Good article on getting work done - 7 steps to Better Personal Productivity

These ideas for getting more done make a lot of sense to me, I think I'll keep them handy so I can stay on track for the big projects. I've done #3 successfully and I've victimized myself on #6.

Read the article here.

When I first got into the workforce I had a boss tell me, the distance between good and great is not as far as we like to use for an excuse. I've always tried to remember that.

A New Year's resolution list for small business owners......

In the spirit of the holidays I've decided to give small business owners a ready made, no assembly required, New Year's resolution list. It's only 5 items and it's designed for every business owner.

Here's your list............ yes that means you!

1. Smile more - business life is never as bad as it seems when things aren't going well. From a business perspective there is always a way out...always.
2. Read more - I don't care how long you've been in business nor how smart you think you are...you can learn something from someone else. I suggest that you read things that are not directly related to your industry. Skimming your trade journal every month to see who got fired is not real reading.
3. Plan more - Set aside specific blocks of time, away from the office, where your only job is to think about your business 6 -12 months in the future. In spite of what you may believe, planning is not the same as updating a to do list.  
4. Say thank you more - to your spouse, your parents, your kids (yep, I said kids), to your customers, to your employees, to your vendors, etc. You get the idea, right?
5. Wish less, Do more - I recently read (see #2 above) that the best productivity tool in the world is to do something. Makes sense to me, we can talk about doing something or we can actually do something. If we're talking about doing something it's still on the to do list, if we actually do it...by golly the list is shorter.

There's your ready made, easy to use list. And by the way it's my list also for 2011. And... thank you for reading this blog, I'll try to make it better than ever in the new year.

If you don't use this list I'd love to see your list! 

Happy New Year!!!

Are you a business owner that wants to grow? Part 1

This is Part 1 of what will be several posts about growing your business. I'll cover some free ways to grow and I'll also talk about growth opportunities that aren't free.

I meet many business owners who want to grow but very few know how to grow.  Let's look some common ways to grow your business.

Low cost/no cost growth.

Train your people better so they get the most sales out of every customer encounter. 

        Example - How many times would you have ordered dessert in a restaurant if someone would just ask? At a restaurant that is missing opportunity, the server sees that I am finished with my dinner and the server walks up and asks "Would you like anything else?" My response, "No thanks."

At a different restaurant, the server sees I've completed my meal and asks "how would you like a slice of blueberry pie or a hot fudge sundae?"  I don't know about you but for me it's a lot easier to say no to the first server than the second one.

What's it mean to the business owner? If a dessert costs $5 and the restaurant serves 100 people per night, getting just 4 more people out of 100 people per night to order dessert means $7,300 per year in additional sales and the cost on that sale is the lowest you can have. All the help is already paid, rent doesn't go up, light bill is the same, etc. So the owner of that business could make $7,300 more per year because his servers just asked the same question a different way. That's as close to free money as a business owner can get.

Every business has these kinds of opportunities regardless of the industry. Take a close, a very close, look at your business and you will find opportunities to increase sales to your existing customers. Often the secret to good selling is knowing how to ask good questions. Are your people asking the good questions?

New 1099 Rules effect on Small Business

    This post provided by Paul Ikard, CPA

March 17, 2012  - Some of the below rules may have been modified, check with your CPA before taking any action.

Businesses and not-for-profit organizations are accustomed to IRS rules that require them to report certain payments on annual Form 1099 information returns. However, the recently enacted healthcare law imposes surprising new Form 1099 reporting requirements. Complying with them may add significantly to your organization's paperwork burden. While the new rules don't apply to payments made before 2012, it's not too early to start gearing up to deal with them.

Current Rules in a Nutshell


Background: For many years, businesses have been required to report various payments on different versions of Form 1099. For instance, when a business pays $600 or more during a calendar year to an independent contractor for services, the business must issue the contractor a Form 1099-MISC that reports the amount paid that year. The business must also furnish a copy of the Form 1099-MISC to the IRS. This reporting procedure helps contractors remember to include the payments on their tax returns, and it helps the IRS ensure that income is reported. Under rules now in effect, other types of payments that businesses must report on Forms 1099
include:
1. Commissions, fees, and other compensation paid to a single recipient when the total
amount paid in a calendar year is $600 or more.
2. Interest, rents, royalties, annuities, and income items paid to a single recipient when
the total amount paid in a calendar year is $600 or more.
When a Form 1099 is required, it must show:
The total amount for the calendar year;
The name and address of the payee;
The tax ID number (TIN) of the payee (For privacy reasons, it's okay to show a truncated
TIN on a 1099 issued to an individual);

Contact information for the payer; and

The payer's TIN.

If your business doesn't have a payee's TIN, you may be required to institute backup federal income tax withholding at a 28 percent rate on payments under Internal Revenue Code Section 3406. In most cases, the rules summarized above apply to payments made by not-for-profit organizations since they are generally considered to be businesses for Form 1099 reporting purposes. If a payer inadvertently fails to issue a proper Form 1099, the IRS can assess a $50 penalty. The penalty for each intentional failure can be $100 or more.

Document My Systems?.....Which Systems?

Recently I wrote a post about how businesses should document their systems to improve their profits and value.

I received some feedback that went something like this..

"Which systems, there are a million systems in my business!"

Well, you're correct. Even a small business has many different systems. How you answer the phone, how to install the widget, how to log into your QuickBooks, it goes on and on.

So where should you start?

My advice is to make your first written/documented system the one that is most critical to the success of your business. That means you can rule out how to log on to your computer, how to check voice mail, how to refill the paper in the copier.

Here are some examples of critical systems for various businesses:

• If you have a staffing firm you need a great system for interviewing potential hires.

• If you  have an auto repair shop you need a great system for diagnosing car problems.

• If you own an ice cream store you need a system to make sure the ice cream temperature is always perfect.

What's the most critical system for your business? You'll need to decide, then write it down, diagram it, draw it... do whatever you need to do to make sure that someone can do it if you're on a sail boat in the middle of the ocean.

If it's in your head it's only useful to you, if it's documented it's valuable.

Email as Productivity Tool

We have been using gmail enterprise email system for about 6 months and I have to tell you it is a great system. Like most of what Google is known for, biz gmail is intuitive yet robust enough to handle a relatively heavy email user (I get about 150 emails a day). If you are looking for any easy to launch, low cost and full featured email system I think you'll find gmail for biz a good choice. Here's a place to start google biz email.

We have about 17 users on the system and although the email works great the google docs system has a way to go. We still have trouble with document conversions and I can't recommend google docs for any serious document management uses.

If you decide to try it let me know what you think.