business and Social Media – Part 1
2. Ongoing Projects
3. Business and Social Media – Part 3

There are, of course, several issues to be aware of.

1. Making the client happy – if you want this client to refer you to others, they need to feel that the service you provided was more than satisfactory
2. Your reputation – the solution you ultimately provide will reflect on your professional image
3. Solving the client’s true need – in conjunction with the first point, if you don’t resolve the true need, the client may eventually discover this (even though you did point this out several times during your negotiations) and this will reflect on your reputation

There are three stages of working with a client, and the truth of the saying depends on which stage you are holding at:

1. Before the contract is signed, when you are still working out the details of what needs to be done
2. While you are doing the work
3. After the work has been concluded

At the first stage, the customer is not necessarily correct. This is your opportunity to inform the client about what you feel the best solution is. While tact is required, you can disagree with the client openly. The client has approached you for your expertise, and that includes your opinions. The objective at this stage is to come to a common understanding of the need and the solution.

At the second stage, the customer is always right, as long as they are within the bounds of the contract. You have reached your common agreement already, and now your objective is to have a satisfied customer. Fundamental changes to what you have already agreed on will put you back into the first stage. Other changes, while you are entitled to an opinion, and should inform the client, will ultimately go the way of the client. Otherwise, you risk creating the impression that you are stubborn and difficult to deal with (which may or may not be the truth).

At the third stage, you are no longer doing work for the client. You are, however, trying to maintain a relationship with the client in order to generate leads to more business. At this stage, there is not much the client can ask for that was not covered during the first two stages. However, if the client does ask for something, you need to weigh the potential benefit of having an extremely satisfied client who may refer more business to you against the real cost of doing the work now. I’m not recommending that you give your work away for nothing, but it may be worthwhile to use your discretion to determine how to go about dealing with this request.

In summary, when the client asks you to do something, they are not necessarily correct, and you should feel free to discuss, respectfully, the issues involved in the request. However, once you have accepted to do some work, your power to disagree has diminished. If you don’t feel that the client is asking for something reasonable, perhaps you should not accept them as a client.

Related posts:

1. The Art of Customer Management
2. Customer Satisfaction
3. Top Reasons to Work From Home and Make It Work

Of course, you will need to find a mentor, and understand how to evaluate the benefits and risk you will gain as a result of pairing up with a mentor.

A mentor for a business is typically a leader, or former leader, of another business. They have succeeded in the past, and are willing to contribute their time and knowledge to help others succeed as well. This gives you the first item to check out – what has your potential mentor done in the past?

You want to find a mentor who understands your business to some degree. While any successful CEO might be able to provide good business advice, you should try to find someone who succeeded in an industry similar to your own. If you are in manufacturing, some of your issues will be unique to that industry. The owner of a service-providing company will not be able to provide you with sufficient advice regarding those issues.

In my case, I provide a service in the technology sector. If I were trying to find a mentor, I would want someone who:

• Worked in technology
• Worked with services
• Worked with consultants
• Worked with small businesses
• Started a business from nothing

The ideal mentor may not be the most well-known person, but he or she would be able to provide advice in all the categories listed above. After all, the issues I will be facing will fit into one or more of those categories, so the best advice I can get will be from someone who has experience in those categories.

In looking for a mentor, look to government programs, or your local Chamber of Commerce. Many provide the service of linking small business owners and entrepreneurs with mentors. As well, if you use Linked In, you may be able to locate a mentor by asking for one (use their Questions and Answers feature).

If you have other ideas or recommendations regarding mentorship for small businesses, please comment! I look forward to reading your ideas!

Related posts:

1. The One Tip for the New Business Owner
2. Looking for a Business Mentor
3. What would you like me to write about

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3. Subcontracting: A Middleman's Perspective

There are two components to your image. There is the physical component, which consists of how you dress and act, what people can see. The other component is what people think of when they think about you. Both are important, both affect one another, and the value in each depends on you.

If you are trying to attract business, you want people to think of you as competent, reliable, and easy to work with. The exact nature of your business will define other aspects of your image – if you work with art, then you may want to be perceived as creative, for example. How you dress and act when you are around others can and does affect this image. For examples of how your dress affects your image, watch the show What Not To Wear.

Other issues that will affect your image include your language – do you use a lot of slang when you speak, or do you prefer a highly-refined vocabulary? Do you speak politely at all times? Do you pause to think during conversations, or do you think as you go along? All of these aspects to your language affect people’s perceived image of you.

As a business, you may have printed materials or a website. Is it well laid out? Does it show quality? Is your material informative? (As an aside, I have seen a significant number of brochures and websites which looked fantastic, until I read them, and realized that they didn’t say ANYTHING.)

Your image is worth what you put into it, but at the same time, a bad image is worth less than no image. If you are not concerned with your image, it will show, and that can generate a negative image. At a minimum, you should ensure that the image you are portraying is correct. If you aren’t sure, find a brutally honest friend and ask. You need to know the answer.

Related posts:

1. Decision Making Process
2. Choosing an Online Image
3. Developing a Personal Brand

The question small business owners need to ask is whether their decision making process works. The answer is rarely a simple yes or no. The following is intended to show the impact of a good or bad decision making process, and why it is in your best interest to develop a good process.

There are several issues to be aware of when looking at any decision:

• The impact to your business image and its ability to function. A $25 expenditure for coffee will be unlikely to change how your business is perceived, while a $25,000 investment in SEO can change your image and will affect your cash flow.
• The trust you place in your workers. If your workers have a vested interest in your business, which most workers do to at least some extent, they will likely want to be able to provide input to some of the decisions that are made.
• The amount of executive power any one person has should be limited to prevent bad or heavily biased decisions. This can be done by requiring a review of all decisions, with the size of the review dependent on the scope of the decision.
• The amount of time spent following the process relative to the significance of the decision. Spending 2 weeks deciding which brand of coffee to buy is a waste of time, spending 20 minutes deciding which SEO package to sign up for is not nearly enough time.
• Your time spent making non-business-critical decisions relative to the time you spend working on your business at all should be minimal. If you want your business to grow, you need to learn to delegate and provide opportunity for others in your business to gain your trust.

In a good decision making process, you should aim to balance the four issues above. Keep the process minimal relative to the size of the decision, and avoid getting involved in the small decisions (but do keep aware of what the decisions are). By monitoring the small decisions your employees make, you provide the opportunity for them to gain your trust and open opportunity for you to delegate more of the non-business-critical decisions, which allows you to focus on growing your business.

Related posts:

1. Decision Making
2. Business and Karma – An Ethical Decision
3. Top Reasons to Work From Home and Make It Work

Your e-mail is no different. There is the large volume of spam. The joke your cousin e-mailed you (which has been circulating for two years, and you’ve read it three times before). A message from an university friend trying to arrange a visit. Newsletters from several magazines you read on a regular basis. An urgent request from a client for some data. The list continues.

To maintain a semblance of control over your inbox, you may want to try implementing the following strategy. If you have other suggestions for dealing with large volumes of mail, please let me know.

1. Maintain separate e-mail addresses for personal and business, and be strict about it. I have 5 e-mail addresses that I actively maintain, and each serves a different purpose. One is for personal, one is my company e-mail address, one is provided by my employer, one is for mailing lists, and one is for business not part of any regular work (for example, messages from this blog). The lines between the addresses are strict, and it helps filter the level of importance for each e-mail immediately.
2. Clean your inbox daily. This means reading each e-mail, either responding immediately if required, or marking it for further attention later.
3. Use folders or labels for organizing the e-mails you have already read. I personally prefer the Google model of using labels, as some e-mails may need to be referenced from multiple categories.
4. Set aside time each day to deal with your e-mail. If the volume is high enough, you may need to do this multiple times during the day. During those windows, deal with the high-importance e-mails and leave the others for later. Then set aside a time at the end of each day to read through the remaining e-mails.
5. Check your e-mail frequently for new messages, or set up a notification process. Google has an application called Gmail Notifier which will show the first few lines of each incoming message as it arrives. Outlook will do the same. This prevents the build-up of high importance e-mails.
6. Check your spam folder daily to ensure there are no real messages mixed in, and then empty the folder.
7. If you read a message, and there is a quick response to it, do it immediately, even if it’s not very important. That takes it off your list of things to do.

Related posts:

1. A Balancing Act
2. Business and Social Media – Part 2
3. Business and Social Media – Part 1