How to be an Efficient Little Twerp in Small Business

I’m kind of a manic-depressive small business owner, sometimes super-focused and other times distracted to pieces … not a good personality type for running a small business. I figured this out about myself a long time ago and realized that the only way I would ever succeed in small business is to become this:

An efficient little twerp.

What’s an Efficient Little Twerp?
“Efficient little twerp” is the phrase a friend recently used to describe me in the way that I run my small businesses. Being an efficient little twerp is how I manage to be successful in my small businesses despite my major personality flaws, and boils down to three things:

1. Being good or hiring someone better.
2. Knowing the devil is in the details.
3. Accepting AFGOs as part of business (Another Friggin’ Growth Opportunity)

So these three things make me an efficient little twerp and allow my small businesses to run smoothly. They might help you, too, if you run small businesses and suffer from some sort of personality flaws. For instance, manic-depressive cycles are just one of mine. I’m also a lazy, arrogant, in need of external validation, and a host of other foibles. Any of these sound familiar to you? In any case, here are three little rules to being an efficient little twerp in small business that may help.

1. Being Good or Hiring Someone Better
If small business owners are to be faulted in one major area, it’s usually that we believe we are super-heroes and can do EVERYTHING for our businesses. Not only can we do our main area of expertise, but feel we can also do marketing, strategizing, bookkeeping and accounting, customer relations, business development, legal work, and heavy lifting.

Not gonna happen.

We may be able to do all of these things, but chances are that we won’t do all of them well. Part of being an effective little twerp in small business is figuring out what you’re good at, and hiring people to do the rest.

For instance, I’m fairly good at writing, marketing, and online interaction. I suck at legal work, accounting, and phone-based customer support. These I hire out to people, which makes me sane, allows my business to run smoothly, and, of course, makes me the efficient little twerp that I am.

2. Knowing the Devil is in the Details
Having just said that I hire out the work at which I’m not very proficient, I have to now add a caveat. To be an efficient little twerp, I also have to understand something about the work that I’m outsourcing the others. I have to understand the details of the work I hire out, even if I don’t do it myself.

Here’s a prime example: a week before corporate taxes were due, my current accountant (not the new one I’m going with in the coming year) call me up and tell me I owe a few grand in corporate taxes. This did not sound in the least correct to me. I had sent in a payment with my extension early in the year, and didn’t understand why the taxes I still owed were so much higher than the extension. Having done my own corporate taxes for a few years, I smelled a rat.

Instead of just “rolling with the punches,” I pulled up the tax figures I had sent to the accountant and compared them to the corporate return. Bingo. I caught an accounting error where a few income sources had been doubled, which accounted for the major tax I supposedly owed. I called the accountant, got it straightened out, and now have a tax credit.

So even though I hire out my accounting work (because I know I can’t keep up with current tax law), I know enough about HOW small business accounting works to know when something is wrong. The devil is in the details, and this case, not knowing the details could have cost my business a few thousand in unnecessary taxes. Sure, I would have eventually gotten a refund, but why pay the government unnecessarily in this cash-tight economy? Now that would not be typical “efficient little twerp” behavior.

3. Accepting AFGOs as Part of Business
This is a PG-rated article, so I can’t say what AFGO really stands for, but Another Friggin’ Growth Opportunity kind of gives you the idea, right? Part of being an efficient little small business twerp is figuring out when you’ve made a gaffe, learning from it, and then moving on.

A lot of small business owners are good at figuring out that they’ve screwed up, but then they stay in “screw up land” forever. So you screwed up. Big deal. Learn from it and move on. The other day I got myself banned from an online site. Bummer … my online marketing activities really took a hit. I researched the steps needed to get unbanned, but after reading what everyone else had to say, realized that it wasn’t going to be possible in the short term. So what’s an efficient little twerp to do? Move on. There are lots of branches on the online marketing tree, so if one branch gets chopped of, just focus on some other branches for a while. No biggie and no only. It’s how I learn to better run and promote my small businesses. AFGO. It’s a good thing. Really. And every efficient little twerp not only accepts them, but eventually learns to welcome them.

I hope this small rant on the three rules I’ve discovered about being an efficient little twerp in business may in some way bring a smile to your face, give you a giggle, and maybe even help out a bit!

If you have any suggestions on being a twerp, or otherwise running a small business better, cheaper, or more enjoyably, please, leave a comment. I’d love to hear!

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Tags: efficient little twerp, small business, small business owner

Triple Your Small Business Capabilities Fast Without Adding Staff

So there is a small business guy around here I really admire - Mike of All Wet Sprinklers. This economy has been just as tough on Mike as on every other small business owner. People are slamming their wallets shut, and fewer people want new sprinkler systems installed on their properties.

So Mike, being the totally ingenious Italian dude that he is, decided that he would expand the services his small businesses offered so he could get more work. The sprinkler system market was shrinking, so Mike decided to expand into other markets, including landscaping, masonry, supplying firewood, and dog walking (actually, I’m not sure if he actually walks dogs or he’s just pulling my leg).

How to Triple Your Small Business Capabilities
So how did Mike go from sprinkler dude to landscaping, rock-working, firewood dude? Well, he didn’t take on any new staff. Instead, he partnered up with a couple of other small business folks in the area who were also feeling the economic pinch.

Chris, a stone mason, knows how to build you a giant wall in nothing flat. Mike’s significant other, Candy, works a regular job but knows landscaping like the back of her hand, so she helps Mike with the landscaping plans when she’s off work. And then there’s some other dude I haven’t met who does the firewood thing.

So Mike shows up to give us an estimate on a little irrigation project for our back field. He’s got Chris with him. We find out Chris is a stone mason and we ask him to give us an estimate on putting our patio and planter rocks back together. The rocks were falling so fast we just about needed to put up a “Danger: Falling Rock” sign. Chris and Mike gave us estimates and we gave them thumbs up.

They tackle the irrigation project first. Mike knows all about irrigation so he does most of the planning and buys the right parts. Chris does the grunt work. Then they move onto the rock work. Here, Chris mixes the all-important mortar and Mike does the grunt work. At the end of the jobs, they divvy up my check. Each of them made less on the total job than they would have alone, but each earned more than an unemployment check.

Mike’s now working on getting me some firewood from his buddy. Same deal … split the check, earn less than usual, but bring in solid work in a lean economy.

See how it works? Can you see how that might work for your small business? Got any lean and hungry business associates who might want to partner up?

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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sidewalk_flying/ / CC BY 2.0

Tags: small business capability, small business owner, triple your small business capabilities

The Winchester Approach to Work Productivity

The Charles Emerson Winchester III character on the sitcom M*A*S*H used to say, “I do one thing at a time, I do it very well, and I move on.” Now Charles was a total pompous ass on the show, but his approach is very applicable in this day and age of business.

In modern times, when people can’t even have a normal face-to-face conversation without being interrupted by phone calls, text messages, pagers, and other such nonsense, the principle of doing one things at a time is a very useful maxim when it comes to work productivity, especially for small business owners.

Why Doing One Thing at a Time Works to Increase Work Productivity
Multi-tasking is so 1990s, don’t you think? Aside from the fact that it’s old hat, here are some things that you may not know about multi-tasking. Multi-tasking:

- has been shown to decrease productivity. People waste more than 30% of their time when switching focus between tasks.
- is one of the prime causes of adrenal exhaustion, which causes fatigue, food cravings, decreased metabolism, insomnia, and a generally poor quality of life
- does not make for quality time, for you or anyone you interact with

Aside from the science that demonstrates how multi-tasking wreaks havoc on our productivity and our health, consider whether that kind of working situation is really helpful to you or your small business. Are you really that much better off when you try to juggle 7 tasks at the same time? I’m not. I just talk faster, not better.

Increase Work Productivity: How to Do One Thing at a Time
Of course, achieving the Winchester approach to business isn’t at all easy, especially during business hours. The phone rings constantly, we are barraged by emails, and then there are our office-mates. So what’s a busy workaholic to do? Here are three ideas to consider:

1. Set aside “chunks” of time where you can do one thing at a time. I often start work at 3 am because no one is likely to call me at that hour. I do a lot of my writing, thinking, and planning at that hour, and my work productivity is often triple.

2. Set business hours for answering voice mail and email. This was popularized by Tim Ferriss in his 4-Hour Work Week concept. It really does work … trust me, I’ve tried it. Tim answers voice mail and email twice a day.

3. Get some help. If you want to run a small business and not be run by your small business, get some good help. It’s worth paying for. I have two gals who are super efficient and handle all my order processing, customer service, and front-end communication. That frees me up for business development, heavy client work, and strategizing.

Come to think of it, maybe Winchester had more going for him than just the “one thing at a time” maxim. Maybe his pompous attitude is worth copying, too. After all, if you want to increase your work productivity and fend off people who want too much of your time, being a pompous ass can be an effective strategy.

What do you think?

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Tags: mutli-tasking, small business owner, work productivity

Thinking Days - The Importance for Small Business Owners

Thinking Days - The Importance for Small Business Owners

I often wonder if small business owners are more firefighter than business people. Between product development, sales and marketing, management, and general business development, it can be hard for the average Joe to figure what’s just urgent and what is plain important.

Urgent items demand our immediate attention but may not be crucial to furthering our business in a significant way. Important things will move our business forward but are often put on the back burner. We should pay attention to the important things rather than the urgent one, but most small business owners. That’s why we need thinking days.

The Importance of Thinking Days

If you look at some of the most successful leaders in the corporate world, one trend you will see is the prevalence of “thinking time.” In other words, these people set aside a specific time each week or each month to gain new perspective on their business.

For instance, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, regularly schedules “thinking days” throughout the year that allow him to reflect on his life and his business. These pre-scheduled days are inviolate, meaning he rarely takes phone calls or messages during this time.

The same goes for Tai Yu Kobayashi, former Chairman and CEO of Fujitsu. He once shared the secret of his success: he gets up each morning at 5:00 am and spends an hour in his Bonsai garden, immersing himself in nature and moving in tranquility. Maintaining this state throughout the day allows him to make decisions in a high-pressure situation with detachment.

Questions for Thinking Days

As a small business owner, scheduling thinking days, even if they seem inconvenient, will give you the perspective necessary to sift the important tasks from the merely urgent. In a very basic way, thinking days give you a chance to reflect on your business and ask questions like:

- What’s happening?
- What’s not happening?
- What can I do the influence the outcome?

You will often find that thinking days give you a wider view of your business, and your life. This detachment may give you the necessary insight to make tough decisions for your small business, and choose a new path, if necessary.

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Source: used with permission from The Art of Business: In the Footsteps of Giants

Photo credit: Anwar

Tags: bill gates, important versus urgent, small business owner, thinking days

Avoid Small Business Burnout and Get Some Help

How many employees does it take to screw in a light bulb in a small business?

None.

The owner does it!

OK, that’s not strictly true for all small businesses, but if you look at the businesses that a lot of people call a “small business,” what you actually see is someone who is self-employed rather than a small business owner.

Self-Employment versus Small Business Ownership

From the outside, the self-employed person and the small business owner both look the same. They both own their businesses and they both sell something. In the startup phase, both will probably work long hours, and start to look a little worn-out.

That’s where the similarities end, and the differences start to show up. Business guru Robert Kiyosaki defines the difference like this:

The self-employed business owner wants to be the best in his or her field. The small business wants to work with the best in his or her field.

In other words, the values are different. The self-employed person wants to BE the best, so they spend all their time doing everything for their business so that they can be the best. The small business owners doesn’t want to do everything themselves. They want to develop a business that generates income and eventually runs itself. So instead of trying to be the best, they hire the best people. Why? So that they can eventually stop working in the business and have it still produce a passive stream of income.

Self-Employment Burnout

One way you can distinguish a self-employed person from a small business owner is that the self-employed person will experience burnout. Why? Because they have been doing everything for their business, day in and day out, for years. The small business owner long ago hired a competent staff and moved onto a different business (or went on vacation).

One person who has really recognized the need for self-employed people to get help for their burnout is bestselling author Tim Ferriss. One of the “homework assignments” that he gives business owners is to practice outsourcing tasks. That is, he strongly recommends that you hire a virtual assistant and delegate a certain percentage of your work to this assistant. Virtual assistants usually don’t live in the same town as you, and often work in a completely different country. Making use of a virtual assistant, who works for say $15-$20 per hour, frees you up for more important tasks, like strategizing business growth or developing marketing tactics. Getting help in the form of a virtual assistant also helps you avoid burnout. You learn to do only the tasks that only can do.

If you feel uncomfortable hiring someone to help you out, consider this: as a self-employed person, how much are you really earning per hour? Take the salary you pay yourself monthly and divide that by the number of hours you actually work each month. Be sure to include all the time you spend on lowly tasks like filing, restocking, documentation, and responding to routine inquiries. All of that goes on top of the time you spend actually practicing in your area of expertise, like accounting, marketing, or consulting.

When you honestly add up all the hours you work, and then divide that amount into your salary, chances are that you are not getting paid very much. You might actually make more money flipping burgers at your local burger joint. True, you would have to wear a really dorky uniform and work with junk food all day, but your paycheck might be bigger.

Hmm, gives you food for thought, doesn’t it? If you’re headed for a self-employment burnout, now might be the time to check out Tim Ferriss’ book and find yourself a virtual assistant. Check out Elance and other similar services where these assistants abound. Most of all, learn to enjoy letting go!

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Photo credit: absentminded

Tags: burnout, Robert Kiyosaki, self-employment, small business owner

50,000 Reasons to Unplug This Weekend

50,000. That’s a pretty big number, right?

That’s how many thoughts the average person has in a single day. It takes a lot of brainpower to produce that many thoughts.

Now throw email, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook into the mix, and you can imagine the chaos of those 50,000 thoughts. Plus, with the advent of mobile, most entrepreneurs and small business owners have a really hard time unplugging. For most, the weekend is just like any other day of the week. A day to work. Another day towards getting burned out.

How do you know if you’re getting too burned out and really need to unplug? According to therapist Dr. Jack Singer of Laguna Hills, California, if you experience any of these symptoms it’s time to take a break:

1. Extreme competitiveness
2. Rapid speech
3. Impatience
4. Hates lines and waiting
5. Difficulty delegating
6. Fear of failure
7. Need to be in control
8. Irritable
9. Multi-tasking
10. Resistant to change

Does this describe you? If so, then yank that plug! You might want to take up a hobby, like being a politician. Here’s a little joke about the political brain to launch your weekend off right.

“A man went in for a brain transplant operation and was offered a choice of two brains by the surgeon. He could choose either the Architect’s brain which would cost him $10,000 or the Politician’s, which was $100,000.”

“Does that mean that the Politician’s brain is much better than the Architect’s?” exclaimed the clearly puzzled man.

“Not exactly.” replied the surgeon. “The Politician’s brain has never been used.”

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Photo credit: Unplugging the Machine

Tags: entrepeneur, small business owner, unplug

Why a Good Sergeant is Priceless to Small Business

I never joined the military but, having worked in the family businesses from a very early age, I nevertheless grew up knowing the value of a good sergeant. They say that sergeants run the military. Sergeants also run the best small businesses. Having good sergeants is the difference between being a small business owner and being self-employed.

The Difference Between Small Business Ownership and Self-Employment
Someone who is self-employed may “own” her business, but nevertheless does everything herself. She’s not afraid to get her hands dirty, but she can never claim all the benefits of being a true small business owner. Since she does most of the vital work of the business, the self-employed person can rarely leave the nitty-gritty of the business. Vacations are usually impossible, as are other high-level business activities like strategy and product development.

On the other hand, the small business owner knows how to get her hands dirty, but doesn’t have to if she doesn’t want to. The true small business owner has sergeants. Who are sergeants? Sergeants are well-trained employees who help run the majority of the business, and who are invested in the success of the business. Sergeants keep the business running smoothly and to the owner’s standards, whether the owner is present or not.

The Pros and Cons of Small Business Sergeants
As with everything, sergeants have their pros and cons. The pros are obvious. Small business owners who employ great sergeants can focus more on business development, strategy, and high-level networking. These owners don’t have to spend all their time in the trenches. Plus, they can actually go on vacation for rest, rejuvenation, and inspiration.

There are also the cons. You have to pay a quality sergeant well. Also, good sergeants can be hard to find. The truly great sergeants are in high demand, and are usually already employed by other businesses. That leaves the option of discovering a “diamond in the rough” and training your own sergeant. Developing a good sergeant takes time, energy, and a lot of trial and error. But, the rewards are rich.

I am fortunate to work with one fabulous sergeant exclusively, and two others on a contract basis. Having trained my main sergeant from the ground up over the last seven years, I’m not about to let her go. I offer a handsome bonus each year and strive to make sure our relationship is mutually beneficial. She keeps all three of my small businesses running smoothly, so that I mostly handle any exceptions on a daily basis. I spend the rest of my time on marketing, business development, and product creation.

Have there been rough times in the past? Absolutely. Screw-ups and miscommunications happen on both sides, but that’s just part of being human. We’ve gotten past them each and every time. With my sergeant running the businesses most of the time, I can spend 5 weeks in Mexico each year, and focus on the parts of my business I really love.

Based on the idea of having sergeants, are you a small business owner or someone who is self-employed? Which model are you more interested in? And if you want to be a small business owner rather than self-employed, do you know of any potential sergeants in your network?

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Photo credit: Staff Sergeant Goodwin

Tags: self-employed, sergeant, small business owner

Are You Self-Employed or a Small Business Owner?

What If You Get Hit by a Beer Track Tomorrow?

This question may seem silly to you because you may think that any self-employed individual is also a small business owner. Technically this might be true but the difference in mindset between someone who is self-employed and someone who owns a small business is BIG. So what’s the difference between these two?

Leverage.

If you are self-employed you do everything for your business by yourself. You produce the product, make the sales, handle the accounting and finance, ship out the packages, and handle all the customer service issues. You are the company and the company is you. If you get hit by a beer truck tomorrow then your company goes down the toilet. It’s a bad scenario.

Small business owners, on the other hand, don’t do everything in the business by themselves. They leverage the efforts of other people in multiple ways.

Small Business Owners:
- hire employees
- outsource tasks like accounting, payroll, marketing, and order fulfillment
- partner with other compatible businesses to share marketing and promotional expenses
- leverage investment funds from business partners and/or banks
- hire managers to handle daily administration

In other words, small business owners are like general contractors: they pull together the resources necessary to operate the business but don’t necessarily spend a lot of hands-on time in the business. If an employee becomes unable to work or an outsourcing company fails to fulfill their contract, the business doesn’t die overnight. Other employees can be hired and work can be outsourced to a different company. Best of all, the business can continue to generate revenue and profit for you, the small business owner, on a continuous basis.

Have you taken a look at the way you run your business lately? Are you operating from the self-employment model or the small business owner model? The self-employment model means you are a slave to your business and can never leave to go on vacation. Being a small business owner means you can come and go as you please, depending on the extent to which you have leveraged other resources to run your business on a daily basis.

MLM as Leverage
One way some people have chosen to move away from self-employment and into small business ownership is to leverage the power of MLM, or network marketing. With MLM, the parent company handles product production, order fulfillment, accounting and finance, and often even worldwide promotion. As a business partner you only handle direct marketing and sales, using marketing methods of your choice, and get a check for your efforts. MLM is a very inexpensive way to move into small business ownership because you can leverage the power of a very large parent company for a small investment.

Having said all of that, I have to insert a word of caution here: it’s still possible to run an MLM business from the self-employment model. If you try to handle all the sales and marketing yourself you will still be self-employed. Unless and until you bring in new business partners underneath you in your network who will also do sales and marketing, you haven’t created the maximum leverage in your business. Think about it. If you handle all the marketing by yourself and you get hit by a beer truck tomorrow, your income still goes down the toilet. On the other hand, if you get hit by a beer truck but your business partners are still out there marketing, you still get a check. Again, it’s all about how much you can leverage the efforts of others for your small business.

Photo credit: I Love Hitachino Nest Beer

Tags: self-employed, self-employment, small business, small business owner