Making sure employees’ first experiences are good ones

By Ryan Skubis

If your company is like most, your new-employee orientation consists of a tour of the office and a few sessions on company policies and procedures. Even then, you may be ahead of the game. In a recent Accountemps survey, 34% of HR managers interviewed said their companies don’t even have a formal new-employee orientation program.

But, as the saying goes, you never have a second chance to make a first impression, and investing just a bit more time and resources on orientation and onboarding can pay off in a big way.

Orientation opportunity

New-employee orientation provides an ideal opportunity to give workers the tools they need to perform their jobs well — and to instill in them your company’s values and goals.

In fact, a strong new-employee orientation can spell the difference between a smooth transition into a new position or a rocky start on the job. In the same Accountemps survey, 35% of HR managers who indicated their companies did have orientation programs said the greatest benefit was employees’ stronger understanding of company values, guidelines and expectations.

Another 20% felt a formal orientation helps employees make positive contributions more quickly, and 19% noted that employees who go through orientation feel a more rapid connection to the company.

Tips for a good start

Any one of these benefits alone would provide a good argument for building a robust employee orientation program. Want to make yours more effective? Start with these tips:

Provide a warm welcome. Start making it a positive experience from the very beginning. Alert security that a new employee will be arriving, and make sure someone from your team (ideally, you) meets him at the front door and escorts him to his desk.

Ensure that his work area is set up and that he has the tools he needs to get started, including access to the company intranet and databases, if necessary. If you aren’t able to meet him at the door, stop by as soon as possible to tell him how happy you are that he’s joined the team and to let him know what he’ll be doing for the next few days. Make sure he feels valued and motivated from the very start.

Review the lay of the land. Introduce the newcomer personally to all of her coworkers and key contacts from other departments, and explain any policies and procedures specific to the department. If you have one, ask an HR representative to go over compensation, benefits, and company policies with her.

A tour of the facilities, including rest rooms and break areas, as well as how to set up voicemail, are also important: She’ll feel more at ease and ready to jump right in to the job if she’s not worrying about the little things.

Go over the basics of the job. Sit down with your new employee on his first day and make sure he understands his main job duties and how his work will contribute to departmental and company priorities. This is the time to elaborate on elements you reviewed during the recruitment process.

Go over the job description point by point, and highlight performance goals. Paint a detailed picture of what he can expect in the first few months on the job.

Provide an overview of the company. A savvy job candidate approaches an interview armed with knowledge of the company. Now fill in the gaps by explaining more about company operations, including all products and services.

Provide a short history of the organization, and discuss how it fits into its industry. And talk a bit about the office culture. All of these things will give the new employee a sense of how she can best fit in and begin contributing immediately.

Keep it lively. When orientation consists of dull slide presentations and piles of paperwork, no one wins — the employee is bored and doesn’t learn the things she needs to know, and the employer wastes the opportunity to inform the worker about what’s important.

Try different techniques — videos, games, group discussions, guest speakers — to keep things interesting and useful. That way, the employee is more likely to stay engaged and absorb pertinent information. If you are holding an orientation for multiple employees, consider bringing someone in from senior management to speak about the company’s mission and values; it will lend more credibility and importance to the entire process.

Space it out. Avoid overwhelming new workers with too much information at once. Instead, consider using a broader onboarding approach by spreading orientation over a few weeks, or even months. Hold some informal discussions on the first few days, and then follow up with a more formal program.

Continue to check in frequently with your new employee, perhaps once a week, to see how things are going, answer any questions, and provide feedback on her work.

Provide a point person for the future. If you have more tenured staff who are willing to help out, consider assigning new employees mentors who can provide more detailed guidance and advice as the weeks go by. Not only will this give new workers an additional go-to person for questions and concerns, but it also might give them a friend and confidant who can help them feel like a real part of the team as they settle into their new jobs.

It’s normal for new employees to be a bit uneasy in the early days on the job. But you can help ease their anxieties with a well-thought-out orientation process. What’s more, you’ll benefit from it, too, as these workers are better able to hit the ground running.

Ryan Skubis is the district president for Accountemps in Jacksonville. Accountemps is the world’s first and largest specialized staffing service for temporary accounting, finance and bookkeeping professionals. Accountemps has more than 350 offices worldwide and offers online job search services at www.accountemps.com.

How you can use THE PLAYERS Championship to benefit your small business

Anyone who has been to THE PLAYERS Championship knows that the greatest tournament in golf is about more than the game itself. The annual tournament is a social mecca, a haven for new business development and the must-attend venue for executives of all levels.

THE PLAYERS is the place where businesses meet, new relationships are formed and deals are made. Each year, more than 350 corporate businesses invest in a range of hospitality and sponsorship programs at THE PLAYERS — all with a goal to build relationships and generate new business. But the question is often asked, “What is available for small business owners?”

What’s in it for me?

“There is no better event in Northeast Florida to meet influential business professionals and decision makers than at THE PLAYERS,” said Jared Rice, director of sales and marketing for THE PLAYERS. “But there is a misnomer out there that small businesses cannot get into these big hospitality tents.

“We want local businesses to have the opportunity to network with C-level executives from around the world and have created customized packages just for that purpose. We have thoughtfully designed tickets and venues that allow businesses of every size and type to attend the tournament and network with local, national and international executives who attend the tournament not only to watch the game, but to make deals and meet new contacts,” continues Rice.

Vince McCormack, president of locally based Perdue Office Interiors, is one small business owner who understands the value of networking at THE PLAYERS. For the past 20 years, McCormack has taken advantage of the opportunities afforded to small businesses by purchasing packages ranging from private chalets to The Benefactor packages.

This year, McCormack has already purchased a customized package for The Benefactor tent that includes 16 tickets per day, Monday through Sunday, for his sales team to utilize for business development and client entertainment.

“We often entertain clients at local events, such as the Jaguars’ games and the Gator Bowl, but THE PLAYERS is unique in that it is an international event right here in our backyard that draws business professionals from around the world,” said McCormack. “The tournament has always been a great value for our company — customers appreciate it and we are able to develop new relationships and enhance existing ones.”

Like McCormack, Andy Baggs is another local business owner that understands the value of business development at THE PLAYERS. Every year, The Baggs Craft Dixon Powell Group at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney purchases corporate hospitality packages to network with other business owners and generate business leads at the tournament.

“THE PLAYERS is the place to be for that one week in May and it is a great opportunity to network; odds are when you are out there you will run into people you know and be introduced to new business professionals,” said Baggs, first vice president, wealth advisor and investment management consultant with the financial group. Baggs is also a fourth-year vice chairman with THE PLAYERS.

For this year’s tournament, Baggs and his group purchased The Benefactor package, which includes 30 tickets per day to the venue, and divvied up the tickets amongst their team and other advisory groups. Baggs said this is the best way for small businesses like his to have access to corporate hospitality tents without spending outside their budgets. The tickets are used to entertain clients throughout the week, or in some cases, Baggs and his team will give the tickets to clients to use at their convenience.

“We get more mileage from The Benefactor package because we are able to take a small group of clients to the tournament each day and this fits well within our business model,” Baggs said. “I think THE PLAYERS has done a tremendous job of creating customized packages for small business owners who may have different needs and uses for the tournament than a Fortune 500 company.”

Be a part of the action

The key for small businesses to take advantage of the networking opportunities at THE PLAYERS is to find a plan that works for them. Here is a list of options for small businesses to attend the tournament and network at Northeast Florida’s largest business and sporting event:

•Decide which package or ticket is the best fit for your company. Small business owners and executives can purchase weekly and individual tickets to hospitality venues and make a plan to take one or two clients to the tournament each day.

•Work with THE PLAYERS sales and marketing team to discuss a custom package that fits your budget and entertainment style.

•Determine which clients, prospects or former clients you would like to invite to the tournament. Call and invite them to attend on a particular day or send an invitation.

•Make a list of other businesses and executives you want to meet at the tournament. Make it a priority to network at venues such as The Turn, The Benefactor, The Courtyard and The Clubhouse to meet new business contacts.

•Partner up with another small business to purchase a private tent or customized package to entertain your clients, prospects and employees. There are several private venues and packages that can be shared by companies that pool their funds together and divvy up the tickets.

Giving back

There is no doubt that THE PLAYERS is an economic engine for Northeast Florida and its small businesses. The tournament brings an economic impact of more than $150 million to the First Coast, which is the equivalent to having the Super Bowl in Northeast Florida every year.

Small businesses in Northeast Florida have the opportunity to take advantage of the tournament and create lasting relationships that will ultimately affect their bottom line. By investing their time and resources, small businesses can be a part of the action and increase their recognition, relationships and revenue by utilizing the networking opportunities available at THE PLAYERS.

2012 Fan Course Map of THE PLAYERS 

THE PLAYERS Championship 2012 – What You Need to Know

When: May 7-13, 2012

Where: TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach

Tickets: Children 18 and younger are admitted free with a ticketed adult. Tickets can be purchased at Publix or online at www.pgatour.com/theplayers.

Corporate Hospitality: Corporate hospitality packages are still available. Visit www.pgatour.com/theplayers and click on 2012 Tickets or Hospitality.

 Parking: All parking is onsite at THE PLAYERS Championship. General parking Monday through Wednesday is free. Parking passes Thursday through Sunday must be purchased prior to arriving at the tournament. Passes are $20 and can be purchased online at www.pgatour.com/theplayers, at Publix or at Will Call the day of the tournament.

Cell Phones: Cell phones are allowed at the tournament and THE PLAYERS will have upgraded towers for additional coverage and service.

 THE PLAYERS by the Numbers

$150 million: Estimated economic impact to Northeast Florida

350: Corporate businesses that invest in a range of hospitality and sponsorship programs at THE PLAYERS.

135,000: Approximate number of fans, business executives and media who attend THE PLAYERS each year

$50 million: THE PLAYERS goal over the next 10 years for local youth-related charities

$46 million: Generated for Northeast Florida charities since 1977

$5.9 million: Raised for local charities in 2011

20,000: Military tickets distributed for 2011 tournament

2,000: Volunteers who make THE PLAYERS possible every year

865: Media staff members representing 192 outlets and 12 countries covering THE PLAYERS

700 million: Households worldwide that receive THE PLAYERS telecast each year

38.4 million: Viewers who tuned into Golf Channel and NBC to watch the 2011 telecast

What it means for you and your company

By Mike deVaux

If you are like most employers, you are wondering where the health reform roller coaster is going to take you and your company’s medical insurance plan next. You would also not be alone.

The question of, “What actions do I need to take as an employer to comply with health reform” is frequently asked, but the unfortunate reality is it is not very easy to answer. With 26 states in a lawsuit against the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), better known as health reform, that is to be heard by the Supreme Court this spring, the future of health reform remains uncertain.

If the Supreme Court rules the mandate unconstitutional, it doesn’t necessarily mean the entire health reform will be reversed. A change in the presidency and the Senate in 2012 also don’t guarantee complete repeal, with many of the reform measures already incorporated into our medical insurance plans remaining.

Regardless of which side of the debate you are on, the issue for many companies remains how to best deal with the changes that have already occurred and the changes to come. Most of the early aspects of the health reform were not favorable to lowering the cost of the coverage.

Components such as no policy maximum, dependent coverage to age 26, 100% coverage for preventative care and no pre-existing conditions for under age 19 dependents are all good features to have in a policy. The bottom line, however, is they add to the cost of the claims incurred by the carriers, which means health reform isn’t going to lower the cost of coverage for employers.

What’s next for health reform?

In 2012, the big item implemented was the requirement for employers to report the cost of employer sponsored health coverage—which only applies to employers who produce more than 250 W2s per year. (For information on this requirement, reference IRS Notice 2012-9.) In 2013, all employers will be required to report cost of health coverage on W2s.

The next big event in health reform will be the implementation of the exchanges. Without getting into too much detail, the exchange concept was created to provide a marketplace to make insurance more affordable and easier to purchase for small employers and individuals.

By 2014, every state is required to provide an exchange to allow the comparison of cost and different types of benefits for employers and individuals to purchase insurance. If your state chooses not to implement an exchange, then you will have access to a multi-state exchange.

Like many aspects of health reform, the exact rules and regulations haven’t been finalized. With state budgets being tight, not many states are proactively spending the money to develop exchanges and the likelihood of the exchanges being ready for a roll out in 2014 is highly questionable.

One thing is for certain: If the exchanges do come about, the only way to claim the Health Insurance Premium Tax Credit for your employees that qualify will be through insurance purchased through the exchanges.

What to do as an employer?

You can’t control what is going to happen with health reform. One thing you can do is not worry about it until the next aspect of health reform is implemented, more than likely sometime after the Supreme Court ruling and the elections of 2012.

If your company is on a fully insured plan, your insurance company will help you keep your plan in compliance.

As far as saving money goes, health reform is not going to bend the medical insurance cost curve for you and costs will continue to go up as they have in the past. The national medical trend rate (i.e., medical inflation rate) is 10% to 11% and will most likely continue to be a starting point for your renewal rates.

Prior claims and demographic changes will be factored around the medical trend factor to determine your renewal rates.

How to control costs

Now that you know health reform isn’t going to lower the cost of health insurance, what can you do to control costs?

To contain and reduce costs, you need to change the way you look at health insurance. There are some businesses that have had low claims years but still received double digit renewals, but why?  There was components of their health plans they were paying too much for.

Bottom line: your company is most likely overpaying for first-dollar insurance company benefits that most of your employees never use.

Statistics show that:

•88% of your employees will spend less than $500 per year on health care;

•93% of your employees will spend less than $1,000 per year on health care; and

•Tower Perrins studies show that 80% of your claims will come from 20% of your enrolled.

To cut unnecessary cost, remove overpriced components of your health plan that very few employees actually use. You can also stop pre-paying insurance companies to administer benefits that are not cost-effective.

If providing first-dollar coverage is essential to your business and employees, then incorporate a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) and a high-deductible strategy to have the money available for employee use, but only send to the providers when services are utilized. If services are not utilized then the money stays with the company and not the insurance company.

Finding a solution

Health insurance is never going to be free and health reform certainly didn’t provide a solution to make it less expensive. The health insurance market will continue to be a very fluid environment.

The only solution to managing medical insurance costs is a proactive approach on the part of the employer working with their broker to build a cost-effective and comprehensive medical insurance program that provides protection for your employees and their families at the best possible cost.

Mike deVaux is a Registered Health Underwriter and Managing Partner of Keystone Benefit Group, an employee benefits consulting firm in Jacksonville. Keystone Benefit Group serves clients throughout the U.S. helping them develop, implement and manage employee benefit solutions. He can be reached at mdevaux@kbgllc.com, 904-464-0888 or by visiting www.YourInsuranceKeystone.com.

How “gameification” can accelerate learning in business training

By Daniel Burrus

Anyone who has been around children and young adults for a while knows they are attracted to video games. And while older adults may think they are being lazy or using their time idly when they’re connected to their Wii or Xbox using a Kinect, in reality they are paving the way for business training and education.

How? It’s part of a future trend first identified in the 1980s that is now being called “gameification.” Today, that growing trend is reaching a tipping point. In fact, many of the greatest technological advances in business have come from the world of children and games.

Paving the way

To see the migration of how a concept goes from children and games to adults and business, just look at the evolution of social media. At first, young people were the predominant ones on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Adults simply didn’t see the value of social media—after all, who really cared what you had for lunch or what outfit someone wore to the dance.

As adults eventually took more and more interest in social media, many companies made formal policies forbidding employees from using Twitter and Facebook at work. But now that the business world has seen the relevancy of social media and how it can be a brand management, marketing, and collaboration tool, they’re embracing it, some even going so far as creating their own internal versions of Twitter and Facebook.

Granted, video games and social media are different technologies, but the concept migration pattern is still the same. And with game controllers like the Wii and Xbox Kinect giving people new ways of interacting with technology, the business world is currently on the threshold of being game-ified.

Thanks to Microsoft releasing  a software development kit for the Kinect that allows programmers to create new applications, university students started taking this gaming concept and writing software that allows users to control business software using only hand motions—no keyboard or mouse. An early example would be if you want to go to the next page, you do a sweep of your hand across the screen without touching anything. You can sweep to the left, sweep to the right, scroll up, scroll down, and many other things.

The core of gameification

The heart of the gameification trend is using interactive gaming as a tool to transform training and education. Based on 25 years of research, there are five core elements that when applied together can dramatically accelerate learning. When you model your company’s training to include these five elements, your employees will learn more in less time and have better results. The five core elements are:

Self-diagnostic. In the world of gaming, as you accomplish new feats and your character gets better, the game gives you greater challenges. When you power down, it remembers where you left off. When you return, you don’t have to start over from ground zero.

In the case of business training, if you learn something, there’s no need for a trainer to re-teach it to you. A better idea is for business training to have a self-diagnostic component. The interactive, competitive, and immersed module can know your skill or knowledge level and progress accordingly. It can know where you left off and give you next steps from that point when you log back in. This is the best way to allow for individual training and learning.

Interactivity. For centuries, education and training have been, for the most part, passive experiences. Someone stands in front of a group and talks and the people being educated or trained sit and listen—taking a few notes here and there. As technology evolved, the trainer or teacher showed a movie or two to keep people involved, but in the end, the people learning just sat and watched.

Regardless of someone’s inherent learning style, learning is much more effective when you’re interacting with the material, not passively sitting there. When you learn by gaming, you’re interacting with the information and concepts. You’re moving things around, you’re manipulating items, and you’re actually doing things. It’s no longer passive training. Now you are much more engaged and immersed.

Immersion. In the recent past to the present, video games use interspatial 3-D, where you go into worlds. So instead of images popping out at you, you go inside to them. This sort of technology gives an immersed effect, which engages people more.

To apply this to business, if you’re training salespeople on a particular manufacturing tool they need to sell, why not have them see the tool in 3-D and actually get to virtually manipulate the tool rather than have them read spec sheets about it? The former will give them more insight to the tool, which will make selling it easier.

Competition. Humans are naturally competitive beings—we want to sell more, be more productive, innovate faster, and be smarter than the next person. When you’re sitting in class learning, there’s little competitive value. You’re all there for the entire timeframe whether you’ve learned the materials in one hour or three. No one advances until the class is over.

When you’re competing, however, as in a game, there’s an adrenaline rush that keeps you engaged and focused on the task at hand. In an effort to “win,” people master concepts faster so they can be first.

Focus. When you’re playing a game, you’re forced to focus. You have to do A in order for B to occur. If you don’t do A, then you won’t get far in the game. Focus is the result of interactivity, competition, immersion, and self-diagnosis. When you can focus, you can learn virtually anything…fast.

Accelerate learning

Using all five core elements is a key to accelerating learning. With more and more to learn, it will be increasingly important to gameify both business and education to create better results faster.

Those companies that adopt early will be the long-term winners. So here’s your homework assignment: Get together with a child and play one of their games. While you’re playing, think Wii or Kinect for business. Think of the five core elements and how you could reinvent learning with tools like these.

Since businesses spend large sums of money on training and education, any tool that can accelerate or enhance learning will save both time and dollars.

Daniel Burrus is considered one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and business strategists, and is the founder and CEO of Burrus Research, a research and consulting firm that monitors global advancements in technology-driven trends to help clients better understand how technological, social and business forces are converging to create enormous, untapped opportunities. He is the author of six books, including “Flash Foresight: How To See the Invisible and Do the Impossible” (www.flashforesight.com) and “Technotrends.” He can reached through www.burrus.com.

5 ways to achieve greater success from your employees

By Jolly Backer

Employee performance is an issue that concerns every entrepreneur. While a high employee-turnover rate can be costly to a business, so is having employees who don’t work up to their potential, or who have lackluster job performance. Just about every business across the country can benefit from taking measures to improve employee performance.

By improving employee performance, businesses will have a much easier time meeting the goals they have set, as well as reducing employee turnover and improving employee satisfaction rates.

Here are five ways to improve employee performance:

1. Change the environment. Often, employee performance is in line with the environment of the company. Making sure the workplace environment is positive, goal-oriented, and supportive will help to motivate employees. Start by looking at what needs to be improved in your workplace environment.

2. Improve communication. Whether the boss isn’t listening to employees enough or isn’t providing feedback, there may be room for improvement in communication. Those who communicate well with their employees will automatically motivate them to do more.

3. Provide training. Not having enough training costs companies a lot of money. The money that is invested in proper training and tools to do the job will be well worth the investment. When you invest in employees, they are better able to do their job, and will invest more deeply in meeting the company’s goals.

4. Get healthy. Obesity and health issues cost employers an estimated $73 billion or more per year in increased healthcare costs and lost productivity. Helping employees get, and stay, healthy will also help improve productivity. One way to do that is to ensure there is access to healthy snack and food options in the workplace.

5. Share goals. Employees will have a difficult time helping their employer reach business goals if they don’t know what they are. All businesses should have goals for growth or service, and should share them with their employees, which will likely motivate them to help the company reach its goals.

Taking steps to help improve employee performance will pay off. In an effort to help employees get healthy, many workplaces are replacing old, unhealthy vending machines with new ones offering healthier options. Doing this provides more nutritious food options, which will give workers a healthy energy boost while at work, while also helping them reach fitness goals, which will improve overall work performance.

Jolly Backer is chief executive officer of Fresh Healthy Vending, a company that is revolutionizing vending machines by filling dual-climate-controlled machines with healthy, natural food options, such as 100-percent juices, fresh vegetables, fruits, smoothies, and yogurts. She can be reached through www.freshvending.com.

How green cleaning practices can positively affect your bottom line

By Robert Owens

Your business is only as strong as your most valuable assets—your employees. In a competitive landscape, protecting their health and enhancing their productivity by incorporating green cleaning practices can positively affect your bottom line.

From workplaces across the country, stories abound. Employees are falling ill with respiratory problems, chronic headaches and other health issues—creating increased absenteeism and high health insurance, which all adversely affect the bottom line and leaves company executives wondering why so many workers are missing so many days.

What most of them don’t know is that the answer may lie in the actual buildings in which their businesses operate.

Why suffer?

According to the American Institute of Architects, 30% of U.S. workers suffer from health problems caused by volatile organic compounds from carpeting and furniture, inadequate air circulation, poor lighting and mold build-up.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates workers take up to $3 billion worth of sick days annually to recover from the ailments and numerous other health conditions that stem from unhealthy work environments.

A recent Consumer Federation of America study shows that about $100 billion annually in healthcare costs and lost earnings can be attributed to Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) and the reduced productivity it causes.

Although this poses a serious health and productivity threat to the American workforce, the good news is that more and more companies are realizing the importance of a healthy work environment.

A manifestation of increased environmental awareness, green cleaning is good for your employees—and for your bottom line.

Green cleaning benefits

Green cleaning uses a combination of products, practices and equipment to clean effectively while protecting the environment and the people who work there. Recent studies suggest that its effects are substantial.

According to the Indoor Environment Department at the Lawrence Berkley National Design Laboratory in California, improved air quality that is achieved through sustainable design, building and cleaning strategies can lower SBS symptoms by 20% to 50%, while cold and influenza are reduced by 9% to 20%, and allergies and asthma drop by 8% to 25%.

Understanding the importance of a healthy workplace and striving to improve the health and productivity of your employees through the use of technology and green-certified cleaning products will help you achieve a better bottom line in more ways than one. A few things to implement include:

•Spray cleaners. Instead of taking the mop-and-bucket approach to cleaning, use spray cleaners with microfiber floor polishers that are either reusable or disposable from the standpoint that they don’t introduce dirty water to the floor.

•HEPA filtered vacuums. Use vacuum cleaners that come equipped with High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters that trap small particles that would be left behind by conventional vacuum cleaners or worse, lifted and spread into the air.

•Recycled paper products. You can also use recycled bathroom paper products—tissue paper and paper towels—because they are biodegradable.

Long-term benefits

By maintaining healthier, happier employees and a more sustainable workplace, green cleaning provides long-term health and cost benefits that clearly make the switch from traditional cleaning advantageous. If you have not incorporated these products and techniques into your business, now is the time to start.

Robert Owens, co-founder and president of O,R&L, has more than 22 years of experience in the real estate management and construction industries. Under his leadership, O,R&L Facility Services has become an industry leader in facility management, property management and janitorial services for properties and companies. He can be reached at O,R&L’s Florida headquarters at Bowens@or-l.com or through www.or-l.com.

7 steps to a drama-free (and more productive) office

By Kaley Klemp and Jim Warner

If you work with other people (and who doesn’t?) reflect on the last week and notice howmuch time you wasted in drama: The energy-draining behaviors or exchanges that keep you from what you really want to be doing.

Think about all the infighting, water-cooler talk, meaningless meetings, turf wars, pouting, rants, and other behaviors that blocked positive, productive interactions in your organization.

Now, think about how many creative projects you could have completed, or how much time you could have spent having fun with friends and family if you had that time and energy back.

By following these seven steps, you can shift yourself (and your team) away from drama to more enjoyable and productive tasks!

Step 1: Get out of your own drama

One of the most difficult challenges for aspiring leaders is to “own their stuff”—to acknowledge their own responsibility for relationship shortcomings. So, before you can guide others, you must take inventory of both your interaction strengths (i.e., where you uplift relationships) and the ways you sabotage relationships.

The strength inventory is usually easy. The sabotage inventory is more difficult. It requires the vulnerability and courage to seek others’ candid observations and advice about your behavior. To find out your own drama tendencies, you can use self-reflection, ask your colleagues, or take a drama-assessment (http://www.dramafreeoffice.com/self-assessment-survey/).

You can only help others when you are curious yourself. Take a deep breath, get re-centered and get out of your own way.

Step 2: Diagnose the type of drama in the other person

Once you are committed to authenticity and curiosity yourself, you can determine what kind of drama the other person is displaying. There are four primary drama roles that emerge most frequently in office settings: the complainer, the controller, the cynic and the caretaker.

You’ll need to use different strategies for different personality types—there is no “one size fits all” antidote for drama. Notice the kind of person you’re dealing with. Will they respond more to direct confrontation and setting boundaries (better for controllers and cynics), or to appreciation and encouragement (better for caretakers and complainers)?

Know who you’re dealing with and tailor your approach to maximize your chance for shifting their behavior.

Step 3: Assess the risk of confronting the other person

Before meeting with drama-prone colleagues, you must identify and evaluate the potential downsides of a confrontation. Without objectively assessing these risks, you might be tempted to either accept a dysfunctional relationship you could have salvaged or make a misstep you could have avoided.

So, before launching into a direct conversation with a team member, consider the possible side effects (e.g., nothing happens, it gets worse, they abruptly leave) and whether you’re willing to face them.

Step 4: Develop rapport with the drama-prone person

It’s important to establish rapport with the other person so he or she is best prepared to receive your message. Try opening with a blend of connection, appreciation, ground rules, and expectations.

Your goal is to get the person’s full attention and to set him or her up to be receptive to your ideas. People prefer to collaborate with those they know and like, so this step is powerful in setting the tone for the rest of the conversation.

Step 5: Have a direct conversation

While an entire article could be written about direct conversations, when confronting a person about their drama, stay dispassionate and state “the facts” clearly and concisely. Also present the meaning you derived from the facts (i.e., your perceptions), and any emotions you experience—usually some combination of fear, anger, guilt or embarrassment.

This next part is a little tougher. Share with the person how you contributed to the situation (why it may be your fault, too). Then, end with a specific request. Usually these conversations end with an agreement about what will happen next to make sure the drama ends.

While this may sound simple, each component outlined above is worth practicing and mastering so that the entire conversation flows smoothly. For instance, it’s very easy to mix facts and derived meaning.

People often say, “The facts are, you are being difficult.” When, in fact, the level of cooperation or difficulty of an individual is derived meaning or perception. One person may consider challenging an idea as difficult behavior and another might appreciate it as a commitment to improvement.

Step 6: Get their commitment

The last step of the direct conversation in Step 5 is your specific requests or expectations of the person. A commitment to realize these expectations without excuses, sarcasm, self-pity, or martyrdom is often difficult to obtain from drama-prone people. They’ll dance around the expectation or rephrase them in vague terms.

These deflection or evasion tactics are a self-protection mechanism that helps the dramatic person avoid both change and accountability. Don’t get hooked. Reiterate both your specific expectations and your need for the drama-prone person’s commitment to meet them. If he or she continues to resist or deflect, be prepared to calmly lay out an ultimatum, including specific rewards for meeting objectives and consequences for missing objectives.

Step 7: Validate and anchor their commitment and new behavior

Praise the person for his or her positive behaviors during your meeting, and honor the commitments he or she made. Follow up with a short note or email confirming and affirming the person’s commitments. Ideally, ask them to create a summary of your meeting that includes their specific agreements. People live up to what they write down.

Once you’ve done these seven steps, you have done the hard work. Now you can redirect your energy toward the collaborative, meaningful projects that you enjoy doing, and work in an office free from drama.

Kaley Klemp and Jim Warner are the authors of “The Drama-Free Office: A Guide to Healthy Collaboration with Your Team, Coworkers, and Boss.” You can get a free sample of the book on Facebook, www.facebook.com/KaleyKlemp, follow them on twitter, @KaleyKlemp and read more about them at www.DramaFreeOffice.com.

Four ways to create motivation and buy-in

By John Chappelear

“Motivation and buy-in” are like everything else in life, always cycling up or cycling down; there is no static position. Energy and effort must be applied continually and consistently to create and maintain a high-performing organization with the momentum needed for motivation and buy-in.

The cornerstone to successful motivation and buy-in is trust. The level of trust that exists within your organization will determine how hard and how long you will have to work to get your organization fully motivated and completely committed.

Four simple ideas

By utilizing these four simple ideas every day, you will be more able to generate the results you want.

#1. Trust. To build trust, you should begin with a more honest, open and inclusive communication style and be more trusting of others. Trust is the pipeline through which all good business practices flow, and it instills a sense of confidence without the presence of worry or suspicion.

Without trust, people move at whatever speed they can move at without getting into any trouble, which is not the speed you want for your organization. If people feel their input is unwanted or their mistakes will be met with criticism or possibly dismissal, then mood and morale will be bad, turnover and absenteeism will be high, motivation will be low, and buy-in will be nonexistent. The cycle is heading down.

Trust is maintained by the consistent achievement of personal and organizational goals. With trust, workers move away from a self-protection, begin to take risks, look for new ways to improve workflow, and exceed expectations.

When goals are achieved and exceeded, your trust and confidence in the whole process is strengthened. The cycle is heading up.

#2. Transparency. Transparency is allowing people at all levels to have a clear understanding of your organization’s overall goals and objectives, as well as the importance of their personal and departmental roles in the success of your organization.

When times are tough, making sure you have transparency in your management becomes even more critical to the success of your business. When employees understand the issues that you face on a regular basis, they are more invested (buy-in) in the solutions.

And when organizations encourage frequent two-way communication at all levels, they generate a level of positive energy (motivation) making it easier to find new ideas and/or solutions. Change is much easier to implement with open communication, support and trust. Very quickly employees do more than buy into change, they own it.

As you willingly open up your thinking and decision-making processes, your organization becomes more transparent and “same side of the table thinking” begins. The entire staff knows what is expected of them individually and collectively, and will be much more supportive of any necessary changes to ensure the success of your organization.

With transparency, employees are more motivated and feel an increased sense of self-value and self-worth that is directly related to their efforts. It also becomes much more likely that their wages will increase because profits will increase, and levels of absenteeism and turnover will decrease. And that’s a good start.

#3. Treat everyone the same, but differently. Consciously or unconsciously people connect with some people better than others. And while it’s human nature, making that kind of mistake can ruin morale, interfere with productivity and occasionally create some discrimination issues.

The most effective way to communicate and reward people is to base it on individual need and personality style. The rewards for comparable work must be of the same value, but not necessarily the same. For example: One person may need public acknowledgement of their successes in order to be motivated while another may be embarrassed by that method and instead require some one-on-one time for personal recognition.

A good manager or management team needs to know their people. They need to understand what motivates the individual and respond accordingly. It may seem like a lot of extra work, but the dividends are worth the effort.

#4. Change the people or change the people. Good management is focused on making sure everyone in the organization has the necessary training and support to maximize their ROI. Once it becomes obvious an employee is not living up to his or her potential, however, a good manager will make the necessary change.

Do everything possible to change or improve the people, but if that isn’t possible, then change or replace the people. Change takes time and how long it will take depends on the shape your organization is in when you begin this process.

Remember, the way to achieve motivation and buy-in is through trust and the key to building trust is your willingness to assimilate all four ideas; trust, transparency, treat everyone the same but differently, and change the people or change the people. Make the commitment and don’t give up. You and your organization are worth the work.

John Chappelear is an author, speaker, executive coach, and trainer. John’s programs build positive, powerful, and balanced individuals, and more productive, creative, and profitable organizations. He is internationally recognized as a life balance, leadership and communication expert. He can be reached at john@johnchappelear.com or through www.changingthefocus.com.

The truth about the cost of greening your business

By Helen Rake

Have you ever watched the television show, “The Biggest Loser”? At first, most contestantsalmost give up because they fear change and doubt their physical abilities; many have become complacent in their ways and think it’s easier to just accept the situation.

Although their fear almost gets the best of them, Bob and Jillian, the coaches, push them to their physical limits and challenge them to change their complacent and destructive mindset so they don’t backslide after all the hard work. Once they start to see the results of following a comprehensive weight-loss program they realize that they have the strength of mind and body to accomplish almost anything.

By the end of the season, the change in their bodies and their self-confidence is incredible. The finale leaves you feeling inspired and hopeful that real change can be achieved if people just stick with a simple program.

Bringing it to business

For local small business owners, adopting sustainable business practices, going green, is a little like “The Biggest Loser” for them. Daunting at first, but with measured changes in behavior and mindset, it becomes not only easier to be green over time, but the rewards, such as savings, energy efficiencies, and community goodwill, start to compound. The pride in their accomplishments as they begin to see the results encourages them to continue on the quest.

When talking to small business owners about making sustainable practices part of their business plan, one objection crops up almost every time, “It’s just too expensive.” They usually justify this by pointing out that many of the examples used are from large fortune 500 companies with unlimited resources to conduct extensive rebranding, and they don’t think they can take the steps needed to be considered socially responsible by eco-aware consumers.

And with the economic crisis still wreaking havoc on many small companies, that seems to be a logical argument—unless you consider that many green strategies not only result in cost savings, but actually cost nothing to implement in the first place.

Knocking misconceptions

This popular misconception mainly exists because business owners feel they must do it all at once or they won’t be taken seriously for their measured efforts by the eco-elite, and you can’t blame them. There is a lot of rhetoric in the media and among various green organizations criticizing “greenwashers.”

That term is mostly used to mean “fakers,” and really, you are only a “faker” if you aren’t making an honest effort to be more responsible, or you lie about what you are doing or the extent to which you are doing it.

It’s true that if you decide to tackle greening in large chunks, say making your building more energy efficient through various updates or upgrades, the upfront costs can be significant. For example: It can cost anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 to upgrade or replace insulation in a 2,500 square-foot building and sealing the duct work can cost another $1,350.

The payback, however, comes in lowered energy costs, but it could take as many as 14 years to recoup the cost of such a project. To some this may be a small price to pay for the ability to claim a “greener” space, but many small businesses are barely making ends meet right now and spending thousands on such upgrades could be completely out of reach.

What you can do

So what do you do if you want to green your business, but don’t have the money to take on major projects?

In some circles, the following information may not be popular—there are critics that say unless you make a concerted effort to be completely responsible and employ only green practices you are not truly “green”—but I think doing something, even if it is small, is a lot better than doing nothing.

And starting small is OK—at least it’s starting. Like losing weight, it is usually best to undertake greening your business in small bites over time because according to most physicians lasting weight loss is best achieved by measured changes over time.

Simple actions

Start with simple actions that cost nothing, such as:

1. Turn up the thermostat when you leave. By simply turning up the thermostat five degrees before leaving your office at the end of each day, you can save 5% on energy bills each year. At some point, it may be feasible to spend a few dollars on a programmable thermostat, but until then turn it up when you leave.

2. Print on both sides of the paper. This can cut your paper consumption by as much as 50% at no additional cost. Not only does this save paper, it saves ink and creates less wear and tear on your printer resulting in significant savings over time.

3. Scan and email instead of faxing. This is another great way to save paper, ink, and fax machine wear.

4. Recycle. Many communities provide for recycling at little or no cost. This can include paper, plastic, and aluminum. Here in Jacksonville, you can not only recycle, but you can help put under privileged citizens to work by using Shred It First Coast.

5. Get an energy audit. Locally, JEA and FPL both offer energy audits at no cost to you. These can be invaluable when you want to learn how to save even more on energy costs and many of their suggestions involve little or no cost solutions. They may even help fund some of the changes through their small business incentives programs. To find out more about these programs, go to JEA.com to the Conservation Center and search for “small business.”

For pennies on the dollar you can also:

6. Caulk your windows. It may cost a couple hundred dollars on a 2,500 square-foot building, but it can save around $250 a year, an almost immediate payback.

7. Replace light bulbs. The same goes for replacing existing bulbs with compact fluorescents. This can cost $136 dollars, but save you $200 each year.

8. Decorate with plants. Decorate indoor work spaces with inexpensive hardy plants. They improve air quality and create a more inviting décor.

9. Use power strips. Use a power management strip on all of your electronics. This reduces energy emitted from electronics while they are not in use but still on. Some electronics cannot be simply cut off so this may be a good option for them. You can buy one for less than $100.

Improvements as reinvestments

It’s a good idea to look at these improvements as reinvestments into your business. That way you can measure your return on investment (ROI) as a profit/loss sheet item and feel better about the initial outlay. Like the contestants on “The Biggest Loser” that see their efforts translate into falling numbers on the scale, as you see the savings start to add up because of your efforts you will be more likely to continue down the road to sustainability.

Remember, long-term success in weight loss has more to do with your mindset than almost anything else so it is important to think about sustainable business practices as a permanent part of your business plan.

Lose the fear

Is cost really the issue, or is it more the fear of change? The fact is, most of us take our environment for granted. We have become complacent thinking that being eco-friendly is best left to extremists and tree huggers. This type of thinking does more to harm your business than help it grow.

Consumers want to buy products from evolved businesses. They want to feel good not only about the products they buy, but the services they use and the places they get them. Sustainability is now commonplace and expected. If you choose not to at least attempt to adopt more sustainable practices, you are missing the boat and may eventually be overtaken by the wave of businesses that will.

On “The Biggest Loser,” almost every contestant eventually realizes that they have put up roadblocks to their own success because they have let fear of change control them. They have to shed complacency to move forward into a better and more rewarding future.

As a small business owner, you may need to overcome psychological roadblocks that say that greening your business isn’t practical or possible because of the cost. The real cost is in losing a whole segment of new consumers that want to support honest, sustainability efforts locally.

Start small, start smart, but start now so you don’t get left behind.

Helen Rake

Helen Rake is president of the Northeast Florida Green Chamber. She can be reached at 904-493-7500 ext. 9, helen.rake@nefl.greencs.org, or through www.neflgreenchamber.org.

You are finally taking a vacation! Who will manage the staff and take care of the customers?

By Bob Douce

As a small business owner, you regularly pour your life and soul into your company working 60, 70, or 80 hours a week. A year or twodown the road, once things start running a little more smoothly, the idea of a few days off starts to creep into your consciousness (or is subliminally being beaten there by your spouse on a daily basis). Can you really separate yourself from the day-to-day operations?

Or maybe you are in a different situation. You really need to attend a conference, or maybe you’re presenting at your industry’s annual convention. This is a great honor, but you will be away from the office for four days. Who will you put in charge to be sure your customer needs are met, your employees have direction and guidance, and the building doesn’t burn down?

The issue

Too many owners are so vested in their company and working with too many hats to make a profit that they often do not have the time to work on their company process. The last thing thought about is who will run the operations when I am not around.

If you are still answering day-to-day operational questions or fielding most of the client calls yourself, you are probably in this situation. Taking a short vacation or attending an extended conference may seem impossible at this point in the life of the business. However, it is doable— and sometimes very necessary.

The solution

Planning ahead is the key to success in many things, including deciding who will take the reins, even if only for a few days. It starts with hiring the right people at the right time for your business.

Your interview process should look at not only the skill sets you need for the present day, but also what you will need six months to a year down the road. If you have already hired all the people you need, re-evaluate their skills and identify who may be the best prospect to cross train some of your responsibilities. Regular performance reviews are a great place to start when looking to identify your future leaders.

Once you have someone picked out, create a development or training plan for that person. Even if he or she came to your company with all the right skills, he or she doesn’t necessarily know your processes and procedures or understand your way of looking at the business—as an owner.

Evaluating and training your top managers for enhanced leadership responsibilities will increase their confidence and accountability. This leadership development will help set in motion your ability to rely upon their skills and management abilities while you are still in the office every day.

It’s also important to help these identified leaders understand the role they play in the company. If they know they may be being groomed for a temporary or permanent upper management role, they are much more likely to be fully engaged in the day-to-day operations.

They will also see the benefit of cross training on a variety of responsibilities. While they will not become masters of all the functional areas they learn, they will have a greater understanding of how each department or process is interconnected. With this knowledge, they will have the big picture view of what it takes to run the business.

The implementation

Everything is on track. You have identified your leader. You have begun work on the leadership develop plan and helped him or her gain more experiences in the company. But how do you actually let go and give it a try?

Start by turning over a project you would normally handle and give him or her full responsibility and authority to handle it. You have already trained him or her to do it, now let him or her go. You are still around and can step in if needed, but remember, you had to stub your toe a few times as you learned to walk, and he or she needs to do the same thing. The biggest difference is he or she has your experiences from which to learn.

Once he or she can handle projects on a regular basis, give him or her the keys to the shop for the day. If it makes you feel more comfortable, stick around, but work on your presentation for the conference or plan the excursions for your vacation.

Don’t get involved unless absolutely necessary. Don’t answer your phone, respond to your emails, or meet with employees. It may just be easier to head home for the day. Remember— your leader-in-training still has you to turn to if he or she feels like they are headed off the cliff.

Each step in the process gets a little easier, but it is important to evaluate his or her performance as you move along. Look at the good and the bad. Assessing the results will help improve his or her performance because you will reinforce the positive and correct the negative.

What was successful and went well? Don’t be afraid to tell him or her they may have handled it better than you. Praise the successes, no matter how insignificant they may seem. Even if it was a partial success, but a failure overall, identify what was right. Accenting the positives will normally result in repeat performances.

Next—what went wrong? If he or she had proper training, it shouldn’t have been a train wreck; however, everyone has been there a time or two. The good news is that you are still here and not sailing in the Caribbean. A wheel may have come off the track, but you prevented a full derailment. Talk about what happened and why and let him or her come up with the way to prevent it from happening again. If he or she is a true leader, he or she will be able to point out their own short comings and learn from their mistakes.

True succession planning

You have put in the effort to identify your future leaders, provided them guidance and training, and even let them take the wheel a few times. What you accomplished is what some large companies still have problems conducting on a regular basis—succession planning.

It’s important to be personally involved in the day-to-day operations of a startup company, but is equally important to train those you trust to do what you do. Not only have you developed a leader to run the operations while you spend a week on vacation or a few days at the conference, but you have freed yourself up to grow your business.

Everything doesn’t have to run through you anymore (read this as you have removed a potential bottleneck in your operations). You are now free to focus on business development and know that your company is in good hands.

Bob Douce is the vice president of sales and co-founder of Talent Development Inc. He can be reached at 904-262-4299, info@tdies.com, or through www.tdiemployeesolutions.com.

Controlling time means controlling time wasters

By Christy Crump

Everyone feels a need to better manage time. Just as you look at controllingexpenses to improve your budget and bottom line, it’s necessary to control outgo—or the things that waste your time—in order to manage time.

Let’s look at some environmental and personal time wasters, and how they relate to your professional life.

Environmental time wasters

1. Other people. To help control how others waste your time, make an effort to:

• Close your door at certain times of the day for uninterrupted work time—even if you have an “open door” policy.

•Discourage drop-in visitors by turning your desk away from the door. When you face the door, everyone who walks by can be a distraction. Out of sight; out of mind.

•Control your environment by standing up to talk to visitors. Don’t invite them to sit if you don’t want them to stay.

•When meeting with a colleague, go to his or her work area. This puts you in control of your time, and when you are finished, you can leave without seeming rude.

2. Phone calls. One way to aid with this time waster is to limit your phone call time. Try to:

•Screen calls when possible, so you can prepare before returning the call. If you are prepared, you can cut the call time by 50%.

•Review which calls need personal follow up, and delegate others.

•Provide short answers when possible. Give good customer service, but don’t give detailed information and answers if they are not asked for.

•Stand while on the phone. This not only burns calories, but causes you to end your call sooner than if you are seated in a comfortable chair.

3. E-mails. Studies show people’s heart rate increases when there are unread e-mails waiting, but you really should attempt to:

•Shut down e-mail during scheduled, uninterrupted work time. When you “switchtask” from your work to e-mail and back to your work, it can take up to 20 minutes to re-engage.

•Avoid copying multiple people on an e-mail when assigning work. When you send an e-mail to multiple people, one of two things will happen. Either each will assume that one of the others is doing it and no one does it, or all of them do it and waste time duplicating work.

If you must copy numerous people on an e-mail, spell out what you want each to do.

4. Meetings. To assist with this time waster, meetings should be well-planned, organized, and time-sensitive. You should also:

•Develop and follow an agenda with time limits on each agenda item, and assign a timekeeper to enforce time.

•Prioritize items according to importance, and eliminate unnecessary items.

•Avoid “off track” or prolonged discussions. Use the “parking lot” to handle extra or prolonged discussions.

Personal time wasters

Personal time wasters can be just as devastating to your calendar as environmental time wasters. The difference is you have complete control over personal time wasters. Are you exercising that control?

1. Social interaction. People with a high need for social interaction have problems when the need is not met by the job and environment. This becomes a time waster when you leave your work area to look for interaction.

When you do this, your work is not being completed in a timely manner, and you may be inflicting yourself on others who need and want to work uninterrupted.

2. Can’t say “No.” Those with a high need for acceptance tend to have problems saying “no.” This becomes a time waster when you take on too much, and rather than doing a few things well, you do a lot of things poorly. Learn to say “no.” It is better to under promise and over deliver than to over promise and under deliver.

3. Perfectionism. This becomes a time waster when you continuously work to perfect your product to the point you miss a deadline. I would never encourage someone to produce a substandard product, but at some point you have to let it go. If you’ve done the best job you can, it’s as perfect as it can get.

4. Risk avoidance. A person with a high need for risk avoidance looks for backup, clarification, and approval to the point the project and deadline are compromised. A good example of risk avoidance is when you want to invest in a particular stock.

You analyze the stock, watch it for a few weeks, research it, call a broker, and ask a friend their opinion. When you finally make a decision to invest, the stock has shot up so high, you can’t afford it. You avoided risk, but in doing so, you missed your opportunity.

5. Procrastination. Procrastination creeps in and takes over before you realize it. When you put off doing something that must be done to the point it becomes an emergency, you are procrastinating.

Good ways to overcome procrastination are to:

•Make time to get organized, and designate time to stay organized. Organized people tend to procrastinate less.

•Ask yourself, “What is the best use of my time right now?” And do it.

•Break down overwhelming tasks into small tasks. Henry Ford said, “Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.”

•Eat your frog! Brian Tracy’s book, “Eat That Frog,” says to treat the one thing you procrastinate doing the worst as a frog. Commit to eat the frog every morning, so the rest of your day will seem great. Write your procrastination on a sticky note, and place it next to your computer. Every morning, eat that frog before doing anything else. The rest of the day will seem more pleasant. When you beat the procrastination written on the sticky, throw it away and start over with a new procrastination.

Go out and conquer your environmental and personal time wasters!

Christy Crump is president of Crump & Associates, a company that enhances human capital through a unique, proven approach to staff education and training that improves performance and increases efficiency and effectiveness. She can be reached at www.crumpandassociatesfl.com.

Discover your strengths and seize your opportunities by examining your weaknesses and identifying your threats

By Mark Bajalia

At some point in your career, most of you have probably done this on some level without really thinking about it. But a thoughtful approach to SWOT analysis can help you and your company discover new opportunities, as well as manage and eliminate threats that could potentially impede your progress and success.

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning methodology used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing a company either generally or which may be applicable to a specific project or business venture.

Applied to a business generally, a SWOT analysis enables a company to develop a niche and match its resources and capabilities in the context of the competitive environment in which it operates. Applied to a specific project, a SWOT analysis allows a project manager or team to specify the objective of the project and identify the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective.

Begin with the end

A SWOT analysis begins with the end, so to speak. In other words, you must first determine what the desired end state or goal is for the company or the specific project. Once that is done, you must objectively analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats relevant to the end state or goal.

•Strengths. These are the internal characteristics of the business, project manager, or team that give it an advantage over others in the industry or those competing for the same project. When evaluating your strengths, you need to consider the resources and capabilities your company or team brings to the table and how that gives you a competitive advantage.

Ask questions such as: “What do we do better than anyone else?” “What resources do we have that others competing against us do not?” and “What makes us unique in our industry?” You need to consider your strengths from an internal perspective, but also from the perspective of your customers and competitors. You also need to be realistic and objective.

•Weaknesses. These are the internal characteristics of the business, project manager, or team that place you at a competitive disadvantage. In evaluating your weaknesses, you need to ask questions such as, “What do our competitors do better than us?” “Why would a customer utilize a competitor instead of us?” and “Do we lack technology or resources that our competitors possess?”

In examining your weaknesses, you need to do so from an internal perspective. Identify weak point or limitations in one or more resources or competencies that impedes effective performance. List as many identifiable weaknesses as possible and in doing so, you will be able to turn the weaknesses into strengths.

•Opportunities. These are the external environmental factors that create in roads to achieving success either for the company generally or with respect to the specific project undertaken. In order to determine what opportunities exist, you must analyze trends in your marketplace and anticipate needs.

Opportunities may come from an unfulfilled need, arrival of new technology, implementation of new regulations, or changes in competitive circumstances. You need to contemplate realistic concepts that may stimulate new areas of growth or point you in a new direction which may be a path of less resistance and allow for the completion of the project or achievement of the end result in a more efficient manner.

•Threats. These are the external elements that can cause trouble for the company or which serve as barriers to the end goal. Threats can be dictated by shifts in customer tastes, elimination of a specific need in the marketplace, new regulations that limit or eliminate opportunities, and changes in competitive circumstances. Identify as many realistic threats as possible and be prepared to deal with them.

What matters most

A SWOT analysis is a simple and useful framework for analyzing your organizations strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities and threats it faces. It helps you focus on the things that matter most and take the greatest possible advantage of the opportunities available.

The most important thing to remember when conducting a SWOT analysis is to be realistic, objective, and specific. In doing so, you will discover your strengths and seize your opportunities by examining your weaknesses and identifying your threats.

Mark Bajalia is a partner and a managing member in Brennan, Manna & Diamond’s Jacksonville office. He is an experienced commercial, business, and insurance litigator, having prosecuted and defended numerous cases in state and federal courts and in arbitration. He is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale Hubble, has been recognized as one of Florida’s Legal Elite by Florida Trend Magazine, and has been selected as a Florida Super Lawyer in the field of business and insurance litigation. He can be contacted at 904-366-1500 or mbajalia@bmdpl.com.

How technology can help you improve efficiency, cut costs, and increase revenues    

By Robyn A. Friedman

Still using paper and pencil to keep track of your fleet? How about a telephone?

If you’re not using technology to manage your fleet operations, then Paul Norse has a message for you: You could be making more money.

“The technology now for fleets is amazing,” said Norse, vice president of Jacksonville-based Security Center USA, a security solutions provider. “We put money back in your pocket through cost savings and time savings. And we’ve got the return-on-investment calculations to prove it.”

Fleet technology solutions, such as vehicle tracking systems, are no secret to large organizations. But as prices come down, smaller businesses with fleets, such as plumbing and electrical contractors, pest control companies, and courier services, are now adopting this technology, which can help them operate more efficiently, reduce costs, improve safety, save time—and ultimately increase revenues.

“By using technology to track the location of vehicles, companies can monitor the efficiency of a particular route or determine at any given time if one driver is closer to a customer than another—both saving time and money, which is good for the business owner and the customer,” said Cathy Hagan, area director of the Small Business Development Center in Jacksonville.

Hagan said that companies with large fleets or those with a lot of contract drivers probably get more out of their investment in technology than do smaller firms. But companies with small fleets can start with a simple GPS system to help drivers find their destinations faster—and even that measure can help save time and money.

Tracking your fleet

Norse is a distributor of technology manufactured by C3 Location Systems called the “Great Communicator,” although there are similar systems available from distributors across the country.

Here’s how it works: A small “black box” is installed underneath the dashboard and hardwired to the power supply of the vehicle. The box acts as a transponder, providing vehicle status updates and reports via satellite and cellular signals. Anyone who has access to the Internet can log onto a secure website to pinpoint the location of the vehicle, see if the ignition is on or off, the speed of the vehicle, where it’s been—and much more.

The Great Communicator can locate, track, and recover vehicles; monitor vehicle diagnostics and let you know when the oil needs to be changed; and notify an administrator if the vehicle has been in an accident, is speeding, leaves a certain pre-defined geographic boundary, or is stolen. It’s kind of like an OnStar system on steroids.

What can it do for you?

Here’s what fleet technology can do for your business:

•Reduce costs. The ability to track vehicles allows you to create more efficient routes for drivers. It also enables dispatchers to send the closest driver to emergency calls or track when the vehicle is idling. That reduces fuel expenses.

“A lot of workers will sit in a parking lot at Publix and eat lunch while the air conditioning is running and the vehicle is idling,” said Norse. “With an idling alert, you can designate a particular time—if the vehicle is sitting still and running for five or 10 minutes, for example—and you’ll receive an e-mail and text alert.”

Norse said that his own company, which has a fleet of eight vehicles, has saved $600 to $800 a month in fuel costs since installing this technology. Using the system to help monitor vehicle diagnostics and ensure that vehicles get oil changes and other preventive maintenance on a regular basis can also help reduce overall operational costs.

•Save time. Technology can save time not only for a business operating a fleet, but also for its customers. That can help improve the competitive position of a company and increase customer loyalty. Harold Boyett knows this firsthand. Boyett, president of Jacksonville-based Blue Streak Couriers, spent 20 years working for UPS before purchasing the company.

“UPS went through a major technological transformation over that two-decade period, so I had the luxury of seeing firsthand how technology can be leveraged to improve efficiencies and to drive costs out of the equation,” he said.

Boyett uses Xcelerator Dispatch Software in his business, a Windows-based software solution designed for the courier, messenger, logistics, and warehousing industries. Drivers use handheld devices that do barcode scanning, capture customer signatures, and allow dispatchers to track them in real time.

It’s an integrated solution, allowing customers to request package pickup online, and streamlines the entire life cycle of a particular package, from pickup to delivery to paying the driver, invoicing the customer and receiving payment. It also allows customers to track their packages.

Boyett said that the software costs him “a couple of thousand dollars a month,” but saves him many times that in operational efficiencies—such as allowing him to operate with fewer order-entry employees.

•Increase revenues. Norse’s customers purchase his technology on a 36-month term for $50 per month per vehicle after putting $100 down and paying a one-time activation fee of $49. But most recoup that cost by cutting idle time, reducing overtime expenses, and eliminating downtime. That translates into more streamlined operations.

“Unfortunately, employees in the field aren’t heavily supervised, so you get a lot of downtime, playing around and time in between calls that we have been able to eliminate,” he said. “We can usually increase calls by a minimum of one or two per week. The revenue you’re generating from those calls is more money in your pocket.”

Larry Teague & Sons Plumbing in Jacksonville, a customer of Norse’s, has shaved time off its routes since installing the technology in its nine Ford vans, said Melanie Darlington, the company’s office manager.

“We work on every side of town, even in St. Augustine, so when we get calls in during the day, we can distribute that work more efficiently,” she said. “That saves us time, money, and gas.” Darlington also verifies drivers’ timesheets using the technology, helping her manage payroll better.

Norse said that lately, his product has been purchased by not only business operations, but by consumers.

“Surprisingly enough, a lot of husbands want to make sure their wives are safe—or make sure their teen is abiding by speed limits,” he said. “But it’s really suited for fleet operators—painting companies, electrical companies, plumbing companies, you name it. If you have a fleet, you need it.”

Robyn A. Friedman is a contributing editor to Advantage. She can be reached at RAFWriter@att.net.

Why you should never have more business partners than you can fit in an elevator    

By John Minahan

Never have more partners than you can fit in an elevator. It’s a comment that seems like a joke, but is deadly serious when you’re starting a business. Too many partners will create conflicts you don’t need. Even the most bonded of partnerships will fray under the pressure of competing interests.

While it is important to have partners who each bring skills to the table, these choices must be made carefully and with an eye toward keeping the group a manageable size. Every partner you add increases the possibility of an interest that will stray from the good of the company.

What’s more, a big group of partners is simply difficult to manage. Good communication is key to a successful partnership, and when the partner group is too large, that communication becomes more complicated. There is always the risk that one partner will hear important news last and be aggrieved as a result or that some other critical piece of information will get to some partners but not all. A big group is added complexity. Keep the partners group compact and manageable.

Rules to follow

If you’ve run into problems, there are rules to follow to improve a partnership.

Rule 1: Schedule regular and open communication. A formal meeting once a month, either in person or at least by phone, is a must. Review the past month’s performance and talk to each other as owners, not as managers. Discuss matters in your common role as owners.

Rule 2: Clarify ownership versus executive. Owners own the company; owners don’t run the company. When you go into the corner office of a company and ask that individual what he or she does, nine times out of 10, you will hear, “I’m the owner.” That’s the wrong answer. The owner might be who you are, but it’s not what you do.

What you do is your job title: you are the CEO, the CFO, or the VP of sales. That’s the phrase that tells people what you do all day. You can’t be an owner all day. If you take “owner” as your title, then all day you will be operating in your mental state as an owner, and that might mean worrying about your investments, wondering whether you will make enough money to send your kids to college—all kinds of things that have no business being in the mind of a manager.

A manager must work at all times for the good of the company. Owners must recognize that if they are going to be involved in the day-to-day experience of the company, they can’t operate as owners. They must operate as their job titles dictate. Otherwise, they might steer the company away from its best path forward.

Not only are owners hobbled by their own conflicted interests, but also employees are undermined. When they have a question, instead of respecting the clear management hierarchy, employees might shop around from owner to owner while looking for the answer they like. Owners need to know their management roles and respect them.

If an employee comes to the owner/CEO with a payroll question, the CEO should respond, “That’s not for me. Take that to the CFO, and whatever the CFO says is your answer.”

Rule 3: Define roles and responsibilities. An offshoot of defining owners versus executives is defining roles and responsibilities. The most efficient way to run a company is to have employees assigned to specific tasks without overlap. This is true for partners and owners as well. The greater the definition of their roles, the less likely you are to have conflict. This is a key principle because when roles are allowed to overlap, it’s often a disaster.

Take this example from the U.S. military. It’s called the Buzz Saw. The military has a method of covering as much ground during an assault as possible, and it is called the Buzz Saw. Here’s how it works. If you have three professional snipers and their mission is to protect a certain area while under attack, how do they cover as much ground as possible?

The answer is strict division of territory. Each is given an area to cover that does not overlap with the other two snipers’. That way they can cover as much ground as possible without waste.

This seems like a very simple concept: each sniper has a separate area of responsibility, but there are downsides to it, to be sure. If one sniper fails to achieve the goal, the other two might necessary.

What happens if or when their division of territories overlaps? Because each sniper does not have a personal area of responsibility, the method of sharing risk will fail. Yes, certain areas are better covered, but each person is now stretched. Terms and phrases such as “bandwidth,” “stretched too thin,” and “scope of responsibility” all mean the same thing: You are stretching your resources.

Relate it to business owners

Now look at this in the context of three business owners. When owners do not have defined roles and they share duties, risks appear because now there is overlap. That can create conflict. Who is in charge of the areas where there is overlap? That confusion can lead to paralysis or two individuals working at cross-purposes, neither of which is good for a business.

What’s more, not only do you have overlap, you have gaps. You have the CEO and CFO worried about finance and the CFO and COO worried about accounting. So who is focusing on sales and delivery?

When individuals are stretched over multiple areas of responsibility, key elements fall through the cracks. On the battlefield, that can mean defeat. It’s the “shoot everything that moves” method of attack. It wastes time and resources. It is far less likely to succeed than the “shoot only in a defined area” method. This concept is just as applicable in the business world.

Too often, you are conditioned to see sharing as a good thing, a frame of mind in which you should all strive to be. That might be true in your personal lives, but it can have negative consequences in other settings. The battlefield is one. The business world is another.

John Minahan is an advisor to CEOs and executives, a certified public accountant, and author of The Business Mechanic: 9 Simple Ways To Improve Your Business. He is also cofounder and owner of a successful and multimillion-dollar media company, which was named one of the fastest growing private companies by Inc. Magazine. Minahan can be reached through www.BusinessMechanicBook.com.

By Andrew Stack    

Just the other day, there was an employee telling her colleague that she was leaving the office early so she could go home and “get some work done.”  

She continued to tell her workmate that the office had become a distraction and, for her, having the solitude of a quiet space in the spare bedroom was better than the office.

That in itself is incredibly profound in the sense that how and where you define your work environment is not so much about location or design as it is about your ability to produce.

That tired phrase of “thinking outside of the box” has taken on the figurative meaning of unorthodox or creative, but in this case, literally means thinking outside the box—the box being the four walls of your office and what you define as your workspace.

While you must still recognize the need for a formal place to gather so you can plan, organize, and collaborate on work projects, you can alter your perspective on your workplace to one of “just in time and just enough” versus having a reservoir of resources sitting idly on standby.

Increasingly, thoughtful business leaders are doing just that.

Office evolution

There was a time not so long ago that “the office” was not only a place for work, but was a symbol of status. You knew your company had arrived the day you signed that seven-year lease or completed the final touches on the executive boardroom.

In many cases, that time has come and gone. With the commercial real estate industry struggling with double-digit vacancy rates and warehouses upon warehouses of used office furniture, there should be a new exhibit at the Smithsonian on the evolution of the American office.

It could start circa 2006. On display, the curator shows a 400-square-foot executive office (with a 50-inch big screen TV); a 20-person boardroom table with a state-of-the-art, HD projector that works with every model of laptop, except of course, yours; a $30,000 copier/scanner/fax/printer/aggravator; and a wax figure of the post-modern administrative assistant.

The very next exhibit would show the “future office” and how it will evolve by fast forwarding to 2011. There, a business owner is seated in a nondescript, 12-foot by 12-foot office, firing up his iPad, plugging in his DA-Dongle, and opening MS Office 365.

He’s able to do this because of something called the Cloud. All of his applications, file folders, documents, and drivers reside nowhere near his computer, but in a bunkered SAS 70 data facility thousands of miles away, owned and operated by a third party.

What’s in it for you?

 All of this should not be too hard to imagine because in many cases, it’s true. Software as a service (SaaS) allows business users to tap the computing resources they need real time without the expensive hardware, maintenance, upgrades, and support that come with traditional enterprise systems.

With such a system, you can basically operate from anywhere. You can work from home, on the road, at a coffee shop, or share a workspace—perhaps even “share” a seat. For example: When a business owner sits down at a workspace to conduct his business, he may notice that the seat is warm. That is because just moments earlier, a sales representative that he neither knows nor ever will was conducting a product demonstration via ISDN videoconferencing in that very same chair.

This type of set-up allows you the freedom to work from wherever you are and when you need to without having to pay for equipment, services, a building, and overhead. You have the liberty to set aside a block of time, head to a workspace, conduct your business without distractions or other items getting in your way, and then leave when you are done, while still maintaining and running your small business.

Many workspaces come fully equipped and furnished with state-of-the-art technology, meeting and training facilities, and business support services. Because of these services, you may find a group of folks working at an open workstation area collaborating with people from a multitude of different companies, where they share best practices, leverage past experiences, and bring critical mass to the idea-generating process that is necessary in today’s chaotic marketplace.

Or, you may hear a woman listening to her voicemail on her laptop in the office coffee lounge. She’s able to do this not because her company bought her the latest iPhone, but because she was provided with unified messaging services via her office business center shared-services membership—a system that sells for tens of thousands of dollars is now available to her for a few dollars a month.

The future

The future may show your accountant reviewing the P/L statements for the last two years, looking a bit befuddled because on your 2009 statement, he sees rent expense, tenant insurance, office furniture and equipment, IT systems and support, and the full-time salary of an administrative assistant.

However, no such line items appear in your 2010 statement and the percentage change in net income is astounding. What radical change in standard operating procedure could produce such results?

Whether you need these services for one-time training and meeting events, once in a while for big presentations or videoconferencing, or more frequently as a place to “get stuff done,” your business needs can be met or enhanced at a workspace as many are a one-stop-shop for office services.

With a workspace or office business center, you can enjoy the state-of-the-art services they offer without the hassles of purchasing and maintaining the systems yourself.

Andrew Stack is the president of My Executive Center LLC. He can be reached through www.myexecutivecenter.com.

9 ways to attract and retain employees with benefits that don’t break the bank 

By Robyn A. Friedman    

Amy Ogden loves to volunteer. Over the years, she’s managed registration at a charity golf tournament, provided office assistance to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and presented a health and nutrition workshop to Girls Incorporated—and she’s done it all on company time.

Ogden, director of public relations at Clockwork Marketing Services Inc. in Ponte Vedra Beach, participates each year in “Volunteer Day,” sponsored by her employer. “This is always a special day for me,” she says. “Having my company’s support as I give back to the community is very meaningful.”

Paid time off is just one employee benefit offered by small businesses intent on keeping employees happy while containing costs. As the economy continues to struggle, businesses are looking for ways to reduce their overhead. Many cannot afford to give out raises or bonuses this year; others are cutting back on benefits.

But even with these cost-saving efforts, it’s essential for small businesses to continue to show employees that they care and appreciate their services. That’s one way to reduce costs associated with turnover, absenteeism, and sick time.

“Not giving out raises can have a real negative impact on employee morale and motivation,” says Dr. K. Habib Khan, acting dean of the School of Business at Stratford University in Falls Church, Va. “But if you take the time to show that you appreciate them during this rough economic time, they will be more likely to hang in there and remain dedicated and loyal employees.”

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), in 2010, organizations spent an average 19% of an employee’s annual salary on mandatory benefits, 18% on voluntary benefits, and 11% on pay for time-not-worked benefits. With these costs, it’s easy to see why employers would want to cut back on benefits as many struggle to survive.

Still, after a decline in the number of organizations offering employee benefits from 2008 to 2009, SHRM reports that employee benefits have remained relatively steady over the past 12 months, which is a promising sign.

Ways to reward

Many companies are trying to find ways to reward their employees without racking up additional bills. Here are nine ways to show your employees that you value them without breaking the bank:

•Paid time off. Even if it’s just one or two days per year, employees will appreciate it. “It’s important for each one of our employees to have a work/life balance,” says Jackie Artybridge, vice president of Clockwork Marketing Services. “It’s really stressful here, but we want everyone to be happy, and you need that balance.”

•Flexible scheduling. Some employees might prefer to work four 10-hour days per week and have three-day weekends. Others may enjoy working at home one day a week.

“We never, in the history of human resources, have had the opportunity we do now because of technology to have flexible scheduling,” says Robin Bullock, president of the Jacksonville chapter of SHRM. “There are a lot more of those types of benefits now because people can get very creative about what they offer.”

•Casual dress codes. Even if it’s just one day per week, such as “Casual Friday,” employees appreciate this benefit.

•Catered lunches. Nova Pressroom Products, a manufacturer of pressroom chemicals based in Jacksonville that has 15 employees, offers catered lunches once or twice a month.

“We’re a fairly new company, and we’re still in a growth mode, so we’re sort of skinny on benefits to begin with,” says Ron Rose, the company’s president. “We have medical insurance, but we do like to do things that help morale that aren’t terribly costly.”

•Discount medical and lifestyle benefits. Jacksonville Beach-based Practical Health Benefits sells a discount medical package that offers 15% to 50% discounts on dental care, 20% to 50%  off eyeglasses, pharmacy discounts, and a “Consult-a-Doctor” benefit—all for $15 per employee per month. He sells to both individuals and small and mid-sized businesses.

“We’ve seen an increase in our business,” says Steve McCann, the firm’s president. “This is a great complement for companies that have gone to higher deductible [health insurance] plans. For as little as $15 per month, you can expand your coverage and still save money.”

McCann also offers a $29.95 per month package that has 14 employee benefits, including roadside assistance, chiropractic care, and more.

•Wellness programs.  These can include gym memberships, massages, or educational programming designed to help employees make healthy choices. Wellness programs can also help reduce sick time and might lower health insurance premiums.

•Local discounts. Consider setting up trade relationships with other local businesses. For example, negotiate a deal with a local restaurant to offer a 20% discount on meals to your employees. That not only benefits your employees, but also helps the restaurant fill tables. You can work out similar deals with hotels, spas, or retail shops.

•Offer spot bonuses. Keep stashes of items on hand to occasionally give away to those going above and beyond the call of duty. These could be gift cards, concert or movie tickets, or free meal coupons.

•Celebrate milestones, both large and small. Instead of waiting for an employee’s 20th anniversary to celebrate, consider recognizing that individual at five years—and personalize the reward. If the employee likes skiing, for example, purchase lift tickets for them at their favorite ski resort—or concert tickets to a popular band.

One piece of advice to an employer seeking to come up with creative ways to compensate employees: You don’t have to spend a lot.

“Don’t overlook small benefits,” says SHRM’s Bullock. “There are benefits to a $10 gift certificate to the movies for an employee who loves movies.”

Watsie Petree, a dealer services manager for Nova Pressroom, enjoys the twice-monthly lunches catered by her employer. Her particular favorite is the barbecued pork, chicken, and ribs from a restaurant near the office.

“It makes you know that they care about you—and then you want to give back to them,” she says. “It’s good for moral when we all sit around the table and eat together and laugh. You could be eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”

 Indeed, morale—as well as employee attraction and retention—are what it’s all about from the employer perspective.

“For a lot of small business owners, it’s really challenging to be able to pay for all the healthcare needs for your employees,” says Clockwork’s Artybridge. “But when employees know they’re valued, that makes a difference and causes an employee to want to serve and really do their best.”

Robyn A. Friedman is a contributing editor to Advantage. She can be reached at RAFWriter@att.net.

Employee benefits in a post-recession economy

According to the Society for Human Resource Management, even though employee benefits have remained relatively stable since 2009, benefits offerings have experienced a downward trend when compared with statistics from five years ago. Even noncash perks are being cut.

Here is the percentage of companies offering some creative or unusual benefits to their employees:

 Benefit                                                2006                                        2010

Dry cleaning services                          13%                                         7%

Pet health insurance                              5%                                         4%

Holiday parties                                    87%                                        79%

Milestone rewards                               76%                                        68%

Company picnic                                  66%                                         56%

Take Your Child to Work Day           38%                                        25%

Pets at work                                           4%                                           6%

(Source: Society for Human Resource Management, 2010 Employee Benefits Survey)

How going green can bring in business

Just what is an eco-aware consumer? Helen Rake, CFP, principal and financial advisor for Collins Capital Management Inc. and speaker at a recent Knowledge is Power workshop, states it is “a consumer that when given a choice, is choosing to spend their hard earned money on products that move the world toward to more sustainable or more energy-efficient tomorrow.”

One of the most recent forecasts on the state of green business, the economy, and its drivers conducted by Green Biz Intelligence Unit found that the economic downturn has taken a backseat to growing consumer requirements as the principal driver of corporate environmental strategy.

“What this means,” says Rake, “is even with the economic downturn that has happened, consumer requirements have picked up, which means the companies have had to answer regardless of what their economic situation is.”

Who are they?

Today’s eco-aware consumer is doing business with companies that embrace environmental preservation, treat employees well, and provide products that allow them to enjoy a healthier lifestyle. The eco-aware consumer also wants to ensure that their children will be able to live a healthier lifestyle.

There are two categories of the eco-aware consumer: the behavioral greens and the think greens.

•Behavioral greens—This is 62 million Americans that think and act green. They buy green products and believe companies should help consumers become more environmentally friendly.

•Think greens—These up and comers are still being convinced. They think green, but don’t always act green.

“Eco-aware consumers are not extremists nor are they impractical in their product and service demands,” says Rake. “Basically, the eco-aware consumer is really just a socially responsible buyer that wants to put their money where their conscience is. They want to feel good about what they are purchasing.”

Why you should care

Rake says you should care because for one, there are some basic economic principles at work:

1. Supply and demand. What is mainstream for consumers is mainstream for companies. Basically, whatever the consumer wants, the company should provide because when consumers demand and the company produces, consumers buy and companies profit.

2. Reduce costs equals increased profit. Adopting energy-saving green business practices has a positive effect on the company’s bottom line.

And for another, “Locally, your business has a fantastic opportunity to set itself apart from the crowd by putting practices, products, and services in place that will attract these eco-aware consumers that are willing to spend more for a better choice,” says Rake.

She also says those companies that embrace it, do it for the right reasons, want to provide something to the community that is sustainable, and want to provide to these consumers are the ones that will benefit.

“The opportunity is yours,” says Rake. “I think now is the best opportunity we’ve ever had in this area to do this, to pay attention to this, and act on it.”

How to market to the media

Julie Watkins, green reporter and meteorologist from Action News CBS 47/Fox30 and the second speaker at the event, says that news stations are always looking for story ideas, and stories that promote green practices are always good.

“If you provide press releases detailing visual live shots and stories, and the more compelling the story or active the video, the more likely it will get covered,” says Watkins.

When writing a press release, you should be sure to:

•Include who, what, when, where, why, and how;

•Keep it short;

•Highlight the visual aspects; and

•Provide contact information at the top and at the bottom.

With two types of news, hard news and soft news, Watkins says there are many opportunities for you to promote your green business or actions.

Hard news is generally what you see on the evening news with a live reporter. While not always good news, it is what people tend to pay closer attention to. For your green story to be considered hard news, it will most likely have to involve dangers and risks, or offer help during a disaster, is innovative to the consumer, is leading the city, is socially responsible, or has tie-ins to breaking news.

For example: A hair care product was found to have high amounts of formaldehyde. If you ran a hair salon that carried all-natural, green products, you could inform the news stations and get some recognition.

Soft news is more so what you see in the mornings or on weekends with in-house interviews and evening news “kickers.” These are generally the more fun packages. For your green story to be considered soft news, it will most likely be your community projects, sponsored local events, festivals and expos, fundraising efforts, or has ties-in to holidays.

For example: Your business will run a paper retriever drive in your community with it titled something like, “30 bins for 30 days.”

“One of the best things you can do to promote your green practices is to get to know your local news anchors and reporters,” says Watkins. While some anchors and reporters are more active in green movements than others, your morning or weekend reporters are most likely to cover your green events. “And if you can find a green reporter in your area, you’ve hit jackpot,” says Watkins.

To see a green office checklist, visit http://advantagebizmag.com/archives/5710 and click on the link.

Steps to a greener business model

When you remake and rebrand yourself as green, the more attractive you will be to the eco-aware consumer. Here are a few things you can do.

•Get an audit and act on the results. 

•Make small changes in phases and be transparent about it. Things such as using power strips, changing to energy-efficient light bulbs, and using leaner packaging are small things that can have a big ROI. 

•Brand yourself green. If you use a local printer who prints with soybean inks on recycled paper, tell people about it. 

•Promote your business through green business organization and online listings. 

•Track your results and report them. 

•Tout your stewardship. Send out press releases, print it on your business stationery, tell your customers, etc. 

•Be careful and be serious. You need to be sincere in your efforts and honest about the challenges you face when going green. Don’t be a “green washer.”

green_office_checklist_nbis

Is your business positioned to take advantage of the newly defined healthcare industry?

“When there is change, there is opportunity” was the overall message at the most recent KNOWLEDGE IS POWER workshop sponsored by BBVA Compass and the Small Business Resource Network (SBRN). And there is plenty of change coming down the way when it comes to healthcare.

Some changes are certain, others are not, but one thing is clear, relating the new healthcare legislation to your small business can be done—when you learn how to craft your own strategy to understand the new flow of money that is happening within healthcare.

“Healthcare is vast,” says keynote speaker Brian Klepper, PhD, principal in Health 2.0 Advisors and Healthcare Performance Inc. “It accounts for $2.6 trillion, one-sixth of all dollars in the economy and one-eleventh of jobs.”

So what type of things can succeed in such a vast area? According to Klepper, “anybody who can lower costs and risks while improving quality doing any one of a thousand things in healthcare” can succeed. In other words, to be successful, your venture must prove it can create new value or produce transactional streamline and reduce complexity risk and/or cost while improving quality/safety.

Where are the opportunities?

According to Klepper, the largest area for opportunities is in medical management He equates medical management to that of air traffic control, where it is a process that looks at the universe of processes that is going on in the system and says, “What can I do to make this more efficient and have better outcomes.”

The next area for opportunity is in scientific and medical advances, such as minimally invasive and laparoscopic surgeries. These types of surgeries are an opportunity because they offer a quicker return to work, smaller incisions, less pain, and lower costs. This area also includes all types of new devices and procedures.

“Anything that moves us from a client server to the Web reduces the transaction cost to one-fifth,” says Klepper, which is why this, also referred to transactional streamlining, is another area of opportunity.

The last area of opportunity is in consumerism—getting consumers engaged in prevention and wellness.

Creating growth

Marsha Proctor Killen Esq., CEO of Strategy Gen (www.StrategyGen.com) and second keynote speaker, believes that customers are the key to success to creating profitable and sustainable growth. “All successful strategies that are sustainable start with a customer focus and product focus,” says Killen.

Just who is impacted by Healthcare reform?

• All of us—patients, consumers, caregivers;

• Employers small and large;

• Hospitals, doctors, and clinicians;

• Health insurers; and

• Government, federal and state agencies.

Killen used the employer segment and a wellness program to provide an example as to how a small employer is impacted by healthcare reform, and then explained what the difference is in a product offer and a product-focused product offer.

 “As a small employer, you are going to have different requirements of what a wellness program may be than a large employer,” says Killen. “So always keep that in mind and why it is so important to understand your customer to be able to create sustainable profit program.”

7 “must haves”

Killen states that these are the seven most critical “must haves” for creating profitable and sustainable growth strategies. You must:

1. Have a market strategy. You need to have a strategy that extends beyond launching a new product, tweaking an existing product, or promoting your product.

2. Understand your emerging customer needs. You must know what your customers are going to need and understand how those needs are going to be under different healthcare reform scenarios.

3. Design to the needs. You need to design specific products and services based on who your targeted customers are.

4. Look at competitive pricing. Realize and know that the lowest price is not always the winner. Customers look at the most value for their dollars.

5. Have a communication strategy. Have a communication strategy and let customers and potential customers know you are out there. You will have to think about how to get them to the environments that you normally don’t participate in.

6. Create customer focused sales plans. Consider changing your sales model and go to customers in new and different ways. “Be sure you know how your customers want to buy your product and not just how you want to sell your product and services to your customer,” says Killen.

7. Identify your product. Identify what it is you are giving your customers because it is a customer experience once they purchase your products.

“The bottom line is you need to be able to define to these new customers of yours why your product or service? What’s the benefit to them? What problem does it solve?  Why are you different? Why your company? and What makes you better than your competitors?”

“Don’t assume healthcare is easy. Leverage your expertise and prove the concept,” says Klepper. “These kind of innovative things, things that can make us all work better—that is where the opportunity is.”

By Dr. Harold S. Resnick    

Difficult economic times can create stress and challenges for any business. But trying times can also create potential opportunities. It is during difficult times that true leaders sustain and grow their business—ready to expand even more rapidly as the economic climate improves.

Surviving during difficult times does not necessarily require more capital. Some of the best business opportunities come from natural organic growth when a company focuses on the basics that created its success in the first place.

Following are some “back to the basics” guidelines to consider.

Focus on current customers

Current customers are your best resource for sustaining and growing your business. In times like these, it is critical to pay extra attention to every customer—to make sure their needs are being met and they feel they are being treated properly. It is harder to replace a customer than it is to address their issues. Satisfied customers tend to purchase more goods and services.

Reach out to customers you have not seen for a while. Check in with them even when they are not in the midst of a transaction to surface and address any issues. This provides a great opportunity to ask them to identify any other needs or desires that could turn into additional business.

For example: You purchase your first new car. The salesman sends you a birthday card every year and calls you one other time each year just to check in and see how you are doing. Because of those actions, you purchase three more cars from the same salesman.

On the other hand, let’s say you are leasing a high-end vehicle. Your visits to their service department are marginal—the service was acceptable, but it comes with an attitude. You never hear from the salesman until he calls you two months before the end of the lease and opens the phone conversation with, “Guess who this is?” You can probably guess the outcome: Neither he nor that dealership gets your future business.

Look for revenue growth opportunities

Your best top line growth opportunities come from current customers. Current customers already have a relationship with you. They are the best immediate source of potential value-added revenue.

Consider the following two simple examples. Your lawn is serviced by a small business owner with three crews. As the winter season approaches, business slows down and he has more capacity. He calls to make sure you are satisfied with his service. While on the phone, he asks if you need any landscape or irrigation system work. If he had not made that call, he would have missed the revenue opportunity.

On the other hand, the man who installed your landscape lighting comes by to perform basic maintenance. He complains about how bad business has been during this current housing market, since most of his business was installing systems for new houses. When you ask him whether he was going back to all those houses he installed five years ago to see if they wanted upgrades, he confesses he never kept a customer database. Today, he is paying a high price for that lack of customer focus when times were good.

Another opportunity for revenue growth is the natural extension of your business. Adding or extending a service that is closely related to your current business creates opportunity for additional revenue from current customers. It also opens up a whole new set of potential customers.

The final opportunity for revenue growth is to ask current customers for referrals to new customers. A satisfied customer advocating on your behalf is the easiest way to attract a new customer. Yet many businesses have no solicitation or referral process. Consider a program, perhaps with some incentive for current customers, to help bring new customers to you.

Search out and remove leakage

Every company has leakage. Leakage is the money that “leaks out” in between your top line revenue and bottom line profit.

There are many sources of leakage. Some of the most common sources are quality or service issues that require you to provide a service again at no charge; providing a replacement product at no charge because the initial product was defective; addressing product ordering or delivery issues; internal process inefficiencies; untrained employees who cause errors; etc.

Examine your internal business operations. Finding and correcting leakage issues can make dramatic bottom line differences.

Invest in your employees

During difficult times, many employers cut back on training and development. Others freeze salary increases. For some organizations, this belt tightening may be necessary, but it should be avoided if at all possible.

This is the time to invest in your best employees and address issues with marginal performers. Marginal performers may “pick up their game” if you describe the issues in terms of performance or behavior and not personality. They are also keenly aware that good jobs are hard to replace.

But the real opportunity is to continue to invest in the development of your best employees. Investing in employees during difficult times builds loyalty, commitment, and greater productivity.

On the other hand, employers who take advantage of employees during difficult times may find that those employees will vote with their feet when better opportunities become available.

Challenging times are not easy, but they do provide an opportunity to look hard at your business and focus on the basics. Paying attention to customers, strengthening the quality of products and services, improving the efficiency of internal operations, and developing key talent will ensure your survival in today’s economy and position your organization for dramatic growth as the economy improves.

Dr. Harold S. Resnick is an internationally renowned organizational development consultant. His most recent book is titled, “Energizing Workplace Performance.” He can be reached through www.worksystems.com.

By Kimberly Deas        

When Holly decided to start a cheesecake company, she knew she could not afford a storefront immediately, so she looked for a low-cost opportunity to launch her business. She decided to create a strategic alliance with a local restaurant.

The restaurant owner would allow her to use the restaurant as her commissary and she would supply him with cheesecakes. The arrangement worked well for both. Holly had a place to bake her cheesecakes and a steady flow of dessert-craving customers. The restaurant was supplied with delicious handmade cheesecakes for their customers. It was a real win-win relationship for both parties. 

Today, more small business owners are setting up atrategic Alliance Partnerships (SAP) as a way to grow their business. Strategic alliances allow you to leverage the resources of another business in order for both businesses to achieve their goals.

Common resources that are often leveraged include employees, facilities, knowledge, and contact bases. By sharing resources, both businesses can grow more rapidly with lower costs than without the alliance.

SAPs open the door to new opportunities for the businesses involved. Here are four important benefits to an effective strategic alliance:

• Instant trust and credibility. By partnering with a business that already has an established reputation in the marketplace, you can quickly gain credibility and trust from the marketplace purely by association. You are elevated to a higher level in the eyes of potential clients that know your partner. You gain significantly more credibility through association with a credible business than through an advertisement alone. If you are a newer business, this allows you to establish credibility in a few months that might normally take years.

• More clients. Setting up a cross-marketing campaign in which you market to your partner’s customers and vice versa allows you to increase your contact base with no additional cost. It is like doubling your contacts overnight.

• Addressing more of your clients’ needs. Partnering with a business that can provide your clients with more services allows you to be the “one stop shop” your clients are looking for. For example, a hair salon might partner with a masseuse to come in three days a week to provide its clients with massages. The salon is now able to serve more of its client’s needs without hiring staff and incurring additional overhead. The masseuse has new clients and comes highly recommended by her new partner.

• New markets. By partnering with a business that specializes in a particular niche market, you can quickly tap into new market segments. A CPA firm might want to work with first-year business owners. By creating a SAP with a legal firm that specializes in incorporating businesses, the CPA can quickly access a pool of potential clients for a fraction of the cost of creating it themselves.

1+1=4

An effective strategic alliance becomes more than a sum of the parts. Working together allows both businesses to experience growth beyond what they could have done alone. This is how 1+1 = 4.

The key to achieving this type of exponential benefit is to choose the right partner. Just like a marriage, the right partner makes all the difference. Your partner becomes a reflection of your business.

A mismatched partnership can have detrimental effects on your business. Because your partner is a reflection of your business, a poorly chosen partner speaks volumes about your business. This could result in loosing clients, a tarnished reputation, wasted resources, potentially even staff losses and possibly a lawsuit.

Go slow; take your time. Get to know your partner. Find out about the business and its owner and their way of doing business. Just a like a marriage, once you are in the relationship, it is much harder to get out.

As you consider a partner, use the following criteria to evaluate if it is a good match for you:

1.     Complement. Does your partner’s business complement your services and products? In a strategic alliance, it is important that the partners complement and don’t compete for the same clients.

2.     Business styles. Can you work together? Many partnerships fall apart because the partners just can’t work together. Sometimes differing business styles can ruin a partnership. Take time to evaluate your partner’s business style with yours. Do you ‘click’ with your new potential partner?

3.     Credibility. Does the individual have a good reputation? His credibility will be your credibility, especially if you are a newcomer. Take time to get to know your potential partner. Check out his web sites and talk with his clients. Ask for references. Would you be happy being his partner?

4.     Needs of the contact base. If you are cross-marketing, does the potential partner’s client base need or want your services and vice versa? For a successful partnership you want a mutually beneficial partnership. Look for a win-win. 

5.     Size of the contact base. If you are cross-marketing, is it a fair trade? Consider the size of the client base of your potential partner. Ideally, you want to have a similarly sized contact base. Your partner might feel cheated if she offers 1,000 contacts and you have only 10.

6.     Efforts of your partner. Can your partner put in the same effort that you are willing to put in? If not, this will seem like an unbalanced relationship and may fall apart.

7.     Consider your goals. Can the partner help you achieve your goals? Consider your objectives with the partnership and confirm your partner has the resources, abilities, and desire.

Taking the time to thoroughly evaluate your partner will save you thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of cleaning up after a partnership gone wrong. The rewards of an effective strategic alliance are well worth the effort it takes. Imagine doubling your contacts, opening new markets and obtaining instant trust and credibility. It is truly no surprise why strategic alliances are so popular with small business owners.

Kimberly Deas is the founder of SBHBTools (www.sbhbtools.com). Her firm designs customized marketing strategies for small business owners including social media plans. She can be reached at KDeas@SBHBTools.com or 904-206-7754.

Something old, something new. Lifestyles Realty Web (www.lifestylesrealtyweb.com), a locally owned company, has both: An “old” established name, and a new business model that has allowed it to grow, despite the odds in the current real estate market in Florida.

“Lifestyles originally came to Jacksonville in 2001,” said partner Kris Pedersen, who had been a vice president with the old firm. “It was owned by Michael Bugg. In 2003, real estate started picking up and the company grew at a fast pace. Within two years there were 400 agents in nine main offices and 72 branch offices in five states.”

When the bottom fell out of the real estate market, Lifestyles Realty closed its doors and Bugg returned to Atlanta. “I left in 2006 and went into development,” said Pedersen. “But I kept my eye on the market. I saw Dan McCarthy and his partner Ryan Fitzgerald grow their Florida Realty Web agency and saw an opportunity to resurrect the Lifestyles brand, which people recognize.” Pedersen joined McCarthy and Fitzgerald, and Florida Realty Web changed its name to Lifestyles Realty Web.

The “something new” that has contributed to Lifestyles’ success, according to McCarthy, is the tools it gives its agents, including a novel fee structure, which he says represents a new business model for real estate. He says Lifestyles has taken the best of two worlds—Internet real estate and traditional real estate—and combined them to help their agents succeed.

“We are trying to give our agents the chance to make as much as they can,” said McCarthy. “We know the agent has to do a lot more work than they used to. The most important thing is to get the top agents, and the top agents want to be rewarded.”

Those rewards come essentially in two ways: the ability to negotiate the seller’s fee and a 100% commission structure.

Under the buyer’s co-op plan, many sellers who list with Lifestyles pay a flat fee for a listing that appears in the Jacksonville-area multiple listings service (MLS) as well as on Realtor.com—two key real estate marketing tools. The seller may choose to do most (or all) of the work in showing the house and closing the deal and pay no additional fees. But if a seller wants full support and wants to be represented by an agent, a Lifestyles agent is able to negotiate the seller’s fee, down to 2%. “We give our agents the tools to negotiate with homeowners to do the best possible things for them,” said McCarthy.

Lifestyles agents who bring buyers to the flat-fee listing’s seller also have the power to be rewarded with the co-op commission (generally 3%) that is available to all licensed Realtors.

Many Lifestyles agents work under an 80%-20% commission split. Recently, however, the agency initiated a new pay structure—a 100% commission option for top agents. “The 80-20 agents get leads,” says McCarthy. “With our Internet presence we bring in a lot of leads. Some agents don’t need those leads; they are well established. We give them 100% commission.”

To make money, the agency charges a flat $395 transaction fee, no matter the selling price of the property. The agents also pay a $195 monthly desk fee, or a one-time annual fee of $1,800. “We had an experienced agent who was considering leaving real estate because of the market come on board,” said McCarthy. “In the first six months, he’s made an extra $15,600. For experienced agents, [the 100% structure] is a ‘no brainer.’”

Lifestyles Realty Web is located in Jacksonville Beach. Its resurrection, combined with the changes in how the agency operates, is working. It was grown from three agents to 23 within 18 months. The partners are also opening an office on the Southside, and are considering opening one in the fall in either Orange Park or Mandarin.

By Michael R. Clark    

Managers, supervisors—and small business owners— have always been concerned about containing costs, especially operating costs. The Great Recession, however, has created a mandate for lowering costs for businesses (especially small businesses, which have little margin for error) to survive.

How do you do this? The short answer: Orient and align people and systems to deliver a continuous stream of value to the customer, and eliminate waste and deficiencies in the process.

The short answer refers to set of principles and practices called lean manufacturing, which focuses on adding value to what the customer says is important about a product or service.

Every business owner can implement the principles of lean manufacturing—regardless of the type of business you have. And you don’t have to be an expert in lean theory and practice to make a significant impact on your business. However, you do need to be familiar with some helpful lean concepts—and be able to use some specific lean tools—to make a serious impact towards reducing costs.

Here are 10 things you can do to “lean up” your business and delight your customer:

1. Emphasize teamwork. The basic philosophy of lean is to delight customers by providing high quality products and services. To make this happen, encourage collaboration among your employees to look at your overall business processes and reduce errors/defects and decrease cycle time. Doing this should increase quality.

2. Define quality and value from your customer’s point of view. Understand who your customers are and what they value most (their requirements) in your product or service—price, fit, actual performance, appearance, safety, accuracy, completeness, and warranty.

3. Use minimum resources. Small businesses must use the least amount of material, time, space, facilities, capital, energy, effort, and/or whatever else is needed to develop and deliver a given product or service to a customer. Anything more than the absolute minimum is essentially waste. Consider these sources of waste:

• Using excessive raw materials;

• Spending too much time to develop, produce, and deliver;

• Making mistakes;

• Carrying too much inventory;

• Having too much physical space;

• Careless and excessive spending;

• Involving too many employees;

• Allowing people to work inefficiently.

4. Understand the relationship between quality, speed, and low cost. Customers want something with no errors, delivered quickly, and at a low cost.

5. Give ‘value-added.’ The term value-added means that every activity completed towards the delivery of a product or service directly meets a customer’s criteria for value. Value is the worth placed on something (such as goods, services, or both). Worth can be expressed as money, an exchange, a utility, or a standard. Customers always determine value, and each customer has his or her own perception or definition of value.

6. Understand the cost of quality. Quality is not free; it has costs—specifically costs for error prevention, error detection, and failure. It costs more to fix a process at the failure phase (end of the process) than at the prevention phase (start of the process). Focus your efforts to provide quality products and services at the beginning of processes rather than fixing that service after it has been delivered badly.

7. Solve problems systematically. Use a six-step problem solving process (see sidebar), which provides a structured approach for employee involvement towards the resolution of issues. Don’t fall into the common trap of “ready, fire, aim,” in which you choose the first solution that comes to mind—often without fully understanding (defining) the problem. Always consider alternative solutions.

8. Learn how to improve work processes. All work can be broken down into a number of processes. Take time to learn how to do a process analysis.

9. Find a practical starting point for improvement. A small business has many practical starting points for quality improvement. If analyzed and corrected, any of these can improve the quality of goods and services. Some of them are customer complaints, employee complaints, meetings, reports, policies, processes, and system craziness. Understand that a quality-improvement process begins with identifying an output and the customer for that output, and ends with evaluating the results and then starting over.

10. Focus on 5 S’s. These S’s are sort, straighten, scrub, systematize, and standardize. Doing these things will immediately improve the efficiency of an operation.

These 10 steps will lead you down a path to become much more efficient and should result in reducing your internal operating costs. The great part about this is that you don’t have to be an expert in Six Sigma or lean manufacturing to accomplish significant efficiencies in your operations.  

Michael Clark is a senior consultant/trainer for the Division of Continuing Education, University of North Florida, where he specializes in developing and conducting management/supervision training programs. He is also owner of MRC Consulting, which specializes in organizational and management/supervision development strategies. He can be contacted by e-mail at mrcconsulting@earthlink.net or by phone 904-620-4200, or 850-545-1451. He will be teaching a one-day program on increasing efficiency on Oct. 26 at UNF. Call 904-620-4200 for more information.

 Review strategies to improve productivity. Go to http://advantagebizmag.com/archives/3365.

 SIDEBAR

A six-step, problem-solving process

1. Define the problem. Write down the problem what you want to achieve by eliminating it.

2. Analyze the problem. The goal of analyzing the problem systematically is to identify the extent of the problem as well as its “killer” cause(s).

3.Generate possible solutions. Once you know the cause(s), brainstorm alternative solutions that potentially eliminate the causes.

4. Analyze the solutions. Write down the good points and bad points about each solution, including cost, risks and threats, and time required for implementation.

5. Selecting the best solution(s). Go back to the definition of the problem and what you want to achieve by eliminating it. Select a solution that meets this objective.

6. Implement the solution. Develop an action plan and stick to it. Monitor the results of solving the problem.

SIDEBAR

For more information

For more on improving efficiency within your organization, check out these resources, which were referenced for this article:

• Taking the Mystery Out of TQM, Peter Capezio and Debra Morehouse. Career Press, 1995.

• What Is Lean Six Sigma?, Mike George and Dave Rowlands. McGraw-Hill, 2004.

• Lean for Dummies, Natalie J. Sayer and Bruce Williams. Wiley Publishing, 2007.

By Robyn A. Friedman     

In April, the execs at Global Software Services, a Jacksonville-based developer of software for the debt collection industry, started diligently looking for office space for their headquarters. The company’s 6,900-square-foot lease didn’t expire until Nov. 30, but they wanted to have adequate time to consider all the possible options: buying a building, doing a sale/leaseback, relocating to new leased space or extending the lease on their current location.

The company ultimately decided to stay put, extended its lease for five years, and expanded to 12,600 square feet. “We stayed for convenience, to avoid disruption and because we got favorable terms,” said Bill Breesmen, Global’s chief financial officer. “We can also do our move in a phased approach, so I don’t have to shut down and uproot the whole business at once.”

Breesmen and his colleagues spent over six months considering Global’s space requirements. But many small business owners take a less analytical approach to the entire process. While small business owners may be good at managing and growing their businesses, they’re often unfamiliar with the intricacies of the real estate business. Many have only a vague idea of what it takes to lease or buy space and little familiarity with the criteria that go into choosing the best space to house their operations. That’s when they can make mistakes that have critical consequences.

“Most entrepreneurs are unaware of the benefits of a real estate strategy,” said Brad R. Chrischilles, a principal with CNL Commercial Real Estate in Jacksonville. “Business owners need to design a real estate strategy that aligns with their business plan. Many are surprised when they realize commercial real estate not only provides a base to operate the business from, but can also help grow the company, increase efficiencies, and help attract and retain employees.”

Chrischilles educates his clients on the importance of commercial real estate. “It’s vital for business owners to closely pay attention to it,” he said. “It’s generally the second highest expense on your P&L statement.”

A little knowledge can go a long way to help small business owners avoid locking into leases for too much space (which increases their overhead) or too little (which forces them to move when their operations outgrow their space). Small businesses need to find space that’s just right for them.

Here’s what you need to know about choosing the right location for your small business:

• Estimate your space needs. How much space you need for your employees to work efficiently? Chrischilles said that a good rule of thumb is to allow 150 square feet per person for open-office environments or 175 to 200 square feet per person for offices with closed spaces such as offices and conference rooms.

• Don’t forget about the future. “The most common mistake I see is overestimating or underestimating where a business is going to be in several years,” said Michael Loftin, a senior leasing associate with Eola Capital in Jacksonville. “No one can tell the future, but you need to spend as much time as you can to plan for future growth. Even if a company plans to double in size as far as revenue and workload, that doesn’t always mean doubling the amount of personnel that would equate to doubling the amount of space.”

• Location, location, location. Do you need to be in the best Class A building to impress your clients, or will an older, well-maintained Class B property suffice? Downtown or suburbs? Single-story or multi-story? Owned or leased? What are your parking needs and hours of operation? Just as you created a business plan to serve as a road map for your business, you should develop a real estate strategy that dovetails with it.

• Do your due diligence. Conduct an extensive survey of the market (or work with a commercial broker who will do so on your behalf). Look at 20 or 30 different buildings on paper, narrow them down to six or eight to tour, and then narrow those further to three or four that you give an RFP to. Evaluate all possibilities.

• Work your numbers. Go through the financial models for each building in which you’re interested to see if the numbers make sense. Do the rental rates fit within your budget? You may have to tweak some of your plans—even your choice of location—to make sure your space is affordable.

• Hire a competent real estate attorney. Often, generalists don’t have the requisite knowledge and experience to be able to handle complicated lease negotiations that may include details such as operating expenses, pass-throughs, rights of first refusal, building hour rights and more.

• Allow enough time for the process. “People often underestimate the time that it takes to do a proper search and relocation,” said Ross Carrier, senior leasing director in the Jacksonville office of Flagler, a firm that owns, manages, leases and develops office and industrial property. Allow enough time to find the right space, build it out to meet your particular needs, order furniture, install phone and data lines and then move. That process can take months. 

• Remember that it’s a buyers’ market right now. With a Class A vacancy rate of about 22% in the greater Jacksonville market, tenants are in the driver’s seat. Consider taking advantage of the economic climate and locking into a seven- or 10-year lease.

Perhaps the best piece of advice for anyone seeking space for a small business is to hire a professional. Yes, it’s tempting to just log onto CoStar (www.CoStar.com) or LoopNet (www.LoopNet.com)—two commercial real estate sites—and conduct an online search for commercial property—or to stop into any of the area buildings sporting “For Lease” signs. But remember that real estate can be complicated, and mistakes can have disastrous—and costly—consequences.

“Entrepreneurs think they can do everything themselves,” said CNL’s Chrischilles. “By doing so, they’re missing out on potential deals.”

Since a commercial broker’s commission is traditionally paid by the landlord, their services come free to tenants. A good broker is not only intimately familiar with the marketplace—and up on the best deals—but can save you time.

“They know the space, they know the rents and they can negotiate points in a lease based on what they’ve seen with others that you may not be aware of,” said Global’s Breesmen. “But the big thing is that commercial brokers allow you to focus on what you know.”

Robyn A. Friedman is a contributing editor to Advantage. She can be reached at RAFWriter@att.net.

By Pat Petersen    

Which group of employees would be better for your company: a group of talented and motivated individuals, all diligently working on their own to further the goals of the organization or a group of employees who shared a common vision and common goals—a group that works together and who supports each other in furthering the goals of the company?

According to researchers Katzenback and Smith in The Wisdom of Teams, 1993), “Teams outperform individuals acting alone … when performance requires multiple skills, judgments, and experiences.” What this means is that whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. Many other researchers confirm these findings.

Virtually every organization, regardless of size, mission, product, and/or service can and will benefit by establishing teams. Don’t think that excludes you if you are a sole proprietor, an independent consultant, or a “mom and pop” business. These types of businesses also need teams in order to survive and thrive.

Needless to say, many of us are in a “survival mode” in this economy, and it will take a lot of flexibility and adaptability to thrive. Teaming can be a huge help.

Too often, however, business owners look for a “silver bullet” to solve all of their challenges, especially when it comes to helping people work better together to produce the best possible outcome for their organizations. In doing so you may be overlooking a concept that’s been around for a long time and for good reason. People produce better results when working as a team.

Do you need teambuilding?

How can you determine if teambuilding will benefit your business? If you have ever said or thought any of the following, teambuilding may be appropriate for your organization:

• I thought I explained everything well, but I didn’t get the results I needed.

• I don’t understand how people can sit next to each other and not offer help without being asked.

• Everyone gets his own piece of the pie to complete, but in the end, nothing fits together; we don’t have a whole pie, only separate slices on the same plate.

• Each one of us seems to have a different solution to issues and challenges. If they all achieve results does it matter? Should I set down a single way of doing things or would it be better to let majority rule?

• There seems to be a lot arguing among staff about which is the “right” way to do things.

• I seem to spend a lot of my time redoing everything other people have done.

If any of these situations sounds vaguely familiar, you may want to consider doing some team building, which can be done in a variety of ways, with most of them are relatively “painless.”

Before starting however, first determine what outcomes you want to achieve from these events or programs, such as improved communication, less bickering, more cooperation, on-time completion of projects, or fewer “do-overs.”

The teambuilding process

Here are some of the basic steps in a teambuilding process.

• Determine your starting point. This involves doing a baseline assessment of where the team is currently, prior to any intervention, so you can determine which process would be the most suitable. Then, be certain to conduct a post assessment to see if the results you wanted were achieved.
• Create an unbiased environment. Include the team leader working side-by-side with their team members.
• Assess preferred work styles. Determine work preferences and how those preferences affect teamwork in your environment.
• Do team profiles. Some very simple ones are available, for free, online. Some more sophisticated assessments, such as OPQ, Life Style Inventories, Myers-Briggs, can also be used. Understanding work and communication behaviors of individual team members will provide insights to you and them.
• Decide on the teambuilding exercise. Teambuilding exercises (also called interventions) can range from simple interactive games to group problem solving exercises to facilitator-led events. (See sidebar for examples.)

Many cost-effective teambuilding opportunities are available for any size team. With a little research, you should be able to find a facilitator or program that will fit your organization.

Patricia Petersen

Patricia E. Petersen, MS, MBA, is an organization and human resource consultant with Leadership Development Associates. She can be contacted at 904-631-8219 or

corpleader09@gmail.com.

Sidebar 1

Examples of teambuilding exercises

• Interactive games. These create an environment that may be competitive, but when team-appropriate behaviors are employed, the outcomes change. These can be board games, survival games. ball toss, puzzle solving, or project building, to name a few. The cost for games ranges from free to several hundred dollars.

Remember, though, that the objective of the game is not just to have fun—but to understand and improve teamwork. Consequently, it is important to discuss the game playing in terms of teamwork: What roles did each person take on? How did you decide on your goals? How did you communicate? What frustrations did you feel? How can these experiences be applied to work?

• Participative events. These facilitator-led exercises can range from $200 to several thousand dollars, based on complexity and facilitators needed. Examples include: low and high ropes courses; outdoor expeditions such as, scavenger hunts (orienteering) and sailing; or indoor events such as cooking schools, computer games, or mystery theatre.

Again, remember that discussion about the event (as described above) is critical to its success, otherwise the expense is just a recreational activity.

• Group problem solving. One of the most effective teambuilding events does not cost anything but yields tremendous results. It is employee involvement in solving organizational problems. The key here is to do group problem solving as part of your organizational culture, focus it on real problems as they arise, and act on the team’s solutions.

Sidebar 2

When does a group become a team?

What are the indicators that a work group has turned into a team?

The goal of most teambuilding sessions is to take a group of people who work together and transform them into what Katzenbach and Smith define as a real team: A small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.

The key phrase here is “… they hold themselves mutually accountable.” In most instances, a team is focused on a specific mission/objective/purpose, which is clearly evident in their actions and behaviors. They use a collaborative, solution-oriented process to come to a consensus about their plan of action, methodology for implementation, and continuous improvement. They have criteria that define success.

When a team is functioning well together, you will see them:

• Interacting with each other often, throughout the day;

• Clarifying and confirming action plans;

• Adapting the plan of action, as new information is shared;

• Helping each other, without being asked;

• Remaining focused on their mission; and

• Celebrating their successes.

From your perspective, the most important result will be that your business will gain focus and improve productivity with fewer headaches for you and much happier, engaged employees.

How an advisory board can improve your business

By Dawn Josephson

Whether you’re a “solopreneur” or employer of hundreds of people, at some point every entrepreneur reaches a startling conclusion: “I don’t know everything, and I need help making decisions.”

Yes, it’s a tough pill to swallow. But the sooner a business owner reaches out and accepts key insights from others, the more successful the business will be.

This realization often marks the pivotal moment when many entrepreneurs decide to form an advisory board. While many business owners interchange the terms “advisory board” and “board of directors,” they are actually two very different things.

Just as the name implies, an advisory board simply offers advice to the business owner.

Sandy Bartow

Sandy Bartow, vice president of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Division, explains, “An advisory board is a non-fiduciary board of advisors who assist in a business’s growth and planning. This group provides a 360 degree view of differing viewpoints and combined expertise related to an issue, a challenge, or planning.”

In contrast, a board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of the company. They govern the organization by establishing broad policies and objectives; select, appoint, support, and review the performance of the CEO; ensure the availability of adequate financial resources; approve annual budgets; and are held accountable to the stakeholders for the organization’s performance.

Knowing this, an advisory board is often the better choice for a for-profit small business. (Non-profits of any size typically must have a board of directors.)

A fresh perspective

Having an outside perspective for your business sounds good in theory, but is it always good in practice? Some local business owners certainly think so.

Clint Drawdy

Clint Drawdy

and Chad Perse started Hire Methods, a professional staffing company, in 2004. A few months into their new venture, they realized they needed some guidance and formed a six-person advisory board. Today, they couldn’t imagine running their business without one.

“In the beginning, our company was growing very fast— perhaps too fast,” explains Drawdy. “Our advisory board helped us navigate that period and work with banks effectively so we could get the capital we needed to keep growing the right way.”

Chad Perce

Since then, they’ve relied on their advisory board for a number of specific issues, including growth, financing, marketing, and overall strategy. “Sometimes the board members act as a devil’s advocate, and other times they offer experiential learning,” says Drawdy. “Both are important. The key for me is not leading my advisors to the answer I want. I’ve learned that it’s best to just state the problem and give some company background, but not to paint a scenario in such a way that I inadvertently force them to a certain conclusion. That’s when I get the best advice.”

Nathn Fabrick

Nathan Fabrick

, president of 110%, an athletic apparel company, was fortunate in that when he purchased the company in 2009, an eight-member advisory board was already in place. Since day one, he’s leaned on them to help with the business’s strategy.

“Getting to use other people’s experience, wisdom, and guidance helps you stay on track,” he says. “When you run a small business, it’s easy to slide into rabbit holes and start working on things that might be good for today, but not good for the business’s long-term growth. It’s helpful to have outsiders ask you questions, make sure you build systems, and hold you accountable.”

Both Drawdy and Fabrick agree that their advisory boards have positively impacted their company’s growth. They also encourage all business owners to form their own advisory board as soon as possible.

Tips from the pros

If you think an advisory board sounds like a good option but you’re unsure how to form one, here are some tips to get you started.

• Pick the right people. Cathy Hagan, area director for the UNF Small Business

Therefore, she advises that you seek out professionals from a variety of backgrounds, such as finance, marketing, and human resources. Reach out to those people, even if you don’t personally know them, and ask if they’d be on your advisory board. You’ll be surprised how many people say “yes.”

• Establish a meeting schedule. According to Bartow, the board’s meeting schedule will depend on the stage or current activity of the business. If something intense is going on, such as an acquisition, the advisory board may meet weekly. However, for routine matters, bi-monthly or quarterly will often suffice. Both Drawdy and Fabrick meet with their advisory boards on a quarterly basis.

• Enforce term limits. While you could have the same advisory board members forever, you also want the ability to dismiss one and bring in someone new. “As the business grows, the owner’s needs of expertise will change,” says Hagan. “You want your board to reflect the advice you need and the stage you’re in. So bring board members in with a one or two year term, with an option to renew. That way there’s no hard feelings should you want to get rid of someone.”

• Decide compensation. While many business owners pay for food and other meeting expenses for board members, being on an advisory board is typically an unpaid position. “Experts agree to do it because they like to give back,” says Bartow. “They want to support a business owner and help them grow their company.”

Additionally, Drawdy reveals that the meetings aren’t always about him. “Sometimes the issue we’re discussing also pertains to a board member’s business,” he says. “My board members often say they leave the meetings having learned just as much from the experience.”  

No matter how helpful or insightful an advisory board may be, the final decisions the business owner makes are solely their own. “At the end of the day, you have to go with your gut,” says Fabrick. “No one knows your business better than you. So listen to your advisors and learn from them…but take everything with a grain of salt.”

Dawn Josephson is a contributing editor to Advantage. She can be reached at dawn@masterwritingcoach.com.

By Jim Molis   

Buying a company is like finding a spouse. You must know what you’re looking for, recognize when you’ve found it, and commit to making it work.

Mergers and acquisitions can be good ways to grow your business, but you must be proactive in your approach and deliberate in your execution. “Nothing is a good deal if you don’t need it,” said Don Wiggins, president of local investment banking firm Heritage Capital Group. “It’s what you need. It’s what fits.”

Growing by merger or acquisition should not be done hastily. It requires diligently following four steps:

• Define your strategy,

• Make the approach,

• Negotiate the deal, and

• Execute the plan.

Define your strategy

Start by determining your reasons for expanding. Are you trying to grow geographically? Or gain more local market share? Remove competition? Add new services?

Companies often consider mergers and acquisitions if growth plateaus, said Joe Palermo, a partner in B2B CFO. You can continue to grow organically but you will pick up market share faster by buying a competitor, he said.

Identify the criteria for the company you want to pursue, including its annual revenue, number of employees, and market share, suggested Palermo. Consider your top three competitors based upon your knowledge of your industry, their performances, your previous dealings with them, and their reputation. Buying or merging with a competitor typically brings synergies such as the ability to consolidate operations, streamline management, improve purchasing power and leverage relationships.

It also may be easier to acquire a competitor’s customers by buying the company than trying to lure them individually, particularly if they are loyal to the other business, said Cal Heseman, a business broker with Transworld Business Brokers.

You may have to review several companies to find one that will work for you, Wiggins said. Be methodical in your process, and proactive rather than reactive.

“You want to make sure you’re prepared to go to market on your terms, not someone else’s,” Wiggins added.

Make the approach

Once you have honed in on some target companies, reach out to them discreetly. You can use an intermediary like Wiggins or Heseman, who protect your identity early in the process. Or, you can approach them informally.

Palermo often invites a potential seller to lunch or dinner. Business owners who are proud of their companies often enjoy discussing common trends and issues over a meal. During the meal, Palermo may ask, “In a perfect world how do you see your company moving forward?”

The question often prompts the business owner to consider scenarios he or she may not have otherwise. “A lot of people who own companies don’t think about doing anything until they’re approached,” Palermo said. “Everyone is so busy running their company they don’t plan ahead for this.”

Palermo lets the conversation flow naturally, without pushing. He lets business owners identify opportunities such as joint ventures on their own.

Depending upon the business owner’s age, Palermo also may ask about retirement plans. Specifically, he will ask what the owner intends to do with the company, the tax ramifications of the plan, and how the owner would invest any proceeds if the business were sold.

His goal in asking these questions is to get the business owner thinking of selling so that the possibility could be explored further in additional meetings.

Negotiate the deal

Once you have an interested seller, start drafting the parameters of a deal. A merger would combine the two companies into one, while an acquisition would be a purchase of one business by the other.

“A lot of companies out there are on the ropes,” Heseman said. “If their numbers are still the same as they were a few years ago, you can pick them up a little cheaper.” Seller financing often is available as well, he said. “Just because the banks aren’t financing doesn’t mean we aren’t going to get a deal done.”

Heseman cited a recent deal in which the buyer paid 50% of the purchase price in cash. The seller financed 10%, and the remaining 40% will be earned out as a certain percentage of revenue over 24 months. “We have to be a little more creative in how we get deals done, but they’re getting done,” Heseman said.

If you buy a company, consider whether you will purchase just the assets or if you will buy the stock, which would also transfer liabilities, Palermo said. Review the company’s financials closely, particularly the number of customers and how much they generate. “If the revenue’s not there, no matter what you do you’re going to have a problem,” he said.

In addition to ensuring all of the numbers are accurate, Palermo asks business owners if they run any personal expenses through the company. If they do, there could be additional savings by eliminating those expenses through the deal. He also will ask for financial projections.

Due diligence is taking longer than in the past because buyers don’t want to make mistakes, Wiggins said. He recommends reviewing a company’s operations, financials, legal compliance, and (if applicable) technology.

Envision how you will combine the companies, and what the resulting business will look like, Palermo said.

Execute your plan

Know where your synergies and savings will come from before completing the deal, Palermo said. Possible synergies including getting better pricing on benefits, services, or materials through increased purchasing power. You also may increase sales. “You have to be careful cutting the marketing and sales people because they have those relationships,” said Palermo.

You can often save money by consolidating your back office operations, combining facilities and trimming payroll. Identify the savings in advance and reap them according to your plan.

If you plan to combine accounting operations in 45 days but take longer, then you push the savings out further, affecting other parts of your plan, Palermo said. “If you say you want to implement these types of changes you have to stay on the game plan.”

Watch your numbers carefully as you move the combined company ahead, Heseman emphasized. “The person who buys a business and learns to focus on revenue growth while closely managing expenses is going to be well positioned when the economy improves.”

Jim Molis is a contributing editor to Advantage: The Resource for Small Business. He can be contacted at jim@creatwoodpr.com.

SIDEBAR

Acquisitions from a buyer’s point of view

Venture capitalists and the companies they support often begin with the end in mind.

Investors favor companies that could eventually be sold, thereby generating returns commensurate with a high-risk investment, said Al Rossiter, president of Springboard Capital Management, an equity investment fund specializing in early-stage venture investments.

As they consider each investment opportunity, Rossiter and fellow investors evaluate a company’s potential appeal to financial or strategic buyers. Financial buyers acquire companies for cash flow or other strong fundamentals, without intending to operate the business. Strategic buyers acquire and operate companies that align with their plans for growth.

Rossiter looks for companies with a “sustaining competitive advantage” that would appeal to strategic buyers. Examples would include a proprietary technology or geographic market share that would be more difficult or expensive for an acquiring company to develop independently. “There needs to be something of distinct value there,” Rossiter said.

If a company ultimately seeks to be acquired, you can position your company for a potential sale to a strategic buyer from the start. “You have to understand what the value of your company represents to the potential acquirer,” Rossiter said. For example, if you produce medical equipment that a larger company may eventually want to manufacture at its own facilities then don’t build your own plants. The acquirer would not pay for your facilities, only the core technology.

“Understanding the strategic benefit that it brings to an acquirer allows you to develop the business plan that enhances that strategic value without adding baggage,” Rossiter said. “You’re developing the company to expand or enhance those attributes that the acquirer would desire.”

If you plan to sell to a competitor, get attention by building a strong customer base. “Generally you need some sense of scale, some operating track record to even become noticed within a market,” Rossiter said. Having a full understanding of the desired outcome is key to the business-planning process.

Patience is a virtue and knowledge is essential.  

By Erica Courtney

We have seen the statistics. The federal government spends more than $550 billion on goods and services annually. That is $10,000 per second, every minute of every day. This is normal spending and does not even include the $787 billion recovery package passed by Congress last year to jump-start the economy. In addition, there are millions being spent on disaster recovery/natural disaster events.

Have you thought about penetrating the government marketplace? Perhaps it is time to stop thinking about it and do it. While you sit and wait, your competition is most likely figuring out what they need to do to be successful in this space.

Typically, companies fall into one of three categories:

• Those that have been writing proposals for months or even years, spending countless resources with no awards granted. They are just about to throw in the towel and can’t understand why they are not successful.
• Those that have never attempted to enter the space and have no idea where to begin.
• Those that need a bit of direction but not full positioning.

The fear of the unknown is scary but as with anything in life, you just need to know how to play the game. It is not that hard if you have the right tools in place along with the proper know-how. Take the proper steps in the beginning and you’ll be doing business with the federal government before you know it.

1. Get registered. As required by law, at a minimum, your firm must be registered in a few systems. First, you should have a D-U-N-S number, assigned by Dun & Bradstreet at no charge to federal contractors. (Go to http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform for information on obtaining the nine-digit number.) Then register in Central Contracting Registration (CCR) at https://www.bpn.gov/ccr/default.aspx.

You will be asked basic information about your company such as points of contact, size, and products and services offered. If you are a small business, you will also register with the Small Business Administration. When your CCR is complete, you will see a prompt to register your information in their system.

Next register at Online Representations and Certifications Applications (ORCA) at https://orca.bpn.gov/. Because this is a regulatory site, completing the form can be complicated. Set aside some time to complete your entry and ask for help if needed. CCS has a great resource page at www.courtneysolutions.com/resources.html for more information related to company size standards, codes, regulations, and opportunities.

2. Differentiate your company. Once your company is registered with CCR, SBA, and ORCA, you can begin scrolling through Web sites such as www.FedBizOpps.gov looking for open market solicitations. Of course, so are millions of other companies, so you need to be one of a handful that stand out.

Being classified as small or disadvantaged is not enough, because there are millions of small businesses competing for the same jobs. More contracts do go to small businesses than in the past, but the majority of money goes toward large businesses that can perform many tasks and manage the overall projects. There is room for both. Search the Federal Procurement Data System (www.fpds.gov/fpdsng_cms/) to see exactly how federal funds are spent.

So how do you differentiate your firm from others? Here are some questions you should ask yourself:

• Do you have a contracting mechanism in place to make it easy for federal, state, and local buyers to do business with you?
• Have you been pre-screened for compliance and competency?
• Have your prices been deemed fair and reasonable for the taxpayer? If yes, then you save the buyer vast amounts of time spent to do background checks and manage risk.
• Do you have a fixed-price contract? (If you do have a long-term fixed price contract in place, buyers using stimulus funds must buy from you over others as stipulated by Congress in H.R. 1 ARRA Section 1554.)

3. Get a fixed-price contract. Across the board, fixed-price contracts are used most often by all major federal organizations when acquiring goods and services. But it is not easy to get one. In fact, more than 90% of all applications get rejected immediately, spawning a whole industry of consultants to help companies work through the process

General Services Administration (GSA) is the federal government’s largest acquisition arm and owns/leases more federal buildings than any other entity. You must apply through the GSA to secure a fixed-price contract, but the process can take from six months to more than a year with a consultant’s help. Without a consultant, the process is virtually unmanageable for the average business owner who does not have the time or resources to devote to the tedious process.

However, when choosing a consultant to outsource this function, make sure you hire a firm that not only gives you the tools to be effective in this marketplace but the know-how. You may have a contract, but if you do not know what to do with it, you have just wasted a lot of money. (For more information on GSA go to www.gsa.gov. Click on “For businesses,” then “Getting on schedule.”)

Tackling the government market can be daunting but the rewards are well worth it if you are willing to put some effort into it. Get good guidance from a reputable consultant and have a clear plan for what you sell and to whom you intend to sell. Understand that nothing happens quickly in the government.

Once you have your first shot at government work, make it count and do the best you can. Once that door is open others will soon follow. Be persistent and smart about approaching this market. There is no reason you can’t succeed and grow your business exponentially.

Erica Courtney

Erica Courtney is the president of Courtney Consulting Solutions,

www.courtneysolutions.com. While serving in the U.S. Army, she was responsible for buying millions of dollars worth of goods and services to support some of the most highly deployed units in the country. To contact her, call 904-371-1938 or visit her Web site at www.courtneysolutions.com.

By Suzanne K. Lemen

Most managers complain about their lack of time. They work long hours and are under relentless stress. The recession has exacerbated the problem: They are working longer and harder than at any other time in their careers.

The problem is further compounded if you are a small business owner, because when you own your own business, you often feel that you have to do everything yourself. But do you? Granted, you may do it all yourself because:

• You like to do it. It gives you satisfaction to see the finished product;

• It’s easier. You don’t have to explain or teach—both of which take time and patience;

• It’s faster. Because you are skilled at doing the task, you get it done quickly. If you were to hand off the task to someone who is less skilled, that person would take more time;

• You get it done right. Because of your skill, you can do the task right the first time, unlike someone who must learn how to do it.

All of these reasons may be legitimate, but unless you learn to delegate, keeping everything to yourself will eventually inhibit the growth of your business. You need time to focus on important strategies like business development and strategic partnerships. And your employees need to learn new things and feel as if they are progressing in their development. Delegation accomplishes all these things.

Because delegation is so important—to your sanity as well as to the life and success of your business—it’s important to identify what you should be delegating. Essentially, the tasks to be delegated are those that are not the best use of your time or those that require skills and knowledge you do not have. In the business lifecycle, needs change. To be successful, a business owner must be able to adapt and give up tasks to others. If your business has hit a plateau, this may be the reason.

Identify tasks to delegate

Delegation should be a well thought-out process—not a “dumping ground” of grunt work.

• Understand how you use your time. Write down what you do for a week, a day, or even a few hours. Do these activities support the strategies and goals of your business? Are you spending time on tasks that others should be doing?

• Identify your special skills. As you review your list, you may find items only you can do. Code them accordingly.

• Label tasks that can be delegated. What do you currently do yourself that could be delegated in a nine-week time period? You will be surprised at how many things you do out of habit and not for any strategic reason. If someone else can do the task, label it for delegation. (And if you find some tasks no longer serve a viable purpose, eliminate them.)

Why nine weeks? This period gives the employee to whom you delegate a sufficient amount of time to learn and practice the task. It also gives you a sufficient amount of time to accept that you don’t have to do it yourself.

How to delegate

Effective delegation requires seven steps.

1. Define and prioritize responsibilities. What is the task to be delegated? What are the tasks that need to be completed? Break down large activities into all of the steps.

2. Identify to whom you should delegate. Who is capable of handling this new responsibility? Consider current workload and qualifications (skills, knowledge, and experience). Employees feel empowered and valued when they take on new responsibilities.

3. Teach. If the employee does not currently have the skills or has never done the task, teach him or her how to do it. Work with the individual until you are comfortable he or she has developed the skill set.

3. Assign, and set a deadline. When must the task be completed? Ask the employee for input on the length of time to complete the task and provide guidance.

4. Establish checkpoints. Plan a timeline to check on progress and coach/counsel the employee on progress. Keep to the schedule

5. Provide authority. Don’t micromanage the delegated task. Give the employee authority to be successful even if the steps aren’t exactly the same ones that you would use.

6. Turn over ownership. While you may provide advice and counsel, let the employee “own” the task. It is tempting to get involved and “take back” the task when there are challenges. However, you don’t “own” it anymore so resist that temptation.

7. Reward accomplishment. Be immediate and specific with your feedback. Make sure you assign credit appropriately to your employee.

Finally, once you have delegated a task, don’t take it back. Instead, keep reviewing your own workload to see what else you can give away. You, your employees, and your organization will all benefit.

Suzanne K. Lemen, SPHR is CEO of Dynamic Corporate Solutions, Inc. www.dynamiccorp.com, a human resources consulting company which she has led for the past 18 years. She also owns Orange Park-based Idea Staffing. She can be contacted at slemen@dynamiccorp.com or 904-278-5383.

How to protect your work product and avoid infringing others’

By Robyn A. Friedman

As president of AXIA, a public relations firm in Jacksonville, Jason Mudd is accustomed to seeing his name on the Internet. He is often quoted as an expert on crisis communications. But

Jason Mudd

Mudd was shocked about a year ago when a Google search disclosed an article he had written—posted on the Web site of an Arizona public relations firm, was attributed to its CEO and even branded with that company’s logo.

“I was appalled to see that they took our material,” said Mudd. “It was my work without anything changed other than my name and my company.”

Unfortunately, Mudd’s experience is not unique. The Internet has made it easy to infringe the copyrights of others—and it’s not just nefarious plagiarizers who are guilty. Many Internet users think that if articles or photographs are posted on a Web site, they’re free and available for the taking.

They’re not.

Tom Saitta

“There are a lot of copyright issues related to the Internet—things that didn’t exist 25 years ago before there were Web sites,” said Tom Saitta, who heads the Intellectual Property Practice Group at Rogers Towers, a law firm in Jacksonville. “Everybody has original content they associate with their business, whether it’s brochures or Web site pages, and it’s relatively simple to maximize the copyright protection, but a lot of small business owners don’t even think about it.”

What exactly is copyright? Federal statutes afford protection to the creators of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical and other types of intellectual property. Use someone’s intellectual property without permission, and you’re infringing their copyright (unless you’re within the bounds of “fair use,” as defined in the statutes). It’s important to note that ideas are not protected; copyright protection attaches when the work is “fixed” in tangible form, such as when music is recorded on a CD or a book is typed up in manuscript form.

The use of a copyright symbol is not required under federal law, but it’s recommended as a way to put others on notice that you’re asserting a claim to the material. Similarly, copyright registration is not required. In fact, any work created on or after Jan. 1, 1978 is automatically protected; however, registration, which is inexpensive and can be done online, does afford the creator additional rights.

Why should you care about copyright if you’re not a writer, musician, or photographer?

Greg Allen

“If a business owner is not aware of the basics of copyright, then he puts himself at risk of being copied, facing the expense of bringing suit in state, or more often federal, court to enforce rights that have been infringed or—worst case—being sued for copying the works of others,” said Gregory B. Allen, an attorney with Allen, Dyer, Doppelt, Milbrath & Gilchrist in Jacksonville.

Allen once represented a real estate magazine owner who published a photograph in print and online that was provided to her by an advertiser. The publisher was sued for copyright infringement even though she didn’t know of the photographer’s rights when the advertiser gave her the photograph. “Defense of a federal court case is not a cheap proposition,” Allen warned.

It may seem easy to avoid misappropriating someone’s intellectual property and ending up in a similar situation: just avoid copying someone else’s work or using their photo without permission. But the copyright laws are more far-reaching. Experts offer the following advice to avoid infringing:

• Seek written permission to reprint anything that is not your original work. Remember also that if you purchase the right to use an image or article, that doesn’t mean you can use it in perpetuity. Depending on the license agreement, using an image on your Web site may be considered one use and putting it in your brochure may be a second, and the copyright holder may expect to be paid twice.
• Ensure that your own Web site contains only original work. The contract with your Web site developer should contain an indemnification clause to protect you in the event that someone comes forward and claims their Web site was copied.
• Be vigilant about photos you use on your Web site or in printed materials. If you use stock photos, make sure you’ve purchased all necessary rights. If you deal directly with a photographer, confirm that it’s his original work. “Your Web site developer should guarantee that they’re using photographs they have the right to use,” said Saitta. “Try to get some sort of indemnity clause that guarantees that if a problem comes up, it’s the Web site developer on the hook and not the business owner.”
• Consider insurance. Invest in a commercial liability policy that includes coverage for copyright infringement.

What can you do to protect your own intellectual property?

• Use the copyright symbol. Although no longer required, it’s still beneficial. Include the following: the symbol © or the word “copyright”; the year of first publication; and the name of the copyright owner. Example: © 2010 John Doe
• If you use a Web site developer—or anyone to create intellectual property—
  

  Joe Lemire

  make sure the copyright is transferred to you in writing. “If it’s not specified in your contract, that can become a contentious and potentially big issue,” said Joe Lemire, owner of ELYK Innovation, a Web application development firm in Jacksonville. Lemire has had to “rescue” Web sites, recreating source code that prior developers felt was proprietary.

• Consider using source code in your Web site that prevents viewers from right clicking to cut and paste a section. This provides limited protection, however, since a plagiarizer can still just re-type the section he likes.
• Keep a watchful eye. Consider setting up a Google Alert in either your name or keywords related to the work you want to create. Google will then monitor the Web and notify you by e-mail when your search term is used in new articles, blogs, or Web sites.
• Register your intellectual property. “The only truly effective means of protecting
  

  Howard Caplan

  work subject to copyright is to register it,” said Howard Caplan of the Caplan Law Firm in Jacksonville. By registering, you can also recover “statutory damages” in the event of an infringement, which means that you don’t have to prove an actual monetary loss. Registration can be done electronically and costs $35 for a basic claim to an original work of authorship.

It took Jason Mudd several weeks—and the threat of legal action—to get the Arizona firm to remove his work from its Web site. He has since created strict policies to protect his own work and that of his clients. “I guess plagiarism is a nice form of flattery,” he said. “But it was my vision—for me to write an article takes time and commitment. So I felt like someone had stolen from me.”

Robyn A. Friedman is a contributing editor to Jacksonville Small Business Advantage. She can be reached at RAFWriter@att.net or through her Web site www.everythingwrite.com

Now is the time to prepare for the exit from your business, according to John Chappelear, a certified strategic exit planner and author of The Daily Six, and Don Wiggins, president of Business Valuation, Inc. and Heritage Capital Group. According to these experts, who spoke at a recent Knowledge Is Power workshop, if you wait until you get a call from a potential buyer to sell your business, you will be on the defensive and will not get top dollar.

Unfortunately, said Chappelear, “People research buying a television more than they do selling their business,” he said. “They don’t know how much their business is worth.”

John Chappelear

However, you can take control of the transition process and maximize the value of your business so that it looks its best to a buyer, he said. The key is to start early.

Wiggins explained that planning is a multi-step process that requires you to look at your company in an objective manner:

• Define your personal goals. What is it you want to do after you sell your business? Typically, said Chappelear, business owners develop personal goals related to funding their retirement lifestyle; staying meaningfully active in retirement; giving back to the community; and enjoying more leisure time.

Don Wiggins

• Put together your advisory team. “This is a risk-reducer,” said Wiggins. The individuals on your team will help you throughout the exit process. The key, though, is to coordinate the activities of all of the advisors. The team should include your investment banker or valuation firm; CPA or tax advisor; estate-planning attorney; general corporate attorney; financial planner; insurance professional; real estate professional; and others as needs are identified.

• Evaluate your ownership transition options. Transition options include a sale to a third party; transfer to a family member(s); transfer to other shareholder(s); sale to management; sale to an ESOP; IPO; and liquidation. The right option depends upon your personal goals and objectives.

• Value your business. Sales, expenses, customer concentration, expansion opportunities and capital availability, and personnel are all examples of key drivers, which vary according to the type of business you have, said Wiggins.

Identifying these drivers is a critical step, because it allows you to see opportunities to improve the worth of the business. For example, depending upon the key driver and its current status, you may see opportunities to implement a marketing program to increase sales; reduce dependency on you; install an expense-control program; diversify your customer base; expand geographically or by product lines; or establish an aggressive recruitment program to find strong sales or management team.

• Develop a personal financial and estate plan. This plan makes sure you can have a life after business. Your accountant, financial planner, estate attorney, and CPA should all work together to determine your income requirements for the future.

• Document and prepare to implement your plan. Write it down—in detail.

Wiggins emphasized that the preparation process typically takes from 60 to 90 days, but it can take six months or longer.

The plan should not be a well-kept secret, said Wiggins. Rather, once you have the plan on paper, it is time to implement it. According to Wiggins, implementation may take between six and 18 months to complete. “It could be the most profitable time of your life,” he said, “because for every dollar that you increase the recurring profit of your company, the value will increase by three to eight times or more.”

Why do all this? Chappelear and Wiggins likened the business transition process to buying and selling a ’57 Chevy convertible. If you buy this classic beat up and rusted out and then try to resell it, you won’t get much for it—only a few thousand dollars. If you make cosmetic repairs, you’ll increase its value, perhaps to $20,000. But if you do a complete restoration, its value may skyrocket to $100, 000!

The same applies to your business. Planning and implementing the plan can maximize the price you command for it when you are ready to give it up.

John Chappelear and Don Wiggins spoke on Value-Track, a business transition process, at the Knowledge Is Power workshop, presented by Heritage Capital and US VenturePlex.  

By Jill Metlin   

Are you guilty of this fatal retirement-planning flaw? You believe that after pouring a lifetime of sweat, time, and capital into building your business, you will be able to sell out someday for a ton of money, and then settle back and enjoy a financially secure retirement.

Many business owners are so sure this will happen that they don’t bother to make any other retirement plans.

Who is this person who, at just the right moment, is going to show up with cash in hand to buy the company— and pay a fair price? For thousands of small business owners each year, no one steps forward. The reasons vary: Some businesses are too specialized or are tied too closely to the owner’s unique personality and skills. In other situations, possible buyers equate “retirement sale” with “distress sale” and make only low-ball offers. Whatever the reason, many owners find that their company has suddenly become a white elephant that nobody wants.

One possible solution

A good solution is right in front of you: Groom your own replacement, someone who will buy your company when you are ready to retire. This person may be a current co-owner (but be careful if he or she is about the same age as you and will be counting on retiring around the same time). Or, it could be a son or daughter active in the business, or a younger key employee.

Business owners who successfully groom their own replacements leave nothing to chance. They realize there is no room for error at the point of retirement.

If you want to take chance out of the sale of your business, here are some steps to take:

• Be cautious. Make sure your heir apparent is the right person in terms of temperament, personality, competence, and personal goals.

• Set up a probation period. This is time frame in which you can terminate the relationship if you find the person simply will not work out. During that period, keep everything informal, strictly verbal.

• Include a termination provision. When you go to a formal agreement, make sure it contains a termination provision.

• Use ‘gold handcuffs.’ Weave golden handcuffs and incentives into the contract to ensure that your replacement stays until the baton is passed. An ambitious successor needs and deserves gradually increasing authority and benefits. Options include deferred compensation or the opportunity to acquire partial ownership prior to their retirement. This provides both parties with something to win by sticking to the agreement—and something to lose if it falls apart.

• Put it in writing. Get the help of an attorney to spell out who does and gets what, all details and caveats, including how to establish the final valuation of the business. This formal buy/sell agreement protects everybody.

• Build in a funding mechanism. This is crucial. No matter how good the terms of the buy/sell agreement, it will be worthless if the money is not there when needed to carry out the plan. Under one option, the successor may be able to purchase the company from ongoing profits. Other options include setting up a sinking fund or allowing the successor to simply borrow the money.

These options may work, but they leave much to chance. Instead, consider a funding vehicle that protects your family in the event of your disability or premature death, such as life and disability income insurance.*

• Have a back-up plan. As a business owner, you know that very few things go exactly as planned. What if your business hits tough times, or your successor dies, becomes disabled, or—all too common—leaves because of a personality conflict? Or what if there simply is no heir apparent waiting in the wings? Sometimes, it’s simply best to dismantle the business.

Whether or not you have a possible successor for your company, you should begin mapping out your exit strategy today. Your insurance professional, business consultants and trusted CPAs and attorneys may be able to help you develop this kind of business strategy. Do you homework early and avoid any unexpected fallout from pitfalls along the way.

Jill Metlin

Jill Metlin, LUTCF, MS (www.jillmetlin.com) is a financial services professional and New York Life Insurance Company agent, offering securities through NYLIFE Securities LLC (member FINRA/SIPC). She can be contacted at 904-997-3074 or jmetlin@ft.newyorklife.com.

By Kenneth H. Marks    

If you are the owner of a small business and are refinancing debt or a bank loan or leasing a facility or new equipment, chances are that the lender or lessor will require you to sign a personal guarantee.  

For several years prior to the recent recession, credit was easy, and it was possible to obtain a line of credit or lease new equipment or space without having to personally back-stop the liability. Not today.  With rare exception for those businesses with extraordinary financial strength, obtaining credit of almost any type for emerging growth or middle-market businesses—that is, those from start-up through $100 million in sales—will require guarantees by the owners with 20% or more of the equity in a company.  

What does this mean? It means that you need to be prepared to pay out of your own pocket if your company no longer can make the scheduled debt payments.

So how do you manage the risk and mitigate the liability associated with these personal guarantees?  Developing an effective strategy for structuring and managing the personal guarantee begins with understanding your lender’s objectives and perspective.  

• Ask why a guarantee is needed. Start by asking the lender or lessor why the guarantee is necessary. Some may want it to assure that you, as a significant owner, are tied to the business to increase their likelihood of being repaid (especially if things do not go as planned).  In the case of a financially weak business, they may be requiring additional collateral or assets to make the loan or lease.

• Determine how much risk you will take. Next, determine the maximum out-of-pocket amount that you are willing (or able) to actually pay if everything goes wrong and you must personally write a check.  Knowing this amount will play into the terms and the amount that you should guarantee.  As an example, some owners do not mind guaranteeing their company’s debt as long as they are never really at risk of loss—in other words their worst case out-of-pocket amount is zero.  You can accomplish this by assuring that the amount of debt guaranteed never exceeds the liquidation value of the assets of your business, taking into account the priority of liens and repayment if the business went bankrupt.

If you are okay with taking some financial risk, then calculate the same liquidation value and add the acceptable amount.  Once you have established a limit, have your controller, bookkeeper, or accountant provide a monthly or quarterly estimate of liquidation value based on your actual financial statements. This will provide you visibility so you can track and manage the risk being taken.

If you are in a position to shape the deal, use the information above when negotiating the terms of the guarantee so they fit your situation and limits.  

Here are some of the key points that you should consider as you talk to your lender or lessor:

1. Guarantee of payment vs. guarantee of collection. The most common guarantee is that of payment.  This means that if your company does not meet the agreed payments, the lender (or lessor) can demand payment directly from you as the guarantor without pursuing further action against the company.

As the guarantor, you would rather be a guarantor of collection.  This arrangement typically requires the lender (or lessor) to first exhaust its options against the company before it can demand payment from you.  So, if you never allow your company to borrow more than the liquidation amount of its assets and you made a guarantee of collection, you could avoid ever having to write a check from your personal assets. Alternatively, you might seek to completely limit any risk unless you commit fraud in managing the business; this is sometimes referred to as a fiduciary guarantee.

2. Limit scope and collateral. Limit the scope of the guarantee to exclude recourse against your house or other specific property.  In addition, do not agree up-front to liens against your property or a pledge of the stock in the business.

3. No spouse signature. Avoid having your spouse sign the guarantee, so that the guarantee is based solely on your assets.  Be prepared to provide financial statements showing only your individually owned assets and liabilities.  

In most states this limits the risk to only assets held solely in your name, not joint assets or those of your spouse.  So, if your house is owned with your spouse jointly (or just by your spouse) the laws in most States would prevent the lender from taking recourse against it.

4. Set limits. Quantify the limits on the amount of the guarantee, either in relative terms or absolute terms.  For example: Your company may have a line of credit with $2 million total availability.  Seek to limit your exposure to 20% of the outstanding balance or a maximum of $200,000.  This is particularly appropriate with multiple owners whereby you may desire to limit your exposure based on your percentage ownership.

Additionally, negotiate to reduce the guarantee as the performance of the company improves.  As an example: Your company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3:1 post-financing. Seek agreement to reduce or limit your guarantee when the company’s debt-to-equity ratio falls below 2:1.  

Also consider having the guarantee become less onerous over time, based on the bank’s continued relationship with your company.  For example: A guarantee of payment could convert to a guarantee of collection after a couple years of a spotless repayment record, or the guarantee could burn off gradually.

5. Adequate insurance. Insure the supporting collateral for the loan or lease on a replacement cost with limits commensurate with the cost to replace the property.  You do not want to find yourself caught off-guard in the event of theft or hazard and then be obligated to personally pay for lost inventory or property that is part of the deal.  

Also, take the time to make sure your business interruption (business income and extra expense coverage) limits are in sync with the amount of time and additional expense it would take to restore normal operations after a disaster. In addition, consider fraud insurance to protect against an officer or employee stealing from the company and incurring debt on a line of credit.  Broad form property insurance usually covers only a small amount unless specifically added to the policy; increase this policy limit to match the credit facility limit.

From a practical perspective, guarantees are difficult to negotiate or to get much movement on unless the lender (or lessor) wants your company’s business and unless there is competitive pressure giving your company and you the ability to haggle for improved terms.  Negotiating these terms is done in the context of the overall credit facility or lease agreement at a time of change.

Lastly, get good, independent advice from experienced legal counsel and financial experts.  If you have partners or other shareholders, you will likely want separate counsel representing you vs. your company.  The nuances of the guarantee are specific to you and your circumstances…get qualified legal advice to assure the terms and concepts fit your situation.

Kenneth H. Marks is the founder and a managing partners of High Rock Partners, providing advice and leadership for growth and investment.  He is the lead author of the Handbook of Financing Growth published by John Wiley & Sons www.HandbookofFinancingGrowth.com.  He can be reached khmarks@HighRockPartners.com.  

Consider location and funding strategies before you purchase a commercial space

By Dawn Josephson    

For many business owners, owning their own commercial space is one of their primary goals—and it comes with many benefits: control of the commercial space, the ability to build equity and the owner’s net worth, and a tax write-off on the loan interest. Even with those benefits, though, the fact is that in some instances, leasing is still the better option.

“We’re in a unique environment where there is a lot of vacancy now,” says Colin , CCIM, with Coldwell Banker Commercial Benchmark. “So you have to determine whether the cost of owning is more or less than the current lease rates for similar space.”

Colin Nicholson

Nicholson

Nicholson explains that he’s seen some deals in which leasing was the better option because of how low the current rents are. “If you can get a low enough lease rate, you might be better keeping the cash in your pocket and investing in your business instead,” he says. “The key question to ask yourself is: ‘Is my business growing faster than the real estate appreciation?’”

Sid Jones

To find out whether you should make the plunge into buying, having a lease versus buy analysis is crucial. Sidney O. Jones, CCIM, with Killashee Investments, LLC, frequently performs such analyses for clients. “In putting one together, we look at the needs or requirements of the tenant/buyer,” he says. “What is in their best interest? What is the liquidity and reserves of the principal(s)? There comes a point in the lease/buy analysis where you see the breaking point and it becomes clear whether the owner’s equity is better served in buying or leasing.”

Start with the end in mind

If you determine that buying is the best option for you, choosing the best location is the next step. And while we all know the old adage that the three most important things in real estate are location, location, location, today’s commercial real estate agents suggest business owners think in terms of resale, resale, resale. 

Jeff Evans

According to Jeff Evans, broker/associate with Colliers International, “The most important decision in terms of location is not whether the business can use the property for 20 years; the most important decision is determining who is going to buy this property when you sell it.” Few business owners keep their commercial space forever, he reveals, and eventually everyone does sell their property. So while the space you choose does have to work for you now and have some room for growth, the most important thing is to be looking at your exit strategy. 

Jones agrees. He suggests business owners look at the underlying real estate first rather than get emotionally attached to a property. Some questions he advises business owners ask are: What is the viability of this real estate should my business go down or move? What else can I use it for? How easily can I sell it? Is it something other business owners would want to rent? “You always have to look at the resale or leasing potential of that commercial space,” says Jones.

Borrow smart

Fortunately, if you do decide to buy, getting the funds you need to make the commercial real estate purchase are available. “The market is turning around; credit is unfreezing; and banks are more willing to lend on commercial real estate transactions,” says Evans. Additionally, local funding sources and assistance are available.

Joe Whitaker

Joe Whitaker, business development and recruitment coordinator with the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission (JEDC) says his role is to help connect business owners with the right financing resources and programs. The JEDC is the authorized agent for issuing industrial revenue bonds, recovery zone bonds, and empowerment zone bonds, all of which are used for the purchase of real property, machinery, and equipment used in manufacturing or developments within particular zones. 

“We also work with the private sector financial entities, particularly with the Small Business Administration (SBA) programs,” says Whitaker. “The SBA programs that are effective for small businesses are either the 7(a) program, which is their standard loan guarantee program, or the SBA 504 program, which is a hybrid program that allows businesses to borrow up to 90% of the cost of fixed assets, whether it’s land, building, machinery, or equipment.”

With the 504 program, the business owner gets 50% financing from the bank. Then, the SBA, through a certified development company such as Florida First Capital or Essential Capital, provides the bond financing for the remaining 40%. All SBA programs are nationwide.

When it comes to financing your purchase, Whitaker offers some sound advice. “Make sure you borrow enough money to accomplish your objective,” he says. “Often, people underestimate their costs. They arrange for the financing and the down payment, but they don’t set aside enough for renovations.” As a result, the business owner ends up pulling money from their working capital to invest it in fixed assets. They then don’t have enough money to operate their business.

“I always tell people to borrow what they need to make the deal work, but don’t under-borrow,” he says. “At the same time, people shouldn’t take on more than they need unless they foresee growth within five years. The SBA has a rule of thumb: They require you to occupy at least 51% of a space. If you’re building a new structure, they require that you occupy 75% of the space. They’re leaving you some growth room, but they don’t want to over-finance you.”

Ultimately, when you know your business’s needs, have smart financing in order, and buy with an exit strategy in mind, you can make a sound commercial space purchase that serves your business well today and creates equity for your future success. 

Dawn Josephson is a contributing editor to Advantage: The Resource for Small Business. She can be reached at dawn@masterwritingcoach.com.

SIDEBAR

Selecting a location

Only you can decide the best location for your needs. An experienced commercial real estate agent can help you navigate the choices. But if you’re a DIY kind of person, go to www.expandinjax.com, click on the “real estate” option, and then click on “industrial & commercial.” This site, which is maintained by the Cornerstone Division of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce, lists a seven-county database of commercial real estate properties available for purchase. Although it is not all-inclusive, it enables you to see what’s out there so you have an idea of costs and locations.

It’s a good day when budding entrepreneurs get to hear words of wisdom from one established and successful small business person. It’s a great day when they can get advice from a panel of proven experts. As part of the Beaver Street Enterprise Center’s (BSEC) seventh anniversary celebration, held through June, small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs were invited to hear the success stories of five who have “made” it.

The five were: Brock Fazzini, Fazzini’s Coffee & Tea; Dea Sims, Promo Depot; Brian Barquilla, Advantage: The Resource for Small Business; Grace Huxtable-Mount, The Learning Experience; and Nadine Gramling, Bryson’s on the Avenue.

The panel was moderated by Karen Brune Mathis, managing editor of the Daily Record.

Mathis: What is the greatest challenge you face as a small business owner?

Fazzini: Because of our business model, in which we partner with nonprofit agencies and give back to the community, finding people who share my vision of community has been a big challenge.

Sims: Until I sold my company to Acosta Sales in 2008, I found that making sure my personal goals and life were met was a big challenge. It’s easy to get swallowed up by the business of running a business.

Barquilla: Our biggest challenge has been to recruit the right people into the business. I want people who share the same vision and passion for my business as I do. Another challenge is learning how to sell a vision, because until you are producing something, the vision is all you have to sell.

Huxtable-Mount: My biggest challenge has been achieving a balance between being a business owner and having a personal life as well as hiring the right people.

Gramling: It’s all about people. In my prior life, I was CEO of a $110 million steel company. Now I’m starting over; I invested in a small consignment shop, and I have never had such a challenge! This was a new business for me. I found you have to pay the price to succeed. I also found that the vision and passion for the business has to come from the person who owns the company. It took me a couple of years to understand that. Now I have a passion for this business; it’s the reason I’m doing what I am doing. I will say, though, that it has been a big challenge to clean toilets again!

Mathis: How to you translate your passion and vision into running a business?

Sims: If you are going into a business just for the money, you should rethink your motivation. Do what you enjoy. Running a business is not a 40-hour-a-week job. When I started my company, sleep was a luxury.

Barquilla: I was introspective to find out what motivated me, and I discovered that starting companies is what drives me. So, I focus on that strength and have the end in mind. If you don’t have passion, you won’t be successful. In the beginning, passion may be all you have!

Mathis: How important is it to know your financials?

Gramling: When I first started my small business, I did not pay enough attention to the numbers. Then I was told that I had an expensive hobby. That made me think! The store gave me an identity, but you have to know if you are earning a profit or losing. I think it is essential that you understand the numbers; get at least one mentor—or more; and hire good employees. Develop a business plan and dream. But base your dream on reality.

Mathis: How important is marketing for a small business?

Sims: You need to market, but you have to do it thoughtfully. Step back and think about your ideal customer. What does he look like? Where do you find him? How many customers do you need? How far will your customer travel to get what you offer? How will you deliver your product to this customer? Then, as you get customers, keep a database of them and prospects. Market to the database.

Barquilla: It’s important to know your customers intimately and to be where they are. Engage with them. There are many ways to market;know your customers to figure out how to market to what they need.

Mathis: Should you expect to break even the first year in business?

Huxtable-Mount: Don’t expect to break even the first year. You can hope for it, but don’t expect it.

Barquilla: It’s unrealistic to break even the first year. If you take in extra cash, take more risks to grow faster. Invest in your business.

Fazzini: More commonly, it takes two years before you start making money.

Mathis: What advice do you have for those starting out now?

Barquilla: We started Advantage at a low point in the economy. People said we were crazy. But I found you can’t listen to the nay-sayers. Run your own life. Take the leap and don’t be afraid to fail. The key is being confident in what you are doing and maybe just arrogant enough not to listen to the people who tell you “no.”

Huxtable-Mount: Being confident is the key. I selected a business I felt confident to be in and it is working.

Gramling: What it all gets back to is what we have talked about: Develop your vision; you’re your passion; and work hard.

SIDEBAR

Who’s who on the entrepreneurial panel

Brock Fazzini, is founder and CEO of Fazzini’s Coffee & Tea, a company that partners with nonprofit organizations to sell corporate coffee service and returns a portion of profits back to the nonprofit organization. The company also donates a portion of profits to plant trees in Africa and Central America.

Dea Simms is the former founder and CEO or Promo Depot, a promotions company she started in a home office in 1996. By 2001, the company was recognized as the fastest growing promotions company in the country. She sold the business to Acosta Sales in 2008 and became its vice president of sales. She now describes herself as “retired and rethinking.”

Brian Barquilla is founder and publisher of the Advantage: the Resource for Small Business. He is also the chief facilitator of Executive Advantage, a professional- and business-development group for Jacksonville-area CEOs.

Grace Huxtable-Mount is co-owner, with her husband, of The Learning Experience Child Development Center, as well as Huxtable Education Group.

Nadine Gramling is the former CEO of Southeastern Metals Manufacturing Company, Inc. She is currently the owner of two Bryson’s on the Avenue upscale furniture consignment stores.

By Brenda Ezell    

Landlords have the upper hand. That’s a fact of commercial real estate leasing. Another fact is thatcommercial real estate leases often contain what appear to be insignificant terms—but these terms are critical to the success of small business owners, who hold the majority of commercial real estate leases.

From the start, the landlord has the advantage over the small business owner because leasing is likely the landlord’s only business, while it is often your first time leasing real property. When you negotiate a lease, consider five important clauses concerning:

• Cost,

• Terms of use,

• Transfer and termination,

• Renewals, and

• Attorney’s fees.

Cost

When you negotiate any contract, your chief concern should be how the contract will affect your business operations and profitability. Cost ranks high in a real estate lease for office, retail, industrial, or other types of property. 

The current economic climate has given tenants a slight advantage in negotiating favorable lease rates. However, there are other important lease terms that are often overlooked which can prove to be more costly than the rate per square foot if not given close attention.

• Build outs. Buildings rarely come ready-to-use, and build-out requirements often come with a hefty price tag. Pay close attention to build-out requirements and build-out allocations. The lease should clearly spell out who has responsibility for each element of build-out and should properly allocate the burden of any cost overruns.

• Franchise requirements. Franchise agreements often impose very strict and costly build-out requirements, so both the landlord and the franchise tenant must pay close attention to these requirements prior to executing the lease.

• Parking and signage requirements. These can also be costly if not considered carefully. The type of business operation will be a key factor in determining parking and signage needs. Determine whether local government approval is needed for any required parking or signage. Consider the cost of this approval before the lease is executed.

• Operating expenses. Most leases allocate operating costs, such as maintenance, insurance and taxes among tenants on a pro rata basis. Assess whether insurance requirements are reasonable under the circumstances, since the landlord may be using a form lease.

Use

Give lease terms regulating use of property the same scrutiny as terms related to cost. Small businesses are likely to locate in a multi-tenant property and therefore, therefore, tenant-use provisions can be important to the success of the business.

Landlords of multi-tenant properties want to create an attractive community with a complementary tenant mix. They also to maintain control over the types of tenants allowed to lease premises.

• Lender restrictions. The landlord’s lender may impose tenant-use restrictions, which may then be imposed on other tenants’ leases.

• Flexible-use language. Consider whether the lease has flexible-use language in the event your original business idea evolves or is no longer feasible based on market conditions. A use provision which permits “general office purposes” is more flexible than a use provision permitting “medical office purposes”.

• Special needs. Your business’ special needs should be spelled out in the lease. For example, a retail tenant might request an exclusive-use provision in its lease to prevent the landlord from allowing competing business uses in the same property. Be aware, however, that landlords generally object to exclusive-use terms for smaller businesses because they often become the subject of disputes and the landlord weighs this risk against the value of the tenant’s lease. 

Transfer and termination

The real estate crisis has demonstrated that transfer and termination provisions in leases are perhaps the most important parts of a contract. Many business owners who signed leases during the boom have fallen on tough economic times and are finding leasing costs unsustainable.

• Assignment and subleasing. Some small business owners are seeking alternatives to default through assignment and subleasing, which are the most common ways to transfer a leasehold interest.

An assignment occurs when a tenant transfers all or part of its interest in a lease to another party for the remaining term. A sublease occurs when a tenant executes a lease of the premises to a “subtenant” and conveys the same interest the tenant holds for a shorter term. Key to the small business tenant is whether the lease allows the tenant to assign or sublease its interest with or without the landlord’s consent, or whether the landlord can outright deny assignment or sublease.

Generally, the landlord wants maximum control over the tenant’s ability to assign or sublease its interest in the premises. At the same time, the tenant wants as much flexibility as possible. You would benefit from the ability to minimize your liabilities in the event the leased property is no longer suitable for your business needs.

Generally, a tenant has the right to assign its rights under a lease unless the lease states otherwise. To protect landlords from this right of assignment, leases generally contain provisions requiring the landlord’s consent to assignment or subleasing, or alternatively, prohibiting the right to assign or sublease altogether. The right to assign and sublease a leasehold interest can have a significant financial impact on a small business, should there be a change in circumstances, so  consider asking for these rights prior to lease execution.

• Termination. Termination of a real estate lease is generally a right that can only be exercised upon the default of one of the parties. However, as we know in Northeast Florida, small businesses tend to prosper and sometimes experience a level of growth that makes their existing space unsuitable. Although most leases do not allow a tenant to terminate for this reason, if you anticipate rapid growth request a lease provision that allows expansion or relocation at the same property and gives you a right to terminate if the landlord cannot accommodate your growth.

Renewal

In addition to termination options, renewal options can also prove to be valuable, particularly if market conditions change drastically. If your business is in a prime location, consider including a renewal option in the lease agreement. This can assure remaining in the same location at a reasonable cost.

Attorney’s fees

On a final note, while we always hope that lease transactions end favorably, they often do not. For this reason, ensure that the lease balances the burden of attorney’s fees in the event of a dispute. A lease provision that allows attorney’s fees for the prevailing party will accomplish this goal. When all parties must bear their own legal costs, disputes are more likely to be resolved amicably.

Brenda Ezell is the owner and sole shareholder of the Ezell Law Firm, which provides legal representation in all areas of commercial real estate law as well as representation in matters involving governmental regulation of land development. To contact Brenda Ezell, call  904-253-7879 or visit www.EzellFirmPA.com.

An effective leadership team can guide you to success    

Growth is good; everyone wants to grow their company, Joseph E. McCann, Ph.D., told a group at a recent Knowledge Is Power breakfast workshop, but rapid growth comes with inherent problems, he said. “Contrary to popular belief, rapid growth is not fun. It sounds great, but it has difficult connotations. Many successful young, rapidly growing companies die from their own success.”

Why does this happen? One of the top reasons is because of bad people choices, said McCann, who is dean of the College of Business at Jacksonville University. Another contributing reason is because although the owners work harder as they grow, they fail to rethink their organizations. “Sometimes you need to stop and evaluate and ask, ‘Do I have the right platform for sustainable growth?’” he said.

Dr. Joseph E. McCann

McCann said that a survey of 100 fastest-growing businesses in Florida (which he followed up with conversations with founders and owners of the companies) identified a number of specific problem areas—that can bring down a new business.

• Not investing in development. When businesses don’t invest in their people or themselves, problems start happening, he said. If you don’t keep current, at some point it will catch up to you. “You have to make those investments in people as you go. If you don’t, your bench strength will get thin.”

• Too little capital. Insufficient capital limits a company’s growth, he said. If owners seek outside capital, they then give up control. 

• Wrong product or service. This is like getting off on the wrong foot. It is costly to redesign a product or acquire another company to provide what is needed.

• People. “The ‘people thing’ keeps coming up,” said McCann. If you have the wrong people in the wrong jobs, you can’t grow the business.

Assuring success

McCann said his studies confirm that successful companies share several common traits:

• Personal qualities. Successful entrepreneurs believe in their ideas, work hard, trust others, and persist. “Many people in the survey attribute their success to faith and persistence,” said McCann.

• Supportive setting. Having family, friends, and mentors you can turn to is important, because times will get tough.

• Solid concept. Timing is everything. Companies that succeed have the right product or service at the right time.

• Operational effectiveness. These companies have the structure and resources in place to pay attention to customers and vendors. They get the business details right.

• Access to resources. Business owners are able to tap into money, advice, and help when they need it.

• A strong culture. “This shows up time and again,” said McCann. Successful companies have a culture in which the managers and employees share the same beliefs and values. This requires hiring right, and cutting loose poor performers and those who do not fit into the culture of your company.

Your leadership team

Putting a good leadership team in place is a critical step to growing your business, said McCann. “Even if you are a sole proprietor, you can have a team,” he said. “The team may not be conventional. It may be a network of entities you deal with, but it is still a team.”

Successful leadership teams are characterized by four elements: composition, process management, long-term development, and support systems.

• Composition. That team should have a well defined mission and role; be right-sized; and be comprised of individuals who understand why they are on the team and how they can and should contribute.

• Process management. “Groups are a great way to doing work,” said McCann, “but they have to work well together.” That means the leader—the CEO—has to be self-aware and the team has to be disciplined. Additionally, the culture of the company must value teams and collaboration as tools for getting work done.

• Long-term development. “This will cost you money,” McCann stated. But it is money worth spending. Long-term development means providing team member—including the boss— with frequent opportunities to develop their skills. “If someone has weak skills, they need to develop those skills. You have to invest in them if they are truly needed on the team,” he said.

• Support systems. Teams and their members need tools and support. The team must be staffed and resourced to be able to work effectively. That support includes training and technology.

Although the four components of effective leadership teams are fairly simple to state, they are hard to do, said McCann. He listed four ways to get started, reminding the group, “You create your seeds to your own destruction if you don’t attend to some things.”

1. Invite honest, open discussion. Talk about your team’s current performance in terms of the four elements.

2. Get objective input. Invite a third party to observe and analyze your team’s performance.

3. Think about future growth. How will the team function? What will be its challenges as the company grows?

4. Practice emotional strength. If you make wrong people decisions, “take the hit and move on.”

Joseph E. McCann, Ph.D., is dean of the Davis College of Business at Jacksonville University (www.ju.edu), which sponsored the Knowledge Is Power workshop.

By Lewis Hunter, CPA    

Experts say the economy is improving, but Jacksonville unemployment reached 12%, and many business owners are worrying about a double-dip recession. Good planning requires business owners to consider their alternatives in case the economy does not improve as quickly as everyone hopes. This means transitioning your business practices to save money during a long-term recession.

Here are some cost-cutting strategies will help support your business’s bottom line while the economy perks up.

• Switch to a recession-time loan. The recession has changed lenders’ attitudes. They are much more skeptical and hesitant to give loans. Businesses that depend on loans will need to revise their pitch to lenders in order to get the financial backing they need.

You can do this by working the recession into your pitch for a loan. Present a realistic business plan to lenders that incorporates the recession, and mention how you plan to adjust your business to meet the challenges of the economy. 

Lenders don’t want to hear a “business as usual” approach because the economy has prevented business as usual for most companies. The more realistic you are about finances, the more likely lenders will be to give you a loan.

• Shorten your business cycle. During a recession, smart business owners review business activity more frequently so they can act swiftly on cash flow changes.

With shorter business cycles, you can see upward trends sooner and respond accordingly. If you were reviewing your finances quarterly in the past, you may want to start reviewing them bi-monthly or even monthly.

• Outsource services. It’s tempting to keep everything in-house when finances are tight, but outsourcing time-consuming services could save your business money in the long run.

Start by examining the services that take your team longest to complete. Focus the majority of your employees’ time on bringing in new business. Tasks such as bookkeeping, IT support, direct marketing, public relations, writing, and Web design are all good options to outsource if they are not a central part to your business.

In addition, the recession has put an abundance of freelancers into the market, giving business owners a chance to work with these specialists on contract to get quality work on a project-by-project basis.

• Update business technology. Although it’s difficult to justify investing in new technology during a recession, your business could lag behind competitors who have newer, faster equipment. Not only will your business processes become more efficient with new technology, but potential customers will also be impressed that your business continues to improve during a recession.

Many retailers are selling equipment at a discount, so you may be able to get a better deal now than if you wait until the recession passes.

• Increase your online presence. Although you may not have enough cash for an all-inclusive marketing campaign, you can still get your name into the market without breaking the bank. Start with your Web site. Invest in search engine optimization (SEO) software to bring your site out of hiding and make it easy to find online.

Also, if you don’t have control over editing your Web site, consider switching over to a site host that will allow you to maintain and update pages on your own. This will save time and money in working with a Web developer for all site changes.

Social media is one of the best ways to market online, and it is free. Create Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts and post to them regularly. Don’t forget to include links to your Web site or blog in each post to drive additional traffic to your Web site. 

• Market your company effectively. Don’t stop marketing and advertising because of the recession. Customers will want to see that you are still around and operating in any economy. Because finances are strained for everyone, you might be able to negotiate better advertising or printing deals now for external promotions.

Another way to market your company is to do some old-fashioned networking. Attend local business events, non-profit fundraisers, and community functions. This way, you can promote your company personally.

• Use a mentor. Confiding in an experienced mentor is extremely useful during business challenges. A mentor will help you pick out opportunities or threats you might have missed, as well as offer guidance during business growth or decline. Most of all, a mentor will keep you accountable.

Remember that even the strongest business plans can be deterred by unexpected changes in the economy. In your business plans, include a scenario that could test your revenue, expenses and cash flows.

Your business should be prepared to adapt as the economy changes to get the most out of every situation. 

Lewis Hunter is a certified public accountant and owner of Hunter & Associates, P.A. He specializes in financial planning, tax planning and business coaching for small businesses. Visit www.huntercpa.com.

How to make sure your business event has a smooth sailing    

By Janice Petrelli    

Back in 1964, songwriter Bob Dylan wrote, “The Times, they are a-changing.” His words accurately describe the event and meeting industry today, which has had to refocus its strategies and concepts.

Events—such as corporate meetings and celebrations for customers and employees—are expensive. In today’s economy, they can be perceived as an extravagance, although this perception is not necessarily true, since it is possible to create an effective event on a cost-conscious level.

Despite the challenges of the still-lagging economy, now is a great time for companies to hold events, when leadership can re-group, re-strategize, collaborate, and embrace new opportunities.

Holding an event or meeting can be especially important for strategic planning. When co-workers and key players get together, they learn from each other as well as learning about company’s goals and their competitors. And events provide a great opportunity to stir up excitement, especially during times when less than good news is commonplace.

Event-planning checklist

To make the most of your event, planning is required. Here is a checklist to make it go smoothly:

• Determine event the event’s goals and objectives. This is a key component. An event is a major investment of time and money; you want to get the most bang for your buck.

• Identify possible dates. Send out a notification to current customers and potential clients in advance so the projected attendance will be met.

• Promote it. Send out pre-event mailers to entice attendees. List the purpose of the event and reasons/benefits for their attendance.

• Prepare a preliminary agenda and attendee list. This will help you determine the size of the venue needed.

• Send event requirements to the selected venue. Make sure the venue is capable of handling the client’s needs and wants, including the appropriate size of the room(s) to accommodate the number of attendees as well as the audio visual equipment.

• Identify meeting content. Presentations need to be precise and to the point. Hire a keynote/motivational speaker to help get your meeting content across. Don’t discount an internal, key company executive.

• Create a to-do list which includes deadlines and requirements. Establishing these items for your event will keep you on track and inform your staff of their responsibilities.

As the event nears, you have more work to do. Put these items on your to-do list:

• Form committees. The larger the event, the more work that is involved. Establish committee members’ roles and responsibilities and get them involved in the planning process at an early stage.

• Establish the event’s theme. Events are a great way to enhance your corporate brand. Create a logo and graphics and use that image or theme throughout event to reiterate concept.

• Develop a promotional strategy. What is the concept, branding, or theme of the event? Provide a promotional item that can be used or seen after the event concludes.

• Develop public relations for the event. Include in your PR pre-event mailers, press releases, and interviews.

• Prepare budget categories and set budget. This is an important step in keeping your costs under control.

• Hire vendors for your needs. Vendors may include the printer, florist, rental furniture, security, photographer, videographer, and entertainment.

• Determine food and beverage requirements. Negotiate menus and prices. A common mistake is ordering too much just to be “safe.” Remember: Everything is negotiable and you have up to 72 hours to provide the final guarantee.

• Determine audio visual requirements. Confirm all equipment with the client and obtain their presentations a few days prior to the event so all changes can be made in a timely manner. Create a dedicated AV team so there is a familiarity with the client and attendees.

• Arrange all travel and housing for participants. Work with a travel agent for all your airline needs as well as the hotel for all housing needs for the staff, speakers, and attendees.  

The day of the event:

• Review responsibilities and procedures with staff. Take 10 minutes for an informational and motivational meeting to ensure team members understand the content and schedule of events so they can answer any questions that may be asked.

• Confirm and monitor the pickup of equipment and supplies. Sure you ordered it, but did it really arrive on site?

• Do a walk through. Check: room sets, AV equipment, entertainment and décor, and signage. Make sure clients as well as attendees know where each session of the event is taking place.

After the event, your work is not quite done.

• Pack and inventory all material. Many of your collateral materials can be reusable so ship it back.

• Do final reconciliation. Double check all your invoices to make sure you were charged the correct amounts, as per your contracts. Treat the client’s money as your own!

• Perform post-budget performance review. Were you within the preliminary budget? Could you have saved money? What could you have done differently?

• Prepare thank-you letters. Prepare and e-mail letters thanking everyone for their time and participation. It costs nothing, and it’s a gesture that will be appreciated and well received by the attendees.

• Collect and organize data for final meeting reports. Obtain evaluations from the staff, attendees, and client. Find out what went right and what went wrong so you don’t make the same mistakes twice.

• Start planning the next event. If this is an annual affair, start the process now. You’ll be ahead of the game and will learn from your mistakes.

Janice Petrelli is owner of Perfect Planning, LLC, www.perfectplanningllc.com, a full-service event-planning company. She can be reached at 904-778-1175 or Janice@perfectplanningllc.com.

Create a professional first impression to woo your customers    

By Judith Sisler Johnston    

In business, first impressions are everything. Everyone—clients and potential clients—forms a lasting impression in less than 60 seconds, which is why it is vital to pay attention to your business’ surroundings. The same design principles used to market homes also apply to office design.

In today’s economic environment, budget is often an issue and business owners are looking for ways to do more with less. Many cost-effective interior design recommendations can make a stylish difference while creating a setting for business success. (Hint: If your office has multiple areas, spend more money on the public spaces, focusing on the entry and reception area, and keep individual or back-office areas more streamlined.)

The appearance of your business space should reflect your company’s brand and marketing message. It should communicate what the business is about and what products or services you provide. Look at your business and make an assessment the same way a potential client or stranger would see it. Does it have appeal?

Here are some things to consider to make your business more inviting:

Outside impressions

• Signage. Professional signage is important in every business suite so visitors can confirm the business location. Make sure the signage is clear, clean, and professional.

• Front door. The front door should have a fresh coat of paint.

• Windows. Keep the windows clean and let the light in.

• Lawn area and parking lot. Keep the grass mowed and weed-free. Regularly police the parking lot for trash and broken bottles. 

• Mail box. If you have a drop box, make sure it isn’t rusty.

Entry

If people come to your office to transact business, your entry statement is critical. Give considerable thought about what kind of first impression you want your business environment to make.

The entry area should have a warm, inviting and welcoming presence. It goes without saying it should be neat, clean, and coordinated, with no clutter and no dust bunnies hiding under the side tables. The goal is to make your guests believe someone planned the entry area just for them. Your business can be the best at what it does, but if your entry statement isn’t welcoming, the office environment will communicate a negative impression.

• Furnishings. Furnishings in the entry area should include a reception desk or greeting station as well as a seating area with chairs, an accent table and artwork, which can include photographs of your work or awards your business has received. Wood furnishings should match or complement the other furnishings.

• Upholstery. Leather is luxurious, but budget watchers know leather furnishings are expensive. Instead of selecting chairs and couches upholstered in leather-like vinyl as a cost-cutting measure, choose upholstered fabrics.

• Lighting. Provide adequate and comfortable lighting so visitors can relax or work while waiting.

• Carpet and wallcoverings. If the budget permits, new carpet and wallcoverings can help to present a professional image. (Avoid wall coverings that look like they belong in a child’s nursery.) Choose textural wallcoverings over patterned, and consider using wallcoverings in limited ways, such as on an accent wall to give the entry way (or other rooms) interest.

Other common areas

In addition to the entry, consider other areas clients visit such as the conference room, meeting office, and restroom. Give these spaces the same considerations you would give at home by including decorative elements that are appealing to your visitors. A store-bought framed mirror can add design interest to a commercial restroom, for instance.

Even if you don’t physically meet with clients in your office location, it is important to have a well designed office for the sake of your employees. People who work in attractive environments are more productive.

Your office’s design should be well coordinated and pleasing to the eye. When selecting carpet, wallcoverings, lighting and furnishings, get the best look and quality for whatever budget you have. Attractive office design communicates professionalism.

Even if you do the work yourself, it can be a good investment to hire a licensed, professional interior designer for a consultation to obtain ideas or get a qualified second opinion. It will make a difference in the outcome and probably save you money in the process.

Judith Sisler Johnston, president of Sisler Johnston Interior Design (www.sislerjohnston.com), is an allied member of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and the International Interior Design Association (IIDA), and is a Certified Green Professional (CGP). She can be reached at 904-288-0908.

SIDEBAR

Say ‘no’ to white walls

Your office should reflect the uniqueness and personality of your business in color and style. Many business owners rent and may have to work with existing elements in their tenant space. If you are able to start from scratch, however, you have the opportunity to bring your own color palette into play. Make sure it is appropriate for your business.

Paint is the most economical way to change a space and painting one wall a deeper shade as an accent wall can add impact to the space.

Avoid plain white walls. Select light or medium colored wall paint, such as caramel or smoke hues. These project richness and coordinate with many other colors. Neutral hues serve as a handsome backdrop when used in flooring and walls. You can then add bold color accents within the office furnishings and décor for impact and style.

Using this approach will make it more economical to update without requiring a complete redesign.

Make your company fraud resistant      

It’s good to think the best of your employees and customers, but the reality is that people are not always honest, and their dishonesty costs companies a great deal, Richard T. Balog, president of The ARC Consulting Group, Inc. told an audience at a recent Knowledge Is Power breakfast workshop.

He said a survey conducted in 2009 by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners showed that employees, customers, and suppliers steal more than 7% of the average U.S.-based company’s revenues. That’s a lot of money, and it hurts your bottom line.

Rick Balog

“It’s your money,” he said. “It’s important for you to take control of your business.” Although no organization or consultant can create a fraud-proof company, it is possible to make fraud more difficult to occur within your business. With consistent business planning, effective forecasting, a structured system of operational procedures, and diligent analysis of results, Balog said you can create a corporate culture and environment that significantly reduces the potential of devastating loss.

Set the tone

As a small business owner, you are the one to set the tone for your company, with a commitment to run an ethical company in which “doing right” permeates all facets of the business. The best “first step” toward minimizing the possibility of fraud within your organization is to be a good manager and set the right example with your words (messages) and behavior.

Put into place—and live by—good management practices that hold everyone accountable for their performance and behavior. “Demonstrate through your actions that you won’t accept fraud,” he said. Accountability in itself is a strong fraud deterrent. Send clear messages that honesty is expected and that fraud will not be tolerated.

Those management practices include:

• Hiring right (including doing reference and background checks on all new hires);

• Writing and maintaining current job descriptions;

• Orienting new employees and providing ongoing training to all employees

• Establishing and maintaining performance standards;

• Conducting periodic performance reviews;

• Maintaining open communications; and

• Developing and managing budgets, combined with effective variance analysis.

In addition to putting into place these basic management practices, convene a fraud-prevention task force. Doing so puts action to your words. Include on this task force members of every area of your company and have as its primary objective to identify potential fraud risks and possible solutions.

Finally, Balog stressed, develop—and communicate to employees, suppliers, and customers—your commitment to stop fraud, up to and including a commitment to prosecute. In your communication, outline acceptable practices and behaviors so that there is no room for misunderstanding.

Watch for ed flags

Your internal financial reporting structure is your first line of defense in minimizing the opportunity for fraud in your company, said Balog. Your accounting system shows the economic impact of management decisions and employee behavior.

Develop a realistic budget based on your operating plan and set accountabilities and controls. Watch for red flags, which could suggest fraudulent behavior.

Implement internal controls

Internal controls include any actions taken by management that enhance the probability of achieving the objectives of a specific process. Controls provide an environment to deter the commission of fraud. In addition, they assist the CEO and senior management in the detection and investigation of fraud. They give you and your forensic accountants the means to identify:

• How well employees are complying with established policies;

• Evidence of intentional circumvention of procedures;

• Where to look for evidence to find the perpetrators of a fraud;

• How fraud was committed.

Internal controls include procedures that:

• Restrict access to valuable and moveable assets;

• Provide accountability for deviations from established procedures;

• Require monthly analytical reviews and reconciliations of cash and other valuable and moveable asset accounts;

• Make sure deviations are reported in a timely manner to the appropriate level of management;

• Provide a structure so that material deviations can be easily identified; and

• Allow perpetrators to be identified promptly.

Balog said that controls alone cannot guarantee fraud prevention or detection. You must also conduct periodic audits that are reviewed by forensic accountants who have an understanding of your company’s industry as well as the environmental, institutional, and individual factors that increase the risk of the commission of fraudulent acts.

Investigate and prosecute

If your internal controls and/or audits raise red flags, don’t delay in conducting an internal investigation—or call in a professional to conduct a forensic audit especially if you intend to prosecute.

If a forensic auditor fails to perform the process correctly, the results can adversely affect the business owner. The best rule to follow when considering prosecution is to call a qualified, experienced forensic accountant to work with your legal counsel. Together, they can ensure the evidence is properly gathered and no one’s rights are violated.  

Richard T. Balog, CPA/CFF, CIA, CGFM, DACFE, is president and CEO of The ARC Consulting Group, Inc.(www.arcconsultinggroup.com), which provides tax, accounting, and business consulting services, including forensic accounting. You can contact him at 904-268-1148. He spoke at a Jacksonville Small Business Advantage Knowledge Is Power workshop, sponsored by the University of North Florida Division of Continuing Education.

SIDEBAR 1

Watch for these red flags

Deviations from the norm should raise red flags to you and your accountants. Here are some that can signal potential fraud within your organization.

Among employees watch for:

• Significant observed changes from past behavior patterns,

• High personal debts or financial losses,

• Living a lifestyle above their income level,

• Extensive speculation in the stock market or other areas,

• Excessive gambling,

• Excessive use of alcohol or drugs,

• Disgruntled behavior,

• Emotional trauma in home life or work life.

SIDEBAR 2

How fraud happens

Fraud is not a random act. It occurs when three elements of the fraud triangle come together for a perpetrator:

• incentives or pressures. The person committing the fraud typically has a financial problem and decides your money can solve it. He may need the money because of a gambling debt, a substance abuse, problem, looming foreclosure of a home, or out-of-control spending. In contrast, the organization may be placing unrealistic objectives on the employee, driving the employee to resort to illegal acts to “make the numbers.”

• Rationalization. The perpetrator may feel you don’t pay her enough; he may dislike his employer; she may feel her value to the organization is under appreciated; he sees others performing similar fraudulent acts. What the rationalization comes down to is “getting even.”

• Opportunity. Finally, people commit fraud because the opportunity exists. Poor internal controls, the ability to override existing controls, a poor or non-existing system of internal financial reporting, or ineffectual variance analysis all give a perpetrator opportunity to commit fraud.

When people commit fraud, they usually also go to great lengths to hide it. They may develop false invoices, doctor receipts for an expense report, or destroy files. The act of intentional concealment is what differentiates a fraud from a mistake.

SIDEBAR 3

Profile of a potential fraud perpetrator

People who commit fraud come in both genders, in all races, and are of all ages. That said, some employees raise ref flags about their possible propensity to defraud. You may be at risk if you have employees who:

• Tend to place extraordinary high personal value on material things;

• Tend to treat people as objects for exploitation;

• Are highly self-centered;

• Tend to be conspicuous consumers;

• Appear to be reckless or careless with facts and often enlarge on them;

• Spend most of their time scheming and designing shortcuts to get ahead of or beat the competition;

• May gamble or drink a great deal;

• Feel like they are above rules and regulations;

• Have few real friends within their own industry or company;

• Are hostile toward those who don’t agree with them; and

 • Are disliked by colleagues and competitors.

SIDEBAR 4

Test your fraud IQ

Before you can prevent fraud in your company, you have to understand fraud. Take this quiz and test your fraud IQ. Answers are given at the bottom of the quiz.

1. The top reason employees commit fraud is:

            a. Weak internal controls

            b. Greed

            c. Personal financial problems

            d. Dissatisfaction with the employer

2. If a company adds fictitious sales to boost revenues, the cost of sales as a percentage of revenues will increase.

            a. True

            b. False

3. On average, employees steal most through:

            a. Inventory theft

            b. Cash theft

            c. Fictitious third-party billing schemes

            d. Business expense reimbursement schemes

4. The common way employees steal cash from the company is:

            a. Fictitious third-party billing schemes

            b. Check tampering

            c. Payroll schemes

            d. Business expense reimbursement schemes

5. Large companies are more likely to be a victim of fraud than small and mid-sized businesses.

            a. True

            b. False

6. On average, the age range of most fraud perpetrators is:

            a. <26

            b. 26-30

            c. 31-40

            d. 41-50

            e. 51-60

7. How long do the top perpetrators work for the company from which they steal?

            a. <1 year

            b. 1-3 years

            c. 4-6 years

            d. 7-10 years

            e. >10 years

8. Fraud is most frequently found through:

            a. External audits

            b. Accidental discoveries

            c. Tips and complaints

            d. Internal audits

9. The annual income of the typical fraud perpetrator is:

            a. $200K–$500K

            b. $150K–$199.9K

            c. $100K–$149.9K

            d. $50K-$99.9K

            e. <$50K

10. Most frauds are committed by: 

            a. Managers

            b. Employees

            c. Executives

Answers: 1. (c); 2. (b); 3. (c); 4. (a); 5. (b); 6. (d); 7. (d); 8. (c); 9. (e); 10. (b).

Source: Report to the Nation, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, 2009

By Maxine McBride    

If any aspect of life at the office makes workers elicit a feeling of dread, it’s the countless number of meetings they must endure. Today’s businesspeople spend at least 25% of their working hours in meetings, and the higher you rise in the company, the more meetings you attend. People generally dislike meetings, but done right, meetings can be productive and even fun.

Here’s how to make the most of them—whether you are an attendee or the leader.

1. Arrive five minutes early. Get everything organized before hand, including your papers, reference materials, and technology. Say hello to each person in the room and others as they join.

2. Prepare. Preparation is the key to being a good meeting leader and participant. Give all attendees an agenda 24 hours prior to the meeting. This will allow them the time to think about the meeting’s purpose and discussion items.

3. ‘De-connect.’ It is inconsiderate to ignore the meeting while you catch up on your e-mail or play on your iPhone. If you must have a phone with you, put it on vibrate. Don’t check e-mail. Don’t text. And don’t use your phone as a clock; wear a watch. If you must take a call during a meeting, let the group know at the beginning of the meeting you have an important call that may come. Seat yourself at the door so you can leave quietly.

4. Start by ending. If you are leading the meeting, start by stating what time the meeting will end. Use the agenda to stay on track.

5. Take action. At the end of the meeting confirm tasks that need to be completed. Schedule individual or group follow-up meetings and discuss contingency plans as needed. After you leave the meeting, immediately take action and follow through on assigned tasks. If you were taking meeting notes, distribute them within 48 hours after the meeting.

6. Be aware of facial expressions. Seven universal emotions are hardwired into human beings—surprise, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, happiness and contempt. Since your face is what most people see when you are in meetings, learn more about your facial expressions and how to work with them. If you are unable to control your facial expressions, you are an open book to others in the room.

7. Watch body language. The language of the body is another important element to master for meetings. Here are some gestures you will want to use in your next meeting to convey your thoughts physically. “Yes” gestures include open palms, forward leaning, smiling, direct body orientation, enhanced eye contact and head nodding. “No” gestures include folded arms, tapping or fidgeting, hand holding up the chin or hand over the mouth, hands on the knees, constant eye movement and squinting, shaking your head, and a scowl. “Maybe” gestures include taking a sip of a drink, biting the tip of eyeglasses, cleaning glasses, scratching of the head and chin stroking.

These are just a few suggestions for mastering the art of corporate meetings. Remember that preparation and participation are the biggest factors that will make or break your next meeting.

Maxine McBride is the president of Clockwork Marketing Services, Inc., a full-service marketing firm She can be contacted at 904-280-7980 or at www.clockworkmarketing.com

By Steve Waterhouse   

Experts say the economy is going through a warming trend. Consumers are starting to spend more, but not enough for companies to justify adding staff. So, to meet increasing demands, you have to know how to get more out of your existing workforce. 

The problem is simple: You can’t do more with less if the “less” aren’t better than they were before. Trying to squeeze more out of the same employees, using the same methods, will only leave you frustrated.

Smart managers know that by working with employees more effectively, they can drive up sales and productivity, without expanding their staff  or burning out their current teams.

Unfortunately, employees are individuals, and each person responds to a different type of management style. This means that you cannot improve your company’s performance by using the same style for all employees.

How to treat whom? That’s the secret. Let’s look at an overall performance-improvement strategy as well as one for the sales department, which is (of course) the group who boost your top line.

An overall strategy

Remember that not every employee learns, becomes motivated, and responds to incentives the same way. Five changes to your leadership style can get more out of your employees, no matter their job function.

• Communicate better. Managers typically think their communication efforts are better than they really are. Here are some simple tips on improving your employee communications: Spend one-on-one time with each employee at least once a week. Never use e-mails for important information. Be open to receive constructive criticism. If you let your team offer suggestions (without fear you will chew them out or put them down), they will be more likely to listen to what you have to say.

• Improve the work environment. Studies have shown that employees who are happy at work perform better. Regularly do things (which don’t have to be expensive) to make the work environment both interesting and rewarding. For example, order pizza for your employees every Friday or run simple contests at work with a gift card or movie tickets as the prize. Whatever incentive you use, make sure it is something that is enjoyable to employees and that they are motivated to participate.

• Show appreciation. Employees want to feel appreciated and know that they are making a difference. Reward employees for jobs well done by sharing customer appreciation statements with them, showing them the pride you have in their work, and displaying their positive results for all other employees to see. If employees take pride in their work, they will consistently deliver better results.

• Avoid burnout. Burnout often occurs when stress is high and/or employees work at the same things without learning anything new. Preventing burnout in employees is not a matter of giving your employees less work (although that may reduce stress). It’s a matter of allowing for balance between work and home.

Employees who work seven days a week and have no time for leisure burn out quickly. Encourage your staff to do things outside of work that they find enjoyable, and provide the opportunities to do them.

• Be flexible. One of the biggest motivators you can offer employees is flex time. If you properly recognize that they have lives outside of work, you should provide reasonable flexibility to their schedules. Understand that their personal life is a priority, and at times, they should be able to work around it.

Productivity improvement for sales

The productivity of your sales department is a leading indicator of performance. A large disparity between your best and worst sales person means your managers are reaching only part of the team.

Three simple changes in the way you and your sales managers deal with your sales team can go a long way in improving their productivity.

• Get out of the way. Your sales team should focus on what they do best— selling. Filling out long reports or answering customer service calls takes away from making sales. Managers should do some of these tasks themselves, or hire support staff to handle them, so that sales people can sell.

• Give good leads. Any sales person will produce better results if they are given better leads. Create more effective advertising and marketing campaigns or consider hiring telemarketers to develop qualified leads. These things will increase the chances that each prospect your sales team approaches is a good fit for your product or service. Then they can close the deal.

• Support. Support. Support. Be there for your sales team to help them close opportunities. It’s the job of every manager and business owner to be the one to do everything that’s needed to make the final sale happen. Don’t rely on your salespeople to do everything and then criticize them when they fail. Instead, step in as early as possible and give as much help as they need.

By including these principles in their sales-improvement strategy, one biotech company increased its sales by 44% over two years. Restructuring the way in which managers and their sales team work together can produce dramatic results.  

Making these simple changes to your management style will increase sales and improve productivity from your employees. You will also gain their respect and loyalty.

Steve Waterhouse is president of Jacksonville-based Predictive Results (www.predictiveresults.com), a division of PI Worldwide. Predictive Results uses behavior and personality assessments to determine the best ways to improve employee performance, strengthen manager-employee relationships, and make hiring decisions. he can be reach at 904-269-2299, ext. 102.   

SIDEBAR

Customer-focused selling

Gaining new customers costs more than keeping current ones. There are five steps of customer-focused selling that sales people can use to help build long, lasting relationships with customers.

1. 1.      Be open. Build trust and credibility with customers.
2. 2.      Investigate. Identify a customer’s needs.
3. 3.      Present. Articulate the value you can bring customers.
4. 4.      Confirm. Agree to move forward with the sale.
5. 5.      Position. Create a customer for life.

By Robyn A. Friedman    

The staff at American Electrical Contracting Inc. believes in sustainability. They monitor the thermostat, use occupancy sensors to cut the lights in unoccupied areas of their 12,000-square-foot building, have energy-efficient lighting, and recycle not only the firm’s trash but also old lamps and wire removed from completed client retrofits.

Toby Williams

“We started going green about three years ago,” said Toby Williams, a manager for the Jacksonville-based residential and commercial electrical contractor, which has about 65 employees.

Going green has done more for American Electrical than just giving its staff a “doing good” feeling. The firm is saving money too. “Probably 10% to 15% on our energy bills,” Williams said.

American Electrical is just one of the multitude of small businesses now adopting green principles. According to a report released in November by Siemens and McGraw Hill Construction, corporate America has integrated standard sustainability practices—such as recycling, green building, employee engagement, and partnering with non-profits—into their cultures and everyday operations. The report found that 75% of firms view sustainability as consistent with their profit mission—a twofold increase over the past three years.

Not only do corporate executives view going green as a way to improve their bottom line, but more than three-quarters (76%) expect that sustainability efforts will help them attract and retain customers as well as drop the costs of doing business, the Siemens report said.

Ellen Leroy-Reed

“Small businesses can not only reduce their materials used but also see an actual profit increase from going green,” said Ellen Leroy-Reed, president of the North Florida chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.

Of businesses that haven’t yet gone green, the most common reason is a feeling that it’s too expensive. But experts say that although there may be a higher upfront cost to do things the green way, over time companies usually save money.

In addition, small businesses can do many things to go green that cost little or nothing. For example, companies can reduce their environmental impact by implementing simple green practices such as printing on both sides of their paper or turning computers off at night. About $100 per computer per year can be saved if power management functions are properly used, according to Claire Woolley, an environmental specialist with Howard Ecker & Co. in Chicago.

Another common reason for avoiding sustainability, according to Leroy-Reed, is the belief that “going green is something only tree huggers do.”

“If we install aerated faucets in our building, we will use less water,” she said. “That’s not doing something for the environment. That’s not being a tree hugger. That’s just smart business.”

David P. Barley

David P. Barley, a CPA with Barley, Martin & Wild in Jacksonville, agrees. “In the past, managers improved the efficiency of their businesses by getting more out of employees, improving inventory handling and things of that nature,” he said. “Now businesses are starting to think how they can be more efficient with the use of energy.”

Barley suggests that small businesses compare the benefits of going green to the costs. “Yes, the cost may be more, but if you’re going to be able to reduce your replacement costs because things are more efficient, as well as reduce your energy costs, this outweighs the cost, lowers your cost of doing business and improves your bottom line,” he said.

Numerous tax credit and rebate programs encourage energy efficiency, both at the federal and state level. Many local utilities also offer financial incentives. A complete listing of all the programs and financial incentives is at the DSIRE (Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency) Web site, www.dsireusa.org.

What can your company do to go green?

Marie Hurst

• Recycle furniture and fixtures

. Marie Hurst, owner of GreenSpace Interior Design in Jacksonville, furnished her office with workstations and chairs no longer wanted by other firms. She also gets supplies from companies that are downsizing or going out of business. “There are a lot of corporations that close down, and nobody goes through to clean out the desks,” she says. “So you can get a ton of supplies—hanging folders, paper clips, staples—all that stuff is left behind.  I look at that as a great cost-saver to my business, plus there is the added benefit of preventing all those materials from ending up in a landfill.”

• Improve indoor air quality. Many studies have concluded that employee health and productivity improve with better indoor air quality. As air quality improves, so do asthma, allergies, flu, respiratory ailments and headaches, leading to less absenteeism. Consider doing the following to improve indoor air quality: Ban smoking in or near the office; avoid paint and cleaning supplies with volatile organic compounds (VOCs); change air filters regularly; increase the amount of fresh air inside by opening windows and doors; and test for radon.

• Incorporate green principles into your location if you build or renovate. LEED-certified buildings have lower operating costs—10% to 20% lower, according to Energy Star—and that increases operating income. Another plus: Some studies have shown that buildings with an environmental certification can sell for up to 16% more than a similar building without certification.

• Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). According to the Alliance to Save Energy, CFLs use considerably less energy. An Energy Star-qualified CFL will save about $30 over its lifetime and pay for itself in about six months, while using 75% less energy and lasting about 10 times longer than an incandescent bulb. CFLs cost between $3 and $15.

• Turn off lights and computers when not in use. Even better, unplug dormant appliances to reduce stand-by power consumption. Power strips make it easy to switch off all devices in one fell swoop.

For businesses that haven’t yet incorporated green principles, the process may seem daunting. That’s why experts say to start small.

“Don’t look at this as a huge obstacle, or think you have to change every aspect of your business practices—choose one thing, make it a habit and then choose another,” said Leroy-Reed of the U.S. Green Building Council. “And then spread the word. If you’re a small business doing good things in your office, there’s no reason why your customers shouldn’t know about it.”

That too is good for business.

Robyn A. Friedman is a contributing editor to Jacksonville Small Business Advantage. She can be reached at RAFWriter@att.net or through her Web site www.everythingwrite.com

SIDEBAR

Survey: ‘Green businesses’ important to consumers

The “greenness” of a company earns its business for a lot of Americans. According to a recent Harris Poll, conducted online among 3,110 adults, 27% of those who are “most green” patronized a business because of its environmental activities, and 23% of that group avoided patronizing a business because of its environmental activities or lack of them.

And it doesn’t take a “tree hugger” to make a difference to a business. Eleven percent of those who were “least green” patronized green businesses, and 9% of the same group avoided businesses that were not environmentally concerned.

Respondents to the poll were divided into four groups—least green (23%), not very green (29%), somewhat green (25%), and most green (22%)—based on their responses to four questions (“describes me completely, very well, fairly well, somewhat well, not at all, very well/completely”):

• I am environmentally conscious.

• I am a conservationist.

• I am an environmentalist.

• I am “green.”

The most frequent environmental activities respondents engaged in during the last year included:

• Installed more energy-efficient light bulbs (63%),

• Purchased energy-efficient appliances (36%),

• Started paying bills online (46%),

• Switched to paperless financial statements (40%),

• Donated an electronic device for recycling (41%),

• Switched from bottled to tap water (29%),

• Installed a low-flow showerhead (17%) or low-flow toilet (16%),

• Made energy-efficient home improvements (14%),

• Bought a more fuel-efficient car (13%).

The year 2009 was not the best year for most people. “Now is the time to refresh your thinking and get ‘unstuck,’ ” GinaMaria Jerome, CEO of The Leadership Guild, told a sold-out crowd in a recent Knowledge Is Power breakfast workshop, presented by Jacksonville Small Business Advantage. Jerome shared seven proven success strategies with the group. She said she has used them with clients, but more important, she knows they work, because she has used them herself as a small business owner.

1. Frame your mind. What you conceive and believe, you can achieve, said Jerome, quoting Napoleon Hill. “If you don’t  believe you can do it, nothing will matter, she said. It all begins with your mindset, where you are coming from because where you are takes you to where you want to be.”

2. Set a bold money goal. You shouldn’t work just for the money, she said, but money is the means to achieve the things you really want in life. Emulate the big companies, she suggested; they set annual financial projections. When you do this, she said, “Be bold; be specific; and be real for you. Go for the gusto this year. Make it really big. You’ll get excited and so will your team.”

When you set a bold money goal she encouraged doing it in two ways: an annual goal, and a 90-day goal. The short-term goal will keep you focused, help you track your progress, and see the rewards of your efforts. These 90-day goals keep you moving by maintaining the momentum to propel you forward throughout the year toward your annual goal.

3. Create a strategic plan. Jerome explained that a strategic plan is not the same as a business plan. A business plan sets out specific results that are to be accomplished by the business. A strategic plan incorporates your vision and your mission, and describes what you are, what you can be, and who benefits from the business.

As you create your strategy plan, give yourself permission to think creatively and find innovative ways to earn revenues. One way to create this plan is with a mind map: In the center of a flip chart, write down your bold money goal. Then surrounding that goal, write down the different ways you can go about achieving your money goal. For each area, list a revenue goal.

When you have finished creating your strategic plan—which might be done in as little as 30 minutes, said Jerome—don’t keep it hidden. Post it in your office where you will see it and be reminded of what you’re achieving this year.

4. Get buy-in. Buy-in happens in three directions: down, up, and across. “You want your team to get on board with you,” she said. “The best way to make this happen is to get them on board from the beginning. Have them help you create your strategic plan. Have your team help you create your mission and your vision. When people are involved in that creative process, they own it and they become committed.”

You also want to get buy-in going up. “If you are the top, then your ‘up’ buy-in needs to come from your lenders or investors or someone close to you, such as your spouse.”

Finally, you also need buy-in across the organization. Large organizations get collaborative buy-in by getting the different departments, such marketing, manufacturing, and finance involved with the plan from the start. In your organization, you may invite your team members to a meeting to collectively, as a group, develop the strategic plan.

“Across” also means including your customers. To get buy-in from them, consider sending out a survey or conducting a contest. Ask them, “We’re getting ready to launch a new product. What do you think about this idea? How will it affect you?”

5. Design the supporting goals. Once you have your strategic plan and the buy-in you need, the next thing to do is to develop goals that will support your plan. When you write your goals, think in terms of outcomes, said Jerome. Then write SMART goals: specific, measureable, achievable, results-driven, and time-sensitive.

Write goals that can be achieved within a 30–90 day time span, she recommended. “People need a reward system. When you have a reward in place—your goal accomplishment—it helps you keep going.” Short-term goals also allow you to adjust your course if necessary.

6. Get into action. “The first five tips,” said Jerome, “are a top-down approach to strategic planning. Small business owners often think in on the level of ‘to do.’ We don’t always think strategically. So sometimes it is more effective for us to use a bottom-up approach to strategic planning.” 

In this approach, she explained, write down all of the things you have to do, then look at similar activities and roll them up together into big areas. Then set your goals—including a money goal—around those activities.

Strategic planning works either way—top down or bottom up, she said. The important thing is to think creatively to break out of the box you may find holding you in.

7. Get a support system. Accountability is key to turning a plan into results. Use a support system to make yourself accountable. Your support system might be a mentor, a buddy, or a coach. When you use this person, make sure you follow up with that person, said Jerome. “Find someone to be accountable to,” she said. “Making yourself accountable increases your chance of success tremendously.”

If you have employees, you probably need this insurance    

By Deb Eveson    

You have a lot invested in your employees; they are your most important assets. If they are unable to work because of a work-related injury or illness, not only do they suffer, but you suffer as well: All the time and training you have invested in them is lost, and you may have to train someone else to replace them while they recover.

One way your employees are protected is through workers’ compensation. Here is a primer on the basics of workers’ comp in Florida:

• What is workers’ compensation? Workers compensation is an insurance program that pays employees who are injured on the job. Payment includes benefits for all medical costs related to the injury and disability benefits if the employee is unable to return to work. But workers comp is not only for employees: It also protects you—the employer—from litigation relating to workplace injuries.

• Who must have it? Any non-construction Florida employer with four or more full or part-time employees must provide workers’ compensation insurance. Note, though, that although you are not required to carry workers’ comp insurance if you have three or fewer employees, you could still incur liability for covering claims from an injury or illness that is job-related.

If your company is in the construction industry and employs even one full or part-time employee, you must carry workers’ comp insurance. There are also specific requirements for farmers and state and local governments which may fall outside of these guidelines.

Several types of employees are not covered under workers’ comp insurance: domestic servants; workers on small farms employees that employ five or fewer regular employees and fewer than 12 other employees at one time for seasonal labor not exceeding 30 days; professional athletes; sports officials for interscholastic sports and public or private non-profit amateur, sports events; labor under sentence of a court to perform community service (DUI law); state and county prisoners unless working for private employees; and employees covered by the Defense Base Act

• What kinds of injuries are covered? Workers’ comp claims are paid based on the direct result of workplace activity, whether it is an injury, disease, or accident from the job. Claims can result from a variety of causes, such as disease contracted as a result of exposure on the job, accidental injury on the job, or other injuries from a work-related activity.

• Who counts as an employee under workers’ comp? An owner or operator may not be counted as an employee under certain circumstances. For example, a sole proprietor or a partner is considered to be the employer, not an employee. These individuals, therefore, are not provided benefits under the law. However, the law provides them the opportunity to elect to be covered by filing the proper election form with the Division of Workers Comp.

An officer of a corporation is an employee if the officer performs services for the corporation for pay. When the officer is considered to be an employee under this rule, the law allows the option to exempt the officer from coverage by filing the proper notice with the Division. Corporations in the construction industry can exempt no more than three officers and those officers must own a minimum of 10% of the corporation. For non-construction corporations, there is no limit to the number of exemptions allowed.

• How can you save money on premiums? The standard rate charged for workers’ comp is calculated on every $100 of payroll, based on risk classifications of your operations. A manufacturing environment, for instance, has a different rate from a business operating in an office environment.  

Certain modifications may apply when premiums reach certain levels. The Experience Rating Plan, which is mandatory for risks exceeding certain annual premiums, recognizes the prior loss experience of the risk and applies either a debit for unfavorable experience or a credit for better-than-expected loss results.

All aspects of rating are administered and enforced by the National Council on Compensation Insurance. The Council files rules and rates with the State Insurance Department, establishes classifications, promulgates experience modifications, and audits all policies for correctness under a rule requiring that a copy of every policy issued must be filed with the Council. 

• Any other requirements? Florida requires employers to place two posters in a prominent place where employees can easily access them. “The Broken Arm Poster” alerts employees of their rights under Florida law; you must place your insurer’s information on the poster. “The Anti-Fraud Notice” warns employees about workers’ compensation fraud.

You are also required to report all job-related injuries to the state within seven days of occurrence. 

• What’s the best rule for dealing with workers’ comp? Think safety first in preventing accidents and injuries to protect your employees and keep your claims and your premiums down. If you have employees, you need workers’ comp coverage.

Find an insurance agent you are comfortable with who has experience with workers’ compensation insurance. Use your business network to get referrals. Choose the agent with the experience and service delivery that best suits your business needs.

To download a copy of Florida’s Workers’ Compensation Guide, click here.

Deb Eveson is agency owner of Eveson Insurance Agency (www.allstate.com/debeveson), 12525 Philips Hwy, Suite 206 Jacksonville, FL 32256. She can be reached at 904-400-6450 or DebEveson@Allstate.com.

SIDEBAR

How can you minimize exposure to claims?

Since claims are made because of accidents and injuries, take proactive steps to reduce the opportunity for injury. In other words, think and “preach” safety—to everyone in your employment, whether they are in a job that has inherent risks or in a “safe” job, such as working in an office environment.

Consider the type of activities prevalent in your industry, and those that create an environment for potential hazards for employees. Involve your employees; they know their jobs better than anyone else. And, don’t tolerate short-cutting safety to get a job done faster.

Here are some suggestions to get your started:

• Vehicle safety. Provide a vehicle safety course. Conduct a safety checklist. Install backup alarms on trucks. Consider speed governors.

• Office environment. Involve employees in reporting safety issues they uncover in the workplace, such as slippery floors; ask employees to close desk drawers to prevent bruised shins and worse; don’t allow the use of extension cords to reduce fire risk.

• Keyboarding. Tell employees to stretch and move from their desks every few hours. Provide ergonomic chairs; train employees how to use them properly. Set up work stations for proper keyboard use.

• Manufacturing. Thoroughly train employees on how to safely operate equipment. Issue safety glasses and hearing protection and enforce their usage. Convene a safety committee; get employees involved in identifying and eliminating risks. Run regular safety inspections; correct problems immediately.

By Cathy Bracken    

A commonsense business rule is “make it easy for customers to pay.” Credit cards do that. So do other non-cash forms of payment, such as debit and purchasing cards. All of these things increase customer satisfaction and contribute to increased business volume.

These electronic non-cash transactions are processed through a merchant account, facilitated through  point-of-sale (POS) solutions,  only offered by merchant services providers.

The goal of a merchant account is to facilitate fast, reliable cash flow. Almost all types of businesses—even nonprofits— can qualify to have a merchant account, provided you have a business checking account and satisfy the processor’s underwriting credit guidelines. The size of your business really doesn’t matter.

To decide what kind of merchant account or POS solution is right for you consider asking the merchant services provider these questions:

• How do you want to process transactions? It is important to select the right POS solution(s) for your business. For example, a brick-and-mortar business may best benefit from a traditional retail POS merchant account—using a swipe terminal. But if that business also conducts transactions on the Internet, through mail order or telephone sales, or on-the-go, it would need additional types of POS  solutions.

Hint: Work with a merchants services professional who will customize a POS solution to meet your unique needs. There is no “one size fits all” solution in merchant accounts.

• Do you want to lease,  or buy your POS solution? Talk with your merchant services provider about the advantages and disadvantages of owning vs. leasing POS solutions.

• What do you get for the money? POS solutions come with fees. Ask questions to get the full picture about the services and their costs. Is there a set-up fee? Monthly service fees? You have a right to understand fully your merchant account services, how the transaction process will work for you, when you will be funded, and who you are paying each month.

• What are your risks and responsibilities? Ask about your responsibilities in having a merchant account, and find out if there are some types of transactions that carry a higher  risk  of chargebacks and what you must do if you process these types of transactions.

• What other services can be added to the merchant account? Most merchant service providers offer other value-added services, such as electronic check processing, as well as gift-card, specialty-card, and loyalty-card acceptance. 

• How much will a merchant account cost? The merchant account pricing options available today allow for you to be custom-fitted for services based on who your customers are and what types of cards you accept. There are three basic pricing programs— flat-rate pricing, break-out rate pricing, and interchange pass-through pricing. All three offer cost benefits, depending upon your business:

Flat-rate pricing is the most traditional type of pricing program. This pricing program is best for low processing merchants that accept only consumer credit cards. The program is the easiest to understand and reconcile on your monthly statement. It is still very popular, and the most widely marketed to date. If you are considering this type of pricing program, ask for rate detail and fine print in this pricing program to make sure it is the best fit for you.

Break-out rate pricing prices each transaction by the basic card-type categories— non PIN debit check cards, credit cards, reward cards, and commercial cards. These categories are cross-bucket into transaction types as well. Those transaction types are called qualified, mid or partially qualified, and non-qualified transactions. Depending on the processor, you may have from three to 12 different rates for Visa, MasterCard and Discover Cards in all the available categories the processor offers. Each card brand can have a different applicable rate for the card and transaction type categories.  Although it sounds complicated, this type of pricing is excellent for most merchants.

Interchange pass-through pricing prices each transaction at its base cost then adds a processing mark-up.  With more than 160 categories a single transaction can bucket into, this pricing program assures the greatest flexibility in processing venues as well as the most accurate lowest per transaction cost versus the standard averaged costing methods traditionally used.  Interchange pricing is the pricing method of choice traditionally reserved for high transaction volume merchants who accept many types of bankcards originating from several card issuing banks.

Work with your merchant services provider to create a win-win in providing the best processing services and POS solutions at a cost that makes sense for your business.

• What kind of commitment is required? Signing up for a merchant account is easy. There will be an application containing a contractual agreement, with some fine print that usually has a length of term provision and early cancellation penalties. Review the fine print carefully before signing the agreement. It’s also a good idea to inquire about the circumstances, if any, under which you may request to have fees waived.

Before your application is accepted, you will be required to provide basic business documents such as a company check, a business license, Web site(s), and marketing materials to support information provided on the merchant account application.

Merchant services are a great value to businesses. With so much uncertainty affecting businesses today, you can better prepare for future growth and prosperity by strengthening all processes within your control that are certain to yield improved cash flow. 

Cathy Bracken is the CEO of Cyberauthorize.Com (www.cyberauthorize.com), a 10-year-old local merchant services provider that services merchants nationally. She can be reached at 904-564 1228, Ext 204.

By P. Douglas Filaroski    

Attorney Ray Driver remembers a call from a small business owner he considered more than just a client.

“He said ‘I just wanted to let you know I terminated a contract with a vendor and now they are suing me,’ ” said Driver, who wished he’d had the chance to advise his client before the client made such a drastic and ultimately business decision that turned out to be very expensive.

For small business owners, maintaining a close relationship with the legal, financial, tax, and other professional experts they hire for services is one of the keys to keeping a useful stable of “advisors.”

“I know people don’t want to call lawyers on the front end because it can be expensive,” said Driver, a partner at Driver, McAfee, Peek & Hawthorne in Jacksonville. “But on the back end, it can be more expensive.”

Most small businesses can’t afford to have an expert on staff to handle all their professional needs. So there are several keys points to remember when contracting with a professional advisor.

Perhaps the most vital is to remember you’re not hiring a faceless professional who bills you by the hour; you’re hiring a true partner with whom an intimate business relationship is essential.

“That takes time,” Driver said. “But I believe that’s where it should end up. In fact, I historically have found many of my relationships grow into close friendships.”

David Barley, a certified public account at Barley, Martin &Wild, CPAs in Jacksonville, said perhaps the most important is to know the professional you’re dealing with before you hire him.

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“One of the best ways to find a good CPA, or any professional services provider, is to ask other professionals you already use for a referral,” said Barley, who suggested business owners ask their bankers, insurance agents, attorneys, even doctors for leads.

“They’ll send you to someone they trust, and they know will take care of you,” Barley said. “They don’t want to look foolish by sending you to someone that makes them look bad.”

Once you have a referral, check them out on association Web sites. While you’re there, get names of other professionals. Google the names and read what has been written about them.

The relationship cannot be effective unless the business owner feels comfortable with the professional and trusts them.

“One of the big issues is trust,” Barley said. “A reputable CPA will keep all of your information completely confidential. Being open and honest regarding all things financial is important.”

Michael Pitts, branch manager with SunTrust Bank in Jacksonville, said once business owners have selected an advisor they need to teach that advisor about their business.

That goes beyond phone conversations, e-mails, or even lunch meetings.

“Invite them out to your business,” Pitts said. “I’m a very visual person. So going to an owner’s location goes a long way in getting me to understand what they’re really all about.”

Contracting with a professional for services is really more than that. Small business owners should think of it as taking on a partner.

“The biggest thing is making sure everyone who is your partner is taking work off your plate,” Pitts said. “We want to do more than just lend you money. We want to provide you the backing you need to grow your business, but we need to understand it first.”

Of course, few healthy business relationships can exist without a contract or some form of documentation. That’s why Sheila Collins, president of Collins Capital Management Inc. in Jacksonville, says business owners should get terms of their agreements in writing.

Financial investments advisors should explain the difference between commission- or fee-based services. Then once services and fees are agreed upon, the advisor should provide a copy of the agreement to clients.

Also, your financial advisor should document the performance of your portfolio account as measured against appropriate market indexes each quarter, Collins said. 
Driver, the attorney, said a large percentage of the work he does for clients is contract work. Small businesses represent  a material portion of his business. Yet he knows small business owners don’t always get agreements with vendors spelled out in writing.

Driver said there’s another key that’s as basic but one that many small business owners forget: Listen to your advisors.

“That one seems pretty obvious, but you’d be surprised,” Driver said. “People will hire someone, pay them good money, and ignore or forget to seek their advice.”

Advisors don’t always have a clear-cut answer, but they often do and they are seldom uninformed about potential solutions.

“It doesn’t always mean they’re right,” Driver said. “Question them. There are few things in the business world that are black and white. So talk with them and come to a decision together.”

P. Douglas Filaroski is a contributing editor to the Jacksonville Small Business Advantage. He can be reached at dfilaroski@att.net.

SIDEBAR

How to hire advisors

• Shop around. Ask business associates or other professionals who they use for legal, financial, tax or investing advice — and begin there. Do research through professional associations’ Web sites, and on Google. The most important thing: Consider more than one option.

• Get it in writing. Once you’ve hired a professional to provide services to your business— an advisor—understand exactly what you’ve hired them to do. Then get it in writing. Make sure there’s a contract or written document outlining a scope of work.

• Get to know your advisors. Invite them to your business; show them around; get to know them on a personal level so they truly understand your business and its needs. Let them take you to lunch or coffee to complete the connection. Trust is the most important component of this relationship.

• Make your advisor your partner. Talk often with your advisor. It’s vital you invite them into the decision-making process early so they can have an effect on that big decision. It’s your business, but you want your advisor to feel like a partner.

• Challenge them to bring ideas. Challenge your advisor to be creative and bring solutions to the table. It’s not enough to perform services and follow the letter of a contract. They should fulfill the spirit of the deal and contribute ideas to help you become more successful.

• Listen to them. This one sounds obvious, but how many business owners ignore the advice they’ve paid for. Your advisor’s not always right, but he or she is not usually wrong, and you should come to a decision together.

Advisors: Not hired for life

There is no such thing today as a lifetime job—not even for your trusted business advisors. It takes time to establish a trusting relationship, but trust alone is not enough to sustain an advisory association.

Periodically review your relationships. Ideally, you and your advisors will grow more successful together. But, if you (or they) outgrow the relationship, end it formally and seek other advisors that more closely match your needs.

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By Al Bagocius    

Starting a new business, especially from your home, creates many challenges and needs for behavioral control. Going from a job situation to a self-employed endeavor, you find unlimited freedom but at the cost of not receiving a paycheck two weeks.

Working out of your home to start a new business has so many distractions that you could fail in a very short period of time.

When I started my own business, I adopted the following fail-safe system. If you incorporate it as one of your planning tools, you’ll find it will help you keep afloat and successful. The system is based on accomplishing a quota of activities that ensures success in as short a time period as possible. The quota is defined as a weekly point goal; I suggest you aim to “earn” 1,000 points each week.

Point values

To tally 1,000 points, you earn points for various types of activities:

• Phone calls, 1 point. However, you only earn that point for each call that results in talking directly to a prospect or customer.

• E-mail, 1 point. These must be directed to the prospect or customer.

• Mailing marketing information to a customer, 1 point. Because mailing is a black hole that too often gets little or no response, its point value is low.

• Account visitation, 10 points. Meeting the customer face-to-face in most businesses is so important that has a value 10 times that of other activities.

• Order entry, 33% of the dollar value of the profit. The calculation for points for order entry should only be made on profit above cost. For example, if the profit on your $1,500 order is $500, the calculation would be: 33% x $500 = $166 (that is, 166 points).

• Invoice to customer, 33% of dollar value of the profit. (Calculated the same way as for order entry.)

• Checks received from Customers, 33% of dollar value of profit. (Same as above.)

The order cycle develops in three stages: order entry, invoicing the customer, and finally cashing the check that is received from the customer. A sales mentor of mine many years ago only defined an order as one in which the customer’s check clears. How right he was.

Too often, new business owners snooker themselves with a false sense of security, counting the money made at order entry and spending accordingly. If you use the point system, however, you will track all of the components of the order cycle each week, and you will have a clear picture of how well you are doing, how well you did in the immediate past, and what you need to do in the near future.

One more thing: Along with maintaining a high activity level to earn points and ensure success, you should also find a way to give back to the community. You don’t earn points for this activity, but it will pay you pay tenfold in the long run. Consider donating products, service, or time to local organizations.

Al Bagocius is owner of A & I Consulting Group: Creative Marketing Solutions, www.aicreativepackaging.com. He can be reached at 904-367-9322 or al@aicreativepackaging.com

By Pamela Smith    

You have heard of a buyer’s market and a seller’s market, but have you heard of a tenant’s market? That’s what we are in now, and for anyone who rents office space, that’s good news.

A tenant’s market is one in which the tenant has the upper hand in office-lease negotiations—for both new and existing leases. Tenants (both current tenants and new tenants) have the power to negotiate terms that are to their liking. This power is driven by the market’s current high vacancy level—20% to 25% in the Jacksonville area.

With the current insecure economic climate, landlords are especially sensitive to retaining existing tenants in their office spaces, so early renewal opportunities abound. Tenants who landlords consider them “quality” can open negotiations early and offer to extend their leases by two or three years provided they receive competitive terms.

What are competitive terms? Consider asking for a reduced lease rate on the expanded terms; one or two months of free rent; or paint, carpeting, signage, or similar cosmetic improvements.

If you are a new tenant or someone who wishes to relocate to a new office space, you can get the most for your money by:

• Subleasing. Subleased space provides the most in overhead savings but you may run into some limitations. Sublessors will discount their leases substantially but will rarely offer any money towards redoing or updating a space. You may also be limited on the length of the lease.

•Upgrading. If you are looking to relocate, you may be able to upgrade your office space while paying the same rate per square foot that you paid in your previous, less attractive space. 

To get the most for your money, consider using the services of a tenant representative broker. This type of broker knows the market, the players, and the terms are being offered by landlords. The broker’s commission is paid by the landlord, who has generally already budgeted the lease commissions into the building’s cash-flow projections.

Every property is unique, and every landlord is unique. Some properties have a lower cost base of operations and can provide better lease terms. New properties usually have a higher base of operating costs and may be limited by their institutional ownership in the terms that they can provide.

Nevertheless, no property can sit empty for long. Now is the time for businesses to take advantage of the economic environment and reduce their overhead expenses. 

Pamela Smith has an MBA from Florida International University and a marketing degree from the University of Florida.  With 12 years of commercial office leasing experience, Smith owns and operates Smith Commercial Real Estate, which specializes in representing corporate office tenants. She can be contacted at 786-368-3707.