Virtually Yours Personal Assistants

Seems the cost of everything is rising. If your business involves delivery of a product or on-site service, the cost of gas becomes a factor. If you sell a product, the cost of your materials is rising.  Unlike larger businesses that can sell off a division or layoff staff and still maintain their edge, small businesses must look for creative ways to cut costs in order to survive. The easy fix is to raise prices. But your customers are facing the same market you are - why offer them a reason to bail by raising prices. Here’s a list of creative ways a small business owner can cut costs and maintain a profit without alienating customers.

Review your products and services. Invest in your most popular and most profitable services and eliminate those draining resources.

Review every expense. It’s time to get rid of a few luxuries. Look at every expense and question whether it is adding value to your business and positively impacting your bottom line. Examine ways of doing the same thing better, faster, and cheaper. Save money on meeting expenses, marketing,  and billing by using internet based technology. There are a number of online services that allow you to have a virtual meeting online with employees or clients, saving you travel costs. Save money on printing and postage costs by using email marketing materials and invoices rather than mailing them. Now looky at you. Saving money and going green at the same time

Outsource. Bookkeeping to manufacturing. Personal assistants to web designers. Using a contractor can save you big bucks by allowing you to handoff tasks that you don’t enjoy or aren’t good at so you can focus on core areas of your business. By outsourcing jobs you save yourself time and money. Since contractors are already experts at what they do and they work in their own workspace so there’s no need to interview, train, or provide resources for an employee. Even better, you pay them only when you need them which means you can set a budget and stick to it. When business slows, you don’t have an extra hand who your paying to do nothing… and when it picks up, they are there when you need them.

Go virtual. Fixed costs such as equipment, rent, and office furniture can have a big impact on your bottom line. Unless your business requires a bricks and mortar retail space or clients need to visit your workspace, you can probably avoid some of these costs. By using your home pc, printer, and internet connection you can complete the same work without creating new bills. To keep your professional edge, use a virtual phone system to forward calls to your home number, rent an offsite mailbox, and use your garage or an offsite storage facility to store your product.

What creative things have you done to cut expenses?

Though it doesn’t grow on trees, there are many ways that you can find money to fund your startup. Here are a few tried and true methods: 

• Use credit cards - Over 2/3 of small businesses use credit cards to pay expenses. If you already have trouble managing your personal credit cards perhaps a card for your business may not be the best idea. However, if you are disciplined and have a decent credit rating, you can obtain a card that has a great rate, offers discounts from retailers, and provide an easy way to establish credit for your business. Read the fine print. Look for cards that offer zero or low financing and make sure finance charges don’t accrue during the initial grace period. 

• Family and friends - A staggering 87% of businesses are started with funds borrowed from friends and family. To make this work you should minimize the risk to your business and to your personal relationships. Don’t want to share the long term rewards or share decison making? Consider a loan rather than an investment. Clearly outline the details of the transaction, put them in writing, and stick to it! 

Here are a few more funding options:  

• Venture capital/Angel investors  

• Business plan competitions 

• Loans 

This blog lists several other methods worth considering.  

In the mood to brush up on your entrepreneurial skills? Here’s an awesome post that lists 99 FREE online courses in the areas of marketing, management, leadership, technology, and legal aspects of business.  

Now go! LEARN!

When I was younger I said I’d tell my kids to pick a career that best met the following criteria:

1. Something you’re good at
2. Something you enjoy
3. Makes great money

I did that. I’m good at math. I enjoy working alone and solving problems. I liked engineering, that made good money. I did it. I chose engineering and guess what I liked it! For about 7 years……then I got that itch.

Yup, the seven year itch. I realized that though I still liked engineering, there were other things I liked more and there are other things I’m good at and (gulp) the money just doesn’t make it worth it anymore. That’s when I decided to rethink my own advice.

I no longer like working alone. I like interacting with people. I’m great at finding resources. I’m still fantastic at solving problems. So……. I and my staff interact with people to help them find resources to solve their small business problems. AND I LOVE IT!

Now my advice to my kids will be:

1. Figure out you love to do!
2. Become great at it.
3. Do it!
4. If you love it, the money won’t matter anymore. And if your great at it. The money will come.
5. Once you don’t like it anymore…..do something else.

I think the same advice applies to anyone choosing a second career. Here’s another blog post gives a similar viewpoint.

What will your advice be?

The home business owner - or the business owner who has not yet secured a bricks and mortar location - is often hesitant about using their home address on business correspondence. Whether your address is very ordinary (142 Family Circle) or elite (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue) , most business owners would like to avoid any chance of a curious client, junk mail, or (gasp!) a salesperson appearing at their front door.

There is of course the option of renting a PO Box from your local post office. It’s inexpensive and you even have the option of having your mail forwarded to your home.

For those who want an address that is not as nondiscript or who feel their clients will be turned off by a business without a street address, there are yet other options.

For a few more dollars, UPS Stores and other private mailbox companies offer secure personal mailboxes with a real street address and “suite” number to give you the big business feel you want to project. They will even sign for packages on your behalf. 

Many counties have small business assistance and economic development offices that offer mailbox rentals to local business owners. For example, the Howard County EDA in Maryland offers this option along a library, conference rooms, business counseling, and training. Contact your local economic development or SCORE office to find out if options like these are available in your area.

Business cards to brochures, sales letters to business forms, budgets to invoices. As a business owner, there are a number of standard documents you know you’ll need to have on hand and a few you may have never thought about.  Save yourself some time and effort by starting with a template. Here are a few resources:

HP - This site offers a number of well designed, customizable templates for creating marketing materials, newsletters, and business forms.

Microsoft - Need a customer database? a sales presentation? a collections letter? Microsoft has it all. You can search by template or product to find the template you need.

Entrepreneur Assist - This site offers many great documents needed for day to day operations. Also included with your free membership is an online planner, web conferencing, and a tool to organize you favorite entrepreneur.com articles.

I have lots of friends in their thirties who are trying to figure out what they want to be when they grow up. These aren’t people who have been backpacking around the world since high school either. They went to college, interned, got their degree, their first job, and were ready to conquer the world.  A few went back to school for a masters. Some switched companies. But after ten years in their chosen profession have discovered “this ain’t it”. They are asking “What’s out there for me?”

Is it so surprising though? Who, at 18, can figure out who they are, let alone what they want to do the rest of their lives? 

Regardless of age, so many of us are in that same place. We’ve discovered new talents, interests, and limitations that we didn’t have at 18.  Why waste another minute doing something you already know that you don’t enjoy? Whether your in your 30s, 40s, or 50s NOW is the time to regroup. It’s not too late. And there are so many options. Start your journey to your new you today.

Here are a few resources.

This article  on BusinessKnowHow.com talks about important steps to take as you consider what your next career should be. It’s written by the owner of  Vocation Vacations , a company that offers vacation packages that let you take a one to three day total immersion mentorship vacation performing one of over 140 careers - from actor to wine sommelier. I love the idea of test driving a new career.

Here’s a site that talks about the art of “self direction”. There’s even a quiz to help you decide if you’re in the right career.

This blog by Tim Berry, founder of bplans.com, suggests you look at who you are at the core to determine your new business venture. Definately worth checking out.

Happy venturing!

One of the first steps in starting a business is developing a business plan. It’s a pretty scary step but one that is vital in helping to determine the future direction of your venture. Here’s a list of resources we recommend:

FREE

SCORE Business Plan Template: http://www.score.org/template_gallery.html

BPlans.com also has a number of free plans available online in several categories: http://www.bplans.com/Sample_Business_Plans/index.cfm 

LOW COST

Check your local community college for a continuing education course on business plan writing. For a relatively small fee you’ll meet other aspiring entrepreneurs, get low cost classroom materials, and have an instructor who can answer questions and refer you to other resources.

MODERATE COST

Review Amazon.com to find highly reviewed books on business plans (or save a few bucks by borrowing them from your local library). If you insist on spending money, one book we personally recommend is New Venture Creation - Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century by Timmons and Spinelli. At 700 pages its no quick read but the CD that accompanies the book is an excellent resource for thinking through every aspect of your new venture.

Once written, you should revisit your business plan periodically to review and, if necessary, reevaluate your direction.

What other business plan writing resources would you recommend?

OK, so you have a great idea and you wanna start a business. Great!

Where do you start? Well, at the beginning of course! Built and maintained by the federal government, this site http://www.business.gov is one of the most concise resources for anyone in the United States who wants to start a business. It lists the licensing and regulation requirements for each state as well as tons of useful information for new and existing businesses. Just select your state and the type of business you want to start. It will direct you to the websites and locations in your area to get all the information you need. Many states have forms available online so all your filing can be completed from your desktop.

Know any other great sites for licensing and registrating your business? Share the wealth!