Make Your Home Office a Launch Pad to Success
The boom in freelancers, virtual assistants, micro-and-mom-preneurs, fully online businesses and other new strategies for working and being a small business owner has cause an equally large boom in home offices. However, the fact is that in many cases people back into these businesses and careers and their home office ends up reflecting a certain haphazardness – it can be not much more than an after thought. While this may not be a big deal in the very beginning, eventually it’s a problem, and not one that is immediately identifiable. You may find it a little more difficult to “go” to work or be excited about what you are doing and not really understand why. Let’s call it boredom. The fact is that your work space may be turning you off and limiting your enthusiasm for building your business. Get your thinking right The first thing that needs a major redo is your attitude. Determine that you will make your home office a place where you want to spend time. Transform it into an area that you will be proud to show off to your friends, family members and business associates. Make it a real place of business. Business owners who open retail or commercial locations like to stand back and look at their places of business and admire how they reflect what they have accomplished. They probably have a sign in front with the name of their business or their name is on the door. If I can put a modern twist on this, I’d say that they are admiring their “branding.” Frankly, signage at a business location is almost the very first step in branding. I suggest branding your home office. If you don’t, how is it any different from where your kids do their homework? Create the best environment There is a lot of science that goes into workspace design. Of course, we all know about ergonomics, but how a space is organized and beautified is also important. Spaces can feel warm and welcoming or cold. Colors are important. Potted plants and fish tanks are included in some businesses for a reason, not because the owners love watching tetras swim around…well at least, not usually. Think about your sense of style. Do you admire the sleek modern look or a more homey vintage atmosphere. Pull these design notes into your home office. Don’t overlook the addition of art. In business today, ideas and creativity are keys to success. Bring in art that inspires you, it will add a few octane to the stimulus that fuels your brain. Be seated, comfortably I mentioned ergonomics earlier and you certainly want to keep this in mind when you create your workstation. Further, you want to be comfortable, so don’t skimp on a chair. It’s a good investment; as a small business owner you’re going to be spending a lot of time in it. Don’t discover that the cushioning in cheap desk chairs breaks down quickly the hard way (no pun intended). Don’t leave the design and equipping of your home office to chance. Think of it as your launch pad to great success. Investing in your home office is investing in yourself. If you take care in how you design and organize your home office, that attitude will carry...
read moreOnline Referrals: Will Facebook’s Small Business Snub Be a Game Changer?
The currents that carry website visitors around the Internet are always ebbing and flowing. If you watch them over time you’ll observe some big changes. For as long as most of us can remember, the major current carrying referral visitors has been organic searches, mostly via Google, however that changed in the final quarter of 2014, according to a report from Shareaholic. Social networks pushed Google out of its first place position. Eight major social networks combined for over 31 percent of Internet referral traffic. Beating Google at its own game is great, but even more impressive is social media’s year-to-year growth. In Q1 2013, this group accounted for only about 23 percent of referral traffic. That’s almost a 35 percent growth in one year. Will Smallbiz jump ship? Yet there could be more changes just around the corner. The single biggest player among the social media platforms for referral traffic is – as I’m sure you guessed – Facebook. But a recent poll conducted by Alignable says that a majority of small business owners will not be paying for promotional posts as Facebook stops putting business posts into news feeds for free, which it began to do in January. Fully 68 percent of respondents said they wouldn’t pay; 14 percent said they would, and 18 percent were undecided. Facebooks “paying for posts policy” is really putting the squeeze on small business owners, especially when it’s coupled with Facebook’s concerted effort to halt business-related posts made via a member’s personal profiles. Currently Facebook drives about a quarter of all Internet referral traffic. Pinterest ranks second and the six other properties – Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube – account for less than 2 percent of total web referral traffic. If the Alignable poll results are anything close to what will actually occur in the coming months, further increases in Facebook referrals will happen largely without the participation of small business. Ultimately, however, many small business owners may decide to apportion part of their advertising and marketing budgets currently earmarked for Google’s AdWords program, to Facebook advertising. Maybe mobile will pay off I should also note that Facebook’s mobile advertising revenue has seen some impressive gains in recent months, which either means that businesses are experimenting with its service or that it is delivering the results advertisers are looking for. If it’s the latter, Google should continue to see its referral share decrease. How does your business fit into this ever-changing picture? If it teaches us one thing, it’s that no business owner should “stand pat” on a specific social media marketing mix. You need to be ready to try different platforms, with varying content. You need to be willing to create an advertising and marketing budget so you can honestly test the options you have...
read moreMothers of Invention: Finding Inspiration in Brilliant, Creative Women
Solomon, who is credited with being the wisest man ever, wrote this in the first chapter of Ecclesiastes: “There is nothing new under the sun.” That may be poetically true, but it’s patently false – and I’m using the word “patent” here in the literal sense of issuing patents. New ones are being granted every day. February is National Women Inventor’s Month and I think it highlights a subject that deserves a lot more attention, for the benefit of women but even more for the benefit of society. We live in a time when ideas are the most precious commodity. When we encourage more people to have ideas, voice them, and pursue them, the more opportunities we create for everyone. Let me highlight a few women inventors for inspiration and share a couple of important tips with you. I don’t know the name of the first woman inventor I would like to discuss, but she (and it was probably a collective effort between many women) provided the basis from which civilization has been able to advance. Our debt to the cavewomen Let me suggest to you that women invented agriculture. How can I make this bold assertion? you ask. All the books on the development of societies from the primitive to the advanced say that men were hunters and women were gatherers. I believe cave paintings and other clues bear this out. If that is true, then who is most likely to have invented agriculture? I think this is interesting because it is a wonderful example of finding a solution for an everyday problem. Being able to grow all your berries in one location is far better than having to run around the hillside harvesting random patches of berries. Women, keep your eyes open for ways to do everyday tasks better and more efficiently. Beauty and brains One of the best reads of recent years is Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes’ “Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, The Most Beautiful Woman in the World.” Here is proof that a beautiful woman can be taken seriously for much more than her good looks. Rhodes chronicles Lamarr’s childhood in Austria and her immigration to the United States from a variety of angles. He explains her relationships, both personal and professional, and shows how she came to value science, invention and the world of ideas. She invented technology to help the war effort that is used in cell phones today. Here’s a link to an NPR story on the book, but I urge you to grab the book and read it yourself. She does it all An article in Forbes recently inspired me. It’s about – and written by – Lisa Seacat DeLuca, a self-described nerd, mother of twins, and the most prolific female inventor at IBM. Currently she has more than 150 patents to her name that deal with technologies including mobile, data and the cloud. In a recent TED@IBM talk she said, “The speed of invention in the future will be as fast as we can dream up ideas. We’ll be able to use each other’s innovations to test drive ideas and find inspiration to keep solving everyday problems.” Wow! She talked about solving everyday problems, exactly what the women who invented agriculture did. In...
read moreThis Week in Small Business: Rev Up Your Brainpower
Marketing Last week we learned why your landing pages should be naked and your prefrontal cortex should be pampered…and much more. Social media Jason Meyers, Founder and CEO of AudienceBloom, explains the difference between community management and social media marketing and why it’s so important. Sometimes good examples are better than detailed instructions. That’s the strong suit of this article on social media marketing. And if you like great instructions, this article on Twitter engagement lays them out. Here’s a rundown of how several small business owners are dealing with the small business policy changes at Facebook. Mobile and local It looks like proximity marketing is set to explode and that is reflected in this UK survey. And for a comprehensive view on how to leverage the full spectrum of your customers’ mobile activities, Adobe’s Mickael Bentz offers this rundown. Content marketing If you haven’t yet established a blog for your business, here are the essential steps to make it a good one. Greg Shuey, Co-Founder & Chief Evangelist at Stryde suggests ways to shorten the sales cycle through content marketing. Online marketing If you think that all your ecommerce marketing should be focused online, you would be wrong, says Katherine Halek in Entrepreneur. Those of you looking for fresh ways to approach your digital marketing should consider the six alternatives suggested in this Forbes article. Seriously, if you really want to up the conversion on your landing pages, try going naked. Sales and Marketing Agile marketing is the rage today, but is it compatible with “big ideas”? It’s possible that short-term tactics may kill long-term strategies. Is there a lack a love between sales and marketing in your business? Here are 10 tips that will help renew their relationship. The moms have the checkbooks, why do marketers have no idea what they need or want? Get hip to today’s moms. Small, medium and big data Everything You Wanted to Know About Google Analytics Resources for Marketers But Were Afraid to Ask can be found here. Speaking of Google, here are two case studies in the effectiveness of AdWords. If you haven’t added automation to your marketing program, you’re missing out on something that works for 90 percent of all users. Management and leadership It may not be rocket science, but it is science: Christopher Paterson contends that you need to treat your prefrontal cortex nicely if you want to make good business decisions. He offers three steps to accomplish this. Did you overlook your retirement planning in 2014? Don’t make the same mistake in 2015. Here are some solid small business owner retirement strategies. And in a related story: If you are working beyond “retirement age” or think that it’s a possibility, you need to check out this short video that warns you about some significant traps. If you’re waiting for imports that have to pass through California ports, it’s been gridlock since mid-January. Successful marketing to a wide range of cultures is getting more important each day. This Harvard Business Review article outlines a major mistake companies make. The economy goes up and down (sometimes seemingly the same time) but here’s why your reaction to the rough patches should never impact customer service. And in the spirit of “back to basics”: Be on the lookout for...
read moreHow To Not Become a Labor Department Enforcement Target
Over the last couple of years the Department of Labor has become fairly aggressive in its enforcement of wage and hours laws. It has been targeting industries suspected of being the most egregious offenders and it is going at enforcement in such a public way as to create a “ripple effect” that will motivate other industries and employers to stay in line, even though they are not targets of ongoing enforcement efforts. In an article written by Dr. David Weil, administrator DOL’s Wage and Hour Division, he lays this out clearly: We’re increasing the cost of non-compliance by using all enforcement tools provided by Congress where appropriate, including civil money penalties, liquidated damages, and debarments. We’re identifying the contracting stream, or supply chains, so those at the top of the chain will evaluate the compliance practices of those below them and consider whether it’s worth their own good name and possibly their own bottom line to utilize the services of subcontractors or suppliers who skirt the law. When we conclude significant cases, we publicize the results through traditional and digital media. Publicizing wage and hour violations is an effective way to educate other employers about their responsibilities and encourage compliance. Weil also sites the case of an Arizona drywall contractor who the department found liable for $600,000 in back pay because the company said workers were independent contractors rather than company employees. You don’t want to get swamped by one of those ripples and find yourself on the radar screen of DOL enforcers, so you need to make sure you’re in compliance, have the systems and training in place to stay in compliance, and you have implemented a good system of documenting your wage and hour practices. Peter Rich, an attorney at Spilman Thomas & Battle, has four important recommendations to help you stay out of trouble: Be sure your practices align with DOL policy with regards to the differences between employees and contractors. Use a computer-based payroll system so your records are always in order and easy to access. Have all the facts you need to determine if an employee is exempt or non-exempt. Understand the nuances of “compensable” time, which will impact the amount of overtime you are required to pay. This compensable time point is an area where employers are frequently challenged. The Supreme Court recently ruled on a case that involved employees who were required to change into clothes and protective gear prior to working. The court “threaded the needle” in the way it defined regular clothes versus protective gear and the employer essentially won the case. However, we all know that even if you end up winning your case, the time and expense are significant when lawyers get involved. If you have any doubts about your policies and practices or have never before reviewed them, sitting down with a good local labor law attorney will prove to be money well...
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