Tasty Cheese manufactures healthy snacks from cottage cheese and chocolate, something Anna found to have mass appeal (though Arlene Dickinson didn’t seem to care for the snack). Her past efforts had made her business profitable, but she was looking to expand. She asked for $150,000 for a 20% stake in the business, which, considering the business made no money annually if it paid her a salary, was a fairly aggressive valuation.

Naturally, the dragons were reluctant to give her the valuation she asked for, and one by one they bowed out of the deal.

Except for Jim Treliving, owner of Boston Pizza.

Jim stepped up with an offer, though at a lower valuation than Anna had been looking for. Knowing that she was limited in negotiation room in terms of price, she turned the tables on Jim, asking for an additional feature in the deal. She asked that the product be sold in all Boston Pizza locations, something which would provide immense value to her brand.

While Jim did not promise the result, he did commit himself to looking seriously at that option, and the deal closed.

What this teaches about negotiation is that even when someone appears to be holding all the cards, there are still options. There are factors that can be negotiated that may not affect the price, but will impact the value of the deal to each of the participants. A good salesperson knows how to find those aspects of a deal and play with them to their advantage.

Related posts:

1. Handy Solution Catches a Deal
2. How well do you know your own business
3. A Good Entrepreneur Knows How to Listen

Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki

I was fortunate to receive a copy of Enchantment courtesy of Guy Kawasaki. I had not read his previous books, but make use of his site Alltop (where I am featured under the listing Small Business), and was interested in reading more from the man known as the Chief Evangelist for Apple.

Having read this book, I am eager to get my hands on the rest of Guy’s publications.

Enchantment describes the process by which people have become enchanted with various things, whether people, causes, products, companies, or events. For any business, such information is critical – though, as Guy points out several times in this book, couples would do well to heed some of the advice and suggestions.

Enchanting people takes into account many factors, and to try to reduce the book to a single page of review would be impossible. Throughout the book, Guy kept me enchanted with its content, wanting to read more, to continue deriving benefit from each and every section.

The best comment I can make, having read through the book twice and in the middle of a third reading, is that if you were to select one book to read to improve your business, this should be it. It is absolutely critical that a business owner understand the art of enchantment, and this book contains all the tricks and tips you need to succeed.

Related posts:

1. What Will You Succeed At?
2. Bolster Credibility by Writing
3. Getting Your Questions Answered

In your business, what do you tell your employees? Do you tell them the customer is always right, or do you take another approach?

Fake it Until You Break It

Last week, I asked about how to reconcile the two sayings: fake it until you make it and don’t bite off more than you can chew without damaging your reputation. Unfortunately, too many small businesses fail for the simple reason that they don’t understand how these two sayings relate to their business, and how they should influence their actions.

The first saying, fake it until you make it, is about giving the impression of being larger than you are, more established, more credible. It’s about impressions – that until you have the data backing you up, act as though you do.

The second saying is about accepting challenges: don’t bite off more than you can chew, or, in other words, don’t accept a challenge you can’t complete.

Just because you act larger than you are does not mean you have to accept every challenge. Even for large companies, not every project is a good fit. Saying no to a project is not a sign of being small, but rather, of knowing and accepting your own limitations. While you may feel pressure to act big and say yes, sometimes the better course of action is to be even bigger, and say no.

A business which manages to learn what types of projects it can do well at, and what types of projects exceed its capacities, and makes decisions accordingly, will not be taken for a small player, but for a seasoned business.

After all, it takes some experience to understand that certain projects, once accepted, can destroy a business as it fails to achieve its objectives.

Related posts:

1. Question: Fake it Until You Break It?
2. Small Business is NOT Like Big Business
3. Question: Where did you find a mentor?

Siams Pants, a comfortable, one-size-fits-all Thailand Fisherman’s Pant, retail for $32, and are the base of her growing business. Starting with $5,000 and an initial inventory, Carley managed to expand her business, locking down a supplier. Her biggest problem, though, was distribution. While alone she managed to grow her business, every sale was a significant amount of effort, which would mean she would need to find a representative in any city or country she wanted to reach.

The four Dragons who bowed out did so for some simple reasons – the business was not terribly large, even if it were to succeed, and the barriers to entry for a competitor were non-existant. After all, anyone could manufacture identical pants, or have them imported. Carley’s response that the reality is that she is alone in her market failed to sway any opinions.

Any, that is, except for Jim Treliving. He made an offer, for the simple reason that for him, distribution was not an issue. If the reason for lack of growth was an inability to reach out across the country, Jim could certainly provide assistance there.

Additionally, the lively presentation demonstrated many qualities of a good entrepreneur – to keep pushing, to keep chasing after the sale even when it seems increasingly unlikely that it will succeed. If anyone could make the business succeed, it would be someone with a passion, who had demonstrated her ability to succeed if given the chance.

If you are looking for a quality presentation of a business or product, look no further than Carley Stenson – she has the passion, and she has the credibility. Sometimes, to get a deal, that’s what it takes.

Related posts:

1. Investing with a Social Conscience
2. Upsell Your Investors
3. Handy Solution Catches a Deal

If you want instant credibility, write a book.

Interesting logic, considering that many writers are people I wouldn’t necessarily want speaking at an event, or even consider credible because of their writing. For some, writing might have the opposite of the desired effect, by demonstrating their own lack of credibility.

However, for someone who does have credibility, just an inability to demonstrate that credibility, writing can provide a simple route to publicizing credibility.

First, the fact that you could come up with sufficient material for a book on a given topic shows that you have knowledge on the subject (though the quality of that knowledge would require actually reading the book).

Second, writing can help you organize your own thoughts on the subject, and help you define what it is your own expertise entails. The fact that you went through this process provides a measure of your credibility.

Having written copious amounts on this site over the past 2 years (over 400 posts and approaching 200,000 words), I considered this exercise of writing a book to be interesting, to say the least. Whether or not I choose to publish a book, the act of writing one could prove to be useful, and if ever I should need to demonstrate my credibility to someone who does not know me, I can always send them a copy of my book.

Related posts:

1. Writing Proposals
2. Lessons Learned from the Corporate World
3. Enchanted with Enchantment

However, this can rapidly backfire as you promise the world, and are left unable to deliver on those promises. In other words, you fall prey to the other saying, “don’t bite off more than you can chew”. How would you avoid falling into this trap?

Timely Payments

Last week’s question was one pertinent to anyone who relies on clients for their paycheck – how do you ensure timely payments from your clients? This post got many responses, most of which were variations on two themes. The first response was the stick, the second, the carrot.

Enforcement

The first response involved a baseball bat, some nasty people, and angry letters from lawyers. That is, bully the clients who pay late (after all, they deserve it for treating me badly) until they pay, using whatever means that won’t land you in jail.

This method is like a stick – train a dog to be afraid of getting hit, and it will behave. The problem is that some clients will only respond to the stick, some will pull into their shells and avoid you, and others will leave you for more friendly vendors, and may still not pay you.

Bribery

The second response involved bribing your customers to pay on time by offering a discount for timely payments. One common method is referred to as 2-10-Net 30, which roughly translates to a 2% discount if paid within 10 days, with the full amount due in 30 days. Precise numbers can vary, but this method is aimed to encourage penny-pinching clients to pay earlier rather than later.

There are two issues here. First, 2% is not likely to provide a sufficient incentive to many clients to even care. As a result, this system rewards clients who would anyhow pay early (not that that’s a bad thing) but not really encourage anyone to join their ranks. Second, experience has shown that this system is marginally effective in any case, indicating that this may only work for certain types of clients.

Summary

As with all things in life, it’s about moderation. You need to be nice to your customers, but if they hold out on you too long when it comes to paying, maybe you don’t want them as customers anyhow. Try to avoid the enforcement method, as it is more likely to generate bad-will than be truly effective, and can compromise your ability to get referrals from clients you had harrassed.

One method that is worth trying, at least, is to simply ask your customers to pay early. Explain to them why you need the money earlier rather than later, explain that you understand it’s their right to hold out for 30 days, or whatever your official terms are, and in many cases, you’ll find a check in the next day’s mail.

Related posts:

1. Question: Are Your Customers Always Right?
2. Question: How do you calculate salary?
3. Tips to Getting Paid Promptly

The banner seemed to contain fairly current information – it had a cancelled class and a new class starting, both pieces of information being about a week old. Not too bad for a gym with a relatively stable schedule.

The Twitter feed was more disturbing. It had not been updated in about a year. Looking around at the rest of the site, signs of neglect were everywhere. Schedules were out of date, information was no longer current.

It had the feel of a passing fad.

In social media, and online in general, being current is incredibly important. If some information is clearly dated, visitors will quickly leave. While a website and a Twitter account are by no means expensive, they can cost quite a bit in terms of lost business.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find motivation to keep going, but persistence is required. It took 9 months of writing articles on this site before I made my first sale that I could attribute directly to my writing, but it paid for that effort. Even when you think there are no visitors reading, you continue to write, to update, to maintain a sense of freshness.

You never know when the big break will come, and you don’t want to have only yourself to blame for not being prepared.

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1. First Steps for a New Business
2. Social Media is Not a Strategy, but you need a Social Media Strategy
3. Bad Marketing Pitch Raises Scam Alert

I was then informed that Walmart, with top gross earnings in the world on an annual basis, has its corporate offices in a set of trailers in the middle of a field. Despite this cheap appearance, businesses will still approach the company, hoping to get their products carried by the store, and on entry to the offices, end up selling their products at the lowest price possible.

To resolve this contradiction to my publication, I placed a caveat on my position – that I was not targeting the discount industry, in which signs of frugality are key to increasing business.

However, this did not go far enough. The truth is, the decor of an office is highly dependent on the marketing image that you want to present. In the discount industry, the image is frugality. In the corporate legal industry, a more extravagant decor is called for. In the programming industry, things get a little more complicated.

On the one hand, there’s the image of Facebook and various other start-ups. They began in college dorm rooms, garages, abandoned offices. There might have been pizza boxes piled by the door, a foosball table in the middle of the room with sharp edges, and nerf balls scattered about.

The other side is that of the slick programmer, who has all the gadgets, who’s desk would make the bridge of the USS Enterprise look bare. The place is sparkling clean, everything is using the latest technology.

Which is the better image? It depends on who you’re trying to impress.

Is one image worth more than the other? Not really, since both appeal to a specific market. What is important is that when you choose your decor, you are aware of the marketing image you now present, and how that will affect your ability to bring in more clients without losing your current clients.

Related posts:

1. Why Decor is Worth the Price
2. The Home Office
3. The Expensive Route to Certification

An accounting firm had recently acquired new offices, and invited over their clients to see it, essentially, an open house for the new office. One of the clients made a comment: I guess your fees are about to go up.

This was not a comment made in jest, nor was it a complaint. It was an expectation of what would likely become a reality.

When a client sees a nice office, with a receptionist at the door and paintings on the wall, there are a few thoughts that go through their heads. First, that the firm must be well-off to be able to afford those items. Second, their fees must be high to make it all worthwhile. Third, that they must have some clients already who think the firm is worth their fees.

When a potential client walks into an office, they will be taking a look around, to see whether or not they should be trusting their business to this firm. In this case, appearances are extremely important, so much so that firms will spend tens of thousands of dollars just to get the look they want. The justification is simple – they can sign more clients, at higher rates, on account of the favorable impression that the office creates.

The actual decor is not really relevant. I’ve worked in corporate gray cubicles for a few years, which I find depressing. At the same time, they are neat and clean (or at least easy to make look that way). My personal preference is for stained wood furniture, as I find that look to be more welcoming. Others prefer chrome and glass. It doesn’t matter so long as the look is balanced and professional.

It doesn’t have to be expensive either. You can buy desks at Ikea along with chairs, a series of bookshelves to create private spaces, some potted plants to bring life to the room, and have outfitted a dozen work stations for less than $2000.

How would you justify such expense? Or do you feel that this really is worth it, in which case, why not?

Related posts:

1. Why the Decor can be too Expensive
2. Finding the Right Price
3. Developing a Personal Brand

This applies beyond just a photo of a person, though. It applies to the entire image of who and what you or your business are.

Your image, or brand, is that which will evoke the desired reaction from people. If you have a chain of coffee stores, for example, you will want to brand consistency (just look at Tim Hortons as an example of a really consistent cup of coffee). If you’re a tailor, you want to brand a perfect fit.

In your business, when choosing a brand, you need to look at both what you’re known for, and what you would like to be known for. Often, the two are not the same, but hopefully, neither is patently false about your business.

Once you’ve decided what those two ideas are, you need to create some sort of image that will help people recognize you (what you’re known for) and generate the reaction you’re looking for (what you want to be known for). The result of that is the image you need.

The other factor you need is an image that can be portrayed in a variety of media without significant deviation from a common theme. For example, an image that revolves around motion won’t make a good newspaper ad, while have lots of text in your image makes for something difficult to portray as a TV commercial.

Once you’ve selected your image, adapt it universally in your business, and give it a chance to provide feedback. An experiment with your image can take months before its effects are clear, so patience is a required factor here.

What do you consider to be your brand? How have you managed to get it portrayed in various media?

Related posts:

1. Developing a Personal Brand
2. Starbucks Experience and Tim Hortons Taste
3. The Personal Brand

Last week, I saw a question on Twitter regarding a choice of images for an avatar – should it be an action shot, or perhaps stick with a more formal portrait. Several messages later, it became quite clear that not only does the answer depend on the use of the avatar, but also on the audience and impression desired.

What’s it for?

In order to select an image for your avatar, you need to think about the environment in which your avatar is being viewed. Is it personal, or professional? Are customers looking at it? Co-workers? Friends? Public?

The answer to this question can help you determine the type of image that will best convey who you are to the person looking at it. If your answer to this question is personal, then there are few rules – you select an image that either reflects who you are, or who you wish you were.

If, on the other hand, the use is professional, or there’s a reasonable chance that people who know you professionally will come across the image, then you need to proceed more carefully.

What’s the norm?

In any industry, people have a preconceived notion of what a worker in that industry looks like. Bankers are imagined to be wearing 3-piece suits. A programmer is visualized to be dressed casually.

Remember, this isn’t about accuracy, but about impressions. If you told someone what your job is, there would be some level of expectation as to what you would look like, what you would wear.

When you select an image, the question becomes whether you want to reinforce the imagination, or contradict the imagination.

Reinforce the imagination

There are certainly benefits to presenting an image that fits the imagined picture of you – it provides a level of comfort to your viewers, and can establish a solid first impression – you fit the mold that someone else defined.

If you saw a picture of your lawyer in jeans and a t-shirt, it might make him memorable, but it will also impact his credibility up front, because he doesn’t look like a lawyer. That’s not to say that lawyers shouldn’t have pictures of themselves in casual attire, but that perhaps it would not be a good choice of avatar.

Contradict the imagination

On the other hand, presenting yourself in a different manner than the norm does make you memorable. A well-chosen image can portray someone who is not afraid to break down barriers, who can define their own path. If your industry has the reputation of being aloof, then dressing down can make you appear more approachable. If your industry has the reputation of being overly casual, dressing up can make you appear more organized.

Play the expectation

What is important here is not so much the image you select, but that you recognize how it will be viewed by those who do not yet know you. Your picture has the potential to create a first impression, and you need to be aware of what kind of impression that picture will make. What will also affect the impression is the context in which the picture is viewed, which means that you may want several different pictures of yourself for different environments.

My choice

If you are connected to me on several site, and have been for some time, then you may know that I use the same image on all the sites I’m a member of. The reason is simple – I want a completely unified presence. The image itself, though, has been changed a few times.

The original image (shown at the right) shows a silhouette of me, taken while on a four month trip to Israel in the summer of 2005. I used it as my profile picture for many years, since it showed me in a casual environment, but also gave a sense of mystery and anonymity, an appearance I thought I wanted.

This image didn’t pass the test of time, though. While I did receive many comments on the picture (including wondering if I had touched it up, to which the answer is no), it wasn’t at all professional. Once I started moving onto sites other than Facebook, it was important to me that I be recognizable, and that people who viewed my profile be able to identify with me.

I switched through several images, eventually settling on the image shown on the left. The picture was taken on the day of my engagement at Casa Loma, in the summer of 2006. While I was still avoiding using a formal portrait, I did find a picture that showed my face (albeit wearing sunglasses, which is potentially taboo).

This image is very different than the previous one, in that it does portray some level of professionalism. Without knowing the history of the image, it shows someone who can dress well (at least I think so), and confident.

Remember, the image is not about accuracy, but about impressions. The second image, in my opinion, tells more about me in a professional setting than the first. I’m not looking for mystery, but for competence, confidence, and generally professional.

Were these two pictures the first you saw of me, what would you think? That’s what the choice of avatar is all about – making the desired impression on the people who will see it who do not yet know you.

How about you – how did you go about selecting your avatar? What kind of impression do you think it makes?

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1. What is Your Image Worth
2. Choosing Furniture for your Office
3. Universal Imaging

Process by Ivan Walsh on Flickr.com

At my company, however, there were rules for everything. Want to make a small change to some text in an error message? Make sure the change was properly requested, documented, signed-off by the appropriate person, and only then can you check it into a test region. Want to put it into Production? Be prepared for a few days of paperwork and waiting for approval. Want to make it simpler to make small, routine changes? There’s a process for making changes to the process too.

I don’t question the need for process in any business – in fact, without any process at all, a business is doomed. Did you get a new client? Make sure you’ve documented that in your financial statements. Did you buy a new computer? Make sure you list it in your expenses, as well as in your company’s assets. Trying a new marketing strategy? Prepare some metrics to assist in determining how successful the strategy is.

On the other hand, as a company grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to remain both flexible and in control. That is, you as the owner are ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the business. You’re responsible for the image your business has. If someone in your company makes a blunder that costs you a customer, you have to absorb that.

At the same time, you want to trust your employees, and to give them the flexibility to get the job done, to take initiative for the benefit of the company. You don’t have the time to micro-manage (a topic of its own that I won’t get into here).

The end result is that your risk increases, because you can’t know everything that’s happening in your business, much as you would like to. As a result, your processes must adapt to changes in how your business operates, but at the same time, not become bloated to the point that your employees are either gaming the process, or ignoring it.

To do so, what I would recommend is that you take a look at the processes you have, and make sure that it is proportionate to the task to which it applies. For example, the same standards should not apply to which brand of coffee is used as applies to making a decision to hire someone.

Look at any process you have in place. The purpose of process is to reduce the risk associated with having multiple decision-makers. If a given process does not reduce that risk, then it should either be replaced, or eliminated. If the decision to be made does not expose your business to a risk, then the process should be dropped.

Time spent on dealing with process is wasteful, and yet, many companies find that they spend more time with the process than they do with actual work. Make sure you’re not one of those companies!

Related posts:

1. Decision Making Process
2. Lessons Learned from the Corporate World
3. Growth, Expansion, and the First Hire

Companies are well aware of the consumer attitude and loyalty (or lack thereof). As a result, some companies will go to great lengths to earn the loyalty of their customers, while others assume that the loyalty cannot be acquired. Which attitude is correct? Both and neither.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about one company, with what essentially amounts to a monopoly, and how they handled, or didn’t handle, a major image fiasco. In that case, the attitude was that customer loyalty is not relevant, since the customer has little choice but to use their service.

This article will be looking at another company with an image problem, but a completely different attitude – Toyota.

On account of a faulty design in a component of a car, Toyota was forced to issue a recall of hundreds of thousands of vehicles to address safety issues. The explanation for how such an oversight might have occurred in a company that was formerly known for its quality is quite simple. As the company grew, it exceeded its ability to maintain the same standards that brought it former success.

However, when it came time to deal with the product recall, the company did not look to excuses. The recall began with an apology for having let everyone down. The incident was not downplayed, but was addressed in full. What might have been a valid excuse was not discussed.

At the end of the day, Toyota may have lost some potential clients for the next few years. However, several people I’ve spoken to stated that they would continue to drive Toyota cars, because the company was open about the issue, and took appropriate steps to remedy the problem. I drive a Toyota (not affected by the recall), and would buy another.

What this shows is that the consumer isn’t always fickle. Sure, we change our minds arbitrarily, sometimes without any good reason. But sometimes, we do have loyalty to a particular brand, and so, when that brand makes a mistake, we look at how the mistake was handled before deciding whether or not to jump off the wagon.

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1. Are Your Customers Happy?
2. Universal Imaging
3. Developing a Personal Brand

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

Before going any further, one thing needs to be clarified. I was asking the original question for a particular reason, and it was not so that I could write this article. I’m planning on attending a speed networking event next week, in which participants are seated at tables with five other people and get two minutes to make an introduction. The last time I attended, before anyone spoke, I had 5 cards in front of me, one from each person. After the introductions, however, I only really saw value in 2 or 3 of the connections.

The second half of the issue is that I did, at that event, reciprocate the handing out of my card. I ended up on 3 distribution lists as a result, and it took a while to get taken off one of those. All three people who put me on their mailing lists had something in common – they were all mutual fund salesmen. The question I was trying to get answered was whether I could [politely] refuse to give my card to the mutual fund salesmen at the next event.

I got many answers to my question, some of which addressed my concerns, others which seemed to ignore that aspect of the question. However, I did learn a few things about such events, and the ramifications of sharing a card.

1. Speed networking events are of limited value, because, while they allow you to meet many people in rapid succession, they often do not allow you to establish a solid connection with any one person.
2. Given then I will be attending this event (although this may be my last such event), sharing my card is considered to be a necessity. That is, I cannot politely decline to share my card with any one person or group of people.
3. I can control when to share my card – I can wait until it’s my turn to introduce, thus linking my card to my introduction.
4. I can make mention that I do not wish to be placed on any distribution lists – while I welcome networking opportunities, please keep my e-mail off any type of mailing list you may have.
5. When receiving cards, make notes on the back regarding the person who gave me the card, and any other information that may be relevant.
6. You never know where your next successful connection will come from, so don’t try to guess. Instead, hand your care to anyone who will take it, but always include a brief summary of what it is you do, and what it is you’re looking for.

What do you think about sharing your card? What value can you find is such events?

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1. Preparing to Attend a Networking Event
2. Post Parnasa Fest Toronto II
3. How do you Network?

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.

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Read through the pitch before posting it, and tweak it if necessary. You can then use this pitch verbally, as a signature to all of your e-mails, or on your website.

I’d be interested in seeing what you come up with – post your pitch as a comment to this post!

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Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to fire all of the unhappy people.

Once again, I have been reading questions on Linked In, and came across an interesting corporate culture. The end result of such a culture is well-reflected in the poster shown (courtesy of Despair Inc.).

The question asked how to motivate employees to pursue courses on their own time for use at the workplace when there was no money for training (but the courses were free) and no obvious means of encouraging employees to pursue the training. The author of the question wanted to know of alternatives to giving negative performance reviews at the end of each year.

To me, the fact that the author even considered using negative performance reviews as a means of encouraging behaviour shows a major problem with the corporate culture. First, this is essentially blackmailing your employees to do something. Rather than encourage them to do what is right, you are discouraging them from doing something which they may or may not want to do. The likely outcome from such a means of “encouragement” is either mass rebellion, with all employees refusing to take the training (and now on principle of defying management), or a mass exodus as employees leave to find greener pastures.

Second, performance reviews are held annually, which is not frequent enough to cause anyone to modify their behaviour. Some employees will attend a course the day before their review to avoid the negative repercussions of not attending, and then stop.

To motivate employees to do something, you need to use positive reinforcement (much like trying to encourage children to behave well). Additionally, you need to work as a team, with everyone on the team working toward a common goal (working for the paycheck does not count). Explain to the team why these courses are important. Get them to offer suggestions on how to integrate the content of the courses into the workplace. You need to make the employees WANT to take the courses.

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At the start of a project, the timelines look good, the schedules may be aggressive, and optimism is high. People enjoy a fresh start, and the work begins. However, as time goes on, the Project Manager realizes that the schedule was unrealistic, or perhaps something unexpected came up, and now the project is a month behind. Suddenly, the client is clamoring for status updates, and wants to know why the project is late.

As a Project Manager, what do you do?

In order to answer this question, the first step is to understand the various reasons why a schedule might slip, since that can affect how to resolve the issue.

1. The initial schedule was never accurate. It was overly aggressive, and did not allow for unforeseen problems. As a general rule-of-thumb, there should be about a 20% allowance for unforeseen difficulties. Additionally, the people doing the work should be involved in creating the schedule, since they will be the ones expected to adhere to that schedule.
2. The schedule was sufficiently conservative, but a delay from a third party held up progress. Once the third party delivers, the schedule will be back on track, although pushed out by the length of the delay. The third party could be a resource for either the vendor or the client.
3. The schedule was sufficiently conservative, but changes to scope caused the schedule to break.
4. The scope did not change, but the amount of work required for some portion of the project was not estimated correctly and this was only determined once the work began.

The first step in resolving a problem with the schedule is communication. The client should be informed:

1. There has been a delay in the project, and what the new schedule is
2. What caused the delay, and whether or not another delay for a similar reason can be expected during the remainder of the project

Once the client has been informed of the new schedule, the relationship with the client must be repaired. Depending on the nature of the delay and the ultimate cost to the client, how the relationship is repaired will vary.

If the cost to the client can be measured with a dollar value, then that cost should be, to some extent, reimbursed to the client if the vendor was the source of the delay. However, this situation is not that common as making such a measurement is fairly difficult, and may not be determinable until after the project is complete.

In most cases, offer the client some form of compensation for the delay, with the amount depending on the nature and severity of the delay. Clearly, a single day delay is not as severe as a month delay. However, if that single day means that the client misses an industry deadline, the severity is greatly increased.

One form of compensation that allows for an opportunity to repair the relationship fully is to offer a discount on future work. For example, if the vendor was supplying a website, they can offer a discount on future maintenance, for example, a 10% reduction in the hourly rate for the first 50 hours of maintenance.

What is clear, regardless of the nature of the delay, is that the relationship between the client and the vendor will need repair. What should not be done is to attempt to hide or deny the delay – the client will eventually find out, and then trust will be lost. By being honest about the schedule, and keeping open lines of communication, you can work with the client to bring the project to a successful close. Your practices in dealing with delays will assist in future goodwill, as clients tend to appreciate when vendors are honest about schedules, and take appropriate action to adhere to them.

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