Successful Startup 101 Magazine - Issue 7
Simplify whenever possible.
Why take two dozen steps to accomplish something if you can get it done just as effectively in only three or four? Simplification is a critical part of achieving maximum results with the least amount of effort. Working hard is important but using your time in the most effective way possible is even more important. Simplifying processes whenever possible makes it much easier to accomplish more in less time. It also makes it quicker and easier to share your knowledge and bring team members up to speed when necessary.
Embrace discomfort.
Nobody likes to be uncomfortable and it’s a natural inclination to avoid discomfort. However, in order to be successful, you must be willing not only to be uncomfortable but also to embrace discomfort. This means the willingness to give something up in order to gain something, such as giving up comfort in order to gain forward momentum. This can mean working late to ensure goals are met or making lifestyle changes in order to be able to invest in a new venture. Either way, sacrificing comfort now can enable you to take the steps you need to achieve future success.
Continually develop your skills and knowledge.
This is another way in which embracing discomfort has a large payoff. Taking courses to gain certifications along with expanding your knowledge base of your industry is a fantastic way to move forward and be more successful in your career. Wake up early to study if you need to but make sure you take advantage of all the classes and instruction available to you to become an expert in your field. Another great way to increase your skills and understanding is to read – read anything you can get your hands on that can help you become more knowledgeable and effective. Fifty-eight percent of people never read non-fiction books after they graduate from high school, so simply picking up a book and reading it will help establish your expertise and set you apart from your competition.
Develop the right relationships.
It’s not only the relationships you develop with your company’s clients that are important. Developing good, healthy relationships with colleagues and employees is an important step in business success. These are the people who can influence your business’s growth – for better or worse. Ensure that influence is working in your favor by identifying ways to help employees and colleagues achieve their goals and objectives. Your assistance will help establish you as a go-to person within your industry and position you for small business success.
Success might not be easy but it is achievable. There will always be setbacks but perseverance, dedication and drive eventually yield success. Follow these seven sure-fire success principles and you will find yourself enjoying the success you’ve always wanted.
About the Author
Daniel C. Steenerson imparts his success wisdom, principles and philosophies through his proprietary “Science of Visioneering” approach to help companies, entrepreneurs, executives and other professionals realize business greatness. He may be reached online at www.DanSteenerson.com–an online community where business owners, executives and other career achievement-minded professionals go for no-nonsense, “tell-it-like-it-is” success advice.
5 Free Online Tools Too Valuable to Ignore that Will Help You Grow Your Business
By Didi Zheleva
Setting up a business is a big enough investment but did you know that when it comes to managing your business and marketing it, you don’t need to spend a fortune. Here are 5 free tools that would transform your business at no cost!
#1 WordPress
Having an online presence for your business is increasingly important. Whether you are planning to use your website as a branding tool, to sell or to generate enquiries about your product, it is imperative that you have one.
It is often misunderstood that creating a website is a complicated tasks, that you need a specialist or a graphic designer to do it, it takes a ton of time and it’s expensive. Once upon item, that was the case but not anymore. Now there is WordPress.
WordPress is a free content management system. It comes with thousands of templates you can chose from and you can easily and effortlessly setup a website for your business. Simply follow the instructions and you will have a website within minutes! Try WordPress.
#2 InTouch CRM
Customer Relationship Management is a must for any business wishing to stay ahead in the game. The focus of each and every business is to thrive through building long-lasting relationships with customers and a well implemented CRM system will help you do exactly that. Being so popular however, CRM is quite often a luxury. With some providers charging as much as $2000 just to set up your account, InTouch comes as a breath of well-needed fresh air.
InTouch gives you much functionality at a comparatively lower price than other providers and it even has a free package! Some of the features include a contact history database, email marketing, web forms, custom fields, leads and sales management and much more. InTouch truly is an integral part of the smart business person’s strategy. Try InTouch.
#3 Skype
Keeping in touch with people, be it customers, suppliers, investors and employees will in time prove to be rather costly.
Skype allows you to stay connected, grow your business and work smarter. You will benefit from the opportunity to make conference calls and generally keeping in touch with people and clients. You can even interview people using Skype!
Skype allows for instant messaging and calls on pretty much any mobile device, wherever you are. In addition, you will be able to work from anywhere, save on travel and share your screen. Try Skype.
#4 HootSuite
Social media is a huge part of the business marketing strategy but sometimes juggling between the different platforms could be overwhelming.
To make their business and social media life a lot easier, here is HootSuite. It is a free social media management tool that allows you to manage all your social networking accounts (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) at once. HootSuite helps you drive more leads, measure the impact of your campaigns and schedule messages to be post automatically. Try HootSuite.
#5 Dropbox
Smart businessmen know that it’s paramount to store important files and data in different places to ensure that they’ll always have a copy, no matter what disaster they encounter. Right now, it is not enough to have files stored on your website and USB. You need other backup storage, and that is where Dropbox comes in.
Dropbox offers a secure way to store your. If any other members of your team have a Dropbox account, you can actually share access to the files.
With a basic Dropbox account you get up to 2GB of free cloud storage. It offers native support for Linux and Blackberry, as well as Windows, Mac OS, iOS, and Android. Try Dropbox.
Whether you are just starting your business, or you would like to budget, these 5 online tools will help you stay more organized, productive and professional at no cost. So go ahead and give them a try!
About the Author
Didi Zheleva is a Content and Digital Marketing Executive at InTouch CRM - a web based sales and marketing software provider. She’s committed to helping small businesses grow and passionate about all things digital. Good marketing doesn't need to be too costly or too complicated!
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Fear - The Entrepreneur’s New Fuel
By Tabitha Jean Naylor
Fear...it’s something that young entrepreneurs hear plenty about.
They tell you fear isn’t real, that it’s something that people create in their minds. That it shouldn’t effect you because you, yourself, made it up. But how often has this mindset actually helped you start a small business or jumpstart your entrepreneurship development?
I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that it hasn’t. You’ve looked up
and down the internet, read books, listened to speakers, heard all about other peoples’ entrepreneur success stories. The fear, however, still persists. It’s still there, slowly eating away at your morale.
The bottom line is that fear is real. It’s very real. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t feel it.
Dealing with fear, realizing that it’s going to be a part of the journey, is the only way that you’re going to become a successful entrepreneur. You can scour the web and read every book imaginable on how to deal with your fears but until you realize that fear is going to be a part of the process you are going to struggle.
It’s all about making a decision that your comfort zone is not a place that you want to be. Understanding that fear is going to be there every step of the way and falling in love with the feeling of your stomach tightening every time you make the decision to face those fears. That’s what is going to help you develop into the type of business entrepreneur you want to become.
People that work for other people are helping THOSE people achieve THEIR dreams. Whether they are a sales executive making six figures or working in a cubicle for 50k a year, they are spending their time helping other people achieve their dreams.
There is an old quote that says that 99% of people in the world can work for a company once it’s been created, but only 1% of the population can actually create those things or places that the 99% work at.
Understand that you, already, are a part of that 1%. When you’ve made that decision to make the jump to starting a business, you’ve done something that only 1% of the population has the ability to do.
So whatever you’re getting into right now - whether that be developing new business ideas, signing on with a new marketing partner or maybe still thinking about making the jump to opening a small business - realize that fear is going to be a part of the process.
Realize that uncertainty, butterflies, and a tightened stomach are going to be with you every step of the way. But also realize that beautiful things will begin to happen when you start to accept that uncertainty and move forward anyhow. Realize that your potential lies right beyond that comfort zone.
Entrepreneurship is a beautiful thing. It’s also an incredibly difficult thing. You’ve already made a decision that only 1% of the population has the ability to make. Now make the decision to put yourself at the top of that 1%.
A wise person once said, ‘By leaving behind your old self & taking a leap of faith into the unknown, you find out what you are truly capable of becoming.’
Face your fears, step out of that comfort zone, use that fear to fuel you and don’t ever look back again.
Even Small Businesses Can Have Remote Employees
By Richard Weinberger, PhD, CPA
We are living in an age where state of the art technology and the Internet have made the world increasingly smaller, so it is easier and cost effective to have remote employees. With the high cost of owning or leasing “real estate” to provide employees a place to work, companies of all sizes are realizing the cost benefit of having remote employees in addition to increased productivity that results from positive employee attitudes. Employees, likewise, find numerous benefits – no commute, flexible hours, and the feeling of job independence.
The biggest challenge that any business faces with remote employees is accountability and commitment. When systems and processes are in place, however, remote employees can be managed with efficiency, which produces quality results for the company and highly satisfied employees.
Key enablers for managing remote employees are:
Roles of company and employee
Managing remote employees requires detailing what each is expected to contribute, and what the employee is expected to accomplish. Specific objectives must be clearly defined and communicated to achieve satisfaction for both parties. What will the company furnish in the way of support and equipment? What will the remote employee be expected to produce and when? Ambiguous goals result in hit-or-miss performance.
Tools and support
A remote employee must have the right tools (equipment) to perform the job function and the necessary support to complete assigned projects. The right “tools” might be computers, printers, phones, Internet, technical manuals, company catalogs, office supplies, and other essentials needed to properly perform various assignments. This will also include support from the company in the way of contact personnel, IT assistance, marketing, databases, or travel arrangements, as examples.
Schedules
Schedules for project milestones, completions, reports, and available hours (telephone, instant messaging, or email) are required of the remote employee. Though work flexibility is an advantage for a remote employee, specific work and schedule objectives must be adhered to. Depending on the location of the employee, headquarters, and customers, a remote employee may be required to keep a non-traditional work schedule at times. Working across various time zones might be inconvenient for a remote employee but necessary to accomplish desired results.
Flexibility
Offering remote employees a flexible workplace and schedule are beneficial for recruiting, employee satisfaction, and motivation. Although the concept for employees is the convenience of working from home or another remote location, results must still equal or exceed what would be expected of the same employee working from a company location. As companies understand that final results are more important than the physical presence or hourly work schedules of employees, then the option of having remote employees becomes a possibility.
In a study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (2012 National Study of Employers) the following facts emerged:
• The percentage of companies allowing (at least some) employees to work some of their regular paid hours at home on an occasional basis increased from 34 percent in 2005 to 63 percent in 2012.
• For 2012, 10 percent of small organizations (50-99 employees) allowed all or most employees to work some regular paid hours at home occasionally compared to 3 percent of large organizations (1,000 or more employees) allowing the same.
Objectives and goals
One of the most important elements that must be shared with remote employees are organizational objectives and goals. Every business has different goals, visions, and missions that must be communicated to and understood by all employees regardless of location. Everyone must be “on board.” Since remote employees do not see daily reminders, the company must clearly articulate these through clear, concise, and frequent communications. Delivering results is the end product for any remote employee, but can only be accomplished with a thorough understanding of both company and personal objectives.
Depending on the type of business, a small company might have remote employees performing:
Sales
Administrative functions
Payroll
Customer service
Technical assistance
IT programming
Marketing
Recruiting
Accounting
Travel arrangements
Having remote employees is certainly not for every business. Nevertheless, there are many businesses that can realize substantial benefits from having some functions performed remotely either some of the time or most of the time. If a small business has never tried using remote employees for some business tasks, it can test the possibility by first determining what functions would be the easiest and least costly to implement. A review can be made of:
Each employee and majors functions performed
Additional costs required for remote equipment and communication
Any cost savings attributable to not having an employee on company location
Need for remote employee supervision
How remote employee results will be calculated
Overall benefits for the company, as well as the remote employee
Once a determination is made that it is in the best interests of the company and e
mployee, a test can be conducted for a pre-determined period. Of course, the employee must understand that the test period may or may not become permanent based on a review after the test period is completed. Considering all the different ways of effective communication today, remote employees for at least some functions are a possibility for all businesses – even small ones.
About the Author
Richard L. Weinberger, PhD, CPA, has over 30 years experience as a financial and management consultant for small businesses. An esteemed thought leader, speaker, and former college professor, he is the CEO of the Association of Accredited Small Business Consultants. His new book, Propel Your Small Business to Success: Accelerated Actions to Maximize Profit, (www.aampapproach.com) gives small business owners a step-by-step method for reviewing and analyzing all aspects of their company in order to ensure survival and success.
Who Advises the Entrepreneur?
By Kerrie MacPherson
If you’re leading a startup business with potential for high growth, one of the most valuable things you should do early on is to set up an advisory board. Scaling an enterprise is hard work, and you only stand to benefit from drawing on perspectives, experience, and networks that augment your own. A group of advisors committed to your success not only provides a sounding board to test and strengthen your ideas, it gives you access to important competencies and resources.