Small Business Blog

As a small business owner, your personal credit plays a large role in whether you get a loan from a bank or not. In fact, when you meet your banker to discuss a small business loan, one of the documents she will ask for is a personal financial statement and 3 years of tax returns. Bankers rely on the 5 C’s when determining whether to loan you money: Capacity to repay, Capital, Collateral for the loan, Conditions for repayment, and Character of the business owner.

If you are not planning to obtain personal credit in the near future, one option for protecting your character is to “freeze” your credit. The Consumer’s Union has a list of all 39 participating states and the conditions in which you can do this. For example, in Washington State I can freeze my credit for $10, and I pay $10 to lift the freeze temporarily or to unfreeze it completely. During the freeze period the credit report and credit score are locked, which means no business will be able to grant credit if someone happens to gain access to your social security number or other identifying information.

Since I’m not planning on buying another home, car, or apply for any new credit in the foreseeable future, this is a great option for me. It protects my personal identity, which gives me greater protection for my business.

Not all states are offering the freeze yet, so go to the Consumer’s Union website for more details on your specific state. Thanks to Karen George for pointing out this valuable service.

You may be thinking, “what am I going to say?”  You have far more information in your head than you realize, and because you are an expert at what you do, you may forget that others are not as knowledgable about your service/product. 

For instance, if you are a personal trainer you know what type of shoes should be worn for different sports, but the general consumer probably does not.  As a professional organizer, you have the natural tendency and professional training to make your surroundings support your life/business.  Many people do not even have a clean work surface, much less an organized filing system. 

Take your expertise and break it down into several topics you feel comfortable discussing over time.  Those topics will now become your categories.  Look on the left side of this blog and you will see my dropdown list of categories.  Everything I write falls into one of these topics.

Now that you have your categories, brainstorm the topics you will discuss in these categories. 

• Do you want to do a series on a particular subject?  Write out the list of topics for the series. 
• Maybe you have read a lot of books on a particular subject and want to review them for your readers.
• Are some of your topics seasonal?  Schedule them appropriately.

A very low-tech way of getting this done is to use 3×5 index cards.  Just start writing your ideas - one per card - and worry about sorting later.  Once you have a good stack, go back through and sort based on your categories, and then within those categories you may see a series form.  Either way, each card becomes your starting point for a blog post.

Do this first and you will find starting your blog much easier.  After all, it is hard to have writer’s block with a stack of ideas in front of you.

Next time we’ll discuss how to get started writing your first public post.  In the meantime, start writing on those index cards!

Step 1 can be found here.

Do you keep a to-do list?  Most of us do, whether it is a specific system like GTD or a scrap of paper near your computer that has your grocery list, phone messages, and tasks all jumbled together.  No matter what system you use, you probably make the same mistake I do:  writing brief notes to yourself because you “know” the details and want to save time.

Problem is, when you get around to completing that task, you may have forgotten the details surrounding it your cryptic note to yourself.  Who can remember what “get info for M” means?

Lifehacker has a solution for the problem.  Instead of writing sparse notes to yourself, write your to-do as if you were delegating the task to someone else.  In a way, you are - your future self.  This way you will have all the relevant information you need to complete the task when you finally find time to get to it.

And if you’re reading this, Mark, I’m sending you the Yamuna Body Rolling class info now.   Thanks for being today’s example.

How did you spend your Saturday?  I spent mine at a seminar on information products by the guru himself, Fred Gleeck.  My head is swimming with ideas right now!  One of the great lessons I learned from the seminar is how to grow your contact list.  You probably all have (or should have) an ezine or newsletter you send to your clients and prospects.  Your signup box is probably just like mine - “please sign up here for my ezine/newsletter/join my mailing list” on the home page of your website.  

Is your list growing by leaps and bounds with that phrasing? Neither is mine.  And we all know having a list of interested prospects we can regularly market to is the fastest and cheapest way to increase your revenue.

Fred suggest making the signup more appealing by offering a free report of interest to your reader as an immediate download.  For a bookkeeper it could be “Sign up here to receive your free report on How to Choose the Right Bookkeeper for Your Business.”  An artist might have a report titled “7 Inexpensive Ways to Begin Collecting Art.”  Hair salons could offer “3 Ways to Make Your Color Last Longer” or “Choosing the Right Cut for Your Hair Type.” 

Use your expertise to come up with a 1-3 page report your customers can actually use.  After all, if you give away that much value in a free report, the customer will get the impression that your paid services are even better.

If you live near Las Vegas or NYC you will have more opportunity to attend one of Fred’s seminars, though I was lucky enough to find one in Seattle.  To get free information from Fred on publishing, seminars, or informational products, click here to download five of his eBooks.

Every year Inc. Magazine issues the list of the fastest growing private companies in the United States.  The list is fascinating, especially when you consider Domino’s Pizza was #457 in 1983 and Microsoft was #80 in 1984.  If you are feeling a little bit discouraged about your business right now, or if you are excited by the idea of venturing into your own business, pick up a copy of the mazagine or read the article online.  The stories are fascinating, and you will see a lot of yourself in these entrepreneurs. 

I was just telling someone at a networking event last night that I expect to see one of my customers on that list some day.  Who knows?  I might be on the list with you!

THINK BIG.

Every day I talk to a customer about blogging to increase business and almost every day I get the same response:  “I don’t know what to say.”  I can understand the fear of putting yourself out there, especially if you don’t consider writing one of your strengths. 

Consumers are reading blogs, though, and your competition is likely writing one.  Rather than get left behind, there are some steps you can take to get ready for blogging.  And believe me, once you start you will wonder why you ever waited.  There is no more efficient way for your potential customer to get to know you than by reading about you and how you can help them on your blog.  With so much information available these days, consumers are able to research and price check everything before buying.  Show them why they should buy from you.

Baby Step #1:  Start an internal company blog.  Make it private and write to your team about new products/services, an explanation of processes, or any other sort of general information.  If you don’t have a team, write as if you did.  Become comfortable with writing and receiving feedback.  You will find that you DO have something to say.  Every business owner does. 

I prefer to write as it hits me, so I may have 3 or 4 entries ready in one day that I post throughout the week.  Other bloggers specify a time to write each week and post immediately afterward.  Find what works best for you.  The important thing is to become reliable.  Are you going to post once a week?  Do it on the same day of the week at about the same time so your readers can depend on it.  If you are posting several times a week, readers will likely subscribe to your feed to get the posts. 

Some great free blog services are below (and all are easy to use):

• Wordpress
• Blogger
• Typepad

Next time we will discuss Baby Step #2:  What to Say.  It is easier than you think!

If you decide to start your own blog please link to it in the comments.  I’d love to keep up with your progress!

Ten years ago tomorrow, www.google.com was registered by Sergey Brin and Larry Page.  It is hard to believe it has only been 10 years - can you imagine your life without Google now? 

Think about this in terms of your own business. 

• Where do you see yourself in 10 years? 
• How do you expect your product or service to evolve during that timeframe? 
• Do you envision your long-term success or concentrate solely on your day-to-day issues?

Granted, neither Sergey nor Larry probably imagined the wild success they would have with Google, but they knew they had a good idea.

“We thought research was really important,” said Sergey in a recent interview. “The other search engines stopped research on search. They thought that ‘if our search engine is only 85 percent as good as the next guy, it’s good enough for us.”

By focusing on what makes your idea great, whether it is a benefit of your product or the way you deliver your service, you can visualize your own long-term success.   We may not all reach Google-like success, but recognizing how far Google has come in just 10 years is great motivation.

Now that you have your own business, you probably have a much different view of expenses than you had before. After all, it is all your money now, isn’t it?

Over the past few weeks I’ve heard from Timothy Ferriss (The 4-Hour Workweek), Michael Port’s Think Big Revolution call, and The Simple Dollar about evaluating your monthly expenses. Sure, you aren’t adding anything extra, but what about your existing expenses?

The Simple Dollar has a great approach to using an hour of your time to evaluate where you are spending money on expenses each month. The exercise is geared toward personal expenses, but it can easily be modified to a small business. When I did the exercise I realized I have been paying $20/month for a software license I no longer need and that I could use a different plan for my toll-free number to save money each month, among other things. The total yearly savings I gained from this one-hour review was over $300, and I freed up $1800 from a marketing initiative that wasn’t very effective to apply toward one that is. This exercise is really easy to do by just evaluating your business checking account statement as well as your credit card statement.

All in all, a very worthwhile project. Try it and see how much you can put back into your piggy bank or spend on something more worthwhile to your business.

If you are a multi-tasker, there may be times when you are talking on the phone, replying to email, and reading IMs all at the same time.  While eating lunch. 

You know the risk of error is bound to go up when you do this. 

While I can’t help what you say in IM or what you put in your mouth, I can help you minimize the risk of sending an incomplete or inappropriate email because you are distracted.  (Imagine having a bookie and a boss both named Phil.   You get the picture.)

The How-To Geek has step-by-step instructions for delaying all your emails by 5 minutes, just enough time to realize your mistake and fix it. 

This new rule should save some aggravation and embarassment when emailing clients and vendors, and no one will notice the 5-minute delay for all your other emails.

• Do you eat meals from a tray or on your lap?
• Do you have to dismantle your office if you are having company over for dinner?
• Can you pour your morning coffee without leaving your desk?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, we need to talk.

Starting a business is hard work, and there is no doubt many of you work long hours. Whether you have a store or work from home, you need a proper environment to manage your investment. If you are carving out space for yourself in the kitchen or some other busy spot in your home, you are doing no favors for you or your business.

You have made a significant leap to start your own business, so why should you skimp on your office space?

You may think I’m going to tell you how to decorate an office, but this is much more basic. You.Need.Space. Specifically space away from distractions of the rest of the house and space to work productively.

• Do you have an unused guest room? Better to use it for this purpose and adjust to a 2-week visit from the in-laws than trying to cram yourself into a corner of the kitchen.
• So you don’t have a room to use. When I lived in an apartment I converted my dining area into an office exclusively. The table moved into the kitchen and the new “office” only had a desk, chair, filing cabinet and printer stand. You can do the same in an unused or seldom-used portion of your finished basement, livingroom, or guest room.
• If you live with other people, your office should have a door. You need to be able to separate home and work when possible. This works two ways: you get the privacy you need to work, and when you are done working you can fully concentrate on your personal life by shutting the door. When your work is in the middle of your home activities, you never really get away from it.
• No room with a door? Make sure your family knows when you are working and that you are not to be disturbed. If you don’t value your time, they won’t either.
• Budget too tight for furniture? You don’t have to buy new furniture. You can reward yourself with that later. Right now, you can go to Craigslist (www.craigslist.com) or local flea markets in your area for great deals. I bought my little red desk from the local Sunday market for a steal and got a filing cabinet for free from a friend who was moving. Deals are out there if you look for them.

Working from home can be a big perk, but only if you give yourself the same consideration you would in an office. Seriously, would you go to work for a company that gave you a 2-foot space on the edge of the table in the company breakroom? Then don’t do it to yourself at home.