I have been preaching the adage of "build your own business, don't be your own boss" for years in my seminars, coaching, articles, books, self help products, etc. Well, 2009 promises that those who treat their business like a self made job are going to get the short end of the stick.
Although I still believe any type of technology business is the place to be in always and especially in an economic downturn, it's those that are truly running a business that will not only survive, but do well and eat the lunch of those that have merely made a job for themselves.
These may sound like harsh words and they are. Just because we are coming into a new year, don't think I plan on changing my blunt ways. Beating around the bush doesn't help anyone and it avoids wasting my time and yours.
With that said, the rest of this post will be extremely brief.
If you run a one person show and you want to keep it that way, I understand. But you better be ready to systematize, automate and streamline.
While money is truly at a premium, most clients or potential clients of technology service businesses are not going to be willing to spend money on an entity that is stretched thin because the owner does everything including all of the techie work.
Beyond just a one man shop and looking towards those with a few employees or contractors, a "real business" is what your clients want to deal with. It's a sense of security they want.
They also want to feel that they are getting tremendous value for their expenditure and they want it coming from a solid relationship between your company and theirs. Relationships are big, but there's a fine line between a relationship with a small business and just a relationship with the owner (you). Build a business relationship with everyone in your company that touches a customer being on the same page as you.
If you haven't done it yet, now is the time to set up additional revenue streams that coincide with your current offerings. Passive income is always a good thing and it makes your business much more valuable to your clients since it shows you are the people to go to.
Running your business like a real business is the way to go for you and your clients. Running it to maximize profit without even changing your head count is not as difficult as you think and it builds tremendous business value.
If you haven't done so yet, I strongly encourage you to grab my book. It's a "lite" version of all the steps necessary to turn your small business in to a real business. If your ready to take the full plunge, get my full blueprint to a successful technology business.
Better yet, click here to get up to date info on my near future Exit Strategy Boot Camp: Run It Like You're Gonna Sell It for Maximum Profit and Increased Business Value.
Don't forget to also get involved with a mastermind group facilitated by someone that has already found the success you are striving for.
Get educated. Set your business up for success. Get involved with a mastermind group to make sure you achieve your goals.
We'll talk soon.
To Your Business Success-
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
Monday, December 29, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
The Color of Money & Your Technology Business
Normally money is a nice calming green to everyone. Right about now, money is pretty close to being see through.
The money I'm referring to is your back up, credit based funds. This means credit cards, lines of credit and any other pool of money you have access to dip into in tough times or just to cover things while waiting for your receivables to actually be in the bank.
Besides a good end of the year thing to do, tightening up the funds and checking on how your credit is doing is a very good idea in this rough financial market. Knowing you have the funds right now for when you need it or at least making sure you are in a position to get money when the time comes is a must.
My advice to you is to jump on the following to help put your business in the best position possible coming into 2009:
1. Check your personal credit score (FICO) from all 3 bureaus. Unless you are in a very rare position of not needing to personally guarantee business related financing, making sure there are no dings in your credit report that shouldn't be there is a good idea every quarter. If you see something fishy, check it out immediately.
2. Check your business credit rating with D&B. Although for small businesses this is not as important as the credit score of the personal guarantor, for things such as leases and equipment loans as well as some other financing, this score will be checked to see how well your business pays up. Again, fix any dings that shouldn't be there.
3. Call your creditors that hold your credit cards and lines of credit. Ask them if you can get a small bump in the amount of credit you have with them even if you don't use that card/fund at all. The more credit you have available, the better off you will be if you have to use it. It's a good way to make your debt to available credit look better to other financial institutions as well as a good way to keep your credit used for each individual card/fund to under 50%.
4. Check with your creditors, especially credit card companies, to see if they will be willing to lower your interest rate. You'd be surprised how many will. This also works with personal cards. It doesn't hurt to try this once a year.
5. If there are any funding people you can have a relationship with, have a relationship with them. Bank loan officers, leasing people or anyone else that has a face and is not anonymous to you regarding any of your business funding/credit. Make sure they know you and keep in touch with them. If they have any room to maneuver, they will do it for those people they know best.
That's it for now. Doing these 5 things (with 1, 2 and 5 being done on a quarterly basis if possible) should be added to your end of the year activities.
Happy Holidays!
To Your Business Success-
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
The money I'm referring to is your back up, credit based funds. This means credit cards, lines of credit and any other pool of money you have access to dip into in tough times or just to cover things while waiting for your receivables to actually be in the bank.
Besides a good end of the year thing to do, tightening up the funds and checking on how your credit is doing is a very good idea in this rough financial market. Knowing you have the funds right now for when you need it or at least making sure you are in a position to get money when the time comes is a must.
My advice to you is to jump on the following to help put your business in the best position possible coming into 2009:
1. Check your personal credit score (FICO) from all 3 bureaus. Unless you are in a very rare position of not needing to personally guarantee business related financing, making sure there are no dings in your credit report that shouldn't be there is a good idea every quarter. If you see something fishy, check it out immediately.
2. Check your business credit rating with D&B. Although for small businesses this is not as important as the credit score of the personal guarantor, for things such as leases and equipment loans as well as some other financing, this score will be checked to see how well your business pays up. Again, fix any dings that shouldn't be there.
3. Call your creditors that hold your credit cards and lines of credit. Ask them if you can get a small bump in the amount of credit you have with them even if you don't use that card/fund at all. The more credit you have available, the better off you will be if you have to use it. It's a good way to make your debt to available credit look better to other financial institutions as well as a good way to keep your credit used for each individual card/fund to under 50%.
4. Check with your creditors, especially credit card companies, to see if they will be willing to lower your interest rate. You'd be surprised how many will. This also works with personal cards. It doesn't hurt to try this once a year.
5. If there are any funding people you can have a relationship with, have a relationship with them. Bank loan officers, leasing people or anyone else that has a face and is not anonymous to you regarding any of your business funding/credit. Make sure they know you and keep in touch with them. If they have any room to maneuver, they will do it for those people they know best.
That's it for now. Doing these 5 things (with 1, 2 and 5 being done on a quarterly basis if possible) should be added to your end of the year activities.
Happy Holidays!
To Your Business Success-
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Reflecting on Your Technology Business
I'm sure like all other business owners, you are doing some reflecting on how well your technology business has done in 2008. If not, I suggest you do and make it a habit.
Actually, you should be doing this a lot more often than just the end of the year, but I won't bother you about that today. For now, let's look at how your technology business did in this past year.
Did you reach your goals? Did you actually have any goals?
Many business owners go through the years without any goals at all. Or at least none that make too much sense. I find this to be an interesting way to operate a company. It tells me instantly that the owner is sitting on more of a job than a business and is taking an extra long time to accomplish things including growing the business.
Concrete long term and short term goals is the name of the game. Things such as: Revenue based goals, profit goals, expense goals, etc are just basics.
Many have no goals in their head except some pie in the sky goal like "I want to make a million dollars to solve all of my problems". A million of what? Revenue, gross profit, net profit? What problems would that solve and how?
Of course, goals are just the tip of the iceberg. The real reason to set a goal is to give you a start and end point that you must build a structure inside of to make it happen.
Did I just tell you that you have to actually DO something to reach a goal? Well, yes I did. Writing it down is a must for a start. But reaching a goal can't happen unless you actually do something.
Even a goal of winning the state lottery requires you to do something such as actually buying a ticket!
How else do you achieve a goal of going from $100,000 in profit to $150,000? Something has to be done to make it happen.
So... if you had any goals for your technology business in 2008 did you actually reach them?
If you didn't I would suggest the following formula for 2009:
- Write out some reasonable and achievable goals
- Determine what you need to do to reach those goals
- Get help on the easiest and most effective ways to achieve those goals
- Make a plan to execute the steps necessary
I would also suggest breaking down long term goals into short term. For instance if you want to increase revenues from $200k to $240k, break it down to "what do I need to do to make $20k a month or $4600 a week in revenue".
Notice my 3rd step above. If you had goals you didn't conquer, was it because you didn't know the best way to go about making it happen? This is very often the case and if this particular type of goal always seems to elude you, you are probably employing the definition of insanity way too often in your business.
For a refresher, that means you are doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result. I say stop the insanity.
You wouldn't send a tech or engineer to a client when they always take 2 hours to do a 30 minute job task would you? You wouldn't. But you would teach them how to do the task correctly. Right?
So why keep doing it in terms of how you operate your business? It makes no sense and you're too intelligent to get stuck on that hamster wheel.
Before you go and throw money and precious time at making things happen in 2009, first spend the time and money to do things the best way possible. This will truly save you time and money as you execute your plan for the year.
To Your Business Success-
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
Actually, you should be doing this a lot more often than just the end of the year, but I won't bother you about that today. For now, let's look at how your technology business did in this past year.
Did you reach your goals? Did you actually have any goals?
Many business owners go through the years without any goals at all. Or at least none that make too much sense. I find this to be an interesting way to operate a company. It tells me instantly that the owner is sitting on more of a job than a business and is taking an extra long time to accomplish things including growing the business.
Concrete long term and short term goals is the name of the game. Things such as: Revenue based goals, profit goals, expense goals, etc are just basics.
Many have no goals in their head except some pie in the sky goal like "I want to make a million dollars to solve all of my problems". A million of what? Revenue, gross profit, net profit? What problems would that solve and how?
Of course, goals are just the tip of the iceberg. The real reason to set a goal is to give you a start and end point that you must build a structure inside of to make it happen.
Did I just tell you that you have to actually DO something to reach a goal? Well, yes I did. Writing it down is a must for a start. But reaching a goal can't happen unless you actually do something.
Even a goal of winning the state lottery requires you to do something such as actually buying a ticket!
How else do you achieve a goal of going from $100,000 in profit to $150,000? Something has to be done to make it happen.
So... if you had any goals for your technology business in 2008 did you actually reach them?
If you didn't I would suggest the following formula for 2009:
- Write out some reasonable and achievable goals
- Determine what you need to do to reach those goals
- Get help on the easiest and most effective ways to achieve those goals
- Make a plan to execute the steps necessary
I would also suggest breaking down long term goals into short term. For instance if you want to increase revenues from $200k to $240k, break it down to "what do I need to do to make $20k a month or $4600 a week in revenue".
Notice my 3rd step above. If you had goals you didn't conquer, was it because you didn't know the best way to go about making it happen? This is very often the case and if this particular type of goal always seems to elude you, you are probably employing the definition of insanity way too often in your business.
For a refresher, that means you are doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result. I say stop the insanity.
You wouldn't send a tech or engineer to a client when they always take 2 hours to do a 30 minute job task would you? You wouldn't. But you would teach them how to do the task correctly. Right?
So why keep doing it in terms of how you operate your business? It makes no sense and you're too intelligent to get stuck on that hamster wheel.
Before you go and throw money and precious time at making things happen in 2009, first spend the time and money to do things the best way possible. This will truly save you time and money as you execute your plan for the year.
To Your Business Success-
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Santa & Successfully Running Your Technology Business
So what in the world am I talking about? How can Santa be tied into how you successfully run a business?
The answer is that dealing with Santa and operating your technology business have very common ground. Let me explain by first going over how Santa's system of giving out presents works.
1. Determine what exactly you want Santa to bring on Christmas day. (Milestones)
2. Write a letter detailing what you want and why you should get it. (Written Plan of Attack)
3. From the time the letter is written to Christmas day, you follow your plan of being as good as you possibly can, doing as many nice things as possible to make sure you get what you asked for. (Take Action)
Now, how does this equate to successfully running your technology business? See below for the 3 steps that correlate to the ones above:
1. Determine exactly what goals and metrics you want to achieve by a specific date. (Milestones)
2. From those goals, write down a plan on how you intend to achieve the goals and metrics (Written Plan of Attack)
3. Take action on the plan to get from where you are now to where you intend to be at the date you specified. (Take Action)
For those that celebrate Christmas, you have been following this simple structure all of your life, but many business owners still don't do this simple 3 step process.
Even when it comes to getting presents from Santa, every kid knows you can't just hope and wish you get it. You have to take action. And in this case it's being as good as you can.
For a business owner, the methodology is no different. Hope marketing, hope sales, hope growth, etc. doesn't work except for rare cases of pure luck. Business planning including exit strategies are a must for all businesses of any size even if you plan on running your business forever.
It's also the first sign that you have a real business and not just a self created job that has major limitations in how successful it can truly be for you.
If you're interested, I will be conducting a free webinar this week about the exit strategy of selling your business. And it works even if you never plan on selling.
As a matter of fact, it just so happens that if you "Run it like you're gonna sell it", you will automatically maximize the profit your business generates regardless of your business model while you are building true business value.
Click here to sign up for the free "Run it like you're gonna sell it for maximum profit and value" webinar right now. Live spots are limited so please don't miss out. It will be available for replay but only to those that signed up.
I hope to see you there.
To Your Business Success-
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
The answer is that dealing with Santa and operating your technology business have very common ground. Let me explain by first going over how Santa's system of giving out presents works.
1. Determine what exactly you want Santa to bring on Christmas day. (Milestones)
2. Write a letter detailing what you want and why you should get it. (Written Plan of Attack)
3. From the time the letter is written to Christmas day, you follow your plan of being as good as you possibly can, doing as many nice things as possible to make sure you get what you asked for. (Take Action)
Now, how does this equate to successfully running your technology business? See below for the 3 steps that correlate to the ones above:
1. Determine exactly what goals and metrics you want to achieve by a specific date. (Milestones)
2. From those goals, write down a plan on how you intend to achieve the goals and metrics (Written Plan of Attack)
3. Take action on the plan to get from where you are now to where you intend to be at the date you specified. (Take Action)
For those that celebrate Christmas, you have been following this simple structure all of your life, but many business owners still don't do this simple 3 step process.
Even when it comes to getting presents from Santa, every kid knows you can't just hope and wish you get it. You have to take action. And in this case it's being as good as you can.
For a business owner, the methodology is no different. Hope marketing, hope sales, hope growth, etc. doesn't work except for rare cases of pure luck. Business planning including exit strategies are a must for all businesses of any size even if you plan on running your business forever.
It's also the first sign that you have a real business and not just a self created job that has major limitations in how successful it can truly be for you.
If you're interested, I will be conducting a free webinar this week about the exit strategy of selling your business. And it works even if you never plan on selling.
As a matter of fact, it just so happens that if you "Run it like you're gonna sell it", you will automatically maximize the profit your business generates regardless of your business model while you are building true business value.
Click here to sign up for the free "Run it like you're gonna sell it for maximum profit and value" webinar right now. Live spots are limited so please don't miss out. It will be available for replay but only to those that signed up.
I hope to see you there.
To Your Business Success-
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Thanksgiving and the Entrepreneur (Mastermind)
I don’t know about you, but I really love Thanksgiving here in the US. Not only do you get to spend time with people you may not see too often, it’s also a great excuse to take Friday and the weekend off for a tiny needed vacation as the year comes to a close.
My question to you is; how are you treated at the holiday dinner table by your family?
Since I’ve been an entrepreneur for over 16 years now, I don’t get as much guff as in the past, but let me give you a typical conversation from the not so distant past:
Dad: So how’s being in business for yourself going?
Son: Not too bad, Pop.
Dad: You’ve been at this for a while now. When are you going to grow up and get a real job?
Son: I don’t want a job, Pop. I want a business like I have.
Dad: But there’s no stability in it. No known paycheck coming in. How can you live like that?
Son: Well I think that knowing I can make as much money as I can figure out how to make a better option. And for stability, as far as I’m concerned, I ‘d rather know when I’m going to fire myself and not leave it up to someone else that could care less about me more then themselves.
Dad: I don’t get it.
Son: Nope. You don’t.
Hmmmmm. Does that sound familiar at all from family and friends when sitting around a table or on the phone? My guess is it probably hits a few nerves.
So what’s my point? Surrounding yourself a few times a year with people that don’t understand you is bearable because they are family and friends. But if that’s the only time you find yourself talking about your business to others, basically in a battle zone, I promise you it’s not mentally or physically helping you or your business.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to talk to like minded people on a regular basis around a positive energy charged table or phone call? Enter the mastermind group.
If you’re not in one, find one facilitated by someone you would like to emulate. And if you’re already in one, maybe join another. As many heads more than one as possible to bounce ideas off of and get positive or constructive feedback from is a must for an entrepreneur heading up any sized business at any point in the business lifecycle.
Hope you had a good Thanksgiving! Now go find yourself a mastermind group or two.
To Your Business Success-
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
My question to you is; how are you treated at the holiday dinner table by your family?
Since I’ve been an entrepreneur for over 16 years now, I don’t get as much guff as in the past, but let me give you a typical conversation from the not so distant past:
Dad: So how’s being in business for yourself going?
Son: Not too bad, Pop.
Dad: You’ve been at this for a while now. When are you going to grow up and get a real job?
Son: I don’t want a job, Pop. I want a business like I have.
Dad: But there’s no stability in it. No known paycheck coming in. How can you live like that?
Son: Well I think that knowing I can make as much money as I can figure out how to make a better option. And for stability, as far as I’m concerned, I ‘d rather know when I’m going to fire myself and not leave it up to someone else that could care less about me more then themselves.
Dad: I don’t get it.
Son: Nope. You don’t.
Hmmmmm. Does that sound familiar at all from family and friends when sitting around a table or on the phone? My guess is it probably hits a few nerves.
So what’s my point? Surrounding yourself a few times a year with people that don’t understand you is bearable because they are family and friends. But if that’s the only time you find yourself talking about your business to others, basically in a battle zone, I promise you it’s not mentally or physically helping you or your business.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to talk to like minded people on a regular basis around a positive energy charged table or phone call? Enter the mastermind group.
If you’re not in one, find one facilitated by someone you would like to emulate. And if you’re already in one, maybe join another. As many heads more than one as possible to bounce ideas off of and get positive or constructive feedback from is a must for an entrepreneur heading up any sized business at any point in the business lifecycle.
Hope you had a good Thanksgiving! Now go find yourself a mastermind group or two.
To Your Business Success-
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
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