Posts Tagged ‘business owner’

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

I don’t have an iPhone, but I do have the next best thing, an iPod Touch. It is a great tool that I keep by my side constantly. Well, every once in awhile the kids manage to borrow it to play some games. It is such a versatile tool that I suggest every business owner should get one (yes, even you Scott Blistein). If you are happy with your cell phone, just buy a Touch like I did.

The reason I suggest the iPhone is because it is so easy to use, and has so much versatility. One moment I can be playing Need For Speed and the next I can be writing a blog post, tracking my hours, or even viewing a spreadsheet.

If you are not familiar with how an iPhone works (and the Touch works the same exact way), everything is based around the Apps. Apple has designed a great piece of hardware with a large touch screen, but it is the Apps that really help make this a must-have tool for small businesses. That and a really easy to use touchscreen keyboard.

Apps are designed by third party software companies, and there are a ton of them. I recently reviewed BottomLine, a tracking app for cash businesses. Here are some more apps that are good for small businesses, suggested by TechStartUps.com, a website dedicated to news and information about to East Coast start-ups.

Here are some of their suggestions:

• Invoice2go. With this app you can create and email PDF invoices from customizable templates.
• Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite. The first full-featured Microsoft® Office productivity suite for iPhone or iPod touch with integrated access to multiple cloud services; MobileMe, Dropbox, Google® Docs, and Box.net directly from your iPhone or iPod touch.
• Business Card Reader. Import contact information right from a business card to your iPhone contacts.  Take a photo of the business card, check and correct the new contact info, and the new contact is added. This only works on iPhone, as the iPod Touch does not have a camera.
• SugarSync – Never be without a file when you need it. SugarSync gives you 24/7 access to all your PCs and Macs. View and share Word, Excel & PDF files, photos & more. Share entire photo albums quickly. No need to leave your computers turned on.
• HoursTracker – Track time spent on projects and view earnings, including different rates for different tasks. Clock in or out multiple times, add notes, and email reports.
• iSwipe Global Credit Card – Process major credit cards securely on your iPhone. iSwipe supports 18 currencies, with instant verification and fraud detection.
• Bento – Allows you to manage all your personal or business data in one intuitive application on iPhone. Organize your information using templates for easy tracking of contacts, projects, to-do items, customer information, and more.
• Pointer Remote for PowerPoint and Keynote – Turn your iPhone into a pointer for presentations and control PowerPoint 2008 or 2004 or Keynote ‘06/’08 presentations.

To this list, you could add a ton of great apps. Here are some of my personal favorites:

• ClockIn – A simple time tracking app with an export to Excel file option.
• Wordpress – I sometimes write posts right on my iPod. You can also check on and reply to comments.
• Gist – Gist.com is a powerful tool to manage all of your online relationships. The app brings the power of personal connection to the palm of your hand.
• Google. The Google app gives you access to all of your favorite Google tools, including Gmail, Reader, Calendar, Tasks, and News.
• Amazon Kindle – You can buy and read Kindle titles right on your iPhone. It is surprisingly easy to read on the iPhone, and you can zoom in if you need bigger words. And yes, you can take notes. Great way to read a business book when you are travelling, or in between things.

The iPhone or iPod Touch is a great tool for keeping connected, keeping track of things, and becoming more effective with your time. I know there is a big argument for some people against buying an iPhone because AT&T doesn’t offer good coverage. But this is so much more than a phone. It is a mini-computer that helps you stay on top of things, and maybe have a little fun from time to time as well. So go get yourself an iPhone or iPod Touch.

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Hello, I’m Bradford Shimp. I love my gadgets. You can learn more about me at BradfordShimp.com.

It always amazes me that, come election time, an incumbent politician can pretty much drop everything and run for re-election. It doesn’t matter if they are a senator, a govenor, or even the President of The United States of America.

What is even more interesting is that when they do drop everything to run, government doesn’t miss a beat. Everything goes on as normal.

Of course, this is possible because each politician is surrounded by teams of people who help get the job done. In fact, a politician’s job consists of shaking hands, casting vision, and making decisions.

As a small business owner, there is a lot that you can learn from a politician.

Get a Team Around You

First, form a great team. This team should be able to keep things humming without your involvement in every detail. Politicians are famous for avoiding the details. They don’t write their own speeches, they don’t do their own research. They rely on the quality of their team.

Cast the Vision

The next lesson is that it is your job to guide, not to do. Cast a vision for your business. Politicians have platforms. They bring in key people to help them develop and push their agenda. You need to set up the goals for your business and then find people who are passionate about achieving them.

Make Decisions

The third lesson is to make decisions. Politicians make a lot of decisions, some very publicly by casting a vote. As a business owner, most of your decisions are public as well. They effect employees and customers. If you are wishy-washy with your decision making, it is going to have a negative effect in your business. Look at politicians who make two contrary votes. They are ridiculed as wafflers.

In order to make good decisions that all work together to push your business in a certain direction, you simply need solid goals and a destination in mind for your business. For politicians, this is called ideology. Your business should have it’s own ideology.

Build Support

Finally, you need to know how to build support. Politicians are superstars of networking and building public support. For all the fancy new communication tools, politicians still shake a lot of hands.

For the business owner, it is important to communicate to employees, customers, and the public. Too many business owners are holed up in their offices. Get out there and interact. It will motivate employees. It will help you figure out how to better serve the customer. It will impress the public and pave the path for new customers.

We all can find some negative things to say about politicians, especially the ones we don’t agree with. But as small business owners, it turns out there is a lot you can learn from them.

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Hello, I’m Bradford Shimp. I’ve run for office (and failed miserably at it). What I love is small business. That is why I write this blog, and it is why I am building my business to help other small businesses. Follow me on Twitter.

There is a lot of talk these days about hiring freelancers instead of employees. With the web at our fingertips, it is easy to find highly specialized individuals to do certain tasks, and to pay them just for those tasks. Many experts recommend doing this, and I have as well.

James Little, of the Fusion PR Group, is a fan. He says that “small business owners can be more successful and save money by working with freelancers and consultants.”

Diana Ennen, of Virtual Word Publishing, has similar advice, but more specifically about virtual assistants. She says, “The #1 thing you can do in 2010 is to hire a virtual assistant and not do all the work yourself. This allows you to not only focus on what you do best, but also allows you to get out there more in front of your clients. Virtual assistants can handle all your social media and social marketing, publicity, administrative tasks, etc. Focus on the areas that make you the most money, and let someone else handle everything else. Plus, they can help your business be consistent with blogging, tweeting, being on Facebook, etc.”

It seems the best argument for a small business to hire freelancers is that it will free up the owner to focus on what he or she is best at. There are other benefits, of course. For one, getting a highly qualified person to do a job is a plus. To hire that person full time is out of reach for most small businesses. The alternative has always been to hire people who do good enough. In today’s business world, good enough isn’t cutting it. Employees need to specialize, and small businesses need to hire specialists.

Hiring someone on contract, as a freelancer, is usually more cost effective than bringing on an employee. For one thing, there is no workers compensation or additional taxes to worry about. Sure, the freelancer comes at a higher “price-per-hour”, but you only need to use them for the hours it takes to get the job done. A freelancer can usually do the job faster and better then a general employee.

But there are things freelancers can’t do. You can’t have them help out on the production line for the day. They can’t be a fill-in. Getting freelancers to understand and embrace company culture is harder (but not impossible, especially if you hire the right freelancer). Since most freelancers work long distance, they don’t become part of your office environment. The biggest downfall here is that you don’t have direct control over the freelancer. They usually work from their perspective. This isn’t always a bad thing, but your goals as a small business owner may include building a great culture, helping employees to improve themselves, and being able to see everyone face to face. If so, freelancers are probably not the route that you want to take.

Overall, I would say that freelance employees are great when you have focused tasks that you need to complete. This could be marketing, web design (ah hem, I can help with those two), accounting, law, personal assistants, data entry, typists, public relations, or any number of things. If, however, you want to groom someone into a management role, you need to hire and train.

So look at the things you need to do for your business that aren’t core to your culture and outsource those things. Keep important tasks under closer control by hiring employees.

Here is a final example. If you use sales reps, you can go in house or outsource. If you don’t care how your product gets sold, just that it does, you can hire a freelance salesperson. If you want to provide scripts, track progress daily, and train your reps a certain way, you need to hire in house sales reps.

Freelancers can do a great job. In many cases, better than you or any of your employees. Use them in these instances. But make sure you are developing a company at the same time. You need employees for some things, people who are going to be accountable to you and who are going to be flexible to grow with your business.

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Hi, I’m Bradford Shimp. I head things up here at All Business Answers. If you want to write for this blog, please send me an email. If you have a question that you want answered, click here. If you just want to be my friend, send me an @reply on Twitter or join me on Facebook.

I build Wordpress websites and themes for small businesses. Check out my business at BroadRiverCreative.com.

All Business Answers Podcast

Download the Podcast

This is a conversation with Holly Green, president of The Human Factor and author of More than a Minute. In the interview, we talk about how business owners can be strategic, burst the myths they believe, keep what’s important in sight, and much more.

Holly does serious research on business trends and digs deep into the facts about any company she works with. This helps her give the best possible advice, the kind that is real and actionable.

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Call for Interviews: I am looking to interview business owners, authors, experts, and interesting people on a regular basis. If you would like to tell your story on this podcast, please contact me.

Credits: This podcast was recorded using Skype and Pamela. Thanks to Joe Magennis and Desiree Scales for technical advice. Music by Kevin MacLeod. Editing done with Audacity.

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of AllBizAnswers.com.