Surrounding Yourself with Experts

No one person can be an expert at everything. There are people who think they are, but they are probably lacking in social skills if that is the case.

One can be good at many things, but it is important to surround ourselves with people who can compliment and supplement our own skills. Whether we need to contract with a financial consultant or a business advisor or simply hire a marketing or sales expert fulltime, it allows us to focus on our own areas of expertise and let others handle the parts of the business where we may personally struggle.

Another option is to make sure we have mentors and coaches around us who we can turn to for bouncing off ideas. Sometimes it is simply helpful to have a sounding board so that we are not holding our ideas inside, but rather letting them out to grow.

The awareness for today is to recognize we are not the best at everything, but we can surround ourselves with those that create a team (formal or informal) who can help us accomplish our goals.
~Paul

Panic Situations

Today I was involved in a situation that appeared to need immediate action. After discussing it with various advisors, I was ready to jump into action. That action would have created a much more tense and dramatic situation than was needed. Before I did jump, I spoke with one more advisor who cooled me down and in a very rational way helped me to look at the situation from a different perspective.

After that discussion, I went back to the drawing board and decided to not function from a place of panic, but rather measure the situation and give it some time to self correct before jumping into action. The situation still needs to be dealt with, but it can be held off for a short bit and handled from a place of stability rather than panic.

The awareness for today is to breathe when necessary and gather as much information as possible before making drastic decisions.
~Paul

Professionalism Above All

Not all people get along...plain and simple. We all have different personalities and approaches. I often tend to be very straightforward and that does not sit well with some. I am okay with that. I am a business professional and when I am working with people, we are working together for business purposes. Not everyone needs to be my buddy. The important thing is that we all act like professionals and treat each other with respect.

There are times when we do connect and relationships move beyond business towards friendships. However, that is not a requirement of my business relationships.

The awareness for today is to be, above all, professional in your business relationships and recognize that not everyone you work with will have the same personality or interests as yourself. Business relationships can be friendly without being friendships. Just remember to have respect for those who you work with.
~Paul

More on Internal Customers

A frequent reader and commenter, Jennie, responded to my post Internal Customers here.

Jennie wrote:
"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have been on this soapbox for a long, long time at my workplace. Employee satisfaction is directly linked to how they perform on the job and how they relate to external clients. Unhappy, unsatisfied, unappreciated employees will leak out their negative feelings which could have small impact, or very large impact. Those employees won't stick around. What costs more, the amount of time and money it takes to advertise for a position, do a search and train a person or the time and expense of express appreciation, improve communication and increase morale?"

I really appreciate that Jennie took the time to respond, but she also brings up some good points that I neglected to mention. If your employees are not satisfied, it will show in their work which can have a ripple effect out to your external customers and their satisfaction with your products or services. There hits a point where the dissatisfied employees will either quit on their own or possibly become such a problem employee (dragging the business down with them) that they will need to be let go.

As Jennie points out, it is much more expensive to replace an employee than it is to ensure their work satisfaction.

The awareness for today is to pay attention to employees (and yourself) and look for ways to improve the work environment. If you cannot come up with any ideas on your own...why not try asking your employees directly?
~Paul

Requesting and Providing Information

I often get e-mails from associates that simply ask, "can you help get funding for my client?" Hopefully I can, but I can't even guess if I do not have more information.

When you request information from someone, ask for what you need. To follow up with my example question, I would expect someone to write me saying that they need US$12 million to consolidate debt and fund the expansion of a widget factory in China. I would then ask that they share some basic financial information for the past few years as well as pro forma figures for the future. I would also like to know if there is equity in the company and if the principals have put in any money themselves.

To put it in more general terms, ask for what you need, why you need it, how you will use it and what you are offering for it.

The awareness for today is to be thorough in our requests for help from others. Let's be specific about our needs and wants and then we can better manage our expectations.
~Paul

Internal Customers

Today I wanted to bring up our internal customers...our employees and different departments that we have to work with within our businesses. Often people take for granted their employees. These same people have the attitude that if they are paying people to do the job, it will get done. Hopefully the job will get done, but just paying your employees is not enough.

Your employees need to be kept happy just as your external customers. You want your employees to be happy to come to work and provide that same positive experience for your external customers who are actually spending money with you. Don't fool yourself, your internal customers may not be spending money with you, but they sure can cost you money. Some important things to think about with your employees is making sure that there is meaning for them in their work; job satisfaction ranked higher than pay on a survey of important work factors for employees. Empowering employees and keeping them informed helps to build that relationship.

The awareness for today is to remember to treat your internal customers, your employees, happy with the work they are doing and if they are not, find ways to improve the situation.
~Paul

Attitude

Your attitude can make a big difference towards how you are perceived by clients and customers. If you want their business and act like you want it, that will be recognized. However, if you want their business, but act as though you could care less, that will be noticed as well and most likely they will not be interested in doing business with you.

One needs to work (that is why it is not called play) in order to build relationships, maintain and grow them. Do not take your clients or customers for granted, but rather recognize that without them, you would not have a business.

The awareness for today is to put the extra effort in to let your clients and customers know that you appreciate their business and will do whatever you can to help foster that relationship.
~Paul

Good and Bad Busy

I haven't had the time to blog for a few days which is both a good and bad thing. Good because I have been busy with work, bad because I have had an incredible amount of technical difficulties recently; I have been without my laptop and my loaner was fine until the external hard drive where I had backed up all of my data stopped working and the scanner and printer were both acting up.

I was able to move the external drive to a new enclosure and solved that problem and I fiddled with the printer/scanner enough to get them working again. I spent far too much time on fixing my technology when I had work that needed to be accomplished. I still have a list of e-mails to look at with deal notes from different sources.

I have written before about the frustrations of technology...when it works, it can save us a lot of time, but when it doesn't work, it costs us a lot more time!

The awareness for today is to make sure you back up your digital information and also that you pay attention to where your time is spent; it can be worthwhile to spend time fixing something if it then enables you to be more productive and efficient.

Honest Budgeting

Recently, while working with a client, I was helping to develop a budget for spending. It was simple enough...I had the client collect past information so that we could then figure out what his monthly crunch was. He listed all of the expenses he believed he had on a monthly basis and then I pushed him for a few more that I believed he had left off of the list; I even asked him for confirmation that there was nothing else he had not mentioned. From there, we came up with a number that he needed to meet on a monthly basis. Sounds easy.

A couple of weeks later, I learned of some new expenses that were not listed in the budget and yet were quite important for him to cover. The client had known about them all along, but he had been in denial of the need to account for them on a monthly basis. By not being honest with himself, he put himself in a sticky situation where the budget we had created was outdated from the start.

The awareness for today is to be honest with yourself. There is no shame in the truth...it is simply that, the truth. By trying to hide things (like expenses), we put ourselves into much more precarious situations than need be. If we are honest from the beginning, then we are truly aware of the big picture.
~Paul

Growth versus Change

The New Year always brings about change. Someone recently said to me that we should be open to all changes. I cannot fully agree with that. Obviously change is inevitable, but not all change is good. I think growth is a better word to use in this situation. Change can be both positive or negative, but growth suggests positive change...being more than before.

When looking at business, it is important to work towards growth; growth of sales, growth of revenue, growth of customer base, etc. Not all change will be positive, but we must be flexible enough to compensate for any negative changes that occur from outside of our control (yes, it is true, we cannot control everything).

The awareness for today is to focus on changing through growth and building your business or personal life through positive means. Take the negative changes and adapt to them by looking at what positive actions you can take to compensate for the negative.
~Paul

Responding Whether Positive or Negative

The year is starting out quickly with looking at deals for debt financing. I have worked with people in the past who do not feel it is important to return phone calls in a timely manner or even at all. These people feel that if they are interested in working with you, they will call you back, but otherwise they will not.

I strongly believe in courtesy calls and if I cannot help someone fund a deal, I will let them know that. I am always happy to look at any deal that someone sends me; as I wrote, if I can help connect them to funding, great, I will let them know...if I cannot help connect them to funding, too bad, but I will still let them know.

For me, it is important to close out a project and know when it is dead or funded, without having to chase down other people.

The awareness for today is to think about how you would like to be treated by others and ensure that you offer that same amount of respect; if you want to be sure that people respond to you, make sure and respond to others.
~Paul

What Type of Business to Start?

I recently read on a forum, someone sharing that they would like to write a business plan and start a business, but did not know what type of business to start. They then went on to ask what type of business is most profitable.

First off you need to know the type of business you want to be in before writing a business plan. Otherwise, it is like fueling up the car and packing your bags and saying you want to go on a road trip, but need to know the best place to go. Many more factors need to be taken into consideration: budget, timing, necessary clothes, what sort of activities or accommodations you are looking for and on and on.

There is no point in researching and writing a business plan unless you know what the business is. Now that is not to say that it cannot evolve over time, but the basic business idea should remain the same. I highly recommend talking to friends and family about the businesses they are involved with and doing informational interviews to speak with other business people; when doing informational interviews, always ask for a few more contacts from each person you speak with. Do your research and make a decisions based on the information you have gathered.

The awareness for today is to not jump into anything blindly, but rather take your likes and dislikes into consideration and find the right fit for yourself.
~Paul

Consistency is Powerful

I was told the other day that I was sure tough on specifics. Yes, it is true, I believe that consistency is extremely important in a business setting for staff. It is not fair to allow one employee a free sick day while charging another for missing the day. Therefore, rules and policies need to be set in place and followed. The more that is left up to interpretation, the higher the chances of creating problems.

I do not like that I fall into the role of the stickler, but I do it for the bigger picture in looking out for every one's interests.

The awareness for today is to appreciate those defined rules that create consistency and to recognize that while they may not always be in our favor, over time they create less confusion and a more stable environment.
~Paul

Business Intuition

Intuition is defined at dictionary.com here. The first listing is "direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process; immediate apprehension." (Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.)

Recently, I have been working on listening to and trusting my intuition. I have found that if a person rubs me the wrong way upon my first impression, even if they have done nothing overtly to cause it, I should listen to my gut...much more than often it is right. I have noticed my reaction to business ideas, potential employee interviews and even involvement with a board of directors. I cannot always explain it, but when I have not listened to my intuition, or a client has not listened, a lot more damage is done than if Paul's gut had been adhered to.

I have been working on finding a way to incorporate intuition into my business practice. While I believe we also listen to our guts, I don't believe that I do enough and would like to change that. I am going to experiment with this a bit.

The awareness for today is to trust your intuition and find a balance to see how that helps improve your business (and other) decisions.
~Paul

Picking and Choosing Websites to Join

It is difficult to keep up with the Internet. There are always new blogs to read, websites to join, articles to read, etc. I wrote about some of the networking sites a few months ago here. Recently, I have been receiving invitations to join new social/business networking sites from people I am already in contact with. Many of these sites are still in beta or simply do not have many registered users yet. Personally, I just do not want to join every site and every group that is out there. I am happy to register for proven sites that I believe my business will benefit from.

Today I even learned that a site I was debating joining (I had been sent an invite from a colleague) has closed. Everyone I know has a great idea. Generally, that is all they are...great ideas. It is actually executing the idea into a sustainable business that is the trick part.

The awareness for today is remain focused on our goals and not spread ourselves too thin by "needing" to be connected with every website out there (obviously that is not even possible). Take some time to choose where you want to participate and be active with your time.
~Paul

Billing Like Mechanics

What if management/business consultants charged prices like mechanics? I thought about this as I took my car in for some minor work and more and more problems were found.

If a consultant's time were billed like a mechanic's, I imagine it would go something like this, Mr Consultant, "Well, Bob, I can't give you an exact price until I really get a chance to look at your financial statements and get a sense of how your business operates, but we are looking at anywhere from $300 to $5000 depending on the shape of your business. What year was it founded? Oh, 1984...that was a tough year and I am sure there is quite a lot of build up that has occurred over the last twenty-three years that we will have to work with. I wouldn't recommend staying in business without getting the work done that I have to offer. I'll tell you what, I will charge only $1000 to look for problem areas and if I need to work on your income statement, I will throw in the balance sheet for free."

Not very likely that this would happen, but it sure was fun to think about. For what it is worth, the mechanic I went to was very trustworthy, but could not give me an accurate estimate.

The awareness for today is to look at yourself and see what stereotypes you are filling and how you can shift them.
~Paul

A Funding Deal on the Edge

I may have already written about this and if I have, forgive the repetition, but I did want to vent a bit and this is a great medium for me to do so. About two years ago I met a very nice, sharp business consultant, I will call him Frank. He was very interested in the connecting that I do for debt financing and we have tried to work together several times.

Frank sent me a deal to look at in April of 2006. The deal was not strong enough for my sources, but the seed was planted. Frank and I kept in touch over the years and just checked in with each other every so often. After some major modifications to the business model and plan, Frank came back to me in August with a very solid business plan. I shared it with a few of my connections and there was interest immediately.

By the middle of October, one of my contacts had provided Frank and his client with a loan package and simply needed the client to submit the application. Nothing has happened yet. I check in every other week with Frank and he keeps trying to push his client, but the client has just sat on the paperwork.

Today, the lender contacted Frank to see if there was still interest and I sent over my own e-mail to Frank. Frank is as frustrated as I am. He put in a lot of time and effort, yet he cannot get his client to follow through with the application. To add to the situation, Frank has shared that the client needs the money at this stage to stay alive, yet he isn't doing everything he can.

All I can do is keep in touch with Frank and hope that his client will submit the paperwork so we can get this deal closed.

The awareness for today is that sometimes it eases frustration to write out the situation...just as I have done here.
~Paul

Take Advantage of the Slower Pace

The end of the year is rapidly approaching. For me, 2007 went by in a flash. With holidays and vacations, this can be a frustrating time of year to try to finish up projects as we are often waiting on others. Strategic planning now can save you time next year. Set goals, timelines and get the research you need started while other things may be slow.

Some of you may not be experiencing the lull in activity due to the need to have projects completed before the end of the year. If that is the case, wrap up the year and take time at the beginning of next year to do your planning.

The awareness for today is to take advantage of the slower pace (if it exists for you) and put in some time to plan for next year.
~Paul

Excuses

People use excuses all the time. They are used to blame others or to explain why someone did not do what was promised. I am sure that have all had an excuse at one time or another. I have no problem with acceptable excuses. I understand that people cannot always fulfill their promises.

Where I do have an issue is with people who use excuses to get out of doing things. As I said, excuses can be acceptable at certain times and in certain situations, but they cannot become the norm.

If you are one always coming up with excuses, stop promising more than you can provide. If you are the one receiving excuses, look at what is creating the holdup.

The awareness for today is understand that some times an excuse is acceptable, but not always and you need to find that balance for yourself.
~Paul

Action Items

I just left an almost five hour finance/budget meeting. One would think I would be exhausted, and I am, but I am also quite energized. Quite a few things came up in the meeting that require follow up or research. Some of those items will be handled by myself and others I will delegate as needed. I feel like I have a lot on my plate, but they are good action items that I know will benefit the company.

The awareness for today is to recognize when we take the time to create task lists and action items, we create more efficiency and consistency in our work day because we have a basic idea of the expectations from our days, weeks and months.
~Paul