Archive for the ‘Systems’ Category

The amount of information that is now available at our fingertips is overwhelming. For small business owners, this boon is a great thing. At the same time, it can cause problems.

Improved Access

Almost anything you do as a small business owner can be done faster, better, and cheaper today. This includes all areas of running your business, things like scheduling, sales, paying bills, getting paid, marketing, and accounting. When you need to find a new market, research a product, or cut costs, there are answers available all over the internet.

One of the biggest, and fastest growing, areas of information is data about your customers. Thanks to social media, web sites, blogs, and more, you can gain a vast amount of intel on current and prospective customers. All of that information can help you better serve your customers and book more sales.

Staying On Top of Information

All of this is good, but what if you are already struggling to stay afloat? Chances are, you have a hard time keeping your email inbox clear and responding to phone calls. What business do you have wading into the sea of information on sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn?

The thing is, you almost have to. Not because its cool or anything. Communication simply must follow the customer. And if you have customers using online tools to communicate, you better be right there with them engaging with them in conversation.

Two Tools that Help

The problem is simply overload. What small business owners need is a way to sort information and stay on top of it. I am not sure if there is already a great solution for this. Two companies come to mind who are making it easier. The first is Batchbook, which is the company I use for CRM. It is possible to keep track of things like Twitter and Facebook feeds right within the contact window on Batchbook. They need to make it a little easier, but they have a great start.

The other company is Gist. Gist lets you search for your contact’s online feeds and activities. It can automatically collect some information on a contact, such as their Twitter account, and then feed it into a communication page for that person. What Gist lacks is a robust contact management system.

More Features

If Gist and Batchbook got married, it might be the perfect answer for all of our information channeling needs. I would add some more key features, such as being able to search your contact feeds for certain keywords and then highlighting that information in a dashboard. That way, when a customer or contact is talking about a need you can fulfill, you can reach out to them. Another ideal feature would be a conversation scheduler. Say you wanted to reach out to a certain customer once a month. You could receive a reminder along with a recap of what they have been saying on social networks, along with news about them or their company. You might also receive links to blogs or news stories that relate in some way to what they have been talking about. In this way, you could reach out very personally to your contacts.

The point here is simple. We, as small business owners, need better ways to manage all of this information. The company that gets information management right will win in the end. That means understanding how relationships work. All of these new apps and networks are great, but for us business owners, its all about the sorting and staying on top of the relationships.

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Hello, I’m Bradford Shimp. I spend a lot of time thinking, studying, and living small business. You can hire me for youronline marketing needs at www.BroadRiverCreative.com. Be sure to check out the podcast here at All Business Answers.

photo credit: Blyzz

Do you answer the phone yourself at your business? What do you do when you are on the job, or just too busy to answer the phone when it rings? Do you just let it go to voicemail?

You may not be ready to hire a receptionist. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need one. It is very important to answer the phone promptly and professionally. If your calls go to voicemail, there are two dangers.

First, maybe the person will not leave a voice mail. If they were calling  your business trying to get a quote or information, chances are good that they are calling around. If they do not leave a message, you have no way to get back to them. And if they get a good enough answer from another business, you have lost them entirely.

The other bad thing that happens with voicemail is that you forget to return the call quickly enough. As a small business owner, it is easy to get so wrapped up in your job that days go by before you know it. When you do finally get back to the caller, it might be too late.

If you can have a human answering your phone whenever it rings, or at least during normal business hours, you should. And here’s the thing, you do not have to hire a full time receptionist to do it.

There are a couple of ways to go about it. First, you can hire a virtual assistant. This person can answer the phone from their own office. You just need to set up a system to forward calls. Good systems allow you to control when to forward calls, and may even allow you to forward them after so many rings. This means you can set it up to answer the calls yourself when you are not too busy.

The second option is to hire a receptionist company. The great thing here is that they can answer the phone 24/7.  You simply need to set up scripts for the service to use. You can even set it up so they can answer basic questions and so they know when to forward the call directly to you or to take a message. These services can be very affordable. One I used in the past started at only $80 per month then a few cents per call.

With affordable options available, you really have no excuse to let your calls just go to voicemail. Start doing some research and find an alternative that will work well for your business as you grow.

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Hello, my name is Bradford Shimp. Check out my web design services at BroadRiverCreative.com.

photo credit: mangpages

When business is going great, you likely aren’t worrying about what will happen if you have to close it down. If things are bad, it is probably already too late to salvage much. You need to plan in the good times for things that might go wrong. Specifically, as part of your business, you should have a way out that w0n’t wreck you financially or emotionally. Call it your fire escape.

We all know that we should have an emergency plan in case of a fire. And even though a house fire is highly unlikely, we all have fire alarms in our house. With nearly as many businesses closing each year as there are businesses opening, it is important to have an escape plan.

While it is true that sometimes the worst happens and it seems your business goes up in flames, often businesses suffer a slower death, or owners just decide to walk away. The fact is, you should have an escape plan in place from day one of your business. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that things will eventually grow to a size where you can take out a retirement or whatever else you want from the business. Instead, craft the business from the get go so you can take what you need from it and you won’t be destroyed if it comes crashing down.

Take a Profit

The first thing you need to focus on is profit. You want to build a profitable business from the start. The only sure way to do this is to commit to taking a real profit out of the business. If you don’t do this, you will probably play things too close and operate on a razor thin margin. Commit to taking a profit, and you will quickly see if you are bringing in enough sales, if the profit margin is high enough, and if your overhead is in line.

Your profit is not your paycheck. A paycheck is what you get for doing the day to day work. It is what you would have to pay someone else if you can no longer work, or don’t want to. If the money you are taking out of the business goes away after you stop working, then it is not a profit. And if you aren’t bringing in any additional profit, you aren’t yet in business. You just employ yourself.

A profit is a percentage of income. For each check that comes in, you need to be able to take a percentage out. You pick the percentage. Start low if you must, but build it up to a healthy number, maybe around 20%. Remember, this is not greed. This is not robbing your business, either. If you can maintain a healthy profit, then your business is healthy too.

Some of your profit can go back into your business. The rest needs to go to you for non-business related things. Start an IRA, for goodness sake. Don’t borrow money from yourself after you get things going. And if you have to, don’t borrow it from your profit. You should be taking baby steps forward, not leaps backward. Protect your profit and you will protect your business. You’ll also have something to show for it if things go horribly wrong, or if you decide it is time to retire.

Protect Your Assets

The sooner you incorporate, the better. Incorporation can protect you from frivolous lawsuits, help you with tax burden, and put up a wall between you and your business. If things go south with the business, you will have a better ability to hang on to your own wealth and assets. This could mean the difference between keeping or losing your house, so it is important.

There a several different ways to incorporate, all with unique advantages. Contact an expert, or research it out yourself. I suggest the book, Incorporate and Grow Rich, as a good starting point.

Protect Your Data

Sometimes, real disasters happen. Are you safe if your building catches on fire for real? What about a computer hard drive failure? You need to make sure you have access to all of your vital business data, in case of an emergency. The best way to do this is to make sure you are backing up your data off site. I have used a service called Carbonite to do this, and it is very easy.

The other thing you can look into is using online software instead of onsite software. If you use an online CRM, such as Batchbook, to store your customer data, you will be able to access it even if you need to get a new computer, or if your business gets hit by a meteor. I suggest doing your own hard back ups of any data you store with online services, just in case. But a reputable software company usually does a far better job protecting and keeping your data than you do.

Insurance

Double check all of your insurance policies. Are you protected to the hilt in case of an emergency? You should be. Your business is your livelihood, after all. Talk to an expert about what kind of insurance you need. Pretty early on, if you own your business, you need to think about things like disability insurance and health insurance. Cover yourself as well as your business.

Structure

Finally, sometimes you want to leave your business even when it is doing fine. This is called retirement, and it doesn’t matter how old you are. Always be ready to retire. This means, build a business that you can hand over. You can’t hand over a business if you are paying yourself half the going rate for your job. If you can’t get any profit out of your business while you run it, you can’t expect to get a profit out of it after you bring on someone else to run it. Thinking of selling? The better your structure, the better your systems, and most importantly, the better your profit and cash flow, the more likely you are to get a good price.

So the stronger your business is, the easier it is to walk away from it. If it can go on without you and you can still bring in a profit from it, you are golden.

You don’t want to have to run screaming from your business. Plan now. Put things in place that will let you walk away with something, whether you leave a crumbled and bankrupt business or a healthy and strong one. Don’t bet everything on future success. Make way for profit right away. And always prepare for worst. That way, you will be secure.

photo credit: laurenatclemson

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Bradford Shimp helps small businesses build better web sites at BroadRiverCreative.com.

photo credit: Damian Morys Fotos

If you think of your business as a car, you probably want it to be something like a Lamborghini. These are beautiful, high performance machines that attract a lot of attention. What you see on the outside is a thing of beauty.

With business, the outside is the intersection between customers and the business. For the most part, its the only thing customers ever see. This includes sales, customer service, marketing, and of course the product or service.

Its important to have a good face for customers to see and interact with. However, if all you ever focus on in your business is this interaction, you will be neglecting some very important elements.

For all the beauty of a Lamborghini, what makes it truly special is not on the outside. Design elements are easy. What is important is what is on the inside.

photo credit: telephoto46

The engine of the Lamborghini makes it pretty special. Imagine a Lamborghini with a lawnmower engine. It just wouldn’t be the same.

However, many small business owners try to run an outstanding organization on a rickety, slapped together engine. You make customers your number one priority and make promises to them and yourself to be the best. But if you always focus on being the best at the intersection of customer and business, you will never be able to be your actual best. In order to do that, you have to commit to building systems on which your business can run smoothly and achieve the results that you desire.

Don’t try to run a Lamborghini business on a lawnmower engine. Focus a good portion of your time on the insides of your business. This means building systems for everything.

As you built your business up, you probably went about this backward. You made promises to customers, then figured out how to make them happen. You may still do it. If you ever have problem maintaining a new change to your business, it is because you haven’t built the platform for it first. By throwing one new thing on top of another over the years, you have created a junkyard engine that is giving you just barely enough juice to stay in business.

If you want success, real and measurable results, you need to swap out the slapped together systems of your business for a new, powerful, success engine.

Here are some things effected by the engine inside your business.

• Efficiency
• Profitability
• Employee Satisfaction
• Time Management
• Product/Service Development and Implementation

This list could go on. The fact is, good systems have a positive impact on every part of your business. So, instead of trying to put more shine on your business, why not add some muscle under the hood?

Building systems takes time and hard work. You need to look at every single part of your business. My wife’s uncle has a business restoring old Ford Mustangs. When he rebuilds a car, he takes it all apart. Down to every last screw. As he does, he catalogs the process and identifies the purpose of each part.

If you do this with your business, you will be able to identify parts that are defective, other parts that aren’t performing like they are supposed to, and probably more than a handful of parts that you don’t even need. Go over everything carefully. Fix and improve each aspect of your business. Build simple systems for every job, every interaction, and for every piece of paperwork.

As you do this, always keep the customer in mind. You are fine tuning, or rather overhauling, so you can have an engine with which to really serve them better. Future promises should come from what you know you can accomplish. Future goals should be reached for not with hope, but with knowledge. You need to know your business intimately and be able to quickly identify any parts that aren’t working properly. In the end, you are a highly specialized mechanic, able to fix just one car, your business. Get good at it. Build and then maintain a real engine for success within your business.

Want to know more? Have specific questions? Ask below in the comments section.

No business owner likes to hear a complaint about her business. This is her baby, after all. But, for better or worse, complaints happen. Things go wrong. People screw up.

When you get a complaint, what you do with it is important. A customer complaint is an opportunity to learn and make your business better, and to develop loyalty with customers. Or, if you like, its an opportunity to be selfish, to blame others, and to hide under a rock.

Too often complaints are viewed as anomalies and ignored. This shouldn’t be the case. Every complaint should be deconstructed and analysed, not to see if there is a flaw in the complaint, but to see if there is a flaw in your business. Even complaints from bad customers are important. They can highlight cracks in your organization. They may just highlight the fact that you are not doing a good enough job finding the right customer. But that is a real problem that needs a real solution.

You need to have a process for dealing with complaints. It could look something like this:

1. Receive the complaint with humility. You’re not perfect, so no need to pretend that you are.
2. Personally apologize to the customer. As an active small business owner, you should deal with complaints personally. Larger businesses should have as high up a person as possible dealing with complaints.
3. Make it better. Talk to the customer and see how you can make it better. Let the customer lead you here. Each person will be a little different. For instance, some will want their money back, while others will want a replacement. Find out the customer’s specific need and take responsibility for filling it.
4. Analyse the issue. Problems don’t happen in a vacuum. It doesn’t matter if you never received that particular complaint before, it is still a valid complaint for that person. Think through what happened and figure out what went wrong. Don’t overreact, but don’t under-react either. Here’s an example. Maybe the customer’s complaint was that your price was too high for the quality of the product. If you have never heard this complaint before, don’t rush out and change the price of the product. Instead, you may need to look at how that customer got sold, what he was promised, etc. Maybe the problem isn’t in your price, but in your selling promises.
5. Fix the problem. You need to be proactive in fixing complaint causing issues. Yes, make the customer feel better. But that alone doesn’t cause the problem not to happen again. Establish a culture in your company where mistakes are not accepted, but where everyone takes responsibility for them and works together to make sure they don’t happen again. Don’t be afraid to dig in to the root causes of the complaint. It will probably turn out that the problem lies in something different than the surface issue. If you don’t dig, you may just dismiss the complaint as something out of your control. But nothing is out of your control in the business. Dig, and you may find issues in training, in vendor selection, in quality control, in attitudes and culture, or in any number of areas. In fact, the complaint may be a godsend because it will help you discover a hairline crack that will cause you nothing but trouble when you put the weight of growth on it.

A complaint can be a wonderful thing, if it is leveraged properly. Too often, you never hear the grumblings of a customer. It takes a special kind of person to confront you with your mistake. Don’t dismiss this person as a trouble maker. For every loud complainer, there are a number of quite grumblers. So embrace the complaint and fix it on the level of the customer and also within your business, no matter how deep you have to dig. Your business will benefit.

Hint: Use Toyota’s Five Whys. Keep asking why did this happen until you reach the root of the problem. When you think you have found the answer, be sure to ask one more why. For instance, you may think you have found that an employee is the problem. But why did the employee make the mistake? Was there inadequate training? Or if the employee is truly a bad apple, then why is she working for you. If you don’t dig deep enough, the problems will just reoccur. And please remember, as a business owner, every problem will eventually be traced back to you. Be humble and willing to grow.

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Bradford Shimp helps small businesses navigate the web and bring in more leads at BroadRiverCreative.com