The Florida 8(a) Alliance (http://www.florida8a.org) will hold the first Annual Conference on June 5 and 6, 2012. The Florida 8(a) Alliance, a non-profit organization, has a mission to strengthen, train, educate and promote 8(a) and other small businesses in Florida through informational seminars, Internet groups, and summit meetings.

Speakers include: Cassius Butts- SBA Region IV Administrator; Linda Oliver- Deputy Small Business Director, Office of the Secretary of Defense; Wilfredo Gonzalez- Director, SBA North Florida District and Kenneth Hamilton- Supervisor, SBA Business Development Division.

The Conference is for all businesses 8(a), small businesses, Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB), 8(M), Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB), large businesses that have an interest in strengthening, training, educating and promoting 8(a) and small business firms in Florida in alignment with the organization’s mission.

Founder of the Alliance Andy Harold said “that providing a place for small businesses to network and learn from each and giving back to the small business community that has given so much to him was the primary reasons that he established the organization.” Mr. Harold is CEO of A. Harold and Associates (AHA), LLC a Florida-based, service-disabled veteran-owned (SDVO), 8(a)/small disadvantaged business (SDB)-certified firm.

The 8(a) program name comes from Section 8(a) of the Small Business Act. The Act, as amended by Congress, created the 8(a) program so the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) could help small companies owned and operated by socially and economically disadvantaged persons develop their businesses. This Alliance could not exist without the generous support of their wonderful sponsors: Beaver Street Enterprise Center; 5/3 Bank and LSQ Funding Group; Keystone Benefits Group; Ennis, Pellum and Associates CPAs; Deltek; Brown Insurance; Synovus Bank and First Coast Community Bank; Florida SBDC at UNF; Brown & Brown Insurance and FHM Insurance and Berman Hopkins Wright & LaHam CPAs and Associates.

To register for this great event, please visit: http://florida8aconference.eventbrite.com/

Beaver Street Enterprise Center is hosting “Strategic Marketing for Small Business” on May 30 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Beaver Street Enterprise Center located at 1225 W. Beaver Street, Jacksonville, 32204.

In this three hour hands on workshop, you will learn a simple five-part formula to growing your business that, when applied, can easily, grow any business by 20%, 30% 50% or more. This event is designed to help small businesses create an effective marketing plan and will also educate and empower you to answer such questions such as, “What makes your business unique?” “Why do customers buy from you?” And, “Who is your target market?”

Register online at http://strategicmarket53012.eventbrite.com. For more information, call 904-265-4700 or email angelia.redding@bsecenter.net.

During the day, Mandarin resident Leonard Alterman practices law—primarily in the areas of business law, wills, probate and litigation—but after hours, you will find him pursuing his passions of acting and music.

You can find Alterman performing on stage acting in local theater productions, and playing his saxophone in the Putnam County Community Band in Palatka (where he grew up) and clarinet in the Clay County Community Band.

Getting bit

He says that he has always had the performing bug in him, recalling that his first “real gig” was being the narrator in his kindergarten May Day pageant. To his acting love, he then added his love of music and went on to play the saxophone in his high school band and performed in many of his schools talent shows.

His first experience acting in a play was at Theatre Jacksonville as the Rabbi’s son in “Fiddler on the Roof.” After that he has never looked back and has been in more than 60 musicals and plays at local theaters and has even appeared in movies and commercials. He says people often say to him “You must really love trial work because it’s like acting.” His response to that: “I act for fun, but trial work is serious business.”

Revisiting old loves

After high school, Alterman’s music took a back seat to other events. In fact, he didn’t get back into music again until about 10 years ago when a member from his high school band organized a meeting of band members so they could all get together and play at a class reunion.

He bought a saxophone on eBay and the group practiced during the summer of 2002 until the reunion. Alterman says, “That little event led to me taking saxophone lessons, which then led later to clarinet and flute lessons and the formation of the Putnam County Community Band.”

Playing a new tune

The band, which Alterman was instrumental in starting, has grown from eight to its current 25 members. In addition to playing in the Putnam County Community Band, Alterman also plays in the Clay County Community Band and has played pit orchestra for a few theatrical productions, giving him a chance to combine theater and music.

He finds himself quite busy combining all of these performing loves—a play usually requires about six weeks of rehearsals averaging three nights a week, which becomes every night the week of opening, and his band rehearsals are weekly for one and a half to two hours.

But Alterman loves all of it. “I love doing theater and music because as a child I always admired and envied performers I saw on television and in the movies and wanted to do what they did,” he says, and is grateful that it turned out that he had the ability to do it.

“Besides the artistic satisfaction acting in theater companies and playing music with bands provides, I love the social activity and camaraderie—people pulling together to pursue a common goal and having fun doing it,” says Alterman. “Not to mention the lifelong friends I have made in both arenas.”

Leonard Alterman is an Attorney at Law in the Jacksonville area. He can be reached at 904-739-3440, alterlawjax@gmail.com, or through www.altermanlawyer.com.

Tips for securing a business loan in a competitive lending market

By Nathaniel Herring

Nationally, economic indicators across the board suggest a rebound, however gradual, from the recent downturn—and businesses in all industries are taking note. The Jacksonville climate, in particular, continues to slowly brighten: The metro area added 5,500 private sector jobs last year, landing the area in the top 50 U.S. markets for job growth.

As the recovery continues to take hold, many business owners are considering more aggressive expansion strategies—and lending to small and mid-market companies is on the upswing.

Yet while banks are more actively lending, some business owners are hesitant to face credit standards and the underwriting processes. Companies looking to ramp up production, invest in new product development, hire more people, and otherwise march toward greater growth and profitability shouldn’t let this stop them—but they should plan on doing some work before going to a lender.

If you are planning to seek new capital through a business loan, consider the following tips:

Take a team approach

No matter where your company is in its business cycle, it’s crucial to maintain frequent and open communication with a team of professionals: your accountant, investment adviser, banker and other professionals. A balanced dialogue—that includes advisers who are well-informed about the market landscape and your business—is critical to helping you effectively shape the direction your company takes.

Your banker can serve as an insightful business adviser. Maintaining open and ongoing communication will help you take advantage of near- and long-term growth opportunities, as well as effectively weather downturns. When you sit down with your banker, be prepared to discuss not just your borrowing needs, but your overall business situation as well.

Plan ahead

Too many small and mid-sized companies focus on landing a large account without considering the end game: meeting needs, without going under. Put simply, businesses can’t afford to commit to a significant new project without securing the capital necessary to complete the job.

A forward-looking approach is essential in financial planning; if possible, forecast six to 12 months out for anything that can make a material change or put stress on working capital. Don’t wait until you have the purchase order in-hand before getting your bank involved.

Prepare a persuasive presentation

Present a clear view of your financials. To show that your company is financially sound and capable of taking on new endeavors, support your claims with detailed income statements and balance sheets, as well as at least three years of income projections.

In short, “Sales are up!” or “Talk to my accountant,” simply won’t cut it. While enthusiasm and confidence do count, you must articulate the specific value you expect from a new infusion of capital and demonstrate your ability to repay the note.

Another tip: Tell a compelling “story.” Give the financials context and dimension by providing background. What makes your business viable? How are you unique? What obstacles have you overcome? How do you stack up against the competition? If you’re meeting with a bank for the first time, consider rounding out your story with the following details:

•Company history

•Company accreditations, credentials, awards, recognitions

•Management team bios

•Product and services overview

•Marketing analysis and strategy

•Relevant operational and production plans

•Risk evaluations

Avoid common pitfalls

Many mistakes are easy to sidestep. Here are a few tips:

Get current valuations. Many business owners overstate the value of their collateral. Even though the bank will obtain an independent appraisal, it’s important that you have a solid understanding of your assets, including land, buildings and equipment.

Use setbacks to your advantage. Banks recognize that all businesses go through ups and downs, especially in a challenging market. Rather than downplay losses, discuss how you minimized the impact and what strategies you have in place to mitigate future issues.

Time it right. Banks underwrite based on a full year of financial reports, so consider this: Would your case for financing be stronger six months from now?

Be flexible. More stringent risk management policies in banking may mean your entire borrowing needs can’t be met with a single, lump-sum loan. Be open to exploring other options, such as an incremental financing program. Success with smaller infusions of capital over time can help increase your business’s credit-worthiness while assisting with cash flow.

Also, be sure to discuss all available funding options, including government initiatives like Florida’s Economic Gardening Institute—a program to support the growth of second-stage businesses—and SBA (U.S. Small Business Administration) guaranteed loans, with your banker.

Is it time for your business to take advantage of more favorable interest rates and improved lending terms to secure new capital? From gains in national consumer confidence to a two percent drop in Florida’s unemployment rate last year, signs of economic recovery are encouraging companies to explore opportunities for growth.

Before you decide to initiate expansion plans or take on that new, large project, make sure you have a banker on your team and your financing plans secured.

Nathaniel Herring is the city president of Fifth Third Bank (North Florida) and oversees the bank’s operations in the Jacksonville market. He is a Jacksonville native and has more than 19 years’ experience in the banking industry. He can be reached at 904-486-1927 or Nathaniel.Herring@53.com. For more information about Fifth Third Bank offers, visit www.53.com.

Hiring the right person the first time can save you money

By John Featherstone

Have you ever hired the wrong person? Most managers will have to answer “yes.” Hiring the right person the first time can save you tens of thousands of dollars in time and resources. And it’s not as difficult as you might think.

People are a company’s most valuable asset, so the company will only be as successful as the quality of the people it hires, trains and leads. Identifying what you need for the most success in a position, and then knowing how to find it in a candidate, is critical.

Improve your process

Step 1. Clearly identify the “musts” needed for a position, and then weight each criterion. These are things that candidates must have in order to be called for a phone interview. Beyond basic skills, managers need to give serious thought to special skills the employee will need to solve current problems and achieve performance improvements.

Step 2. Look for and rate those “musts” during the initial resume review and all interviews (phone and in-person). Ignore your “gut feeling”—whether positive or negative—until all candidates are interviewed and evaluated against the same criteria.

Step 3. People succeed from their strengths, so keep your focus there during the interview. Just be sure there are no weaknesses that would almost surely lead to failure on the job.

Step 4. The in-depth interview is a fact-gathering session that allows you to make a good hiring decision. Spend your time gathering facts directly related to job performance. Don’t do all the talking. Candidates should be able to share tangible results that are directly relatable to the position for which they are applying.

Step 5. Commit to taking time for a successful recruiting project. Take no shortcuts. Doing the job properly the first time will save you time, money, energy, frustration (yours and the employee’s co-workers) and the need to do this all over again too soon.

Too many managers hire based on their “gut feelings” or on interviews in which the hiring manager has talked more than the candidate for hire. Seldom does one learn anything while talking. The purpose of the interview is to gather job-related facts. This requires that the candidate talk about 80% of the time.

Areas of assessment

There are areas of assessment in which intensive questioning is needed to clearly identify the best people to hire. Here is just a sampling of those areas and related questions:

1. The practice of management
a. Define “management” for me.
b. How would your previous superiors describe your management skills?
c. What is your style of management, and can you share an example of how well it has worked for you?

2. Leadership
a. Tell me about a policy you put in place that generated employee resistance.
b. Describe and give examples of your self-confidence.
c. How do you convince people to want to do what needs to be done?

3. Risk-taking
a. How do you assess risk?
b. Describe the circumstances where you had to make a decision before you had sufficient facts.

4. Results-oriented
a. How did you bring about your greatest achievement?
b. How are your previous employers better off as a result of your employment?

5. Delegation
a. Is delegation worth the risk? Explain with examples.
b. How do you manage a task delegated to a subordinate?

6. Judgment
a. What was the worst decision you made in the last year, and what was the outcome?

7. Ability/desire to learn
a. What periodicals do you currently read?
b. What did you learn from your previous superior?

8. Planning ability
a. Tell me about the best plan you prepared, how you implemented it and the results.
b. How do you decide what elements of a plan to delegate?

9. Ability to organize
a. Help me to understand how job descriptions help employees work better.
b. What data do you collect to measure progress in your area, and how do you use it?

The other areas can be identified by contacting the author:

John Featherstone, author of “Start Hiring Winners,” is a consultant to small business and a former five-year volunteer with SCORE, mentoring and training small-business owners and employees. As a division vice president/general manager for a privately held confectionery company, Featherstone managed a spectacular annual growth rate of 50% for seven consecutive years.

How Country Caterers BBQ’s expansion into government contracts and disaster relief has made them ‘more than just great barbecue’

By Wendy Bautista

From their 100 acres of land in Keystone Heights, Tom and Cathy Perryman, owners of Country Caterers BBQ (www.countrycaterersbbq.com), have turned a family restaurant into a turnkey event/catering company that expanded into disaster relief and government contracts feeding the troops.

Ice cream to catering

“Years ago, we bought a little ice cream shop and turned it into a restaurant called Tasty Cave,” says Tom. “When I did that, I also obtained a mentor who taught me about catering. I began shadowing and doing jobs with him, and eventually expanded the restaurant to include catering.”

The Perryman’s clearly and fondly remember their first catering job—it was for Clay Electric Cooperative, whom they still provide services for 35 years later. “That many years ago, there weren’t many caterers,” says Cathy. “We were somewhat of a novelty, which was great.”

They eventually sold the restaurant and went strictly to a catering business, but it wasn’t long before the needs and desires of their customers changed their business forever. “We went from ‘just food’ to acquiring our own equipment; tents, tables and chairs; and moonwalks and other amusement-type things because the customers wanted them,” says Cathy.

“When we first started, Cathy and I had a pick-up truck and a makeshift cooker,” says Tom. “Today, we have 20 rotisseries, 25 flat grills, 15 vans, tractor trailers, trailers, semis, and all this equipment, with some we built ourselves to make jobs easier and to suit our needs.”

Those needs include being able to prepare all of the food wherever they may be.  As no food items arepremade, they bring in all the cooking equipment needed for each event.

A catered affair

With a staff of  about 70, to include their children Teresa and Tom Jr. (Tommy) the Perryman’s achieve close to 1,200 parties a year, which averages to about 25 to 30 events a week and an average revenue of about $4 million a year.

While the hub of their business is barbeque, the scope of what they can do is much larger than most people think—and its pig logo may be the culprit. “While we are known for our gourmet barbeque ribs, pork, slaw, beans, and potato salad,” says Teresa, “Unless you know us, you don’t realize we can do a large variety of meals other than just BBQ like, meatloaf, spaghetti, seafood, gourmet foods, and the like.

“We can do the same events as the fancier hotels do downtown for upscale weddings, banquets, corporate picnics, corporate events and holiday parties—even with a pig as our mascot,” jokes Teresa.

Tom and Cathy also pride themselves on being able to offer turnkey events to customers. “If the customer just wants food, they can get just food. If they want to just rent tents, they can just rent tents,” says Cathy. “If they want it all, they can have it all—it really is all about what they want and/or need for their event.”

This turnkey mindset is also what helped them branch into aiding in disaster relief and obtaining government contracts.

Discovering new avenues

In 1990, during Desert Storm, they acquired their first government contract to feed the troops during amilitary exercise at Fort Stewart. “I remember that we had just bought a fax machine and were still learning how to use it, but we had to get the signed contract to them by midnight,” says Tom. “We faxed it over just before midnight and started feeding thousands of troops the next morning for the next three weeks, 24 hours a day.”

After successfully completing Fort Stewart, they started looking for other jobs that were similar in volume and began acquiring work with power companies such as JEA, Florida Power and Light, Sumter Electric Cooperative, and other commercial companies around Florida. It was then they realized that the training exercise resources could be used in hurricane disaster relief.

When the hurricanes hit in the early 2000s, they were ready to assist. “We would go in with these companies, set up, and be there to support the community and feed the linemen and the tree trimmers and the people that were there to bring the community back to life,” says Cathy.

It was after completing these events successfully that Tom and Cathy began to explore government contracts.

Good work if you can get it

Teresa, who was working in retail management at the time, was asked by her parents to come back and help work the government contracts. “Mom had just acquired a GSA (U.S. General Services Administration, www.gsa.gov) contract, but was just not sure what to do next and asked me to figure it out,” says Teresa. “I soon figured it out and we started winning contracts. Our first major contract was in Wyoming feeding soldiers from Nebraska, 24 hours a day for 30 days during a military training exercise.”

When they returned, they received a phone call from someone who found them through the GSA directory. He had a customer, who was looking to use a GSA contractor, but he was not on schedule, he said would you be interested in priming the contract under your GSA schedule and letting me supply you all the life support resources for the exercise. Of course, Teresa said, “Yes,” and their second major contract ended up lasting 56 days and served 150,000 meals.

“Life support resources include sleeping tents, shower and laundry trailers, toilets, fuel and water tankers, power generation, cots, dining facilities, tents, tables, chairs, lighting—all the items you need to set up what we call ‘base camp,’” says Teresa.

Knowing those same resources are used after an emergency as well, they took some of the contract money and reinvested it into the company. They purchased more life support resources for themselves so they can be the one vendor clients can call that has or can get all the resources—be turnkey.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to continue working for a year and a half in Ohio providing base camp resources,” continues Teresa.

Working the deal

Teresa has spent the last five years focusing on government contracting and post-disaster contracting. She admits to writing hundreds of bids—winning some, losing some, but learning the ins and outs of contracting in general as she went along.

Obtaining government and commercial work, especially when it comes to hurricane relief, takes time, with a lot of backend work. “You have to find the jobs, bid on them, hopefully win them, and then secure them,” says Teresa. “You have to do a lot of work prior to a hurricane because once it hits, you don’t have time to be doing all the details. All I have to do is pull the file and the plan is already laid out, which I can’t execute unless a hurricane hits.”

With many of the foundations laid, she is looking now at expanding. “I have made critical industry connections and am a more knowledgeable bidder now,” says Teresa. “We did a few small jobs to get the big jobs, and did some big jobs so we could go after the even bigger jobs.”

Country Caterers is currently pursuing a second GSA contract. The second contract will position them to be able to bid on more base camp exercises, giving the ability to provide operations, logistics and management support to the U.S. military on a larger scale.

They have also used their GSA contract at the city level to secure post-disaster contracts and other city work. Through the Federal Business Opportunity (FBO), they acquired a post-disaster FEMA contract. “If and/or when a hurricane hits, I come in right after the storm to support FEMA’s search and rescue team, setting up a smaller scale base camp,” says Teresa. “They will use me for various life support resources. It’s a great contract, but, unfortunately, there needs to be a hurricane to execute it.”

Re-energizing focus

Even though they are active in government contracts, they can’t—and won’t—forget about the local market. “We maintain a nice balance between our government work and our local market because it’s cyclical and you don’t know what next month holds,” says Tom. “We don’t focus on just one thing at a time; you can’t. You have to be able to do all the different types of jobs to sustain work 365 days a year—diversifying has been a key to our growth and continued success.”

Over the years they have noticed that their different lines of work “flip-flop.” “Some years the government work will generate 80% of our revenue and the corporate/local side will produce only 20%,” says Cathy. “And other years it flips, and the corporate/local side generates 80% and the government work generates 20%. We just fill in the months with what available to us.”

Teresa, being a numbers kind of a person, thinks it will flip flop again soon and is concentrating on re-energizing the local market. “Our core customers haven’t gone anywhere, they just haven’t been able to do as much as in the past,” says Teresa. “By ‘maintaining’ relationships with our customers through the good times and tough times, we hope to continue their support and commitment as in years past.”

It takes adaptability

“If the customer wants it, you need to be able to adapt and get what they need,” says Tommy. “There is no, ‘I can’t get that for you.’ Only, ‘Yes I can.’ That is one of the reasons why we are where we are today.”

“We may not always get it right, but we don’t fail,” says Tom. “There are times that we could’ve done better, but I haven’t met a company yet that’s perfect. We do make mistakes, but when we make them we admit them and work to correct them for the next time.”

“I can pretty much tell you the growth of the business is because of my parent’s original vision,” says Teresa. “That and my father’s motto of ‘Large or small—we cook them all!’ I am very proud of my parents’ accomplishments; they are my heroes.”

All of this together explains why Country Caterers BBQ has been such a longstanding premiere catering company in Jacksonville and is more than just great barbecue.

Wendy Bautista is the editor of Advantage Small Business Magazine. She can be reached at Wendy@advantagebizmag.com or 904-222-8140.

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Business vitals

Owner: Tom and Cathy Perryman

In business since: Late ’70s, incorporated Country Caterers BBQ in 1981

Projected growth: “We will definitely continue to do government contracting work, and will keep the emergency disaster relief contracts active—but you can’t call that part growth unless a hurricane strikes or you land a contract, unfortunately,” say Teresa. “We will also continue to grow our local customers, but the major vision is to have a facility in town to house our own events.

“We would like to own a 20-30 acre facility which contains a banquet space for 1,000 or more people, halls, grounds, etc. where we could do more than one event at a time and sustain all of our customer’s different needs. For our local business, that is the one element that customers need that we have not been able to provide for them. It would be the final episode of our turnkey event solution.”

How you can do it

“Buy and build your company, but constantly reinvest in your company,” says Tom.  “You might have to sacrifice for a few years, but you want to be smart about where you spend your money.”

“There will be times when you are going to fail in one way or another,” says Cathy. “It’s how you pick yourself up and move on that makes you successful because we haven’t always done it right. You have to meet the customer, follow through, do what you say you are going to do and if you still fail, then you correct it.”

“I wouldn’t say there was one thing that made us successful,” says Tom. “It really is the ability to never give up and to persevere. Look around; everything is an opportunity. It’s how you learn from those opportunities, do better, grow, and meet the ever changing demands. I guess it’s about having stamina.”

In addition to participating in many events aimed at promoting and improving the community, Giselle Carson, a shareholder with Marks Gray, P.A. (www.marksgray.com), is currently training to complete her first Boston Marathon and the Miamiman.

“Every year, my husband and I pick two to three key sporting events to participate in from our ‘bucket list,’” says Carson. “This year, they include the Boston Marathon in April and the Miamiman Half Ironman in November.”

As an immigration and business attorney, she works long hours, but still finds time to train four to six days a week—alternating between swimming, running, cycling, yoga and walking. “Since I never know what the day may bring, I schedule my training for early in the morning. I swim and run at 5:30 a.m. during the weekdays and run and bicycle in the morning during weekends.”

At the starting line

Carson recalls that it all started when her and her husband Jeff started training for the Bike MS 150—a 150mile, two-day bike ride that benefits the North Florida Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. “My husband works for Mayo and they have a very strong Bike MS 150 team. In 2002, we started training with them and have completed six MS 150s since,” says Carson.

To add variety to her fitness routine and stay involved with the athletic community of Northeast Florida, she also began training and completed her first Gate River Run in 2004, and is now one of her favorite races. “This year will mark my ninth year running it, and placing in the top 10,” says Carson. “Several running friends told me the Boston Marathon was the world’s greatest running race and that I had to train, qualify and finish it. So I trained, qualified and now continue to train to run and finish the legendary and demanding 26.2 miles across eight towns from Hopkinton to Boston in April!”

Pure joy of it

Carson says the main reason she does all of this is because of the people she has met and the places she has seen. “It is a beautiful sight to run or walk over Jacksonville’s Main or Acosta Bridge at sunrise or sunset,” says Carson. “It is beautiful and peaceful to run, bike or walk through the city in the early morning hours when the streets are quiet, and there is little traffic. You can appreciate the beauty of Jacksonville’s environment and our quality of life.”

Her husband is also very physically active and they enjoy cycling, walking and hiking together in Jacksonville and wherever they travel. In fact, it isn’t uncommon for them to run a race or hike a mountain when they travel. “Last year, while I was a forum speaker at the annual American Immigration Lawyers’ Association conference in Arizona, Jeff and I extended our stay to climb Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous U.S. with an elevation of 14,497 ft.,” says Carson. “Some careful planning, conditioning and a positive mental attitude allowed us to submit and make the 22 mile round trip hike an unforgettable experience.”

Reasons behind it

For Carson, a marathon, a triathlon, a challenging hike is about living life, achieving goals, creating friendships, and learning from the experience. “There are so many reasons why I run and train and compete—the experience, friendships, confidence, bragging rights,” jokes Carson. “But primarily because being physically active and living a healthy lifestyle is the key to my personal and professional development.

“It makes me more productive throughout the day and I have more energy for my profession and life. I encourage anyone looking to have more energy, less stress and a happier life to start exercising! And the effect is compounded. Physical activity will benefit you, your family, your friends and your colleagues….how can it get any better?”

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 small businesses are finding financing online

Small businesses near and far are thankful that technology is on their side, especially when it comes to financing. Tremendous strides have been made in the banking world in the last few years that makes getting a loan easier than before, but many small businesses are finding that there is none easier than online.

Online financing?

Touting themselves as something of a Match.com for lenders and borrowers, BoeFly (www.boefly.com) is an online loan exchange that efficiently connects small business owners with more than 2,000 business lenders.

“We connect borrowers and lenders by helping borrowers build a better loan package and helping lenders find those borrowers,” says David A. Nayor, co-president and chief operating officer for BoeFly. “Being former lenders ourselves, we noticed inefficiencies in the marketplace—mainly where borrowers were having trouble finding lenders.

“We took a step back and figured there’s got to be a better way,” Nayor continues. “Looking at other industries that use the Internet to connect parties more efficiently, such as eHarmony, Match.com, Cars.com, or eBay, we took that concept and applied it to small business lending with BoeFly.”

How it works

BoeFly is a loan-packaging service with software that helps the borrower gain a thorough understanding of what goes into a small business loan request and how to properly package it. Within that process, the borrower receives feedback from the exchange explaining where the strengths and weaknesses are in the deal and allows adjustments to be made as to what lenders want to see based on the marketplace of lender preferences.

“It’s not incredibly complicated, but it does take work to get a loan—no matter the size,” says Nayor. “There is a certain amount of work that lenders want to see in the loan request and we empower borrowers to be prepared before they connect with lenders. It also helps lenders find deals they wouldn’t have ever been privy to otherwise. Really, the success comes down to us matching borrowers with lenders, and ensuring it’s the right lender.”

Kevin Ellis, vice president of Small Business Lending at Atlantic Coast Bank, is one such lender that uses BoeFly to make connections. “With traditional methods, someone looking for lending would have to send their information, documents, and loan package to me. Then I would have to sort through it and ask for documents that may be missing,” says Ellis.

“With BoeFly, there is very little to sort through as everything is right in front of you to make an informed decision—the business plan, tax returns, estimates for build out costs and equipment costs, data on the franchise and the industry, resumes… the whole spectrum of things we would ask for, which sometimes when dealing with a busy borrower can take a long time to obtain,” says Ellis.

Making a deal

One such informed decision Ellis made after a BoeFly alert came across his desk was with Nick Borst, a Jet’s Pizza franchisee in Destin. Borst, who was looking to get funding to open this franchise, says he saved the online financing option for last not thinking he would find anyone, “but within 24 hours we had Atlantic Coast Bank interested.”

“It is probably the best example of the strength of BoeFly’s platform in matching me with the borrower,” says Ellis. “He’s in Destin and I’m in Jacksonville, and we were still able to make this deal happen in a matter of hours.”

“This project would have been up and running three months earlier if we would’ve started with BoeFly,” says Borst. “We tried several traditional avenues, and while they thought we would be great people to run it, they didn’t have the ability to fund us and we lost a lot of time with their processes. With BoeFly, you know the interest you receive from a lender is from somebody with a serious interest.”

“There is a lot of information you have to put in to the system, but the more you put in the better your chances are and the nice thing is you only have to put it in once,” continues Borst. “In our case, we had a very in-depth, several hundred page—probably too much—business plan and BoeFly helped us determine what was pertinent information and actually needed for the loan. They outlined what they and lenders look for which allowed us put the right information in the right spots.”

Ease of use

“The word that always comes back to us is that it is efficient,” says Nayor. “Efficient from a time perspective as the borrower only has to build a loan package once and efficient from a cost perspective as borrowers and lenders only pay a very small posting or subscription fee to use the platform.  There are no large commissions involved as BoeFly did not want to drive up the cost of the transaction or this interest rate that the borrower ultimately pays. This allows lenders to get more aggressive on their pricing and terms and it allows borrowers to find the best deal for them.”

Ellis adds, “It’s a different financial world these days. This is a great way that allows borrowers, lenders, franchisors—really everyone—to navigate this new environment and reach places and surrounding areas that wouldn’t have been available to them otherwise. It allows me to be mobile without being mobile.”

Learn to effectively manage your patrons, partners, and property

By David P. Grigaltchik

So, you’ve got a plan, a product and a partner, and you’re ready to launch your very own business and take the world markets by storm. In this article, we will explore the different legal issues that prudent business owners should address before going forward with any business venture. Essential to the operation of any successful business is the effective management of the three P’s of business: patrons, partners, and property.

Patrons

The success or failure of your business depends on one thing: your patrons, customers and clients. Having a large pool of clients is always a good thing, but, as with most things in life, quality counts for more than quantity.

Business owners learn early and are reminded frequently that customers may be their best friends or their worst enemies. Billing disputes and frivolous lawsuits regularly cost American businesses millions of dollars.

Since business owners typically lack the ability to pick and choose their patrons, they must learn to protect themselves through other means. Liability or malpractice insurance is something that business owners routinely pay for and hope to never have to use. Liability waivers may allow business owners to resolve adverse litigation quickly or to prevent it altogether, thereby avoiding having to pay larger insurance premiums.

By using waivers, business owners may guarantee certain rights to the patrons of their businesses, accepting liability in specific cases for the patrons’ financial or physical security, but limiting liability in other ways. By signing waivers, business patrons are essentially signing away their rights, and many such rights must be considered when drafting waivers, including rights to privacy.

Since courts are typically hesitant to limit the rights of individuals, waivers containing specific and clear language will have a higher chance of enforcement than waivers containing general and vague language. Waivers are not just for business owners whose businesses involve routine operations that have a high risk of causing financial or physical injury to clients.

As a rule of thumb, if you pay a liability or malpractice insurance premium, you should probably be using waivers. Waivers will not protect business owners who cause harm to their clients wantonly or take unreasonable risks. There is no reason, however, for business owners to live in fear of being held liable for the negligent actions of their employees or for damages caused by unforeseeable environmental factors.

Partners

Your business partner is your wing man. More than just a friend, your business partner is someone you rely on to keep your dreams of operating a successful business alive.

The process of starting a business is exceedingly simple in Florida. In most cases, in order to form a limited liability company, future business owners must simply file the Articles of Organization and pay a small fee. The Articles contain tiny snippets of information concerning your business; typically, the names of the officers and the registered agent, and the address of the company are listed, but little else.

This means that, at the outset, nothing exists delineating the duties, obligations, rights, privileges, or profit allocations among business partners. In other words, at the outset, your relationship with your business partner and, by extension, your business is held together with nothing more than a gentleman’s word.

With a little foresight, this precarious situation may be remedied by way of an operating agreement for your limited liability company. For a limited liability company consisting of two or more business partners, an operating agreement is an absolute must. Not only do operating agreements contain such essential information as the initial capital contributions of each business partner or member, but also provide for the allocation of profits, the timelines of disbursements, and the assignment of other duties.

Operating agreements may contain information specifying the employment of certain professionals, such as lawyers and accountants, and may designate members as specifically responsible for handling tax issues or other specific duties for the benefit of the company.

Consider that most people get married without ever intending to divorce, and yet divorce happens all the time. Similarly, even if the relationship between business partners is stellar, prudent business owners must have the vision and foresight to consider the possibilities of disagreement and dissatisfaction.

Property

Your interest in your business is a property interest. Like most property interests, it is freely alienable, which means that you are free to dispose of it as you like. It may be sold. It may be given away. It may be inherited upon your death. What’s true for you is also true for your business partner.

What happens to your business if your business partner no longer wants to be involved? What happens to your business if your business partner, god forbid, dies an untimely death? The answer is that you may end up having to deal with someone you never wanted to deal with, a business partner you don’t know, like or trust. In many situations, this will effectively bring an end to your business.

Once more, with a little foresight, you may address these issues before they arise by executing a buy-sell agreement with your partners. Buy-sell agreements govern the transfer of a business interest upon a business partner’s unwillingness or inability to continue with the relationship.

Typically, buy-sell agreements grant to the remaining partners the first option to purchase the withdrawing partner’s interest. Such agreements also contain provisions addressing the purchase of a deceased partner’s interest from the estate of the deceased partner. Buy-sell agreements may be tailored in many ways, in some cases making the purchase of the withdrawing partner’s share mandatory.

Regardless of how such agreements are tailored, they allow business owners to protect their interest in the business by giving them the option to continue to operate the business on their own terms following the departure of a business partner.

Gain foresight

In order to be successful in managing the three P’s of business, patrons, partners and property, business owners must have foresight and exercise such foresight by timely executing a series of available legal agreements.

In dealing with patrons, customers or clients, business owners should make use of waivers to limit their liability, thereby protecting themselves from frivolous lawsuits. In dealing with business partners, business owners should make use of operating agreements to ensure that all the rights and duties are clearly delineated at the beginning. In order to manage their property interest in their business, business owners should make use of buy-sell agreements to enable them to continue operating their business on their terms.

Many surprises will greet you in during all phases of business operation, from formation, through expansion, and into dissolution, but with a little foresight, you will be able to nip some of these in the bud.

David P. Grigaltchik is a business law attorney practicing law with his own law firm, David P. Grigaltchik, P.A. His office is located at: 6144 Gazebo Park Place South, Suite 215, Jacksonville, FL 32257. He may be reached at: 904-738-8398 or info@griglaw.com.

Why you should hire for attitude, train for skills

By Greg Crabtree

Your newest hire has worked for their first 30 days and while looking back at their great resume and 15 years of experience, all you can think is, “Does he really have 15 years of experience or just one year of experience 15 times?”

Sometimes hiring someone with experience means they are competent in only one area instead of many. Since they also had “years” of experience, they demanded a premium pay that bore a poor relationship to profitability. This type of experience is why you to have to make “you have to love training” one of your core values.

Instead of just passing on the cost to your clients by paying too much for labor, solve the problem a different way. By growing your own talent, you would be able to keep access to your services more affordable and fulfill your company’s mission.

Taking the steps

The first step is to identify which core areas you need your employees to be competent in. For instance, a CPA firm may need it to be personal tax, business tax, accounting system implementation, financial statement preparation and forecast modeling.

The next step is to identify the personality characteristics you need and screen your candidates for those characteristics. If you need an outgoing personality for your customer service, be sure to hire someone with a friendly disposition. If you need someone who is extremely organized, ask questions that would provide you some insight as to how they organize.

Some companies offer a test (for a fee) you can use such as Caliper (www.calipercorp.com). After your candidate takes the test, you get an email with basic results within 24 hours, a call from their consultant to discuss the results and a written report with even greater detail findings within three days.

Once you hire your employee, schedule the work for them to stretch but not break them. One way to achieve this is to employ a 70/20/10 training philosophy, which is 10% classroom, 20% one-on-one mentoring and 70% “throw you off the deep end of the pool to see what you can do.”

Until you throw them off the deep end of the pool, you won’t know what they really can do! You are not going to let them “drown,” but this technique lets you know what they are capable of and what limits you can expect, and then you can train them for how you want things done.

Making improvements

When you add an expensive person with narrow experience, you may get some growth but not much in the way of profit since he or she cannot be used for more than one service offering and may be resistant to expanding his or her skill set. When that employee leaves, either by your choice or theirs, the crazy cycle starts all over again.

When you hire an employee based on personality characteristics, however, you get an employee that will be with you for a while and more than likely become one of your top performers. Going from turning over two staff members a year to turning over two staff members in, say, seven years is a much better statistic. There will always be plenty of new business opportunities; your only bottleneck will be how quickly you can add the right people.

Hire for attitude, train for skills—it really works!

Greg Crabtree has worked in the financial industry for more than 30 years. He founded Crabtree, Rowe & Berger, PC, a CPA firm dedicated to helping entrepreneurs build the economic engine of their business. Crabtree leads the business consulting team, helping clients align their financial goals with their profit model and their core business values. He is the author of “Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits!” He can be reached through www.seeingbeyondnumbers.com.

7 moves you can do from your office chair to better improve your day

By Bonnie Murdoch

Let’s face it, you are busy. Directives, assignments, projects, meetings, expectations and deadlines hover around you—and you struggle to get it all done and to fit it all in, let alone to find the time to take care of yourself along the way. Life has taken on the shape of constant movement and the stress of it all takes a toll on your mind and your body.

The net effect? Fatigue, decreased productivity, lack of focus, stress and disease. Taking a few moments each day to breathe deeply and stretch into your body, reduces stress and tension, stimulates circulation, focuses the mind and leaves you feeling better and better equipped to face the challenges of the day.

Try the following and see how you feel. Start now.

1. Neck rolls. Close your eyes. Take a deep breathe. Relax your shoulders. Gently lower your chin to your chest and feel the sensation of the back of your neck lengthening. Begin to slowly roll the neck in a circular movement, reaching your right ear toward your right shoulder, then tilting your head back, and reaching your left ear toward your left shoulder. Move slowly. Stop to experience the stretch in the front, back and sides of the neck as you explore your range of motion. Move in both directions.

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2. Chair twist. Place your feet flat on the floor with your knees stacking over your ankles. Sit up tall. Relax your shoulders. Take a deep breath in and, as you exhale, reach for the back of your chair and twist to the right. Close your eyes. As you inhale, feel the spine lengthening. As you exhale, peel your right shoulder open and twist through the torso. Explore the range of your twist for several breaths then switch sides.

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3. Ragdoll. Stand up. Separate your feet hip distance apart. Bend your knees. Slowly hinge at the hips and fold forward. Reach for the opposite elbows. Let the head hang heavy and release any tension in the neck. Feel the hamstrings, hip and spine beginning to lengthen as you relax into your breath.

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4. Wrist stretch. Lift the arms chest height and bring your forearms parallel to the floor. Place the backs of the hands together with the fingers pointed toward to the floor. Reach the backs of the hands toward one another and begin to drop the elbows until you feel a stretch in the top of the wrists. Breathe.

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5. Forearm lengthener. Place your palms on your desk with fingertips pointing toward your body. Take a deep breath in and, as you exhale, gently lean into the wrists and reach the palms of the hands  toward the desk.

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6. Standing pigeon. Stand at your desk with your feet flat on the floor. Lift the right knee up and place the shin on your desk parallel to the front edge. Inhale to lengthen your spine and, as you exhale, begin to lean the body forward until you feel a stretch in the outer right hip. Repeat on the left.

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7. Breathe. Close your eyes. Sit up tall. Begin to breathe deeply in and out of the nose. Relax your jaw and shoulders. Become aware of the sensation of your breath. Notice where it goes in your body. Feel its warmth. Allow your body to relax into the sensation of the breath moving through you.

It starts with an intention. Set yours and off you go.

Bonnie Murdoch has been practicing law for more than 15 years and yoga for almost 10. Three years ago, she reduced her hours at the law firm to open Lotus Yoga, a vinyasa flow yoga studio in Riverside/Avondale. She co-owns the studio with her good friend and fellow lawyer/yogi, Bethany Crawley. Bonnie believes in the power of yoga as a process to develop mindfulness, strengthen the body, cultivate balance and transcend boundaries. For more information regarding Lotus Yoga, visit www.lotusyogajax.com or email Bonnie at bonnie@lotusyogajax.com.

Mayor Alvin Brown announced that IBM has selected Jacksonville to receive an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant. The grant provides Jacksonville with access to IBM’s top experts to analyze and recommend ways the city can become an even better place in which to live and work.

The IBM Smarter Cities Challenge is a competitive grant program in which IBM is awarding a total of $50 million worth of technology and services to 100 municipalities worldwide through 2013. Jacksonville is the first city in Florida to be selected.

Teams of specially selected IBM experts will provide city leaders with analysis and recommendations to support successful growth, better delivery of municipal services, more citizen engagement, and improved efficiency.

IBM selected cities that made the strongest case for participating in the Smarter Cities Challenge. During these engagements, IBM technical experts, researchers and consultants immerse themselves in local issues and offer a range of options and recommended next-steps. Among the issues they will examine are healthcare, education, safety, social services, transportation, sustainability, budget management and energy.

Mayor Brown and the City of Jacksonville look forward to working with a grant-funded IBM team on ways to develop a plan that will increase residential and commercial occupancy and community activities Downtown.

To find out more about IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grants, please visit http://smartercitieschallenge.org/ and http://www.youtube.com/user/citizenIBM.

Ann D. Sabbag, founder & CEO of Health Designs, Inc., and winner of the Small Business Person of the Year from Florida, will compete against winners from the other 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam for the National Small Business Person of the Year during the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) celebration in Washington, D.C. during National Small Business Week, May 20-22.

While in D.C., the winners will have opportunities to meet with top administration officials, congressional representatives and national business leaders. The highlight of the celebration will come when one of them is named National Small Business Person of the Year.

National Small Business Week is cosponsored by the SCORE Association as well as numerous corporate and trade sponsors to be announced.

Events on the three-day schedule will be available for viewing virtually through SBA’s free, live webcasting, which will be accessible at www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com. Interested parties can register online at the same site, where additional information (updated weekly) is available regarding registration, awards ceremonies, small business forums and educational and matchmaking sessions. The event also will be webcast live at the web site.

Participants also will be recognized for their involvement in disaster recovery, government contracting, and their support for small businesses and entrepreneurship, and awards will be presented to SBA partners in financial and entrepreneurial development, including the year’s top SCORE Chapter, Small Business Development Center and Women’s Business Center.

The growth-through-acquisition strategy of Krystal Klean and what you can learn

By Wendy Bautista

When Jeremy, Claire and Tony Morgan began Krystal Klean (www.KrystalKlean.com) window washing in 2001 with nothing but experience from growing up in the service industry, they never imagined it would become what it is today—a multifaceted company with two divisions which provide services on the exterior building envelope as well as services for corrosion control and coating for boats, cranes, buses, heavy equipment and large vehicles.

Getting started

“It was exciting in the early days when we would compete with each other to see who had the most success each day,” says Jeremy. “We would pass out close to 200 business cards and consider the day a success if we saw a 2.5% return.”

They were working out of Jeremy and Claire’s 800 square-foot home, sharing a car and a cell phone, with the front room acting as the office. “You couldn’t see one inch of wall space because we had notes, cards, charts and jobs all over the wall,” laughs Jeremy. “At that point, every cent we made went into the structure of the business so eventually it would be able to pay for our living.”

That persistence paid off, and within the first year they were able to, one by one, land 400 accounts, including companies such as Solantic, Sticky Fingers and Freebird Café.

Making strides

Shortly after their first year, the opportunity arose to buy a company. While Tony was cleaning windows at a Southside eye clinic, he was approached by a gentleman enquiring how much he was charging to clean windows. As Tony was explaining that he could get a price quote by calling the office, the gentleman was more interested in talking about selling his business.

“After looking into it, we brokered a deal and it worked,” says Tony. “It was just 14 accounts, but we retained them all.” With that, the acquisition of Busy Bee Window Cleaning was complete in 2002, and Krystal Klean has basically bought one company per year since then.

“As part of our buying strategy, we’ve developed a formula using a percentage of gross sales and it has worked very well for us,” says Jeremy. “Busy Bee would be the smallest company we’ve purchased and the largest would be 3,000 customers, resulting in significant gross revenue.”

Some other acquisitions include Hites, Klear View, Vision, and Hobbs Industries, in which 90% of the customers retained Krystal Klean as their service provider.

Handling the sale

“Many of the companies we’ve purchased have been, on average, in business for 25 years so properly handling the acquisition has taken some finesse,” says Jeremy.

“Handing over the reins is a challenging process for anyone, but especially a small business owner who has developed relationships with their customer base,” adds Tony. “The name of their business becomes a part of that individual so they have difficulty handing over their company without confidence that their customers will be treated in the same manner.”

“A few of the companies we have purchased have been distressed sales so walking out this process is challenging as we work our way through a maze of business issues mixed with personal drama,” continues Jeremy. “While helping someone through what might be considered a winter season in their life, you lose if it’s all business. If you can make it a portion of heart and a portion of business, however, you can make your way through the merger.”

Making the transition

The Morgans have achieved success by making the transition process a personal one. Their first step is requiring the seller to write an introduction letter which explains the transition, thanks the customer for their past years of service and introduces Krystal Klean as the new owners.

Then a meeting is scheduled with each customer in which the seller introduces the new owners in person. Krystal Klean then shows a presentation demonstrating their diverse value and service packages and begins discussions with the client on how they will honor the existing rates and presents opportunities for improving or adding services.

“Each company we’ve purchased has had five to 10 key clients which have been loyal for the life of that company.” says Jeremy. “Some have gone back 20 years and the only way we had an opportunity to serve them was through merging.”

“Key to making the merge a success is finding out what the previous company did to meet the clients’ needs, duplicating that process and then asking, ‘What can we do to make it better?’” adds Tony.

“Making that owner transition is huge,” says Jeremy. “There is buying the company and settling with the owner, and then there is transitioning with the customers on his list—and those are two completely different interactions, but they are crucial interactions.”

Moving assets

One thing in the transition that is essential is forwarding the seller’s phone lines to a Krystal Klean line. “From then on, there will be a steady stream of phone calls coming in to our office,” says Jeremy. “We make sure the phone is answered using the old company’s name as well as our name so the customer hears both names. It cuts down on hang-ups or people thinking they have the wrong number and increases continuity.”

Krystal Klean also transfers ownership of the previous company’s trade name and uses the name and logo in a joint advertisement for a six-month period. They gradually drop the previous company’s name—making the transition to Krystal Klean complete.

“In these transitions, it is amazing the intangible emotional attachment people have,” adds Tony. “After owning a business for 25 years or so, a business owner has thought through his logo, he has thought through what equipment he needed—all the things he gave a lot of thought and energy and emotion to to tie it in with him and the person he is, so using it for six months, gives a little bit of excitement and honor to the seller.”

“He gets to show and say he sold it to someone bigger and it provides so much more goodwill,” says Tony.

Not without its problems

“Mostly when we purchase a company we buy a customer list and the goodwill, which is the phone number and trade name,” says Tony. “One instance when we didn’t, someone else picked up the name, hired the old secretary, and started doing business under that trade name. In that case, we lost four key accounts—three of which we were able to acquire through organic growth.”

“There are lots of stories we can tell on different problems because buying a business isn’t a problem-free adventure—every single time it takes your breath away,” says Jeremy. “There is so much to learn and so much to experience each time. Tony, Claire and I sometimes just look at each other and say, ‘What did we do?’ but then the next month the phone rings and you do it again.”

“We’ve encountered challenges with each purchase,” adds Claire. “Each company has had problems which were not discovered until after the sale, but it all comes with good, and of course, some have been better than others.”

“We’ve made mistakes, but shouldered through them and recognized what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again.” says Jeremy.

Adding services

They are quickly approaching 50 key customers, which produce roughly 80% of their income, and handle a master list of 10,000 customers—with 2,500 of them being recurring active customers and others on an “as needed” basis.

“We don’t discount the small the jobs,” adds Tony. “The amount of activity makes us highly visible and gets our name out there.”

In Oct. 2008, the Morgans expanded their services and added a second division, and just recently restructured. “Krystal Companies is the name of our company with Krystal Klean as a division,” says Claire.

“Krystal Klean is the building services division consisting mostly of work for the exterior envelope of the building, which includes window washing, pressure washing, painting, restoration, caulking, waterproofing, all and everything to do with the outside exterior façade of the building,” continues Jeremy. “Krystal Companies is the transportation services division, which is everything from boats to cranes to heavy equipment to cars to buses—anything in that arena.”

Gaining ground

In the first two weeks of operation, Krystal Companies landed a military contract for paint and body work on 30 vans with a two week deadline. “After that was accomplished well, it essentially turned our paint and body work division into a huge and successful business overnight,” says Jeremy. “And two years later, the military is 1/3 of our business.”

“We had an 11 boat contract with the U.S. Navy which lasted eight months and consisted of sand blasting, aluminum fabrication, five-step coating system, redoing the electronics, upholstery and many other items. This job led us into many exciting opportunities that have the potential to revolutionize our entire company,” adds Jeremy. “By demonstrating our ability to make it happen in a small way the doors have opened for much larger jobs.”

Taking on challenges

The Morgans are constantly finding ways to better describe what they do and admit they may have possibly gotten too diverse at times, “but we’re not afraid to take on challenges,” says Tony.

“We have Florida contractor’s licenses which increase our understanding of how our services relate to the other construction trades,” adds Jeremy. “We have an understanding of what it takes and how construction works so if a business approaches us to buy them, and it compliments or adds to what we do, we consider it.”

“Another industry challenge we face is working with heights. We have dedicated teams for all of the buildings above three stories. They are certified and trained with rope descension systems, swing stage scaffolding and manlifts,” adds Jeremy. “We maintain the most stringent safety policies due to our family and friends hanging from these ropes. With that in mind, the protection provided for our customers is of the highest quality.”

“We own the systems and the equipment that can access all exterior buildings of any height giving us the competitive advantage,” continues Jeremy.

Wendy Bautista is the editor of Advantage Small Business Magazine. She can be reached at Wendy@advantagebizmag.com or 904-222-8140.

Business vitals

Owner: Claire, Jeremy and Tony Morgan

In business since: 2001

Projected growth: “We have some fantastic key customers like Shands, JEA, St. Vincent’s, Bacardi, Anheuser Busch and RingPower, but our goal this year is to double our key customer count to 100,” says Jeremy.

How you can do it

“Window cleaning was always going to be just a stepping stone for us,” says Jeremy. “It wasn’t going to be the end goal, but because we were involved and active in it, it naturally grew—and grew larger than we ever expected.”

“It came from hard work, having a goal in mind and knowing that if we got out there and hustled the opportunities would come,” says Jeremy. “I always wondered what it would be like to have a million dollar company and once I reached that goal, I wondered what it would be like to have a multi-million dollar company. Once you achieve a set goal, ask yourself, ‘What goal am I chasing now?’ You have to set a goal to chase.”

“Success can be confining,” says Tony. “Understand what it means before you get into it. Knowing where you are going makes the road a lot easier to navigate. Project what the end result will be and make sure it is what you want.”

“You need to think long term and make sure you really want it. For some, they think they want to be a small business owner, but don’t look far enough out to see what it really means,” adds Tony.

“My father, Dennis Morgan, currently works for us in sales and quality control/papa and a quote you will often hear him say is ‘Pray as if it is up to God and work as if it is up to you.’’’

A day in the life

See Krystal Klean in action! Anchor Bruce Hamilton of News4Jax experiences one aspect of what Krystal Klean does on a daily basis at www.news4jax.com/news/Bruce-Window-Washing-2/-/475880/8583582/-/2sn5vnz/-/index.html.

Consider branching into international markets to increase your bottom line

By Mona Pearl

Need an antidote for shrinking domestic markets? Consider international markets. They offer unparalleled opportunity for growth, increased sales, diversified markets and increased profit for successful businesses.

Unfortunately, many U.S. companies gaze with trepidation at the process and surrender to fear before making an earnest effort. The main problem is simply a mindset, which contributes to a lack of experience, talent and confidence on behalf of U.S. business people to navigate emerging global markets. Smaller countries around the world, however, have operated globally with success for generations.

Are you ready to go global?

Unlike smaller countries that think globally from the beginning of a product’s life cycle, U.S companies typically consider global expansion only after achieving domestic success.

In this scenario, a well marketed product or service already exists, but new markets are needed to continue upward profitability. Before starting the new market search, however, businesses must administer an honest self-assessment to include commitments, budgets, human capital, international expertise, and global objectives.

Given the assessment results, the precise time may not be right; but, being aware of the risks as well as the opportunities is important. In today’s economic climate, no rock can be left unturned in search for new opportunities.

The million dollar question is the same: “What markets will generate the greatest success for my company?” While there is no “one size fits all” solution, in-depth research and expert advice can attempt to answer this critical question. Too often, the lack of adequate market knowledge leads to failure.

Secondary market research consists of information collected from published sources such as books, newspapers, market reports, studies and the Internet. Primary market research fills in any gaps through direct personal contact with local industry experts, customers, trade commissioners and other local persons with the requisite knowledge to assist. It’s also important for businesses to tap into resources such as local trade associations, lawyers, experts in the field of global expansion, accountants and potential partners.

While in-depth research may seem tedious, it ultimately saves time, money and other valued resources. Without a solid base of research, businesses will be unable to anticipate issues and answer difficult questions such as:

•Where in the world should I go?

•What is the best global direction for my business / specific products?

•What paths lead to sustainable growth?

•How can ROI projections be fully realized?

Effective research allows these difficult decisions to be driven by evidence-based data.

Selecting a market

Choosing a target market(s) starts with knowing the product/service and what range of functionality it can offer the global community. Then, scan the markets suitable for that product. Another excellent starting point in evaluating potential countries/regions is gauging the U.S. government’s attitude toward them.

For example: Does the U.S. government maintain a line of credit with the country? Are there export controls? How is the country ranked internationally? These broad questions will narrow down the list of potential target countries to consider.

The next step of research involves a more detailed analysis of risks and opportunities for those markets that emerged as potentially good targets given the product/service under consideration.

You will want to look at these key issues:

•Legal environment

•Ethics

•Attitude towards foreign investment and R&D

•Economic/political stability

After a country/region is selected, it’s important to further identify their strengths and weaknesses relative to your product and business. This process will prepare you to anticipate potential surprises and be equipped with a carefully planned response instead of a hasty reaction when, not if, they occur.

Product adaptation—“know” the target audience

Various international audiences have different needs, unique preferences and diverse ways/nuances of conducting business. This includes, but is not limited to, learning their culture, traditions, practices, philosophy, preferences and their way of conducting both life and business. Only with a thorough understanding of the target market can you make wise and sustainable economic decisions about product adaptation and, ultimately, success.

Each product, in every respect, needs to be tailored to suit the local tastes, customs and preferences. This includes packaging, branding, pricing and after-sale servicing. Become thoroughly familiar with the local people; it may avert an expensive, and potentially embarrassing, mistake.

Market entry: a “dynamic” actionable plan

While there are many important decisions to make when launching into a new international market, two are particularly critical. First, decide whether to enter the market alone or seek alliances with existing local businesses. Secondly, choose an appropriate distribution channel.

In both of these, there are tradeoffs in terms of financial commitment and control over the product as it reaches the end customer, as well as general cultural and other integration issues. Due diligence is important as the perception of any foreign organization is filtered through whom they partner with locally—team up with the wrong partner and failure can strike before any business is conducted.

A local partner can also provide insight, contacts and expertise. A strategic alliance also provides more effective market access, resulting in higher foreign sales in less time. Not surprisingly, as the pressure to rapidly exploit new technology and products has increased, so have the options for businesses interested in franchising, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions or other strategic alliances. While the flip-side is less control, it forces cooperation with local business which can be a recipe for success.

Secondly, distribution is one of the most crucial decisions in a global expansion strategy. It represents a significant overhead cost and lies at the heart of the connection between what the market wants and what the market gets.

Ultimately, both decisions will be guided by the international business community, the type of market for the product (mass market or limited), available capital, sales volume and access to information technology.

Access to talent—a limiting factor

One emerging trend to watch is a shrinking pool of talent. This promises to be a major obstacle for organizations looking to expand globally. In fact, several companies report “the only thing limiting growth abroad is that we cannot find enough people—engineers, sales staff, and marketing—who are bilingual, globally orientated and willing to live abroad.”

The U.S., more than ever before, lacks professionals with the global experience necessary to bridge cross-border operations.

Focus on opportunities, not obstacles

As international leaders in innovation, it is important for U.S. businesses to look at the world from a fresh angle with a new perspective. “A global mindset is the opposite of economic isolationism. We are part of the globe, and should stop looking inward, but look out,” commented Carlos Gutierrez, former Secretary of Commerce.

It’s time for U.S. businesses to take the next step internationally through the development of a winning expansion strategy—a practical approach that eliminates surprises and gets it right the first time. After all, there is no challenge too great for a country that has proven itself over and over again. So, let’s start the journey.

Mona Pearl is an author, a global strategic business development expert as well as the founder and COO of Beyond A Strategy Inc., a company providing expertise to plan and implement cost-effective and sustainable global growth that improves a company’s bottom line and helps realize seamless international operations. She can be reached through www.monapearl.com.

***Includes excerpts from “Grow Globally: Opportunities for Your Middle-Market Company Around the World.” Copyright (c) 2011 by Mona Pearl.  Reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.***

Tips on how to get your videos and commercials accomplished

By Katrina Diamond

You’ve launched your website and the new office furniture is being delivered tomorrow, but before you kick up your heels on the new mahogany desk, ask yourself one question: Does your small business have a video? If you answered no, then you should keep reading.

The average website user session is 30 seconds, but when the website has a video, the session can last 5 minutes, 50 seconds. Most users that make a Google search are more tempted to click a website that has a video. Correctly optimized, websites with video are 53 times more likely to appear on the first page of Google—not to mention that in the last three years, cell phone video traffic increased 5,000% (Facts about Online Video, the YouOn Group, Sept. 2011).

In addition to all the print, online, experiential and PR/marketing you have prepared, you must have videos to engage users, explain why your business exists and how you can help. You must consider each viewer a potential client.

Whether it’s an intro from the CEO, an animated how-to video, a public service announcement (PSA), or a full-blown commercial, you need a video to introduce your business. The sooner you realize that, the better you can position your company and start owning your space in the market.

And…action!

Set your goals and follow through. In the same way you would prepare your kitchen and recipes before cooking a big feast, you should always be prepared going into a production contract. Know the clear goals of your video and grab as many examples as possible of what you like and don’t like before getting quotes from vendors.

When you are ready, find and hire the appropriate media company or freelance provider and be sure to:

Check out their reels. You want to be able to compare one company’s reel to others in their specialty. Do the skills measure up in the work showcased?

Pay attention to third-party recommendations. Look at who their other clients are. Do they have an impressive client list of legitimate testimonials?

Ask for references. Make sure to get some that you can call. While online recommendations are great, nothing beats having a client reference you can call and hear about experience for yourself.

Inspect specific project experience. Know what they offer and if they can do the job you are looking to have done. Do the clients, reels or credits give you assurance the vendor can handle your type of project, i.e. A “reality show webisode” versus a traditional corporate training video?

Rolling!

The next step is knowing where to look and what to look for. Begin by researching appropriate pricing bids. You will want to compare apples to apples to ensure you aren’t getting taken advantage of during the process.

Keep an open mind that it may take two different companies to get the job done as not all companies can help from concept to completion. For example, you may need to hire a freelance scriptwriter first, and then go with a production company to bring your script to life.

Once you are ready, begin locating the professionals you need. You may find what you are looking for by simply performing a Google search, i.e., “Production Houses in NYC” or “Animators in Wisconsin,” but know there are also production companies that can match you to qualified, available vendors within minutes.  

Script changes

When it comes to your production, there are a few things in the fine print to watch for.

Make sure they are insured. Protect your production—better to be on the safe side early on than regret it later.

Don’t pay in full upfront. Paying half at the start of project and half upon completion or by one-thirds (1/3 at start, 1/3 mid-project, 1/3 upon completion) is standard.

Have a deadline. Ensure it is mutually agreed upon, in writing and clearly outlined so everyone is on the same page. Make sure to add an addendum any time something is removed, added on or changed that may affect the cost of the production.

Secure all the pertinent text, verbiage, artwork, etc. You want to have all photos, b-roll, design elements, logos, updated contact info, etc. prior to starting so no one is waiting on you at any point in the production.

Set expectations early on. You get what you pay for —don’t expect a Super Bowl commercial when you go with  “Discount Dave.”

Take your work seriously—not yourself. Everybody has their weaknesses. If yours is being camera ready, then plan ahead to select a spokesperson or PR representative for your company that may do a better job.

Request raw files. Whether or not you plan on updating this video later on, make sure you request the raw files along with the final deliverable of the finished product. You may want to add elements to your site or future promotional materials down the line.

Own the rights. Make sure you own the rights to your video and that the vendor isn’t selling the content to other takers. There should be verbiage in contract stating this, but it’s always good to highlight this as a line item and make sure they only use the footage in their own promotional reels, not for other projects.

This should go without saying, but nonetheless, make sure you feel comfortable with the vendor and don’t settle for the first quote you see. You may be torn between two vendors with comparable fees, recommendations and work, so choose who you like best and wouldn’t mind speaking to on a regular basis for production meetings and updates.

That’s a wrap!

Your video is complete and you are ready to…now what? Some ways to maximize your video is to use it for:

SEO. Optimize your video content for search engine optimization (SEO)—use search-friendly URLS, no Flash, video descriptions and tags.

Links. At the end of the video, make sure the video links to your website and has your email and phone number. You also want to link to your video in relevant brochures and marketing materials.

Social media. You will want to post it to your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc. Consider using a social media dashboard like Hootsuite to track and schedule your social media messages. You can use predefined keyword streams to respond to customer feedback or use it to find new clients and respond to them directly.

Networking. Are you involved in a niche online community for your industry? Link the video from your professional online networks. Staying active and becoming an influencer in one or two of these niche sites is always better than having empty profiles in all of them.

Prepared clients usually end up being the happiest clients. Give yourself and your small business the gift of a video. Happy shooting!

Katrina Diamond is the marketing/PR manager for ProductionHUB Inc., the search engine for media and entertainment that connects film, television, video, live event and digital media production with those seeking industry services, equipment and professionals. She can be reached at 877-629-4122, at kdiamond@productionhub.com or through www.productionhub.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.

Improve your productivity and profits by using managed technology services

By Ted Werth

As a small business owner, you depend on reliable access to technology to run your business and generate revenue. A technology outage—due to service, network, cloud or device issues—can bring productivity to a painful halt, leaving sales, operations and customer-facing personnel without the tools they need to do their jobs.

To ensure business continuity while also containing technical support costs, you should consider teaming up with a technology services partner.

Cost-effective access to a proven technology services provider maximizes your ability to keep vital business technology up and running and enhances your ability to satisfy customers. A dedicated technology services partner enables you to focus on your core business, improving productivity in a way that drives profits.

IT support services deliver new opportunities

The rapidly evolving world of business technology provides you new opportunities to gain a competitive edge—and technology services play an important part in that. The technology services landscape has changed dramatically in recent years, and new capabilities will continue to alter the way you operate for the foreseeable future.

For example, in years past, a startup company would have to configure and stand up its technical environment, patching together hosting, email, servers, mobile and desktop devices, routers, printers and more, while typically bootstrapping support resources. This need for service prevented companies, especially small companies, from focusing the maximum number of resources and investments on profit-generating activities.

Today, however, the availability of remote managed services enables startups to get up and running quickly. This allows companies to immediately focus on generating revenue and achieving operational excellence. Similarly, the availability of expert mobile and Web services support can improve your small business by ensuring you have access to vital data and productivity tools wherever and whenever you do business.

The backup plan

Another mission-critical need that can be filled via remote technical support is disaster recovery through backup services that protect business-critical data. This is a key component of a sound technology strategy for any startup or established enterprise.

In your small business, it’s not a matter of “if” you will experience data loss, it’s a question of “when.” And given that a very high percentage of smaller enterprises that lose vital data go out of business within two years of the data loss, it’s crucial to make sure you have the backup and recovery capabilities to ensure that your company thrives.

Technology services companies can deliver offsite and cloud-based data backup services that ensure recovery in case of a major technology issue. This type of service can also help you comply with regulatory guidelines that mandate retention of key data. Many small business owners assume their critical intellectual property is protected, but the issue is too important to leave to chance.

It’s a great idea to have a data backup professional conduct a thorough review to ensure you have the resources in place to recover from disaster, whether caused by user error, hacker activities, a technology issue, severe weather impact or fire. This will not only provide the peace of mind that comes with knowing your business is ready to meet the challenges associated with an unexpected technology disruption, it also provides your customers with the assurance that your business will be there when needed, protecting important data and delivering the services they expect.

For you and your customers

As a small business owner, you may be able to significantly increase your company’s efficiency and productivity with a managed technology services contract, which reaches beyond your basic IT or help desk support. In addition to reliable access to the technology tools you depend on to run your business and serve your customers, managed technology services can expand your team’s capabilities.

For example: The ability to securely upload business data from the field can eliminate the need for sales or service teams to capture customer information and manually enter data later.

Up to 95% of technical problems can be resolved via remotely delivered support, which can drastically reduce productivity lost due to waiting for onsite assistance. But the benefits of receiving managed technology services from a technical services specialist extend even further to include proactive maintenance to anticipate needs and address issues before they become problems.

By taking a proactive rather than strictly reactive break-fix approach, you can gain a competitive advantage.

Do a lot with a little

The benefits of having 24×7 access to technology services solutions are clear:

•Higher productivity and efficiency;

•Reliable access to vital business tools;

•A sound backup and business continuity strategy; and

•Greater customer satisfaction.

However, you may be concerned about the costs associated with a managed technical support contract.

Generally, the cost ranges from $20-$40 per computer and approximately $299 per server supported. To put that cost into context, think about the loss of profits that would result from a technical failure that brings all business activities to a standstill—even for a single day.

If you’re ready to position your business for continued growth and success with a proactive approach to technology services and support that allows your team to focus on core competencies, it’s time to think about forming a partnership with a company that specializes in managed technology services for small and medium businesses. As you consider your options, evaluate potential partners’ experience and credibility.

Make sure you find a partner with a strong history in the industry and accounts that will provide references. Ensure your potential technology services vendor can be trusted with your vital business data and has the resources needed to respond immediately with reliable service when you need it. Above all, make sure your potential partner is committed to providing an excellent customer service experience. By taking these steps, you can do a lot with a little.

Ted Werth is founder, chairman and CEO of PlumChoice, a provider of 24×7 online repair and assistance and managed technical support to SMBs and consumers directly and through telecommunications, cable company and retail partnerships. He can be reached through www.plumchoice.com.

Being savvy in social media can enhance your business’s success

By Steve Ennen

To the uninitiated small business owner, social media may seem like an intimidating prospect. Even if you already have a personal Facebook profile or Twitter account, creating one for your business—and, more importantly, making it successful—is a different thing entirely.

If you feel this way, you’re not alone. According to an OfficeArrow survey on the state of social media for small business,* only about 30% of small businesses are planning on increasing their investment in social media in 2012. That’s mostly due to the fact they don’t know how to do so effectively.

Only 4% of small businesses use social media management services to monitor their status on social networks. And 90% of small businesses primarily use their company website to distribute information to customers—more than double the amount that use social networks to do so.

If you’re running a small business, it means that an effective social media presence will put you leagues ahead of most other small businesses in the country. Small businesses are the fuel of the American economy, and it is important that they get the most out of powerful tools using social media.

What is social media?

Before you start using social media for your small business, however, you have to educate yourself on what social media encompasses and how it can be used for business purposes.

Social media empowers the consumer, connects your business to that consumer, and allows you to listen to the consumer—all in real-time. It’s far more powerful than traditional media choices.

Most businesses just think of social media as a way to push more content to customers. While this is certainly a use for social media, it is not the most effective approach for businesses…by itself. Instead, businesses can get the most value out of social media by active listening.

Social media done right: the case of 8th Continent Soymilk

The best way to understand what this means is through an example: 8th Continent, a soy milk company, used Twitter and other social channels to monitor what soy milk consumers were saying—not only about the brand, but about competitors, too.

They developed a novel approach; whenever they came across a negative post or comment about one of their competitors, they responded to each user with a comment and a link to a coupon for one of their products.

The result was a whopping 37% return rate on those coupons—significantly higher than the typical 0.7% rate for hard copy coupons. That, along with the positive publicity that followed their move, means that 8th Continent saw a real boost to its business because of social media.

How to build and execute your social media strategy in five steps

So how can you apply this example to your business? To begin, it outlines an effective process that you can use to develop a social media strategy in a few easy steps:

Listen. The key to using social media is to listen to your customer-base and potential customers. It’s a daunting task unless you employ social media monitoring services.

Companies should first search for their brand on social networks. If there are discussions, and they’re positive, then you have a great start. If you have only negative feedback, then pay attention to those comments just as much as if they made those complaints directly to you. If there isn’t much discussion, then find someone to help spark that conversation.

It’s also helpful to follow 8th Continent’s lead and research what consumers are saying about your competitors. You’ll be able to see what they’re doing, right and wrong, and adjust your own social media strategy to take advantage.

Go where your customers are. It’s important to find out where exactly your customers are discussing your business. If you run a restaurant, for example, you may want to look at Yelp, which features a thriving restaurant review community. Depending on what you find on various sites, consider connecting with your customers.

Sometimes you will find frequent mentions of your small business in Facebook groups organized around a different topic. Look at what else they are discussing regardless; it could provide valuable insight into potential new services they are looking for or general consumer expectations.

Craft your social media strategy. Once you have identified your customers’s location, needs, and expectations, you should use that information to create a strategy to engage with them. Often, this may simply involve connecting with users online.

If you find a negative comment from a customer on a social network, respond to them directly and try to alleviate their concerns. This could mean sending them a coupon, but it should focus more on engaging in true communication and making your customer feel like they are valued.

The key to building a strategy is setting goals for your social media presence. Do you want to promote brand awareness? Improve your business’s reputation? Bring in more revenue and new customers? By setting benchmarks, you will position your small business for future success.

Engage. Customer engagement through social media can take a myriad of forms. Promotions through Facebook integrated with email addresses you acquired via social networks is an easy way to start. Or you may employ videos or podcasts to educate your customers. But the key is to listen to your customers, not simply talk to them. Social media is a two-way street, and users are quick to distrust organizations that don’t take that truth to heart.

Fine-tune your process. There are also many tools out there that can help you fine-tune your social media presence. EmailDirect or MailChimp are examples of email newsletter services that can help you reach your customers directly. There are many different social network monitoring tools, which can greatly reduce the amount of time needed to stay abreast of all the real-time developments.

There are also social media tools being developed with small businesses specifically in mind. Once you have a handle on social media, you can use these tools to further streamline your strategy.

Endless possibilities

Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg, but that’s what makes social media for small business so exciting. It is such a young medium that the possibilities are endless. The best thing you can do for your business is to focus on learning, listening, and interacting with your customers, and hopefully picking up some new ones in the process.

By getting started now, you’ll be far ahead of the pack and have your own social media strategy set in place before most of your competitors have even started considering theirs.

Steve Ennen is president and Chief Intelligence Officer for the Ponte Vedra startup Social Strategy1, a company that helps businesses use the social Web for business growth and intelligence and develops tools with small businesses in mind, such as its Beam Social. He can be reached at steve@socialstrategy1.com or through www.socialstrategy1.com

*http://www.officearrow.com/small-business-management/small-business-stuck-neutral-social-media-infographic-oaiur-15517/view.html

With the new year in full swing, we wanted to know if you find continuing education and certifications important enough to add to your to-do list this year.

“I can assure you, if you do not continue your education/training, your competitors will. Enrolling in finance classes, management classes, supervisor training, new equipment/methods for improvement…all those things are important. Certificates? Not so much unless of course your vocation or profession requires certification. Bottom line—improving yourself, your employees, and your processes help as long as you stay true to your business needs.” —James Beeler, independent consultant

“I met Kevin Monahan from SBDC UNF at an event and found out more about the small business programs they have. As a potential business owner, I can see value in the educational programs. An experienced business owner offered that she put her employees through the classes as training to understand the process and as a teaching tool. I already added this to my to-do list.” —Dave Bachansingh, merchandise marketing manager

“Today’s consumers are more demanding and most have less money to spend, so continuing your education to ensure you are more knowledgeable about your products and services may sway a customer to do business with you rather than your competitor. Additional certifications may make you more marketable, but you’ve got to have the knowledge and convey this to the consumer.” —Mary Habres, accredited home stager, paint color consultant, and interior redesigner; decorating and staging speaker

“Additional certifications are absolutely vital to a small business owner. They give more confidence to the general public who are your customers. Getting the Certified Managerial Account designation is on my to-do list for 2012.” — Keith Johnson, principal, Keith E. Johnson CPA PA

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“When we stop learning, we stop growing and get stuck in our ruts. We start thinking, “This can’t be done” and so forth. It’s why I believe in being a part and product of the process and hired a coach, even though I am a certified coach. We rarely see our own blind spots. I believe you will always get some nugget from any continuing education or new certification program!” —Kathryn Hatcher, owner, Key Coaching Associates

“I think continuing education is critically important. I’ve had many clients who get so involved in day-to-day activities that they forget that if they don’t keep up, they’ll find their business down as people begin to think they are out of date. Besides, any type of class will stir your brain so you find yourself with new ideas for your business. If you learn one new thing out of a class, it was worth the effort. Education is salvation.” —Luann Allen, business and marketing expert, and author

Why Chad Perce was chosen as your 2012 Small Business Leader of the Year (SBLY)

By Wendy Bautista

Chad Perce, CEO and co-founder of iMethods (www.imethodsinc.com) and your Small Business Leader of the Year for 2012, began his business education before he could drive when he launched his first startup—a neighborhood lawn care empire in his hometown of Lake Mary. Even then, at the age of 15, he learned about the importance of delivering for the customer. “It was quickly apparent to me that the best way to earn and keep clients was to work hard and pay attention to the details,” says Perce.

Those early insights have served him well. Since founding iMethods’ original iteration, Medical Methods, in 2004, Perce and his business partner Clint Drawdy have grown the company from a clinical staffing firm with two full-time employees to an award-winning Information Technology (IT) recruiting and consulting corporation with a sizable staff and projected revenues of more than $10 million for 2012.

A push start

“I would love to say that iMethods was born out of a long and highly scientific market study, but it really grew out of a confluence of skills, experience and opportunity, given an extra push by a dare,” says Perce. “Clint and I had strong combined backgrounds in IT and recruiting and we’d dreamed of starting our own company since the late 1990s.”

Perce says iMethods might still be a dream if their wives didn’t challenge them to “put up or shut up” at a family barbecue, which was also about the time an existing client helped him identify a need for clinical staffing in the medical field.

Energized by the opportunity and the challenge, Drawdy and Perce started Medical Methods in January 2004, recruiting physical, occupational and speech therapists for national and local clients.

Based on their existing relationships with Baptist Health and Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital, Medical Methods was ahead of the demand for contract therapy services, which put them on the leading edge of the market and well in front of their larger competition.

“Our good timing, positioning and newfound expertise in the medical therapy market allowed us to launch nationally with clients such as RehabCare, Heartland and Tenet,” says Perce. “We achieved annual revenues of $415,000 our first year with just two employees—myself and Clint—doing all the selling as well as operating and delivering for our clients. Three years later, that business reached its peak at $3.6 million in annual revenues.”

Making changes

As the market matured and competition pushed margin and supply down for contract therapy services, they diversified their footprint and transitioned away from the now-sluggish clinical skill sets business model to a faster, more agile model in technology.

“It was a wonderful chance to reconnect with old friends in the IT world and continue building our business,” says Perce. “We launched our new IT recruiting business, iMethods, in 2007, well aware that the shift in focus would slow our near-term growth, but believing it would be of great benefit down the road.”

Like many businesses, the recession was a big problem. Perce states that the recession may have affected them earlier than some because demand for recruiting services is an early indicator of economic health.

“The cherry on top of our recession sundae was the fact that we’d made a strategic decision to shift away from clinical staffing to IT services in response to competition and a changing marketplace,” says Perce. “We were in new territory, the economy was crashing around our ears, and the going got pretty tough for a while.”

But iMethods’ growth was noteworthy: revenues for the newer company grew from $1.5 million (2008) to $2.1 million (2009) to $2.8 million (2010). In the fall of 2010, they sold Medical Methods in order to focus exclusively on iMethods and develop the structure of the present corporation and map out the road ahead.

The right decision

For Perce and Drawdy, the decision to refocus on technical staffing was the right one. iMethods has been ranked in the “Inc. 500” (399)/”Inc. 5000” (3,790), placed sixth in the Jacksonville Business Journal’s “Fast 50” in 2008, and was designated twice as one of the community’s  “Companies that Care” by Jacksonville Magazine.

Of the various recognitions, the value-driven Perce particularly cherishes the five “Best Places to Work” awards from Florida Trend and the Jacksonville Business Journal. “I am passionate about the culture of our company,” he says. “If our internal relationships are strong and we stick to our values, our external performance is better and our work is more fulfilling.

“We have diligently worked to create a culture that supports individual growth, healthy relationships and the highest good for all concerned, but we’re well aware that sometimes even the best intentions can erode in the face of the daily struggle to succeed.

“The fact that we’ve been able to preserve a sound culture while garnering positive results for our clients, employees and job candidates is a source of daily satisfaction.”

And with that, iMethods is now an award-winning, values-driven IT staffing and consulting company. Its premier healthcare IT consulting division pairs world-class experts with leading healthcare providers to provide customized consulting options. Its local IT recruiting division identifies and employs top technical professionals in specialties ranging from desktop and network engineering to .NET and application development.

Today, iMethods’ two divisions are expected to exceed $6 million for 2011.

Looking forward

iMethods has been blessed with tremendous growth, which Perce believes has stemmed from strategic thinking, visionary planning, innovative management, and unwavering adherence to their core values—with a healthy dose of outside wisdom and serendipitous timing thrown in.

“I have set and implemented strategies for its growth ever since its inception, successfully anticipating and responding to market trends in a way that has made iMethods nimble and profitable—even in the worst economic recession of our lifetime,” says Perce.

“While our path hasn’t always been easy, our constant commitment to lifting up our employees, recruits and the community has resulted in success beyond our fondest dreams. It has also allowed us to make a positive difference in the lives of individuals and our community. We are truly on a mission!” Perce continues.

“This business was founded on faith, and Clint and I have adhered to our mission and values since day one. By matching skilled professionals with the needs of business, we create value for our clients, ourselves and our candidates, and we are proud and honored to have the opportunity of providing meaningful work for individuals and helping to grow the economy of this community we love.

“Although in different roles, Clint and I have worked together from the beginning,” says Perce, “and any recognition of my leadership is also recognition of his contributions. Our business partnership is a primary ingredient to our success.”

Wendy Bautista is the editor of Advantage Small Business Magazine. She can be reached at Wendy@advantagebizmag.com or 904-222-8140.

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Business vitals

Owner: Chad Perce and Clint Drawdy

In business since: 2004

Projected growth: “My role has been to set strategy and direction for both divisions in anticipation of—and response to—market trends; then successfully execute that strategy. I believe our growth has stemmed from strategic thinking and strong adherence to our core values, with a healthy dose of great advice and fortunate timing thrown in.

“By utilizing the expertise of a volunteer advisory board, playing to our strengths and planning at least two steps ahead for the future, iMethods has been on the leading edge of contract medical services and electronic medical records while meeting the ongoing need for high-quality IT recruiting.

“In the process, the company has grown from a clinical staffing firm with two full-time employees and first-year revenues of $415,000 to an award-winning IT recruiting and consulting corporation with a sizable staff and projected revenues of more than $10 million for 2012.

“Our Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) for the next three years is to exceed $20 million in revenues,” says Perce.

How you can do it

“My partner Clint Drawdy and I are quick to admit we don’t know everything about running a business. Fortunately, we know a number of people who collectively know everything we don’t—and five of them have generously agreed to serve on our volunteer advisory board,” says Perce.

The volunteer advisory board, which has met frequently since just before Perce and Drawdy formed the original company, provides wise counsel, holds them accountable for results, and is generally a blessing to them throughout the life of the business. With intellect, experience and expertise, they provide a sounding board for strategy; answer questions about banking, legal matters and operations; and perform a host of other valuable functions.

“They are anxious to help and have greatly shaped and influenced our business for the better,” states Perce. “Creating the board may have been the single best step we took in planning our business development!

“When we first formed Medical Methods, Clint and I were experts at sales and delivery, but encyclopedically ignorant on just about every other aspect of running a business,” says Perce. “The advisory board’s expertise and wise counsel has been critical to iMethods’ ability to transcend challenges.”

A book titled, “Now, Discover your Strengths” by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton ended up being another critical success element. Perce recalls how the message of the book—working to address your weaknesses wastes valuable time and energy and how you should play to your strengths instead—profoundly affected the way they viewed themselves and their workforce.

“When we altered some employees’ roles in accordance with this idea, they blossomed,” says Perce. “They gained greater satisfaction from their work and became more productive as well. We continue to apply the ‘strengths’ principle on many levels with excellent results. In fact, we apply it to our interview process, requiring promising candidates to complete a ‘strengths profile’ to confirm they’re the right match for a specific position.”

Perce and Drawdy also account iMethods’ survival, growth and subsequent success with their commitment to trying at least one or two new ideas each year. “Our wheels are always turning, especially when it comes to creating close or synergistic lines of service that could increase our footprint in the marketplace,” says Perce. “We operate on the theory that baiting multiple hooks increases your chance for a good catch, even in the rough economic waters we’ve all had to navigate over the past several years.”

Giving back

Because of iMethods’ focus on service, it’s not surprising that it has been active not just on behalf of its clients and employees, but to the larger community as well. Upon founding the business, Perce started an internal Mercy Ministry to support the employees and the community in times of need.

To date, that ministry has conducted numerous food and clothing drives and provided monetary support for individuals and families in crisis. The company has also supported numerous local charities, including the Boselli Foundation, The Sulzbacher Center, Make a wish Foundation, Heart for the Heartless and the MS Society.

Its major community focus, however, has been its association with Baptist Health Foundation, primarily through activities to benefit Wolfson Children’s Hospital.

“I am the founding and current chair of the One to Grow On Ultra Marathon, which raised more than $1.1 million to date, I served on the 2011 committee for The King of the Court Tennis Challenge, and we all participate annually in Wolfson’s Red Wagon Parade,” states Perce.

Along with the rest of the committee that conceived and implemented the Ultra Marathon, Perce made a three-year commitment (through 2013) to the race, with a goal of raising $1.5 million toward the purchase of a 3 Tesla MRI, a piece of equipment that will reduce the need for invasive exploratory procedures on children. This equipment will be installed in the new tower currently under construction at the hospital’s downtown campus.

“Learning the stories of children who have received care at Wolfson’s has been incredibly touching, and I am honored and proud to be associated with this incredible organization,” says Perce.

Another event connected with One to Grow On is Run 5 to Keep Kids Alive, a five-mile race that takes place during the overall event. iMethods is the title sponsor for the 2012 run and was the Internet Sponsor for the overall Ultra Marathon in 2011.

In the local business community, iMethods is a member of the Chamber’s Jacksonville IT Council (JITC) and is also active in multiple technology groups such as the Jacksonville Developers User Group (JAXDUG). Many of the JITC members are active in JAXDUG, which provides opportunities for developers to learn from each other through speakers, forums and mentoring, culminating in an annual educational intensive called “Code Camp.”

“We have supported this event in numerous ways over the years and enjoy the opportunity to share knowledge with our colleagues in the region,” says Perce.

Business planning

“For many years, we have followed Verne Harnish’s process for developing an annual One Page Plan for our business. As part of the Gazelles organization, Verne mentored us through a three-year entrepreneurial Master’s program hosted by MIT in Boston.

“While the plan is only one page, creating it is a complex exercise that helps solidify the company’s core values, purpose, and actions. The plan defines a one-year goal, a three-year target, key performance indicators (KPIs), and other valuable guideposts that keep us on track.

“Complementing the One Page Plan is our standard meeting rhythm, which follows the metrics outlined in the plan. Our teams have daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual meetings that focus on communication and progress toward our stated goals,” says Perce.

“While this may sound like over communication, quick and effective meetings with well-defined agendas have been critical to iMethods’ success and momentum.”

Think differently to save cash instead of saving taxes this year

By Greg Crabtree, CPA

Every business owner knows the drill; you made a profit this year so you need to spend your cash to save on taxes. Try to think differently this upcoming year to “save cash” not “save taxes.”

The inherent flaw in spending your cash is that you have to spend a dollar to save 40 cents in tax, which just seems like a bad idea. You come up with excuses to spend money you think you would have spent anyway—you buy new computers, some extra supplies, a new vehicle because you heard you can “write it off.”

The point is that if you did without those costs up to December, maybe you did not need to spend it after all! Most successful entrepreneurs spend a dollar at the last possible moment it is needed.

Build wealth or save taxes?

You can only build wealth from “after tax” income, so every attempt to lower your taxes lowers your ability to create wealth. The number one key performance indicator of wealth creation is “how big of a check did your write to the IRS.”

If you did not write a big check, you either cheated or you did not make any money—both are bad. Do not pay more taxes than you should, but you should be focused on building wealth above savings taxes.

What if I am cash basis?

For those who are a cash-basis businesses, you can easily fall into the trap of draining your cash paying off vendors at year end. While this seems enticing, you eventually take it to the illogical extreme and have such a huge amount pushed forward it causes you to make sloppy decisions at year end.

Here are just a few of the issues that you could encounter:

•Bank financing. Your year-end financials are more important than ever these days. By focusing on taxes instead of good business fundamentals, you distort your balance sheet at year end and spend the next year explaining why your balance sheet looks bad at December so you can get your line of credit or bonding renewed.

•Missed opportunities. Because you dumped all of your cash in December, it takes longer than you think to build it back in January and February. By not having cash available to start new projects, you delay or miss out on new opportunities. To delay acting on an opportunity wastes a day of potential productivity that can never be recovered.

•“Deferring Taxes” versus “Saving Taxes.” Did you really save taxes or did you just defer them? Be honest with your language when you spend your year-end cash. It is not saving taxes unless you are saving at a high rate this year and you pay a lower rate in the future.

Not likely to happen. Most entrepreneurs defer taxes at year end and push their rates down into the lower brackets to end up paying at a much higher rate in the future when they have kicked the can as far down the road as they can.

•Borrowing money to finance that year-end equipment purchase. This is the ultimate tax trap. You borrow $100,000 to buy that new piece of equipment (that could have been delayed) and you end up taking the expensing election on the equipment. Inevitably, this purchase pushes you down into the 20% or lower bracket.

The only way to repay debt is to make after-tax profit. To make enough profit to repay the loan, it pushes you into the higher brackets and you end up paying close to 40% tax to generate enough cash flow to get out of debt (if you are lucky).

A better way to think

You need to approach taxes as the logical outcome of a profitable business that is your primary wealth-building engine. These are the keys to make this happen:

•Owners wages. Set your wages out of the business at a market rate for the job you have in the business. Then live off of that wage. Do not fall into the trap of consuming the profits of the business.

•Get profitable with the business you have. Once you properly set your wage as an owner, your net income gives you a true picture of the profitability of your business. If you are not profitable, the key is to make all labor productive and eliminate any labor that does not add value. You have to get your current business model profitable before you grow.

•Grow your own capital. Once you are profitable, retain after tax business profits until the business is fully capitalized. One definition of being fully capitalized is having two months of operating expenses in cash with nothing drawn on a line of credit. A business that has two months of cash can act on opportunities as they come up and you do not need to “get permission” from your banker.

•Get shareholders healthy. Once the business is fully capitalized, you can then take distributions to get your personal finances healthy. Get out of debt first (yes, that means all debt… including your home!), and then build up your emergency fund.

•Strategically redeploy profits. Once your business and personal finances are stable, then you can make strategic decisions about the after-tax profits of the business and decide if you want to grow the business larger or just continue to harvest the profitability of the business.

•Beware of “consumption cancer.” Everything you buy owns a piece of you and creates a financial drag. If you learn to live off your wages and leave the profits of the business for wealth creation, you have mental clarity of what produces wealth, what is investing and what is consumption. If you set a lifestyle target before you have the income to act on it, you will stand a better chance to control consumption.

It is time for entrepreneurs to get back to fundamentals and build profitable businesses that do useful things and grow your own capital. Stable businesses are the ones that create jobs that last and build a strong economy that can weather the storms of the market.

Greg Crabtree has worked in the financial industry for more than 30 years and founded Crabtree, Rowe & Berger, PC, a CPA firm dedicated to helping entrepreneurs build the economic engine of their business. In addition to serving as the firm’s CEO, Crabtree leads the business consulting team—helping clients align their financial goals with their profit model and their core business values. He is the author of Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! He can be contacted through www.seeingbeyondnumbers.com.

While it may be something we all played in our childhood, kickball is more than that for Keith Johnson, CPA, owner of Keith E. Johnson CPA PA.

“I think the last time I played kickball before I started playing in this league Jimmy Carter was president,” jokes Johnson. “But I find it a great way to stay fit and the people are great. I may be the slowest person on the team, so it’s not a pretty sight when I am up at bat, but I have a great time playing.”

Johnson got involved with adult kickball about four years ago through a website called MeetUp.com, which is where people can “meet up” with other people with a common interest, such as wine tasting, flag football, happy hour groups, small business networking groups, book clubs, etc.

“I started back in 2007 with one group and through that I got an email about a kickball group. I emailed back for details and decided to go,” says Johnson.

Let’s kick it!

That meeting ended up segueing into the World Adult Kickball Association or WAKA (www.kickball.com). “Basically, it was a practice—but I had such a blast that when they asked if I wanted to join the league, I couldn’t say, “No!”

The leagues are made up of four to 16 teams of co-ed adults (ages 21 and over) of all skill levels and thegame is played just like the elementary school game—with the big red playground ball. Each team has somewhere around 20 people and the rules state that you have to have at least four guys and four girls to play and you can play up to 11 on a team.

“One other fun aspect are the team names,” says Johnson. “They are usually clever and a little risqué, but still off a kickball theme. My first team was called ‘New Kicks on the Block,’ while one of my more recent team names was ‘Pitches Be Crazy!’”

Time out

Johnson especially likes that kickball doesn’t really take a lot of his time. A WAKA kickball season generally consists of eight regular season games and a league championship tournament with qualifying teams from each league being eligible to compete in the annual Founders Cup World Kickball Championship held in Las Vegas.

“There are three leagues a year—summer, fall and spring—but I don’t/can’t do the spring season because of tax season,” says Johnson. “There is usually only one practice a week, but basically you show up on Thursday night ready to play.”

Johnson’s team meets at Carver Park, where the game is designed to be played for six innings or within one hour. “You remember playing it as a kid and it being competitive and good natured, and here you are playing it again with adults, a referee, scoreboards, schedules, league standings, and playoffs,” says Johnson. “But at the same time, we all know there is a lot more to life than kickball.”

Competitive edge

This past season, WAKA split the league into a competitive side (a little tougher and a sidearm ball pitch) and a fun side (slower ball pitch), of which Johnson chose the competitive side. “I want to be competitive; I don’t want to be a wimp. I’m out to win!” jokes Johnson. “The thing about the leagues is, yes, everyone wants to win and, yes, you want to be competitive, but it’s really about the social aspect that is more important.

“I started doing this in ’07 and I’ve noticed that it is tougher to play now than it was when I started,” says Johnson. “Physically I can tell I am older now than I was just a few years ago, but I intend to keep playing as long as my body holds out.”

Keith E. Johnson CPA, is owner of Keith E. Johnson CPA PA in Jacksonville, Fla., a full-service CPA firm providing accounting, auditing, consulting, and tax services to individuals, businesses, and non-profits. He can be contacted at 904-727-0077 or kejcpa@comcast.net.

Five ‘musts’ for creating a great first impression for your employee

By Polly White

To paraphrase an old saying, employees are not your greatest asset—great employees are your greatest asset. Whether your organization is large or small, make sure you set the stage for their success by creating a positive first impression by implementing these five “musts”:

1. Have a plan. The difference between a worker who becomes productive quickly and one who languishes is often how well they are oriented to their new company. The first hours and days of an employee’s new career are the time when they become acquainted to the requirements and expectations of their job, the culture of the organization and where and how they fit into the company.

You can greatly increase the speed at which your employees become fully productive by having a personalized orientation plan in place for their onboarding. The plan should balance time spent learning about the organization and their coworkers’ responsibilities with his or her specific job duties.

It is not necessary that their first hours be spent filling out the myriad of employment-related forms. This may be convenient for HR, payroll or accounting, but does not create the best first impression. While the employee will eventually need to fill out certain forms, most federal and state requirements allow the new employee and your company several days to complete the task. Spending your first hours creating a friendly, comfortable and productive experience for the employee is a better use of time.

2. Have a place for your new employee to call their own. Whether the employee will have a desk, a locker, a workstation, or a peg on the wall, you should have it labeled, clean and stocked with all of the equipment the employee will need to do his or her job. Nothing says, “We really want you to be happy and productive” like a well-appointed workstation.

When desks and workstations are left empty for any length of time, two things happen. First, any useful equipment, office supplies or gadgets seem to walk away. Second, the empty desk becomes a dumping ground for stacks of papers, files and other debris. The day before the new employee is to arrive, take a few minutes to restock the workstation and clean off unnecessary clutter.

3. Introduce them to their co-workers. Most businesses provide new employees with the standard tour and introduction. While this is a step in the right direction, there are ways to increase the benefit to the organization. Spend at least part of the first day celebrating the arrival of the new employee.

Have coffee with everyone on the team, allowing time for socializing and rapport building. If possible, add a donut or other snack into the mix. There is nothing like food to help with bonding and creating great memories.

4. Choose carefully when involving others in the onboarding process. Watch out for the “curmudgeon buzzard”— the longer-term employee who feels obligated to swoop in on your new employee and explain to them in great detail why coming to work in your organization may be the biggest mistake of their career. They peck away of the employee’s confidence regaling their new colleague with stories of times when management was unfair or unkind to the rank-and-file.

The curmudgeon buzzard carries a great deal of baggage with them that must be unloaded on the unsuspecting newbie. They are only effective, however, if they can poison the new employee before he or she has fully formed his or her opinion of the company.

Keeping the buzzards away from your new hires during the first few hours or days of their employment will allow the new employee to form a favorable impression of your company—one that will be hard to change. Coach the new employees yourself or assign them to employees who will represent your company in its best light. The rewards will be long lasting.

5. Outline what the new employee needs to accomplish to succeed—then set them up for success. Finally, explain to your employee what you want them to accomplish in his or her first days on the job. Understanding exactly what you want them to do and how you will measure their success will increase the new employee’s confidence and the likelihood that you will get great performance.

Make sure the tasks you select are ones that 1) will be part of the employee’s routine assignments, and 2) are very doable. Remember, you want the employee to succeed in the early days so that they will be eager to take on the more difficult work that lies ahead.

Polly White is a principal at Whitestone Partners. She has more than 20 years of experience working with companies to improve the skills, behaviors and attitudes of their workforce. Her career has included roles in administration, human resources, curriculum and employee development. She is a noted author, speaker and instructor and has worked for companies ranging from small start-ups to Fortune 100 corporations. She can be reached through www.whitestonepartnersinc.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.

With the new year upon us, we wanted to know if you are making any changes in 2012.

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“After 5+ years, I’m opening an office; adding specialized marketing, branding and consulting services, and more interns; and partnering with trusted colleagues on items I am not always able to work on, but some clients may ask for. So excited and ready for great things in 2012!” —Camille Clement Gregg, CEO, chief excitement officer at Outside The Box Consulting, LLC

“2012 policies and procedures are all around digital media and online communications. We will be helping more small businesses (SMBs) implement social media guidelines and online monitoring programs, as well as building out social media campaigns this year. I see SMBs doing a lot more in this space in 2012, but they first have to be informed about the possibilities of engaging with buyers online. What’s held them back to date is a sense of overload, in particular fear of the resources required to meet the expectations of social media users.” —Ilona Olayan, marketer, researcher, strategist, and social media zealot

“For 2012, I will be focusing on client communication—especially making sure clients get called back, which is always a challenge for me. My New Year’s resolutions are to simplify and recover.” —Keith Johnson Principal, Keith E. Johnson CPA PA

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“I have a number of new implementations, but since I am fairly fresh out of the gate owning my own business (no solicitors please), there are plenty of implementations I need to continue working on.”—Tommy Hobin, digital marketing consultant at Mind Jar Media

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“We will be implementing social media for 2012.” —John Gray, human resources director at England-Thims & Miller, Inc.

“I will ensure that all calls to clients will be returned within a 24-hour period.” —Pat Council, host of “Designing Your Life, Today” Radio Show at True Thoroughbred Enterprises

One of these 11 business leaders will be named the overall 2012 Chamber Small Business Leader of the Year Jan. 19. Stayed tuned to meet the winner!

“We congratulate our 2012 Small Business Leader of the Year winners,” said John Bryan, director of the Beaches Division and Chamber Councils. “They are exemplary leaders who have achieved great success in their respective fields and outstanding representatives of the Chamber’s membership.”

The 11 Northeast Florida business leaders were selected for the honor by the Chamber Councils, the Beaches Division and the Entrepreneurial Growth Division. One of these 11 business leaders will be named the overall 2012 Chamber Small Business Leader of the Year at the JAX Chamber’s Annual Meeting Jan. 19, 2012.

The 2012 Small Business Leader of the Year (SBLY) winners are:

Tara Yvette Forrest, Florida Imageworks and Promotions (www.floridaimageworks.com), Mandarin Council

Yvette is president of Forrest Florida Group Inc. dba Florida Imageworks & Promotions, a company that provides screen printing, embroidery, signs, printing, and promotional items from its manufacturing and retail location in Ponte Vedra. Yvette takes care of your apparel, promotional, sign, and marketing needs and is only limited by your imagination. She takes pride in branding your company in new, energetic, and creative ways.

Dr. Joanna Frantz, In Motion Physical Therapy (www.inmotionjax.com), Beaches Division

Joanna is owner of In Motion Physical Therapy, which provides physical therapy, massage therapy, post-surgical and cancer rehabilitation programs to the Jacksonville community. She works with local doctors to address the patient’s musculoskeletal diagnosis to correct their movement impairments. Along with medical services, she provides high-quality, injury specific rehabilitation equipment as appropriate for individual needs.

Ann Freeman, River City Security Services, Inc. (www.rivercitysecurity.com), Entrepreneurial Growth Division

Ann is president and CEO of River City Security Services, Inc., a woman-owned contract security guard and patrol agency providing armed and unarmed security services to customers in Jacksonville, Orlando and Ocala including non-profit organizations, select residential and special or seasonal security needs customers. She offers turn-key service for first-time security service buyers, with the majority of her customers being seasoned purchasers of contracted security solutions.

Sandy Knowles, Coordinated Benefits Group (www.jaxbenefits.com), North Council

Sandy is account executive at Coordinaed Benefits Group, Inc., an employee benefits and insurance solutions company that is small enough to care and know its clients, and big enough to serve its globally distributed employee population. Sandy researches and develops benefits packages for small to large businesses, implements and manages the company benefits, and provides human resource support, as well as claims and billing assistance.

Jennifer Marko, Bottle Snugglers (www.bottlesnugglers.com, Arlington Council

Jennifer is president of Marko Holdings, Inc. dba Bottle Snugglers, a plush animal designed to support a baby bottle at the proper feeding angle during baby’s feeding time, providing the feeder a free hand to tend to other tasks. She manufactures the patented baby bottle holders and sells them on her website and in stores, as well as on other retail websites in the United States and a few other countries.

Diana Otwell, Spectrum Signs and Graphics (www.spectrumsignsfl.com), South Council

Diana is president and owner of Spectrum Signs and Graphics, Inc., a full-service provider of signs and graphics products to local, regional and national companies. She provides quality sign manufacturing including wide-format digital printing, indoor and outdoor signs, ADA signs, trade show displays, channel lettering, custom banners, dimensional letters, engraved signs, menu boards, magnetics, illuminated signs, directories, routed and sandblasted signs, vehicle/fleet graphics and more.

Chad Perce, iMethods, LLC (www.imethodsinc.com), Jacksonville IT Council

Chad is CEO of iMethods, LLC, an award-winning, values-driven Information Technology (IT) staffing and consulting company serving both the healthcare industry and the broader business community. In the process, he also supports other businesses and entrepreneurs and provides meaningful opportunities for the skilled professionals he recruits. His highly personal, detail-oriented approach to client needs is rooted in his commitment to excellence and integrity.

Sandy Polletta, Edgewood Bakery (www.edgewoodbakery.com), West Council

Sandy is owner and vice president of Edgewood Bakery Inc., an award-winning, full-service bakery that has diversified its product line and structure to now include a breakfast and lunch café, full-service corporate and social catering, an on-premise banquet hall, an evening upscale bistro, outdoor courtyard dining and an online bakery with shipping for corporate or personal use. Her mission is to provide customers the best quality naked goods and food with the best customer service possible.

Ann Sabbag, Health Designs (www.healthdesigns.net), Jacksonville Health Council

Ann is founder and CEO of Health Designs, a company aimed at improving the health, well-being, and productivity of its clients’ employees. She helps companies improve employee health, contain health care costs and build a healthy and productive workplace by providing worksite health assessments, health screenings, and face-to-face health coaching that motivates participants toward positive lifestyle changes.

Kirsten Schneider, Dinners Direct (www.dinnersdirect.com), Professional Women’s Council

Kirsten is executive chef and owner of Dinners Direct, a delivery-only meal service that provides prepared, ready-to-cook meals. Customers order online from a monthly changing menu, and meals are packaged, labeled with cooking instructions, frozen and delivered to their home or office. Her mission is to help busy individuals and families put a nutritious meal on the table and reduce mealtime stress.

Jepp Walter, Marlin Technology (www.marlintech.us), Downtown Council

Jepp is owner of Marlin Technology, a technology based business supplying Information Technology services of many kinds, including but not limited to computer sales and support, PC help desk, network design and support, website design and hosting, telephone system sales and support, and data and telephone cabling. Jepp does this by helping customers understand their IT needs and desires and speaking to them in a language they can understand—not “techie.”

Why now is the time for your business to embrace remote working

By Cindy Bates

When was the last time you fielded a work call from the sidelines of your child’s sporting event or while in line at the grocery store? Chances are it wasn’t too long ago, considering the fact that an increasingly mobile marketplace is slowly but surely unraveling the sense of “office hours” and making it possible to conduct business in far more places than ever.

Not only has it become possible for you to work anytime, anywhere, but the ability to work remotely has actually become a business imperative, even for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

A recent survey conducted by Microsoft and Ipsos Public Affairs gauged the opinions and attitudes of 1,285 information workers in 15 U.S. markets toward telework at their businesses. The results indicate that telework is becoming more than just a corporate perk for SMBs.

More than half of SMB information workers (59%) say their companies provide access to tech support for working remotely. Additionally, 39% of respondents report that their company has a formal telework policy, and 72% of those surveyed indicate a positive preference for remote working.

A crucial ingredient for success

The statistics point to a growing acceptance among SMB decision makers that their success depends in part upon their ability to mobilize employees. Indeed, failing to embrace remote working and the technologies that support it could result in lost business opportunities, not to mention dissatisfied employees, clients and customers.

Millennials in particular have come to expect flexible work environments, and this means SMBs will face increasing expectations of telework options from their employees, while external audiences will demand more real-time responsiveness and access to information.

Yet, SMBs do have some catching up to do when it comes to capitalizing on flexible work arrangements and making the most of technologies that support remote working. On average, SMB information workers work remotely 3.2 days per month, even though they would prefer to do so eight days per month.

A win-win situation

When SMBs embrace remote working, it’s rare that one side gains more than the other, since telework provides a host of benefits to employees and employers alike. The primary reason to telework, as cited by the survey respondents, is to counteract transportation challenges, such as escalating fuel prices and long commutes.

Additional reasons for and benefits of remote working included striking a better balance between work and home priorities, increasing productivity and needing to complete unfinished work.

Employers who support remote-working scenarios also stand to gain, since they acquire access to a larger talent pool that stretches beyond their immediate geographies and reap the benefits of more productive employees. Employers also might find that remote-working policies enable them to reduce overhead costs, since having fewer employees in-house can significantly reduce office space requirements and energy expenses.

Furthermore, giving employees the ability to conduct business outside the office often means getting more face time with customers and partners, a bonus that can sharpen an SMB’s competitive advantage.

Developing your telework plan

Each business’s remote working policies and arrangements will vary, depending on the nature of an organization’s services and products. For example, a coffee shop will always need employees present during business hours, as the functions of food service demand the physical presence of employees. But, with the right technologies in place, coffee shop employees also could easily conduct behind-the-scenes tasks, such as accounting and marketing, from remote locations.

Therefore, as you begin or refine the process of developing your business’s remote-working strategy, consider the following, while also keeping in mind that every business is unique and there is no one-size-fits-all remote working scenario:

Does your company have a formal or consistent policy around telework? If not, make steps to form one. Establishing telework policies will help employees better understand their privileges and limitations and will also set a foundation for technology implementation.

What are your business’s internal and remote technology capabilities? For instance, how easily can your employees communicate and collaborate with one another inside the office, and do they experience the same capabilities outside the office environment? Incorporating internal collaboration tools and leveraging cloud-based software that’s accessible anywhere that employees have Internet connectivity will enable them to conduct business with greater efficiency and speed both in and out of the office.

How secure are your internal and remote systems? In an effort to increase accessibility and enable instant collaboration, many business decision-makers err by relying on public networking or social media platforms, even though these solutions are not appropriate venues for the exchange of sensitive ideas and information. Therefore, invest in communications technologies with heightened security protocols, always prioritizing the integrity of your business’s information rather than getting sidelined by free solutions that can’t guarantee the protection your business needs to succeed.

For today’s SMBs, the good news is that technologies that support telework are rapidly advancing and are also becoming increasingly affordable. There’s never been a better or more pivotal time for SMBs to capitalize on the new world of mobile work.

Cindy Bates is vice president of Microsoft’s U.S. SMB organization where she is responsible for the company’s end-to-end SMB sales and marketing efforts, including SMB strategy; business development; regional field sales; and national distribution sales, channel marketing, and customer marketing. Bates is an 11-year Microsoft veteran and blogs regularly at www.microsoftbusinesshub.com, where you’ll find technology tips and resources related to remote working.

Why you need to think outside the GAAP

By Chris Bryan

Are you struggling to see the benefits of your lean initiatives? If so, you’re not alone. You started your lean journey with the expectation that the benefits would flow to the bottom line. Unfortunately, the early financial numbers may not be what you expected.

Many companies abruptly take an exit from their lean journey when early indications don’t show expected benefits. Implementing the principles of lean is a long-term initiative, however, and will ultimately provide a significant competitive advantage—but it will test your vision and leadership mettle.

Lean principles

The goal of implementing lean principles is to find and eliminate waste along the value stream. Most companies appoint a lean champion. Employees are trained and lean teams are formed to map key production processes. This process is called value stream mapping.

The objective is to identify steps and resources that add no value to the consumer of your product. Once non-value added steps are identified, the value stream map is redesigned and waste in the process is eliminated. Production planning changes dramatically. Manufacture-for-stock is reduced or eliminated in favor of manufacture-to actual-demand. When a lean team has redesigned the process, an implementation event, or kiazen event, is planned to execute the changes.

Kiazen events usually take one to several days of intense work. When the event is complete, production resumes using the new lean production flow. It is common for lean teams to shorten manufacturing times, free floor-space, reduce in-process part movement and shrink (or eliminate) inventories. Compelling evidence shows that firms, large and small, benefit from implementing lean principles.

Nothing rivals the excitement and energy generated during the early stages of a lean journey. You will feel great about gathering your employees for training, forming lean teams and redesigning your value stream maps, and everyone will be eager to participate in the initial kiazen events. The optimism is intoxicating. Soon, however, you will face the task of measuring the progress of your lean initiatives.

Challenges measuring lean initiatives

Looking to your standard financial statements in the first few months of a lean journey is likely to give you a confusing picture. Unfortunately, standard accounting methods don’t reflect the progress made by lean teams in the early stages.

Costs associated with training employees, reconfiguring production space, relocating inventory, and conducting kiazen events all hit the profit and loss statement immediately. Liquidating excess inventory, an important initiative in lean, may hit profit margins and increase trade accounts receivable in the short-term.

Worthwhile lean projects that may not result in significant costs, such as clearing production floor-space and establishing point-of-use inventory locations, may not result in immediate cost decreases (rent or depreciation).

If that isn’t enough, standard production cost accounting methods actually reward operations managers for over-producing. Often, manufacturing overhead allocations are based on direct labor hours and other activity-based metrics.

When lean teams work to reduce excess inventory, production quantities may decline, direct labor hours and other metrics may decline and create unfavorable absorption variances. When new, lean production processes are implemented and production is limited to actual customer demand, unfavorable variances may persist.

The good news is that variable manufacturing costs can be reduced immediately; however, it takes time for you to reduce semi-variable and fixed costs that make up the manufacturing overhead pool.

When your generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) financial statements and traditional product cost reports don’t represent the early progress being made, it’s easy to be distracted from the ultimate goal. To keep your direction and focus, develop a system of specific measures that will ultimately drive broader measures of performance.

Use specific measures to motivate

It is necessary, especially at the beginning of a lean journey, that you implement a system of measurements that can be communicated back to your lean teams. Specific measures and short-term incentives based on achievement are key tools to motivate your lean teams to exert extra effort, develop creative ideas, and to challenge inefficient but deeply entrenched processes.

These measurements will encourage you and your staff to keep driving the right events even when your financial statements do not yet show the fruits of your labor. The benefits of implementing lean principles will, in time, improve your financial statements and become a testament of your leadership skills.

Considerations in measuring lean

Shareholders, owners, partners and other financial stakeholders all rely on your financial statements to measure the performance of your operation. It’s a great advantage when you can link the benefits of your lean activities directly to improving numbers and trends from your audited or reviewed statements.

This is especially true if your business needs to acquire new, more efficient equipment through financing. Consider preparing a three-tiered reporting pack that links production-floor activities to broader performance measures that drive financial metrics.

The first tier reporting can be used to summarize each kiazen event. The summary should include a brief description of the event and how the changes implemented are expected to benefit either the profit and loss statement or balance sheet. (For example, the event may reduce costs or lower inventory.)

The expected cost and benefit of the event can be estimated with your accountant, but the estimate need not comply with traditional accounting rules. One of the benefits of documenting specific kiazen events is that it allows lean champions to later revisit the event and check if the results are meeting or exceeding the estimate.

The second tier can present monthly lean team metrics that don’t show up on financial statements, but will drive the top-tier metrics directly derived from the financial statements. Examples of middle-tier metrics to support inventory reduction metrics include takt time, consigned inventory value, and JIT supplier performance.

The top tier should contain four to six broad measurements of business performance that can be derived with at least one key piece of information from the financial statements such as sales per employee, inventory turns, return on net assets, return on sales, profit to operating cash conversion ratio, and gross profit margin.

Your vision and focus will become evident over time. One of the most significant and often immeasurable benefits of implementing lean, however, is the ability to take advantage of market opportunities in your industry. Lean initiatives can provide your company with additional capacity to capture new customers and make solid gains in market share.

This reporting pack proposal will help you concentrate on the proper metrics early in your lean journey. If you maintain focus, your business will gain a substantial advantage against your competition through operational excellence and market leadership.

Chris Bryan is a CPA and CFE with Christopher S. Bryan CPA, Inc. offering CFO services and fraud prevention services to local and national clients. He is a six-year veteran of measuring and reporting the lean journey. He can be contacted at 904-437-7022, cbryan@christophersbryancpa.com or through www.christophersbryancpa.com.

How your business may still be in the dark ages

By Pete Lamson

The digital age is in full force and ledger sheets, receipt books and cash registers are a distant memory. Today, small businesses have shifted to accounting software, customer relationship management applications and point-of-sale devices to accelerate operations, improve accuracy, and ultimately to ensure their business runs as smoothly as possible—generating tons of valuable data about their businesses.

Unfortunately, this shift means all this important data is vulnerable to viruses, malicious hackers, physical damage or simply leaving your laptop behind at the coffee house.

The risk of losing your company’s most valuable asset—your business data— is real. And running your business is competitive enough without the hassle of lost files. Losing your data means potentially losing your business. Yet surprisingly, 86% of small businesses are relying on antiquated backup methods (Carbonite Inc., December 2010 SMB Data Backup Study).

Data is vulnerable

A 2011 study conducted by Carbonite Inc. uncovered that 48% of small businesses have lost digital documents or other records—up from 42% since 2010.

These businesses noted that the major ways they lost information were hardware or software failure (54%), accidental file deletion (54%), computer virus damage (33%), and theft of computers or stored data (10%).

Data catastrophe also can occur from fire, hurricane, flood, tornado or earthquake. While buildings are replaceable, lost information about your finances, your inventory, your customers, and even your email often is not.

Protecting business data

Your business’s data is its lifeline and this vital information must be backed up. Though many of you are backing up in some manner today, the reality is that copying your files onto physical devices like external hard drives or USBs is not a complete solution and does not ensure you can retrieve your files if and when needed.

When using devices like external hard drives, CDs, DVDs or USB/flash memory sticks, the backup is actually only the first step. All these drives or disks must also be removed from the business premises every night and returned every morning.

If not, anything that should happen onsite—from fire to theft—could wipe out both your original files and the backup. Even if these steps keep your backups current and separate from the originals, those hard drives and memory sticks are still vulnerable to theft, tampering or loss.

Backup with the cloud

Fortunately, technology has developed a solution, and it resides in the “cloud.” For a small fee, commercial services enable you to store copies of your files online—on tightly secured servers operated by companies dedicated to backing up business files. These services offer more than just storage; they make backing up convenient and time-efficient.

Easy-to-use, cloud-based methods aren’t vulnerable to the problems associated with those antiquated backup methods. Once you realize you need to better protect your data and ultimately your business, you need to choose the right online backup solution.

Choosing the cloud solution for your business

Here are six key capabilities to look for when trusting your files to online services for backup and restoration in case your computers crash, burn or just die:

1. Affordability. The best services may cost only $229 a year to back up an unlimited number of computers in your company. This is a predictable, sustainable cost you can plan for. It’s really the lowest insurance premium you’ll keep on your books, and it protects the most valuable asset in your business—your data.

2. Automatic backup. The files on your business computers should be copied and stored on a cloud-based server without you needing to do anything but register with the service. As you create new files or edit existing documents, the files should back up automatically.

3. Easy restoration. With online backup, you no longer need to worry about transporting your backup files daily. The cloud-based servers are far removed from your location, so if something unfortunate did happen onsite, you could retrieve the data you created on your computers. The service you choose should enable you to simply boot up a new computer, connect to the Internet, visit where your files are stored, and download your files. The best cloud-based backup services will even place your restored files in the same folders in the same locations as they were on your original computer.

4. Anywhere, anytime access. You don’t need to suffer a disaster to be saved by online backup. The best backup services allow you to retrieve whatever files you need by accessing it from your laptop computer or smartphone. Now, when you are with a customer offsite and realize you urgently need a particular file to document an action you have taken or an invoice you sent, you can have it on hand.

5. No extra equipment. You should only need to register and download a small piece of software that lets you retrieve or restore your files. Everything else should happen automatically.

6. Security. Most cloud-based backup companies encrypt every byte of data throughout the complete process—uploading, storing and downloading a file from the cloud. It’s the same secure technology that banks use for their online operations.

Once you have an online backup service in place, you will have safe, certain, anytime-anywhere access to your files. If your business expands, you can extend your backup service to more computers or locations.

Knowing that your company’s data is backed up properly can provide you with the peace of mind you need to focus on running your business. You have a responsibility to your business, your employees, your customers and yourself to consider the impact of data loss and to take action to implement a backup procedure that fits your company’s needs. You can get started in minutes and be protected from whatever lies ahead.

Pete Lamson is senior vice president and general manager of the small business group at Carbonite, a leading provider of online backup solutions for consumers and small- to medium-sized businesses. More than 1.1 million subscribers in over 100 countries rely on Carbonite to provide easy-to-use, affordable, unlimited and secure online backup solutions with anytime, anywhere data access. For information on Carbonite, visit www.carbonite.com.

How to transition from your business on your terms, for your price

By Lewis Hunter

As a business owner, you are accustomed to, and perhaps even thrive upon, solving today’s pressing problems and pushing on totomorrow. But have you looked beyond this week, this month, or even this year?

The average owner spends 80,000 hours building their company but only six hours planning its transfer. As a result, 80% of business owners fail to get top dollar when they sell. That is like winning a free lottery ticket on a drawing for a $1 million jackpot—you may have won, but you missed out on a much bigger prize.

Just as winning the lottery is not a viable strategy for achieving your dreams, nor is hoping that you will sell your business for enough money to support your future lifestyle.

Use a business transition plan to control your exit and maximize your payout. Plan now when you will exit, how and for how much, rather than leaving it to chance.

Analyze your current situation

As with any journey, you must know where you are before you can determine where you are going. Transition planning involves reviewing your business and personal life.

Review your personal finances; focusing on the wealth gap you must close to support your goals for life after your business. If you want to retire, how much money will you need and what price would you have to sell your business for to net that amount?

For your business, document your vision and strategy for the company. Identify critical success factors and measure performance against them through operational metrics. Undertake legal and taxation reviews to ensure compliance with regulations and to protect against risks.

Identify your objectives

Set clear, measurable, attainable objectives for your life after your business, and your business’s life after you.

Business owners typically start planning transitions for one of three reasons:

•A personal health scare, or death or illness of someone close to them, has reminded the owner of their own mortality. They contemplate what would happen to their business and their loved ones if they suddenly stopped working.

•The owner has tired of their work and wants to do something different, such as go into public service or spend more time with friends and family.

•They desire to leave a legacy, ensuring the company survives them and that their work continues to benefit others.

Don’t wait for one of these to occur. Identify your long-term financial and lifestyle needs, the needs of family and stakeholders, and your desired business legacy.

Select your options

Whether you will transfer your business, continue working or retire, there are many ways to accomplish your objectives. Some options to consider and factors to review:

•Internal transfer—Consider whether the next owner(s) would be capable of running the business. Be impartial, even if they are one or more of your children or a long-time employee. Also, ensure you achieve your personal financial goals without irreparably impairing the company. Use trusts, buy/sell agreements, employee stock ownership plans or management buyouts, for example.

•External transfer—Your influence over your company’s future may wane with an outside buyer. Their plan should align with your vision for the business and the needs of your stakeholders, including employees and customers. Would the buyer be making a strategic acquisition with the intent of operating, and perhaps growing, the business over time? Or would they be a financial purchaser, hoping to squeeze cash and profit from a future sale? Will you solicit bids for the company or negotiate with a single prospective buyer?

Identify the options available to you and evaluate each one based on your objectives. Choose one and put a contingency plan in place so the business can operate and your personal goals can be achieved if you cannot complete the transition as hoped, perhaps due to health or performance issues. Use insurance and legal protections.

Create your plan

When will you transition and for how much? What will the acquirer look like? How will your family’s and stakeholder’s needs be met? Compile the answers in your plan and state how you will attain your objectives. Be specific.

The wealth gap between what your business is worth and what you need to sell it for can provide your timeline. If it is worth $1 million today and you need to sell it for $2 million, will it take three years to close the gap? Five?

Decrease the company’s dependence upon you. Allow time to build business value by grooming leaders, implementing systems, improving processes and increasing revenues and profits.

Your transition should occur when you want and in your accordance with your wishes for the future ownership of the business and at a value that fulfills your wealth objectives. Spell out roles and responsibilities for key individuals, draft the management structure, and detail how you will be paid.

When your transition plan is complete, break it down further into tasks with due dates and responsibilities assigned.

Create your plan, build your business’s value and transition when you are ready—then you won’t need to win the lottery to achieve your dreams.

Lewis Hunter is a Jacksonville-based business transition specialist with ROCG Americas, LLC, an international consulting firm that helps owners of small- and medium-sized companies start, build and exit. He can be reached at 904-400-6610, lewis.hunter@rocg.com, or through http://business-transition.com/.

Get ready

•Set up a team of advisors.

•Draft a letter to your spouse or loved one, stating whom to contact and what to do if you die or are incapacitated before you transition.

•Perform a business valuation.

•Measure the wealth gap between your company’s current value and what you need to sell it for to achieve your personal financial goals.

•Create your transition plan.

•Optimize your business.

•Build business value by eliminating the company’s dependency on you as much as possible.

Optimizing your health can help achieve professional aspirations

By Dr. Earl Eye

The dream of business success captures the imagination of aspiring and existing business owners everywhere. A vision of flowing profits, industry respect, thrilled customers, and a balanced life permeates your consciousness and keeps you motivated.

As an entrepreneur, time is your most valuable asset—yet it’s the only part of your existence you can’t leverage. You only have so much of it in your day and you can’t add more to those 24 hours, no matter what you do or what you pay.

You may think you’re doing your business a favor by sacrificing sleep, diet, and an exercise program, but the truth is you’re not. While it may seem counter intuitive, spending a little less time at the office and redirecting it toward optimizing your health may be just the ticket to achieving your professional aspirations.

Steps to optimal health

Three areas in which you can take some simple and time-conscious steps to optimize your health include:

•Sleep. When you’re tired, your ability to work productively and think clearly may suffer, which could lead to dangerous or costly mistakes and take a toll on your professional reputation.

Poor sleep can make it difficult to multi-task, make you slower to get your work done, and some people report it affects creative thinking and memory. Some ways to reduce insomnia include:

Taking melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that helps regulate sleep, and as you age, your body produces less and less. It doesn’t cause dependence or addiction and as a side benefit, it naturally increases your body’s growth hormone production.

Sleeping no more than seven hours. Most people need no more than seven and a half hours, but if you cut back to seven, you’ll have sounder sleep with fewer awakenings.

Getting up at the same time every morning. Your body rhythms are tied to the time you awaken, so it’s important to keep it constant. That means not oversleeping on weekends.

Getting into bed only when you’re sleepy. Spending time awake in bed can make you anxious and can lead you to associate your bed with anxiety. If you can’t drop off to sleep after 15 minutes, try slow deep breaths. If you reach 200 breaths go to another room and do something relaxing such as reading a book until you are sleepy.

•Nutrition. Nutrition isn’t about a single “perfect” diet. For thousands of years, human diets were simple: We ate what grew from the ground, fell from the trees, ran across our path or swam the waters.

The diet most synergistic with our Paleolithic-era ancestors: high in nutrient-dense foods (fruits, vegetables, lean meats and essential fats) and low in refined, overly processed foods, fats and simple carbohydrates.

To improve upon your eating habits, try:

Choosing natural foods. If it grows from the ground, falls from the trees, runs, flies, swims, it is an optimal choice. Best of all, natural foods such as fruits and veggies are most nutritional in the raw, making them quick and easy to prepare. If you must eat packaged foods, choose those that are minimally processed.

Eating once every three to four hours. Your metabolism is like an engine—the more often you give it fuel, the better it works. When you deprive your body of food, it shuts down to preserve energy. Good examples of some snacks to eat in between meals are nuts, cottage cheese, or jerky.

Taking supplements. Supplements are a quick and easy way to ensure your body is getting all of the necessary nutrients it needs to be healthy. Research is constantly demonstrating that truly therapeutic doses of vitamins and minerals and anti-oxidants—the amounts needed to reduce the risk for various diseases—are substantially higher than the RDAs.

•Exercise. All you need is 30 minutes a day to optimize your health. If you don’t know the first thing about exercising, hire a trainer once or twice to teach you the basics.

Set aside time each day for an activity that you enjoy, such as practicing yoga or lifting some weights. Better yet, discover activities where you can get exercise and spend quality time with your partner, family or friends—such as tennis, hiking, or dancing.

Weight training is the best way to burn fat; it’s more effective for losing weight than aerobic activity because it burns calories while you’re exercising and at rest. Here’s the math: The body requires approximately 30-50 calories daily, per pound of muscle. When you add five pounds of lean muscle, you’ll burn an additional 150-250 calories every day, even on days you don’t exercise. This adds up to 15 to 26 pounds of fat loss every year.

Do some high intensity endurance exercises, which is at least 12-15 minutes of pushing your body to the limit of its capabilities. Interval training is the best way to get a rigorous workout quickly. Using a treadmill or elliptical, start at a low to moderate pace for one minute, then up your speed to an all-out sprint for 30 seconds, then back down to the moderate pace for one minute, and then back up to a sprint for another 30 seconds. Do this five times. An alternate would be using telephone poles. Sprint in between two, then walk between the next two, and repeat.

The most serious thing that could happen is the loss of your productivity—which ultimately not only affects you, but also your business, employees, family and loved ones.

It’s much better to work for seven hours a day at peak performance than for 10 hours a day at half-consciousness. Get on a good diet, a good workout plan, and get plenty of sleep. It’s fine to be off balance sometimes, but never forget the adage, “Sound body; sound mind.”

Dr. Earl Eye is an AMA certified age-management specialist at Cenegenics Jacksonville, a practice committed to helping patients maintain health and live well longer. He is an institute physician at Cenegenics’ corporate headquarters and is the CEO and CMO of Cenegenics Jacksonville. Dr. Eye is also board certified in critical care medicine, infectious diseases medicine, pulmonary medicine, and internal medicine. He can be reached at 904-674-0404, contact@cenegenicsjax.com, or through www.cenegenicsjax.com.

The power of youth in the workplace  

By Wendy Bautista

For the first time in American history, we are seeing four different generations working together in the workplace—with some demographers saying there are really five, depending on how the generations are defined.

With some traditionalists (those generally born between 1927 and 1945) remaining in the workforce and the Millennials (those generally born between 1981 and 2000) making their presence known, the workplace has never been more diverse.

“You need diversity and you need lots of it,” says Diana Peaks, executive director at Jacksonville University Center for Professional Studies and an adjunct business professor at Jacksonville University.

“You need cultural diversity, organizational diversity and you also need age diversity because every business works with people of all ages, and that diversity should provide you with a competitive advantage.”

Using that advantage

One company that uses age to its competitive advantage is 5ivecanons (www.5ivecanons.com). Adam Schaffer, Justin Dennis, and Michael Woeppel—all under the age of 30—together own and operate the Jacksonville Beach-based, full service advertising agency that focuses on consumer engagement.

“We like to say we fuse brands with culture,” says Schaffer, the creative director at 5ivecanons. “What that means is we develop immersive consumer experiences for our clients and their brands.”

While the diversity in this year-old company is not multi-generational, each member brings years of experience to the team from different areas and aspects of the industry.

“We knew each other before we started this company,” says Schaffer. “We’ve all been and worked in the industry for years, just in our separate roles—and we just brought all of those skills together to form 5ivecanons.”

Prior to each member’s work experience came years of schooling as well, with Schaffer attending undergraduate and graduate school to be a creative; Dennis, the digital strategist,  studying management information systems (computer science); and Woeppel, the executive producer, studying digital media art.

Breaking barriers

Even with years of experience behind each team member, they sometimes face apprehension from people in the workforce because of their age and youthful appearance. According to Peaks, this is not all that uncommon.

“There are some very intelligent young people out there and we need that, we need that to move forward, but it can be a barrier,” she says. “Where the younger workforce really should be judged on merit, some people, such as a traditionalist, may misjudge them based on their looks and question their experience and knowledge.”

5ivecanons has faced such apprehension head-on.

“One of the best questions we get asked is, ‘Who owns your company?’” says Dennis, with a laugh. “But I just take that with a grain of salt as there are some things we are still learning and I think we are getting smarter about.

“I do think it throws people off sometimes,” continues Dennis. “When we walk in, we will be immediately discounted because we’re not ‘senior’ or don’t have three offices in New York, Atlanta, and L.A. [yet].

“But what we offer is unique and we’re good at what we do,” continues Dennis. “I think people that see past our age and understand that we are experts in the things that we bring to them are the ones that work the best with us.”

“I’ve seen it happen a couple of times where we’ve gone to talk to a client and they are very standoffish when we first enter the room,” adds Woeppel, “But as Adam or Justin go into detail about Facebook or another channel the client doesn’t know very much about, you can see a change come over them. You can see their eyes light up because it clicks—they realize the potential and they realize that we know all the facets and ins and outs of all these mediums.”

The company’s approach

But none of this apprehension has slowed the three of them down. In their first year of business, they have gone from one to 15 clients, with clients such as Chick-fil-a, Community First Credit Union, Coggin Collision Center and Ethan Allen—and the list continues to grow as word spreads on their abilities. With most of their clients coming from referrals, they believe it is based on their five canons approach.

The idea behind 5ivecanons’s name and the basis of their business comes from ancient philosopher Cicero’s five canons of rhetoric. “Cicero used five canons when he spoke to a forum, and us being a digital agency, we also speak to a forum for our clients—we just use five different canons,” says Schaffer.

For every project they do, they use all of these five canons:

•Listening phase—they learn everything about their client’s audience;

•Strategy phase—they plan goals, timelines and milestones for their clients;

•Creative phase—they develop and produce all of the messaging and content;

•Distribution phase—they look at all the channels their client’s audiences are in; and

•Optimization phase—they try to improve everything they’ve done for every step along the way.

While the timing of each phase is different for each project, client and client’s needs, the phases are based on the scope of work in general. “The listening phase is generally our research phase and it can take some time—and that’s where we tend to see the gaps or areas where they could be benefitting from better systems,” says Dennis.

“We listen to the Internet in real time and then show our clients where their potential consumers are and networks they may want to be actively involved in or a contextual style they may want to use.”

“Many of our clients are somewhat technologically savvy and understand the channels and their audience,” adds Schaffer. “They are just looking for someone to improve where they are—and that’s where we come in. Part of our services is offering ways to brand your business to your audience through editorial plans and immersive Facebook applications.

“We develop something a little bit further than, ‘Here’s a post about what’s going on’ and in fact instruct them on when and what to post—such as separate messages, images, and videos, instead of saying, ‘Come on down for this great deal,’” says Schaffer.

“One thing you always want to do is create and present content that is going to engage people and really get them involved,” says Woeppel.

“We can then build data based on what people are clicking on and define not only a demographic but also a psychographic based on whether they watch more of your videos or click on your photos or answer polls,” says Dennis. “We can then make suggestions on technology that we think might be best.”

Woeppel adds, “And we also think of and consider these things as a whole and how they will all work together for the best result.”

Heart of it all

Knowing all of this helps 5ivecanons develop a strategy and the creative to match who they are addressing and from that they build a plan based on each concept. “We don’t put technology before concept so we don’t force anything into a technology,” says Schaffer. “We can then say, ‘This is the idea, here are the technologies that are best matched to that idea and what would you like to do?’ or sometimes it is, “This is what you should do and here are three ideas, which one do you like?”

Diversity for 5ivecanons also comes from how it utilizes crowdsourcing. The small core team is here, but they utilize an expansive network of 60 to 100 people that they work with—not just here in Jacksonville, but all over the world in places such as Dallas, New York, Mexico, Russia, and the Ukraine.

“What we like to do is reach out to people that we know are really, really good at what they do,” says Schaffer. “After the core team has gone through the listening and strategy phase of a project and are on to the creative phase, we will go to the network for something we need or need better—like a killer logo or someone that is an amazing developer for Facebook or Flash—and we get those people involved.

“It makes us a lot bigger, but keeps us still small,” says Schaffer. “And we get to pick the best to work with us—I don’t think we could ask for a better business model at this point!”

Keeping with the curve

With advances in technology happening every day, Schaffer, Dennis and Woeppel find themselves constantly searching for what is coming around the corner—but that doesn’t mean it will be right for their clients.

“We’ve seen ‘trying to be in front of the curve’ not necessarily work all the time,” says Dennis. “But staying right with the curve and knowing exactly where the audience is in relation to that technology curve is what’s important. We don’t bring technology to somebody unless we know there is going to be a use for it on the other end—it has to be  the right fit for their target audience.”

“We are always looking for new things,” says Woeppel. “But as Justin said, if we get too far ahead of the curve, it will go right over our client’s head and so it’s finding that fine balance.”

“I think it’s always a balance between what our client’s needs are and what their audience is,” says Schaffer. “We’re not a technology shop; we’re not inventing anything new; we’re just leveraging those tools for the right channel and for the right audience.”

Learning and challenging

“Technology changes every month and so we’re constantly being challenged,” says Schaffer. “But every day we challenge ourselves and each other, and we learn new things about business and about ways to communicate—and that’s why we love what we do.

“We are all very passionate and have goals and a vision,” continues Schaffer. “And because of that we’re going to challenge each other and we’re going to argue, but we turn that into a dialogue to make sure we have the best product for our clients.”

“I think with all of us being so passionate about the industry, we always end up producing an amazing product,” says Woeppel.

“I think we are hungry for it,” adds Schaffer. “We’re really passionate and each one of us bring something incredible to the table and these are some of the smartest guys I’ve ever met in my entire life—so it makes it easy for us to do this because we are so hungry for it.”

“And we are super competitive,” adds Dennis. “If a company looks down at us for our young age, we’ll challenge them to place us against another shop.”

“We like those challenges,” adds Schaffer. “If they are going to put us against another, maybe ‘older’ shop in town; we are going to bring our A-game. That’s what it boils down to—we’re in business here and we want to do great work, and being young we like challenges! Bring it on!”

Wendy Bautista is the editor of Advantage Small Business Magazine. She can be reached at Wendy@advantagebizmag.com or 904-536-2234.

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Utilizing the youth

5ivecanons’s clientele has climbed from one account to 15 in a year—with the list continuing to grow as word spreads of their abilities. To see what this “young gun” team can do and see some of the companies that are utilizing them, visit:

Chick-fil-a: http://www.5ivecanons.com/rhetoric/mobile/turn-consumers-into-the-advertising-message/
Community First: http://www.5ivecanons.com/rhetoric/mobile/community-first-credit-union/
Ethan Allen: http://www.5ivecanons.com/rhetoric/social-media/ethan-allen/

Business vitals

Owners: Adam Schaffer, Justin Dennis and Michael Woeppel

In business since: 2010

Projected growth: “I think our work speaks for itself,” says Schaffer. “We sent out an email to our network and it was just our reel of recent work and with that people saw the work and want to work with us. It wasn’t like we were trying necessarily to bring in business; they just saw the scope of what we are capable of and want to work with us.”

Dennis adds, “In the first year, we went from one to 15 clients and we are expecting to double our revenue this year—and then we’ll go from there and hopefully the trend will continue.”

“But I do see the most growth happening by way of mobile and social media—that is where we are just really booming,” says Schaffer.

Woeppel adds, “Yes, this year is the first year that mobiles outsold desktops.”

“In the United States, 53% of Americans are using a smart phone,” says Dennis. “Even though it’s still a very personal device and still has a personal sense, if we can get our clients on that very personal device, it’s almost an intimate connection, which is why I thinks it’s going to be a huge market.”

How you can do it

“Be as passionate and as hard working as you possibly can,” says Schaffer. “It’s a really tough economy right now and an even tougher industry, and I think just having skills or an education will not cut it—you have to be hungry, passionate, smart and dedicated to what you do. You have to be committed to the end result.”

Woeppel adds, “It’s being agile and reading and keeping up on trends and just keeping up with it all. You should always be searching, always looking for new things.”

Dennis adds, “I think our model is unique in crowdsourcing. The book ‘The World is Flat’ by Thomas Friedman explained that people who manage their channels the best and how they get their work done from a global perspective are going to be extremely successful.

“It’s no longer this 50-person shop in one place because you can reach different people around the world if  you embrace the idea that the world is flat and get savvy about how to use technology in your business, and even cut corners and save money.”

How to protect your rights when dealing with your insurance company  

By Mark Bajalia, Esq.

As a business owner, you will very likely need to make a claim under one of your insurance policies at some point. If you do, you may receive a “reservation of rights” letter from your insurer.

A reservation of rights letter often leaves insured parties confused and unsure about how to respond; however, you will find information about what a reservation of rights letter is and the various options and opportunities it presents for an insured party follows.

What it is

A reservation of rights letter does not necessarily mean the claim is not covered under the insurance policy. It does mean that the insurer thinks it may have grounds to deny coverage for some part of the claim or the entire claim. For example: Most policies have what is called an “intentional acts” exclusion. If it appears that the damages or injuries were the result of an intentional act on the part of the insured party, then the insurer may send a reservation of rights letter indicating that, under the terms of the policy, it may have grounds to deny coverage.

In some cases there may be claims that are covered and claims that are not and the insurer may send a reservation of rights letter indicating that it is providing coverage for only a portion of the claim.

Why they are sent

Insurers send reservations of rights letters to keep their options open. If the insurer does not reserve its rights and provides a defense to the claim, but later discovers that circumstances exist that trigger an exclusion or otherwise call into question coverage under the policy, then the insurer will be stopped from raising a coverage defense.

Under those circumstances, courts could, and have, said that the acts of the insurer in providing a defense without reserving its rights constitutes a waiver of its right to deny coverage. Thus, rather than deny coverage outright, the insurer will send a reservation of rights letter and keep its options open.

Essentially, the insurer is letting the insured party know there is going to be an investigation but is preserving its right to deny coverage if the investigation shows that it is not a covered loss.

What are your options?

You have several options when you receive a reservation of rights letter:

•Ignore it: The insurer may be correct in reserving its rights as to part of the claim.

•Dispute the reservation: As the insured party, if you disagree with the reservation of rights and your insurer’s interpretation of the policy language, you should go “on record” that you dispute the reservation and set forth the reasons that you dispute it.

You should also send it to the claims representative by certified mail and request a response. This will cause the insurer to reassess its position and even if the insurer’s position does not change, you have created a paper trail, which may be useful if the coverage dispute ends up in court.

•Ask for more information: Some insurers will intentionally keep the reservation of rights letter vague to keep their options open. An insured party should counter by asking for specifics as to the purported basis for the coverage issue and the rationale for it.

•Start the clock: Once an insurer reserves its rights, it must eventually declare whether or not it is going to provide coverage for the loss. If the insurer continues to investigate the claim but never conclusively disclaims or accepts coverage within a reasonable time frame, then the insurer may be stopped from doing so. Keep following up with the insurer and periodically ask the insurer to state its position.

•Explore new opportunities: If an insurer reserves its rights, you may have the right to hire your own lawyer to defend the claim, not one picked by the insurer. The insurer will nevertheless be required to pay for your lawyer of choice.

Courts have said that when an insurer hires a lawyer for the insured party, it creates an inherent conflict of interest, which may allow the insured to retain its own counsel. Thus, when confronted with a reservation of rights, it may create an opportunity for the insured party that didn’t previously exist.

•Seek a declaratory judgment: Despite the reservation of rights, if you or your attorney feels that coverage for the loss does exist, then you can seek to have a court review the policy language and the facts as presented and make a determination as to whether coverage exists.

In essence, you are asking the court to “declare” what the policy language means and whether coverage exists. This forces the insurer to address the coverage issues before proceeding on the merits of the underlying lawsuit or claim. The prospect of spending more on legal fees to defend itself in a declaratory judgment action may also encourage the insurer to go ahead and provide coverage and defend the claim.

If you feel strongly that the insurer is reserving its rights on false grounds, you may want to sue the insurer for breach of contract and bad faith claims handling as well. Ultimately you need to understand your rights and protect your rights when you receive a reservation of rights. When in doubt, consult an attorney with experience dealing with insurance matters.

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.

How a little focus and delegation can improve your business  

By John Geshay

Being a certified business coach who works with small business owners, it is not uncommon to hear from them that they  have little to no time to work on the “bigger picture” items of their business. They almost always say they were too busy addressing everyday product and or service issues and employee and customer requests to do it.

What can you do to get out of this day-to-day struggle you may constantly find yourself in? Two ways to get out of this struggle is to improve your business focus and delegate certain job responsibilities.

Enhance your business focus

From within the “Effectiveness” module of Brian Tracy’s coaching program, Tracy outlines a seven step exercise to help you improve your business focus:

Step 1: You must first identify your 10 most important goals. From your subcategory of “business goals,” list the top 10 and commit them to memory.

Step 2: Determine your current hourly rate. To do this, take your current annual income and divide by average annual hours worked. For instance, if current annual income is $150,000, and you worked 2,000 hours, then your current hourly rate = $75/hr.

Step 3: Identify your desired hourly rate. If your desired annual income is $250,000, then your desired hourly rate at 2,000 hours is $125/hr.

Step 4: For one week, keep a detailed list of how you spent your time. Use time sheets like those used by lawyers and accountants, logging your time in 10-minute or 15-minute segments. This may require a great deal of self-discipline as entrepreneurs think in terms of results not hours, however, stick with it. See this as an investment that can pay enormous dividends.

Step 5: Rank all of your activities and tasks on the list. Each evening of that week, carefully review your time sheet and mark each task you performed with a ranking of one to 10 (one being the highest value, 10 being the lowest) based on your evaluation of how important that activity was in contributing to the achievement of your 10 most important business goals.

Step 6: Now with the perspective of five days’ worth of tracking your activities, segment the list to include:

•Your 20%, high value activities (1′s and 2′s),

•Activities for which you would pay your current hourly rate (could be the 4’s to 7’s),

•Activities for which you would pay your desired hourly rate (can be a 1, or 2’s to 3’s), and

•Your low value activities (7’s to 10’s).

Step 7: Focus your own time on the 20%, high value activities. Moving forward, resolve to spend as much time as possible on your high value activities—the 20% that contribute most to the achievement of your most important business goals, and those for which you would be willing to pay someone your current or even your desired hourly rate to accomplish, and to delegate or eliminate as many of your low value (7 to 10) activities as possible.

Delegate, delegate, delegate!

Some business owners say they pride themselves on the fact they are copied on every email regarding their company, but much of that really comes from the fact they don’t think anyone could do the tasks as well as they can.

By not delegating, however, their own strategic business goals are not being accomplished because they have zero time to work on them. If you’re struggling with this same issue, don’t trust your team, feel you must control everything, and are not hitting your own goals, then commit to delegating.

From your lists of high and low value activities, select one activity or task that does not represent the highest and best use of your time but that is nevertheless important to the success of your business. While not everything goes overboard initially, just try one or two to start. Commit to delegating this activity or task to a person who is qualified to carry it out.

List the skills and experience necessary to efficiently and effectively carry out this activity or task and find someone who possesses them. Look around. Who in your group has shown these qualifications and might be available? The person may be a member of your staff, or they could also be a contractor to whom you could outsource.

Clearly define the activity or task you will delegate and describe in detail the results you expect when the delegated task has been successfully completed.  Provide a deadline for successful completion of the delegated activity or task, with benchmarks, or short-term results, by which you will measure the progress of the delegated activity or task.

Determine which resources will be required to efficiently and effectively carry out the delegated activity or task, and what the rewards and consequences will be for the person to whom you delegate the activity or task when he/she successfully or unsuccessfully completes it.

Improving continues

Continue to list your daily and weekly tasks, evaluate those tasks, and determine who might be the best fit to help you have more time for the bigger things in your business.

Improving your business focus and learning to delegate can help you have more time to focus on the “bigger picture” of your business and get you accomplishing your strategic business goals.

Now, go delegate and be successful!

John Geshay is a certified business coach and area developer with FocalPoint of Florida. He can be reached at 904-923-1246, jgeshay@focalpointcoaching.com, or through www.focalpointcoaching.com and www.linkedin.com/in/jgeshay.

Preventive safeguards can protect your small business finances and relieve anxiety

By Cindy Stover

Attention Jacksonville small business owners: What measures are you taking to protect your company from fraud?

According to a 2010 report from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), incidents of occupational fraud are 31% more likely to occur at small businesses as opposed to larger companies. To add insult to injury, as many as 40% of small business owners are embezzlement victims, and a staggering one-third of all bankruptcies are the direct result of internal theft.

More alarmingly, a recent TD Bank Small Business survey found that although nearly three-quarters of American small businesses polled are incorporating some steps to protect their business, only 1% of respondents cite falling victim to fraud as a top business concern, even as cases of criminal fraud are on the rise.

Five proactive steps

Here are five proactive steps you can take immediately to help prevent fraud. Remember, the best defense is a good offense!

#1. Manage finances using secure online banking. Banks and other financial institutions are at the forefront of developing and using security measures that help ensure financial information remains confidential and safe.

Online banking is a secure and essential tool for any small business owner. The benefits of this useful service include 24/7 access to real-time information, account transfers and payment management. You can easily schedule and manage your payments, submit remittance information, and have an audit trail of all transactions.

It’s important to check your account activity regularly. Having instant access to your history helps you closely monitor your account for any discrepancies. If you see any, contact your financial institution immediately.

Many banks also offer free (and secure) online bill pay—saving you money on postage costs and mitigating the chance of a paper check being lost or stolen in the mail.

#2. Protect computer systems and practice online awareness. Being complacent about cyber protection can lead to the compromise of critical information and detrimental consequences for your business. Every computer at home and in the office should have installed and regularly updated firewalls and anti-virus software.

While conducting business online, be aware of “phishing”—an electronic scam that attempts to obtain confidential personal or financial information from its target. It takes the form of a fake message, usually an email, which appears to be from a financial institution or service provider.

While some emails are easily identified as fraudulent, including some containing enticing headlines, others may appear to come from a legitimate address. Never reply to any email or pop-up message that requests you to update or provide personal information.

Given the influx of new digital technologies and operational tools available for small business owners, it’s increasingly important to learn about the latest trends and techniques used by cyber criminals. If an offer received via email or on a website sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

#3. Safely handle sensitive documents and financial statements. The Web isn’t the only place where thieves can steal valuable information. Some of your own employees and outside parties can steal important mail, credit card information or checks and commit fraud.

Printed financial statements, social security numbers and other sensitive papers should be disposed properly using a shredder or saved in a securely locked device. To avoid the hassle of handling several papers, certain banks allow customers to opt out of paper statements and receive online statements instead.

Technological advances have even put photocopiers at risk. Most photocopiers built since 2002 contain a hard drive that stores every image scanned, copied or emailed. When a business sells or upgrades their copier, the machine is usually cleaned up and reconditioned, but often times the hard drive is left intact and isn’t scrubbed.

Once resold, it’s possible for anyone to simply pop out the hard drive, and access and sell confidential information, such as income tax and bank records, social security numbers, and birth and medical records.

Treat documents in the standard office copier just as they would any printed document, and guard that information accordingly.

#4. Obtain fidelity insurance. Crime and fraud-related losses generally aren’t covered by property insurance policies. As a result, it’s important to protect money losses from workplace fraud.

Fidelity insurance protects your business against criminal acts such as robbery, embezzlement, forgery and credit card fraud. Liabilities secured under this type of insurance usually include money loss coverage (burglary or theft) and employee dishonesty (embezzlement and forgery).

According to the ACFE, 80% of workplace crime and abuse is performed by employees. Tough economic times often result in increased incidents of fraud and embezzlement. Although fidelity insurance means an additional cost for your business, it will save a lot of headaches should your business fall victim to workplace fraud.

Search for low rates and partner with a broker who can help you shop for the best deal.

#5. Incorporate appropriate checks and balances. Every small business owner should perform an internal review and assessment of company finances on a monthly basis. Make sure payment amounts match all invoices and check for any missing documents. Running random audits or having a third-party audit your books once a year will show your employees you are serious about fraud and deter them from committing deceptive acts.

If you think you’re a victim of business fraud, immediately contact the fraud department of any of the three major credit bureaus to place a fraud alert on your credit file. Also, contact your banks, credit card issuers and other creditors where your finances and information are available.

Following these five preventive tips will help protect your finances and allow you to focus on the success of your business!

Cindy Stover is market president of TD Bank’s, America’s Most Convenient Bank, North Florida market and is responsible for the commercial, government and community banking business for Florida’s Northwest, Northeast, North Central and Mid-North regions. Stover has over 27 years in banking experience and is involved in many local community organizations. TD Bank works hard with its customers to prevent fraud and takes several measures to protect their privacy. Visit its online security center for more tips at www.tdbank.com/security.

6 steps to creating a strategic word-of-mouth marketing plan  

By Hector Cisneros

In dealing with business people that are considered “top-notch networkers,” there always seems to be a common thread in what they say has contributed to their success. Many times their answers are similar, and oftentimes they are blindingly obvious, but yet these “top-notchers” seem to be the only ones doing it.

How can you be as successful? Try creating a word-of-mouth marketing business plan with these six items that were in all of the top-notch player’s plans.

Top-notch game plan

• Set goals. If you look at most successful people, you will notice they have their SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) written down. This is so they can review them daily and assess their effectiveness every four months. Make sure your goals are visible and with you at all times, perhaps in the form of a dream book or a goal board.

Following an old adage that says, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you will never know how to get there,” you want to perform your goal setting in the early months of the year.

• Obtain strategic partners. Strategic partners may be other businesses that sell or service the same customers, but they don’t compete directly with your business. Making these people you’re referral partners (i.e., earning their trust and building a mutually beneficial business relationship with them), however, is a powerful way to multiply your efforts without multiplying your W-2 numbers at the end of the year.

You can also make a list of who is in your contact sphere and list which categories are missing from your networking chapter. Once you know who is on your list, you can start earning their trust so referrals can happen, and you can start recruiting people to fill the gaps.

You want to try and have about five or six strategic partners, but a dozen or more is ideal. With a dozen strategic referral partners, you will be able to give many referrals and get just as many in return, if not more.

•Be accountable. It can be lonely at the top of your organization because some aspects of your business cannot be easily shared with employees or others in your company. This is why a third-party unbiased neutral professional is best way to go.

Get a coach, join a peer group or find a mentor or friend that is not afraid to tell you the truth and is not fearful of damaging your relationship. You need someone to hold your feet to the fire and keep you performing specific behaviors and working toward achieving your goals.

•Use your resources. Look at what resources and educational materials are available—books, tapes, CDs, MP3 video, DVDs, etc.—that can help you stay on track. The TV, radio, and regular new sources, however, can be a big source of negative distraction, which you don’t want.

If you want to be the best at anything, you must immerse yourself in that subject matter in a positive way. The longer you stay immersed, the more focused you become. The more focused you become, the more things “just seem to go your way.”

Feed your fire with positive knowledge and maintain your focus by immersing your mind on what, when, where, how and why of your industry and you will achieve your goals.

•Plan a calendar. Use your calendar to lay out your plan. Take the time to break your calendar into smaller campaigns, such as planning to deliver a specific focused and consistent message for four to six weeks, while still aligning this focus with your goals.

For example: If you are in the health and wellness industry, you can piggyback your message on to events like cancer awareness month and heart disease month. During those months, your focused message is how your product or service can help individuals with those issues.

Your focused campaigns can be based on holidays, annual events, political events, seasonal events, periodic events or even events dictated by your company—or a combination of all.

•Make it happen. Lastly, and just as important as the first five, are filling in the details and making it happen. Once you’ve created your goals, chosen your specific direction and decided on the themes for each month (or period), sit down and break each week into individual behaviors to perform.

Your theme may last four to six weeks, but you should change-up your message just enough to keep your strategic referral partner interested and listing. Your message may be your 60-second presentation, your elevator speech, a 10-minute presentation or a 45 minute seminar—what matters most is you stick to the theme.

Last points

Everything stated above still requires that you earn a person’s trust, and that you take the time to build strong and giving relations with your strategic partners.

These six items do not necessarily constitute the “be-all, end-all” of marketing plans, however it’s a great start.  Although it is not an exhaustive list, it does provide needed help, especially if you have decided to build your own strategic plan.

Experience shows that is if you do the six action steps listed above and hold yourself accountable, you will get more referrals, make more money and grow your business.

Hector Cisneros is a 17-year veteran of BNI and was the BNI Director for more than six years. He is an entrepreneur and businessman with more than 30 years of networking experience, and currently manages three businesses and educates business people in Internet and word-of-mouth marketing. He can be contacted at 904-712-9355, hecisneros@gmail.com or through his blog at www.networkersapprentice.com.

Align your actions with your ultimate life goals for better results  

By J.H. Hyun

Apple founder Steve Jobs, in his commencement address to Stanford University in 2005, made the following statement, which pretty much explained why he was so successful in his life:

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

What have you been doing lately? Where would that lead you? Are you living consistently with how you want to be remembered by your loved ones when you are no longer around?

Your life plan

Many of you are so busy living day-to-day, bouncing from one urgent issue to the next, that you have lost focus on your ultimate destination. You meander through the maze of your life without a clear focus and ultimate destination in mind.

Too many times you allow other people and events to dictate your priorities, your life goals and the life path you take. If you happen to be in this situation, here is a set of practical steps you can take to realign your actions with your ultimate goals.

Reflect on your life to date and prioritize your life. Invest sometime today to reflect on the most important people and commitments in your life. Take 10 minutes each morning before you start your day to properly plan and prioritize your activities for the day.

Make sure to work on the high priority items first and cross them off as you complete the tasks. Take one full day each year to reflect on the past year and to set your priorities for the upcoming year. We can get the most of our lives by not only appropriately choosing what we do, but just as important, what we choose not to do. Make sure to define your priorities clearly and take actions consistently.

Clearly define what you want out of your life. Would you ever hop into a taxi and expect the cab driver to tell you where you should go? Of course, the ultimate destination should be dictated by you. The driver is there to help you by choosing the right path and making the appropriate turns. Just as true, when it comes to your life journey, you should define your own set of goals and your final destination.

Be specific in defining your goals. Be a better spouse, be a more loving parent, get in shape, lose weight, work harder, be a better Christian, etc. aren’t specific enough. When you define your goals, double check to make sure you can measure your progress.

Replace your vague ambitions with clear goals: Spend 20 minutes each night reading to my son as he goes to bed. Join my neighbor in running around the park every Monday and Wednesday mornings at 6 a.m. Stop eating afternoon snacks at work and no fried food for the next 30 days. Take public transportation and pack my own lunch for the next three months to save enough for my wife’s birthday gift in January.

You will have much better chance of success with specific goals than admirable but ambiguous ones.

Make necessary readjustments—starting today! Your today is an accumulated result of your yesterdays—the planned and unplanned events that took place in your life, decisions you have made, people you have met and chose to associate with, actions you took, how you chose to invest your time, money and effort.

Likewise, your tomorrow is being shaped and determined by how you choose to spend today. For everyone, without an exception, we are where we are as a consequence of our past, and our future is being formed by how we choose to spend this very moment. Start today on achieving your ultimate dreams and goals!

Joong (“Joon”) H. Hyun is the author of recently released “Outswimming the Sharks: Overcoming Adversities, Naysayers, and Other Obstacles to Lead a Meaningful Life.” For the past two decades, Hyun has worked with various global Fortune 500 companies at the executive level before his current role as vice president of Global Business Processes for a multibillion-dollar U.S. based company. He can be reached through www.outswimmingthesharks.com.

How AD&D Inc. successfully modified Cold War technology for the needs of today

By Wendy Bautista

With a motto stating, “Success measured by solutions,” you know Gary Donoher, president of Analysis, Design & Diagnostics Inc. (AD&D Inc., www.adndinc.com) sets his reputation on the line and expects to succeed—and he and his team work hard to make it happen.

“We measure our success by the solutions we bring to our customers,” says Donoher, whose customers include defense and commercial industries, such as the U.S. Navy, the oil and gas industry, and port authorities.

With these customers, come unique needs. Since AD&D is a solution-oriented company with a unique knowledge of undersea acoustics in complex marine environments, they make solutions happen by hiring only those with real world experience—with many employees being former Navy acousticians.

Days of yesteryear

“When we first started out in 1992 it was during the height of the Cold War,” says Donoher. “In those days, we basically supplied onsite support and provided mission reconstruction and data analysis—and during the height it was a good business to be in.”

Acoustics during the Cold War generally meant listening for enemy submarines and communications. “As the Cold War started winding down, however, we saw the writing on the wall and said we’ve got to be able to do other things.”

That was when he started looking into what else he could do. “One thing we’ve always done as a company for the Navy was act as an independent agent for them so companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, USSI and others would develop technology and the Navy would have us evaluate it,” says Donoher.

It was during those evaluations that they discovered they knew more about the Navy’s problems and probably had the solutions than the companies who were developing the technology. That was when they started moving into the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program, a highly competitive program that encourages domestic small businesses to engage in Federal Research/Research and Development (R/R&D) that has the potential for commercialization.

Getting innovative

Under the SBIR/STTR program, the Navy issues solicitations four times a year where it identifies a problem it has and then a company writes a response to that problem on how it can solve it. The Navy then evaluates all proposals, and based on your technological proposal, may give you a Phase I award.

According to SBIR, the objective of Phase I is to establish the technical merit, feasibility, and commercial potential of the proposed R/R&D efforts and to determine the quality of performance of the small business awardee organization prior to providing further Federal support in Phase II. SBIR Phase I awards normally do not exceed $150,000 total costs for 9 months.

The objective of Phase II is to continue the R/R&D efforts initiated in Phase I. Funding is based on the results achieved in Phase I and the scientific and technical merit and commercial potential of the project proposed in Phase II. Only Phase I awardees are eligible for a Phase II award. SBIR Phase II awards normally do not exceed $1,000,000 total costs for two years.

The objective of Phase III, where appropriate, is for the small business to pursue commercialization objectives resulting from the Phase I/II R/R&D activities. The SBIR program does not fund Phase III. Phase III may involve follow-on non-SBIR funded R&D or production contracts for products, processes or services intended for use by the U.S. Government.

“If you go to Phase III, it could be up to a $25 million contract where you could now be on every platform out there,” says Donoher.

Finding a solution

“One of the biggest problems the Navy has faced in recent years was being accused of harming and killing whales and dolphins with its active SONAR during exercises,” says Donoher.

In fact, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) brought a lawsuit against the Navy in 2008 stating the active SONAR poses a deadly threat to whales and other marine mammals. The case went to the Supreme Court, which sided with the Navy—but as part of the settlement, the Navy agreed to do a better job about not harming the animals and to do the best it can to be aware of where they are. They want to be able to take action if they get too close and be able to turn SONAR off or to maneuver around. “If there are whales in front of them, they want to know how to avoid them,” says Donoher.

This opened up many opportunities for AD&D.

“We use an acoustic intercept system which accepts all acoustic noise,” says Mike Jackson, the COO of AD&D. “We kind of knew from the word ‘go’ that yeah you want a marine mammal detection mitigation system and there are things to do with that, but we all knew and understood from our backgrounds that the core of this was what we dealt with for years [in the Navy]. We just need to adapt it to whatever it needs to be adapted to—adding function to what already exists.”

From years of listening for enemies and such underwater, they also knew the sounds of a biological being. So what was of no importance in their Navy days has turned into their competitive advantage.

The successes

•MMDM: AD&D’s Marine Mammal Detection Mitigation (MMDM) program is an automated system that passively detects and automatically classifies marine mammal vocalizations prior to the activation of active sonar systems for the Navy.

“We’ve developed this technology from a Phase I through a Phase III STTR program, with Duke University Marine Laboratory and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution working with us as support contractors,” says Donoher. “This system is on a couple of ships right now and has been at sea and tested and evaluated.”

According to Donoher, the Navy’s P-3 Orion community had a similar problem and AD&D responded to its solicitation with a multichannel system.

“When we first started, we used to classify by saying it’s a marine mammal or SONAR, but we can classify now to a certain species and say if it’s a sperm whale or a North Atlantic right whale,” says Donoher.

The system automatically classifies it, has it show up on a classification display with the points of where the signals were captured and allows the operator to play it back if necessary. “Because the Navy is now looking to reduce manpower levels, we are trying to automate this process 100% to where an operator doesn’t need to be involved,” says Donoher.

Under that same program, AD&D developed a sensor that gets anchored to the ocean bottom and floats about 6 feet to 8 feet off the ocean floor, where it can record data 24 hours a day, seven days a week on an SD card that is integrated into the acoustic modem.

“A file that has approximately 1.5 man years of data—2,772 hours—would take an acoustic analyst 1.5 years to get through, but with our processors with a much higher data rate we are able to get through that data in a short amount of time because of the automation,” says Donoher. “In a two hour file, we can process eight hours of data. We are currently modifying our technology to run at higher data rates.”

•MADPT PS: The Marine Assessment, Decision and Planning Tool for Protected Species (MADPT PS) is a software-based tool for use by environmental and operational mission planners to decrease interactions with protected marine species and assess impact prior to and after exercises.

“Any time the Navy does an active SONAR exercise or training they have to log all of their active SONAR missions and any mammal sightings,” says Donoher. “The sighting info is required any time they do any major exercise, but the sonar is required every day. When a Navy ship turns on its SONAR, they have to log every active emission and report it, and that goes into a central database.”

AD&D has developed two systems to help. One is the Automated-SONAR Positional ReportingSystem (A-SPORTS), which taps into the ship’s network and automatically extracts every time the SONAR pings as well as the latitude and longitude of the ship and all of the pertinent information required; and the other is the Automatic Logging Reporting System (ALRS), which is a handheld device for reporting sightings of marine mammals

Donoher is hopeful these systems will be next to go to Phase III.

Moving forward

“Our goal is to continue to improve that technology (spiral development) so as it goes on board the platforms or is developed, we continue to make improvements,” says Donoher.

“Eventually you come out of the ‘phase’ program, and that’s really the goal,” adds Jackson. “To get it to the point of where they say, ‘Yes, I need to get this in and get this into the budget and we’re going to get it into the program of record.’ Then it just becomes that it was an SBIR program and now it’s a program of record, and you stay in the spiral development for as long as they need to use it and need support for it.”

“We found out that it’s the hardest part,” says Donoher. “What we’ve seen in the past is some sponsors are remiss and slow about getting the funding in place, so we’re trying to get better at working with our program sponsors to start that transition process sooner in the phase process.”

Success is in the staff

Donoher says one of the things he always tried to do as a company was never be a “body shop.”

“We just haven’t gone after contract work just to get contract work because that can only last a couple of years and then all of a sudden you’re laying people off,” says Donoher. “When we bring people on, we want to be able to offer them long-term employment, good benefits, keep them around for a while, and have a good core group of folks. Not have the body shop mentality that a lot of companies out there seem to have.”

So how can a company with 10 people do so well? Be up to the challenges, says Donoher.

“The problem with being a small company is that contracting officers are  more likely to give a contract to a company like Lockheed Martin because if they fail they can say, ‘Well, I gave it to Lockheed—a well-known company in the industry,’” says Donoher. “But if they give it to us and we fail, they are going to get blamed and asked, ‘Why did you give it to that small company?’

“So one challenge is to really show that we can do the same type of work these big companies can,” says Donoher. “That’s a challenge we face every day—but we’re up to the challenge. We love it and are ready to take it on!”

Wendy Bautista is the editor of Advantage Small Business Magazine. She can be reached at Wendy@advantagebizmag.com or 904-536-2234.

.

Business vitals

Owner: Gary Donoher

In business since: 1992

Projected growth: “We are going to continue to develop technology and try to work with integrators to get our technology into other platforms. Our technology has other applications that can be spun off for many other things.

“Anything that vocalizes, we can track. We are currently working to alter our acoustic detection and classification technology to fulfill an Air Force SBIR request for detecting and classifying desert animals. We have a proposal in to take our technology and modify it to their needs, and use our folks to process the data.

“We are also developing a handheld device for Navy divers that will alert them to the presence of ships or active SONARS and create situational awareness, and we just had a kickoff for a program with John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory working with the Navy’s unmanned undersea vehicles, which could basically replace the submarine fleet,” says Donoher.

“What they need is a lightweight navigation system to navigate those platforms because they can’t surface to get a GPS position and don’t know how fast they are going or if they are drifting. We are building a system that pings at a high frequency and we’re getting the reflections and measuring the vectors and then passing that information along to John Hopkins. They will then develop an algorithm that measures the drift of the vessel as it goes through the water and also measure its speed.

“I was also on phone with Fleet Forces Command and it wants 20 of our A-SPORTS handheld devices with some in Hawaii, San Diego, Jacksonville and Norfolk, and then they will issue them to the ships.

“Now our job will be to make modifications based on their requirements and to put together a training program. Every now and then we will have to show how to use the system and qualify people to use it.”

How you can do it

“It always takes perseverance and hard work,” says Donoher. “Because I had been in the field, I kind of understood a little bit about the contracting perspective but not very much because I worked primarily on the technical side. So I spent a lot of time learning how the system works and still do on a daily basis—it’s a learning process.”

“I’m not sure I can say we would be where we are today without doing the SBIR/STTR program,” says Jackson.

“Even though it has pretty clear-cut guidelines, it is still trial and error for some SBIR/STTR bids,” says Donoher.

“It takes a lot of patience and time,” says Jackson. “You also have to let some of these other people or program sponsors that may not know you or your work , get to know you. “

“Yes, it takes a lot of developing personal relationships and branding, and in the last two years I’ve spent more time in Washington, D.C. than I ever have,” says Donoher. “It is getting up there in front of folks and talking about and showing them our technology. Some say they can do it, but I take a laptop running our technology with me to show what we can do.”

Why consistency is the key to successful marketing

By Robyn A. Friedman

For the past 10 years, Claudette Brodeur has been doing the same thing every Monday morning. She prepares a two-page, direct-mail piece advertising her business by personalizing it on her computer and then sends it out to new prospects.

Brodeur

As an interior designer focusing on window treatments, Brodeur knows her target market is homeowners. So she consistently sends both new and existing homeowners her advertisement and then follows up with similar pieces every four months for a year.

Her response rate: 2%.

“It’s a great response,” said Brodeur, owner of Claudettes [CQ] Decors in Jacksonville. “I’ve perfected it to the point where I just don’t mess with it. I’ve found out what works.”

The ultimate goal

Brodeur’s goal—and the goal of any small business marketing its product or service—is to gain top of mind awareness (TOMA), which occurs when customers think of you first when they are ready to purchase. TOMA is essential for any successful marketer. After all, the average consumer is bombarded by literally thousands of advertising messages every day.

To make sure yours is noticed and resonates in the minds of prospects, you must not only be consistent in repeating your brand message, but also in making sure your message is uniform, unique and identifiable—whether it’s in print, online, in a sales pitch, on a billboard or even in an on-hold message script.

“The average person sees 3,000 commercial messages a day, so it’s important to keep your

Smith

message in front of customers,” said Robert Smith, chief executive officer of Champion Media Worldwide, a public relations and advertising firm with offices in Jacksonville. “Most successful marketers use the ‘Rule of Seven’ or until their customers buy or die.”

The commitment

Smith advises small business owners to commit to marketing to prospects at least seven times. “The first one or two times, they may never even notice your ad or commercial,” he said. “Studies show that most people buy after the fourth or fifth contact, so if you only contact them once, you are leaving a ton of money on the table.”

Consistent marketing is also the key to successful branding—using words, designs or symbols to give your company, product or service a unique identity and distinguish it from the competition. Brands need to be both recognizable and memorable, so marketers need to repeat their message enough times to achieve that goal.

Tips to achieve consistency

If you’re planning to advertise your product or service, keep the following tips in mind to achieve consistency:

Repetition is the key. Keith Kessler, president of Kessler Creative, a Jacksonville-based,

Kessler

direct-marketing firm, said that consistency varies depending on the business. “The $64,000 question is, ‘What is the consistency?’” he asks. “Is it monthly, quarterly? There are a lot of variables.”

Kessler said that at a minimum, small businesses should advertise in print or send a direct mail piece at least quarterly and preferably monthly. “The industry standard is that it takes eight different touches before somebody will recognize your brand and act on it,” he said.

Don’t just rely on one form of advertising—it takes a mix. A good marketing campaign depends on several strategies that work in tandem. Don’t just advertise; include public relations and social media strategies as well. “These days we have too many

Rossiter

advertisements that compete for our attention, and people ignore them,” said Nancy Rossiter, assistant professor of entrepreneurship at Jacksonville University. “What works these days is buzz.”

Rossiter said that she advertised a business she owns in a local magazine every month for a year, with little success. But after the magazine wrote an article about her business, she was inundated with new customers. “People ignored our paid advertisements, but paid attention and acted upon the buzz that was created from the story,” she said. “And the story was free.” 

Don’t expect immediate results. Once you take the time to put together a marketing plan, stick with it. The insertion of one ad in a magazine might work to bring in new business, but in most cases, it takes consistent advertising or marketing to achieve results. Brodeur advertises for at least four or five months in a new publication before assessing whether her ads are working. “If it doesn’t make the phone ring, then I just walk away,” she said. “You can’t just give it one month.”

Mistakes happen. Don’t give up. If you’re doing a direct-mail campaign, for example, start with a sample of 1,000 rather than mailing 10,000 without knowing if it works. Smith once spent nearly $5,000 on a promotion that bombed. “Always remember to test small,” he said. If your strategy isn’t working, try tweaking it. Sometimes it takes a while to determine the exact mix that works for your business.

Make sure your message is right. No matter how consistent you are, your marketing won’t work unless the message you’re disseminating is good. The last thing you want to do is consistently market the wrong message. To get the best bang for your marketing buck, consider hiring a professional to make sure you get it right the first time.

Maintain consistency across platforms. Consistency isn’t important only in terms of repeating your brand message. It’s also important to be consistent across platforms. In other words, your print and online advertising should have a consistent look, feel and message—as should your other forms of marketing communications: sales scripts, on-hold messages, social media and more.

Fisher

“Consistency allows you to be easily recognized,” said Mary Fisher, owner of Mary Fisher Design in Jacksonville, a full-service marketing firm. “If you design an ad that looks one way in one publication and then another publication’s ad is totally different, people won’t know it’s the same company.”

Bruce Newmark has successfully incorporated that strategy into the marketing plan for his business, MarkOne Financial, a Jacksonville-based

Newmark

indirect auto lender. “Our sales force uses a script that communicates consistently the kinds of things that we’re also going to communicate in our media advertising,” he said. “That way, our message stays consistent.” Newmark also strives to maintain a consistent marketing message among the different products under his brand.

Make sure your advertising reaches your target market. Make sure that your message gets to the people who are likely to purchase your product or service. “All the money in marketing isn’t going to be worth a hill of beans if it doesn’t get into the right hands,” said Kessler. “Spend time—and maybe a little money—to identify who your actual customer is.”

Robyn A. Friedman is a contributing writer to Advantage. She can be reached at robyn@everythingwrite.com or through www.EverythingWrite.com.

4 myths to avoid while climbing the leadership ladder of success

By Myron Pincomb

I constantly observe and work with leaders that are building some of the most successfulcompanies and organizations and then watch as they suddenly “hit a wall.” What happened? How did individuals who have reached the top of their profession by doing all the right things suddenly slip and fall?

They were sucked into one of the myths of leadership success.

In my career I have had the opportunity to lead a variety of companies from very successful technology start-ups to seasoned organizations with over 600 veteran employees. I will be the first to admit that I have personally been sucked into each one of the four common myths of leadership success on multiple occasions.

Four myths

Leadership myth #1: Yesterday’s success. What got you here won’t keep you here. Many of us were taught in school to rely on best practices and proven techniques to build a successful team or business. The reality is that no two companies or two teams are exactly the same and best practices and proven techniques rarely work twice.

This “old” way of thinking is completely counterproductive to the culture of innovation needed to be successful in today’s digital economy where product life cycles and time to market are measured in hours rather than years.

Don’t get me wrong; we should always learn from the success and failures of others, but at the end of the day the formula for success with your team or business is most likely very unique from others.

How can you avoid the “Yesterday’s success” myth? First you must recognize it. “The punch that knocks you out is the one you didn’t see,” said the famous boxer Joe Frazier. Once you recognize that complacency and the “reliance on yesterday’s success” has crept into your organization, you need to really focus on growth and innovation. Growth equals change.

Continually ask: Is there a better way? The answer is always, “Yes!”

If you are really serious about growth and innovation, get someone from outside your organization who knows your business, give them all the details and let them give you a fresh perspective. Pay for outside consulting.

In today’s economy, the most successful leaders recognize that a culture of growth and innovation is paramount to success.

Leadership myth #2: We are the experts. The only way to close 100% of your leads is to give the customer exactly what they want. Many times the leadership team relies heavily on the feedback from the sales and marketing teams to shape the next promotion or product. The reality is that most of that feedback is shaped by personal agendas and biases that result in missed sales targets and upset leadership teams. Only your customer can truly define what they need.

How can you avoid the “We are the experts” myth? The next time you try to create a great new promotion or develop the next home run product, start with a trip to the customer’s office. After the customer shows you exactly what they need, go back to your team and make it happen.

I have also had a lot of success with focus groups, fish bowl sessions and product pilots. The key to success is getting your customer involved in the process long before the sales pitch takes place.

Leadership myth #3: I am a leader, not a product expert. It is impossible to effectively lead a team without extensive product knowledge. Without a doubt, I can say that nine out of 10 leaders I have worked with do not personally have the product knowledge needed to successfully lead their team.

Many of these same people tell me that their company does not have a formal training program because they only hire experienced professionals. The result is that many companies have a team of “experienced professionals” that know very little about the actual product and how it relates to the customer.

How can you avoid the “I am a leader, not a product expert” myth? Every member of the leadership team from the CEO on down the ladder should be required to complete extensive product training on an ongoing basis. I strongly believe this product training should also be extended to the leadership teams in human resources, accounting, finance and logistics. The only way to hire the perfect candidate for an open position is to know the product yourself.

Leadership myth #4: I am a manager, not an employee. An isolated leader is an ineffective leader. No matter how good you think you are greatness has never been accomplished alone. True leaders will never tell you that it is lonely at the top. If you are at the top and all alone, then no one is following you. Get off the mountain, and go find your team and connect.

Great leaders learn early in their career that the people they manage are the only appreciable asset with which they have to work. They also know that leadership has nothing to do with position or title; it has everything to do with your scope of influence.

How can you avoid the “I am a manager, not an employee” myth? An “open door policy” is not enough; walk the floor, connect with your team and understand their pain before you ask them to follow you. Remember that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Myron Pincomb is the CEO/president of The Pincomb Group. To learn more go to www.thepincombgroup.com or send an e-mail to Myron.pincomb@gmail.com.

Stay up-to-date on hiring protocol to avoid legal woes

By John F. MacLennan

As a small business leader, you wear numerous hats—you serve as president, HR directorand marketing manager, and also take on a myriad of other day-to-day tasks. While you may be confident in your leadership and management roles, the recruitment process often can be confusing.

Without a dedicated recruiting staff, small businesses can unwittingly enter into legal liability because of unsound recruitment practices. Business leaders preparing to hire new staff members should follow these rules throughout all phases of recruitment.

Understand the basics

Company leaders managing the hiring process should become familiar with current employment laws and regulations, which are enforced by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC’s website (www.eeoc.gov) outlines the federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination and provides regulatory updates. Prohibited questions should be frequently communicated to all individuals involved in the interview process, especially prior to initiating a new recruitment effort.

Under federal laws, it is illegal for an employer to discriminate against a job applicant because of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age or genetic information. Florida law further extends discrimination to include marital status, meaning all questions regarding current or prior marriages, divorces or engagements are not allowed during the recruitment process.

Ask only what is needed to select the best candidate

To protect an organization from potential liability, questions on an application form or asked during an interview should be limited to those needed to determine if an applicant is qualified for a position.

While most employers know not to ask personal questions during an interview, these types of questions often appear on job applications. Companies should use the simple rule of “need to know”— if an employer doesn’t need to know a response in order to make a hiring decision, then the question shouldn’t be asked. Otherwise, applicants denied employment may later argue that irrelevant questions played a role in the company’s decision.

Look beyond the obvious

•Age. Discrimination based on age, or ageism, does not only include recruitment materials overtly asking an applicant’s age or date of birth. Employers also should not request information regarding an applicant’s year of graduation from high school or secondary education institutions. Graduation dates may allow interviewers to infer an applicant’s age.

•Pregnancy. Some employers may mistakenly believe pregnancy discrimination violations are limited to asking female applicants about their current pregnancy status. In fact, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 also prohibits questions regarding an applicant’s medical history of pregnancy, future childbearing plans, children, provisions for child care, abortions, birth control and ability to reproduce.

•National origin and citizenship. A casually posed, “Where are you from?” may seem like a natural conversation starter, but during an interview it can have legal ramifications. Recruiters should never ask about where an applicant was born—prior to extending a formal job offer—as this can discriminate against legal immigrants and individuals with work visas.

Employers can and should ask applicants about their ability to work in the United States; after offering the person the job, employers must obtain proper documentation to work in U.S. (including a social security card or work visa).

Concentrate on abilities vs. disabilities

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits employment questions regarding physical disabilities. If there are challenging physical tasks associated with a position, it is appropriate to ask applicants how they would accomplish specific responsibilities. In addition, prior to a job offer, all questions regarding medical conditions are strictly prohibited under ADA regulations.

Examples of prohibited questions include: Have you been injured on the job? Have you ever filed a workers’ compensation complaint? What medical treatments or prescription drugs are you receiving or have you received in the past? How many sick leave days did you take at your last place of employment?

Watch out for disparate impact

Most employers understand factors affecting disparate treatment claims, which refer to violations in which the EEOC’s protected categories directly influence how an applicant or employee is treated.

Many are less familiar, however, with issues surrounding disparate impact violations, which occur when seemingly neutral hiring policies or practices have a disproportionate, adverse impact on a particular group. These types of hiring requirements become illegal if an organization cannot justify the need.

•Height and weight. Organizations should not ask applicants to list their height and weight. Such questions pose a risk for disparate impact on women, particularly those of Asian descent, and do not accurately reflect a person’s capacity for a particular position.

In addition, organizations that require applicants to note whether they are able to lift a significant amount of weight may open themselves to gender discrimination claims if that task is not necessary for the job.

•Financial status. Questions regarding an applicant’s financial status—including bankruptcies, debt or poor credit—should be avoided unless there is a clear connection to the position.

These are justifiable questions for hiring personnel who would be directly handling company funds, such as accounts payable staff or a bank teller. Otherwise, they can have a disparate impact on low-income applicants or those who have been laid off (whose credit scores often suffer as a result).

•Criminal record. Questions regarding arrest records also are an example of a potential disparate impact violation against low-income applicants. Limit questions regarding criminal records to felony or violent crime convictions.

Recruitment materials should note that a person’s criminal record would not make them ineligible for a position. As well, an application should allow space for explanation of criminal records.

•Military service. An applicant’s military service often is a source of pride, and it is appropriate to inquire about current or prior positions within the military. It is not appropriate, however, to ask about the type of discharge received.

Military records were made private in 2004, and this information is available only by written request. Questions regarding discharge make employers vulnerable to disparate impact claims. The EEOC has deemed such questions impermissible, as minority members of the military historically receive less desirable discharges and there is no clear connection between type of discharge and an applicant’s capabilities.

Cautiously use social media as a recruitment tool

Social media outlets offer a bevy of information about users—often much more than a candidate would (or should) share with interviewers. Tempting though it may be to review social platforms, such as Facebook, for additional information about candidates, employers should be cautious in their use of social media to make hiring decisions.

Facebook profiles often reveal personal details (such as age, religious views and even photographs), and referencing them can expose employers to information that is protected by the EEOC.

Limiting social media use for recruitment to professional networks, such as LinkedIn, is one way to avoid protected information. Some employers have begun accepting applicants’ LinkedIn profiles as a supplement to the standard résumé. The important factor is making the application process universal, and only reviewing social media profiles that applicants voluntarily share on application materials.

For your protection

Like any business endeavor, recruitment protocol should be reviewed and revamped as needed. By staying up-to-date on hiring protocol, a small business leader can protect his or her organization from legal woes.

For more information on best practices or to address specific concerns regarding the legality of interview or application questions, employers should consult an attorney specializing in employment law.

John F. MacLennan is a shareholder with Jacksonville business law firm Smith Hulsey & Busey, where he specializes in employment law. He can be reached at 904-359-7812, jmaclennan@smithhulsey.com or through www.smithhulsey.com.

How you can conduct business internationally

By Keith Johnson

As a small business owner, you probably already know that in this economy, getting any kind of business is hard. In order to be successful, you need to consider expanding the variety of revenue streams—and that includes dealing with businesses that may not be based in the U.S.

Success steps

Going global with your business is not easy. Once you decide to do business with non-U.S. companies, there is a lot of work to be done.

•Understand your industry. Know your industry and how it works in the country(ies) you wish to do business in. You have to know how your product or service will attract and keep buyers in the target markets. You also need to know if your product or service is priced competitively.

The value of what you sell must exceed that of not only your competition in your customer’s home country, but also from other U.S. companies that also want to expand their business by going global.

•Knows the laws of trading. You have to understand the laws of trading with a foreign business. What may be legal in the U.S. may not be outside of it, and vice versa. While bribery is acceptable in many nations, it is highly illegal under U.S. law. Your product may pass safety regulation muster here in the U.S., but maybe not in other countries.

•Be familiar with various currencies. Having a solid knowledge of currencies is necessary to be able to track differences in currency values between the U.S. dollar and a Euro or Dinar or Yen. You may find yourself caught short agreeing to a sale that when currency differences now and during the sale period are taken into account, your expenses will exceed your expected revenues because of the loss of value in the dollar.

•Have an infrastructure. A business owner must­ have the infrastructure in place to facilitate trade between the U.S. and other nations. There are many different companies that specialize in facilitating trade by working with customs, financing, collections, and shipping. Trying to do all of it yourself is at best, very draining on your time and resources, and at worst exposes you to serious problems with your shipments and even legal complications.

•Learn the culture. Last, but not least, a successful business owner needs to learn the culture of the trading partner. Again, what is acceptable here may be highly offensive in say, Brazil. What customs are acceptable in Egypt may be frowned upon here. You need to take the time and do the research on your customer’s country so that an innocent remark may not spark a diplomatic crisis.

Personal experience

While most of my clients are U.S. based, I do have some tax clients that are not. One client supplies materials in support of the U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan. While the owner is American, preparing the tax return is a challenge as I have to understand international taxation and how best to report the foreign business activity—but I do enjoy the opportunity to grow professionally.

Another client is a school supporting a U.S. Air Force base in South Korea. Again, while the owners are American, doing the return requires me to understand some tax regulations governing relations between the U.S. and South Korea. I try to look at each such opportunity as a chance to improve my skills for the next clients.

To be honest, I have only met one of my clients thanks to the power of modern technology. Having an Internet presence and a strong SEO and social media plan allows people from all over the world to find your business easily and get them to consider your business as opposed to your competitors.

Earlier this year, I had the exciting opportunity to go to Cuba for two weeks to prepare tax returns for support personnel at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Air Station. While I worked with U.S. personnel mostly, I was exposed to some Cuban culture and it also allowed development of the government procurement side of my practice.

The right resources

Sounds a little daunting, and it is. However, fear not! There are a lot of resources here in River City that can help get your business prepared for international expansion.

Earlier this year, I earned a certificate in International trading from the UNF Small Business Development Center. It is about 20 hours over six weeks that explains all of the nuts and bolts of international trading. The knowledge, networking, and materials gained from the course have helped me a great deal. The cost is $299, but there are programs from Worksource that can help pay for it.

There is a wonderful resource here in Jacksonville named Jorge Arce. He is a local director for the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Commerce Department is committed to helping small businesses develop and execute a plan to export products and services

Finally, I would be remiss in not mentioning Larry Bernaski and Enterprise Florida. Enterprise Florida is the state agency that is charged with helping Florida businesses take advantage of their favorable geography and help grow an export business. Many of these services are either free or at a nominal cost, but the investment can be well worth it.

Survival box

In order for your business to survive today, you must think out of the box and consider all options in and out of the U.S. You must consider a business owner in the Ukraine for your product just as much as someone from Orange Park. Fortunately, there are a lot of resources at your fingertips to get your through the maze of regulations and cultures to get your goods to market. They have helped me, and now it’s your turn. Good luck!

Keith E. Johnson CPA, is owner of Keith E. Johnson CPA PA in Jacksonville, Fla., a full-service CPA firm providing accounting, auditing, consulting, and tax services to individuals, businesses, and non-profits. He can be contacted at 904-727-0077 or kejcpa@comcast.net.

How mentoring can benefit your business now and in the future

By Nancy Andersen

The benefit for a business that encourages mentoring relationships among its employees isstraightforward: Mentoring prepares organizations for the future.

Whether as a formal program or informal arrangement, mentoring can provide the personal attention less-experienced professionals need to round out their technical and interpersonal skills, equipping them for later leadership positions within a growing company—perhaps even your own.

Mentoring relationships increase the pool of qualified candidates prepared to assume expanded roles. In addition, there is often an accompanying morale boost since this customized approach to employees’ career development gives them a greater sense of belonging within the organization. Knowing that someone cares about their success adds to their satisfaction, making mentoring a powerful retention tool.

A convincing argument

If your business doesn’t have the resources to create a formal mentoring program, how do you convince your best people to take time out of their busy schedules to become mentors? It’s not always an easy sell. More than half, 51%, of executives interviewed in a new Robert Half Management Resources survey (http://rhmr.mediaroom.com/mentoring) said they’ve never been mentors.

Still, that’s another half who have served as mentors, and they have a variety of stories to tell about why it’s a worthwhile experience—for their mentees, for themselves and for the company.

Mentors provide valuable guidance on decision-making and career management that mentees may not be able to obtain from other sources. But mentoring experiences also lay the groundwork for rewarding professional relationships that can last a lifetime. Ultimately, an employee’s decision to become a mentor may boil down to a sense that it’s just the right thing to do.

Of survey respondents who have served as mentors, 50% said they feel the greatest benefit is the satisfaction they gain from helping someone else. These professionals realize that the mark of a great mentor is an understanding that it’s not “all about you.”

The business environment of the last two years has been challenging to say the least. While mentors can’t address or control everything, they can do two important things—listen and offer advice. Many people are burned out and stressed out, and mentors can serve as an important sounding board. Many people might not have objective, trustworthy sources for guidance in their companies, at home or among their friends, so their mentors become a steady support system.

Mentors can offer advice on day-to-day and big picture situations ranging from handling an interpersonal conflict at work to adjusting when a new boss arrives to evaluating a potential job change. Mentors also can point mentees in the right career direction—where they can beef up their skills and networking efforts, for instance, to be more marketable. A mentee benefits from mentors’ years of work experience, the path they’ve taken and perhaps mistakes they’ve learned from.

Doing it for the greater good

It’s not unusual for people to feel hesitant about becoming a mentor. Despite their level of expertise, many professionals consider themselves hardly qualified to be an “expert” or advisor. The truth is, even if they have only a few years with a firm, they no doubt possess valuable knowledge that could help someone. Conversely, everyone at every career level can benefit from having mentors.

As a business owner or senior manager, you can provide guidance to employees you feel would make good mentors—or even to be a mentor yourself. A few things to consider:

•Your strengths. What are the most valuable things you’ve learned over the course of your career? Think about what you have to offer someone just starting out.

•Listen. The best mentors are often the best listeners. Understand your mentee’s situation and his or her greatest needs before you offer guidance. Sometimes the most valuable role you can play is that of a sounding board.

•Look beyond the newly hired. Professionals at all levels can benefit from having a mentor. Those trying to advance to the next level or looking to make a change might particularly welcome your advice.

•Be realistic. Given the realities of time pressures and impending deadlines in your role, it’s important to make clear to your mentee the amount of time you have to devote to the relationship. That way you can better define expectations and avoid potential disappointments.

Mentoring provides a triple advantage if it’s effectively designed: It benefits mentees, mentors and the company. The best mentors offer direct, candid feedback, but always maintain a positive attitude and provide constructive criticism. They also keep an open mind—they don’t allow their years of experience to cause them to respond negatively to new or different ideas or dismiss an employee’s concerns.

Nancy Andersen is the division director for Robert Half Management Resources in Jacksonville. Robert Half Management Resources is the world’s premier provider of senior-level accounting and finance professionals on a project and interim basis

SIDEBAR:

The greatest benefit of being a mentor

•Provides the internal satisfaction of helping someone else – 50%

•Offers you the opportunity to improve your leadership skills – 32%

•Helps you build your professional network – 9%

•Allows you to stay current on industry trends – 8%

•No benefit – 1%

Source: Robert Half Management Resources, 2011

Classroom Technology Solutions is doing more with less in the modern classroom.

By Wendy Bautista

What started with a 2-foot-by-2-foot square metal ceiling projector mount has turned into amultimillion dollar business that supports the K-12 classroom teacher’s need for technology. Classroom Technology Solutions Inc. (www.ctsed.com) not only fills that initial need, it builds upon it by finding and filling ongoing requests for more related products.

Working together

Business partners Walt Mischley and Cy Marshall have known each other for years, having crossed paths many times throughout their separate careers, but it wasn’t until August 2008 that they decided to work together.

Combined, Mischley and Marshall have more than 40 years of professional experience in both technical and teaching environments. Mischley, who was a teacher for several years after graduating from San Jose State with a master’s in history, mainly focuses on marketing and field operations, while Marshall, who has spent most of his career in technology including working for Bell South, the Air National Guard in its electronics program, and most recently for Gateway Computers, focuses on product development and the operational side of the business.

“While working at Gateway, I was part of a team that was developing what they call 21st century classroom technology products,” says Marshall. “I developed mounting products while I worked there and when Gateway got out of the commercial computer business and sold it off, I was able to keep the manufacturing relationships to those products.”

They were both working in real estate and joke that they were retired, but admit  they were not “really retired,” when Marshall started receiving phone calls from people wanting to know where they can get the mounting products. “That’s when Walt and I started talking about a little hobby to keep us occupied,” says Marshall.

That little hobby now occupies a lot of their time with 70-hour work weeks, working on weekends, a staff of 22 people, an ever-growing product line that can be found in the 48 contiguous states, and revenues of $2 million in its first year, $5 million in its second and projected revenue of $10 million this year—with north of $15 million, already accounted for, in existing contracts alone.

Mount up!

And to think it all started with a projector mounting product. The mount itself is a 2-foot-by-2-foot metal square plate that can accommodate an audio-visual projector and essentially take the place of a ceiling tile in the classroom. A safety wire made of aircraft cable attaches onto the plate and is then placed up and over part of the building structure, where a slip ring will lock it in place so it can’t come loose from the ceiling.

The plate is painted with an eco-painting process known as anodic electrode position. The plate passes through a number of baths, and then goes into a tank that has acrylic paint suspended in liquid. An electrical charge is applied to the plate and the paint adheres to it. After which it gets lifted out and placed into another tank to wash off any excess material—which go back into the painting process—and then the product gets dried.

“By design this process assures us that the entire plate gets covered—there are no missed spots,” says Mischley. “The underside, the crevices, everything is covered so there is no chance of rust or chipping paint. Especially when dealing with schools, we try to keep the ‘green’ in mind to support their concerns for the children’s well-being.”

Building a business

“What’s interesting is when we started, our original plan was to manufacture a couple of products and then get them distributed to resellers across the country,” says Marshall. “But we found that to be a lot more of a challenge than we had anticipated.”

When they didn’t get the traction they wanted, they decided to pick a market area and market direct. They made a list in a specific area, did an email blast with a flier and sent it out that morning. By the afternoon, orders were coming off the fax machine.

As they were answering the requests for mounts and dealing with more people, they started getting asked if they also sold the projectors that went on the mounts.

“At the time the answer was no, but we decided to look into it and found that maybe we should,” says Marshall. “Then as more time went by, our customers said they would also like it to be hooked up, so we looked into adding the wiring and found that that would also be beneficial.”

“The next biggest thing that happened was we started winning contracts,” says Mischley. “We went from buying a hundred products at a time to buying containers full. These are multimillion, multiyear contracts with major school districts in the Southeast.

Mischley says one of the most important aspects of the contracts was it made their vendors and suppliers take notice, which placed them on their radar screen as a company to watch—and it didn’t hurt that it helped with pricing.

“Our prices went from ‘single unit’ to ‘high volume,’ and the vendors started bringing us customers because obviously from buying a hundred of something to buying 4,000 of something, it changes things,” says Mischley.

The start of something new

“We don’t go out and find a product and take it to the school and try to convince them that they need it,” adds Mischley. “Customers drive our product line by letting us know what they want and or need.”

Marshall continues by saying, “The set of customers that we’ve developed will come to us and say, ‘This is what we are looking for and these are the projects we want to do, what is available and how can you help us?’ and we’ll bring them up to speed with what’s new or try to find solutions to what they need or want.”

From there they started adding or manufacturing other products such as projector screens, wireless tablets, document cameras, DVD players, anti-bullying software, Internet security, as well as a line of speakers that fit in the ceiling which are incorporated into the sound and audio visual systems in a classroom —all at the request of their clients.

“We’ve now taken the mount products and bundled them with other manufacturers’ product(s).  These bundled solutions provide greater value to our customers, give us a competitive edge and have allowed us to expand our business,” says Mischley.

“Essentially, what our clients were telling us was they would like to have a one-stop shop, and now we basically offer them a technological classroom in a box,” says Marshall.

Building from a box

“We design everything around ease of use, functionality and speed of install,” says Mischley. “With 95% of our business in that K-12 market, these elements are essential.” But in the beginning, the install speed was missing from the equation and was called to their attention by their customers and it needed to improve.

An average install, where the technician took all the equipment, tools, wires, and products with them to the field, opened packages, assembled the items, installed the units and then checked to ensure it was all working, would take more than two hours.

Since many of the technicians Marshall and Mischley hire have Audio Visual installation experience, they were not without ideas on how to better the system and devised a way of pre-assembling the ceiling mounts.

All products needed for an order are unpacked, checked, and attached to the mount; the items get wired according to what will be required; the safety support cables are attached; and the completed unit is placed and ready for delivery—taking that two hours that used to be in the classroom installation and putting it to better use at the shop getting all mounts ready.

The technician then takes the completed unit into the classroom for installation and can now install it in about 30 minutes. “For the most part, the technicians are doing on the spot trainings, which is included with all installations” says Mischley. “The training is very important because it alleviates a lot of the problems on the back end and gets the user acclimated to the new technology on the spot.”

The technician writes the room number on each box tag and brings the box back to the shop, where administration will cut each tag from the box and record the information, serial number and product information and provide it back to the school for its asset management program.

Finding and funding

“While school and teacher funding is going down, the lower technology budgets are a plus for us,” says Mischley. “When we source our products, we don’t look at price or for a brand-name product, we look for functionality and for something we can put a three-year warranty on for the life cycle it’s going to be in the classroom, and we offer that to the customer. We also make sure that many of our products are from here in the states so the schools can qualify to use federal funds for products Made In America.”

“We have a lot of companies calling us to sell their products and we will probably expand our product offerings,” says Marshall. “For now, all of the vendors we settled on really work closely with us, but where there are holes in our product line and we have requests, we will source those.”

“I remember when the ratio in a classroom was 42 students to 1 teacher, then it went down to 25:1, then as low as 16:1, which then became the norm,” says Mischley. “Well, it’s heading back the other way again because of teacher budgets being cut. So when we do a product search, we have to do something that allows that teacher to do more in the classroom with less. That’s what drives the whole thing.”

The changing classroom

“In today’s classrooms, you have varying levels of teacher skills,” says Marshall. “We need to make sure we have products that get all of these different teachers comfortable with technology because the dynamic in the classroom is changing.

“With technology, there really is no need for teachers to stand with their back to the class. They can take the wireless tablet and be walking around or standing in the back of the classroom while still having all the functionality and interaction to teach a lesson and operate the projector,” says Marshall.

“If we can get that teacher untethered from that ‘back to the students’ mentality and put that teacher out in the class where they can sit alongside the student and show them how to do something, it creates a better learning environment and keeps up with what students are accustomed to.

“The problem a lot of schools have is the students have more technology in their hip pocket than they do in the classroom,” says Marshall. “We want to change that.”

Wendy Bautista is the editor of Advantage Small Business Magazine. She can be reached at Wendy@advantagebizmag.com or 904-536-2234.

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Business vitals

Owner: Cy Marshall and Walt Mischley

In business since: August 2008

Projected growth: “One of the first things to grow, and is still growing, was our space,” says Marshall. “When we started out, we had a 3,000 square foot mini warehouse and we quickly outgrew that. We moved over here to 25,000 square feet in August of last year and spent about a month and a half to two months painting and moving in and we’ve been doing the rest of the renovations as we can and as time and money permits.”

“This facility was just a box warehouse that had been sitting empty for about three years, so we’ve had to put a little money into it,” says Marshall. Some of the renovations include a briefing center, a showroom, a training room, conference room, reception area and lobby, a sales area, a soundproof test product area, a product assembly area, a stage for presentations, and a secure area for high-value products.

Some other changes include a change in staff. They’ve recently expanded their sales force, are looking to develop a marketing team with a director of marketing, and brought a graphic artist and web staff in house—with plans to expand to an online shopping cart.

Another area they are looking at is digital signage and bulletin boards. “Schools are starting to show real interest so they can push out bulletins, announcements, and menus, and even have interactive kiosks where a parent can come in and see what is happening and get a lot of information and not disrupt or tie up a staff member,” says Marshall.

“Most of the markets we’ve done were through emails and calling people on the phone and we’ve been really successful at it, but you can only get so far,” says Marshall. “Our next level is to build out a nationwide field sales organization.”

“The sales side is going to grow, integration side is going to grow, and all segments of the business are going to grow,” adds Mischley. “Vision wise, I want the mount business to grow.

“We are able to focus on other parts of the business because the mounting products are very profitable. That small square up there has allowed us to do all of the other things,” continues Mischley. “The business is built around that 2-by-2 square mount and that is what keeps us going.”

How you can do it

“Don’t be afraid to fail—even if it’s more than once,” says Mischley, who then adds, “As the saying goes, ‘There is no successful person that hasn’t failed.’ You better get into something you know and know all of the dynamics of it, you have to be debt free because I don’t think you can drive a business by amassing a lot of debt, and you better understand tax codes. The federal government makes it difficult so you have to understand how they make it difficult—not so you can get around it, but so you can get through it.”

“It’s more than doing something you like,” says Marshall. “I don’t care how much you like it if there is not market for it, it won’t succeed. I see so many businesses start up and they are passionate about what they want to do, but it’s passionate to them or a close-knit group they associate with. If there isn’t a general market, perhaps reconsider.

“You’ve just got to be smart about it,” adds Marshall. “You’ve got to know what you’re going to do, like what you’re going to do, have a market for what you’re going to do, and then you can go for it.”

“Oh, you have to go for it! Even at the stage we’re at now, I still want to go for it. Go for more,” agrees Mischley.

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.

From glass walls to technology hubs, offices across Northeast Florida embrace the latest design trends

By Keith Tickell

The average American spends more than 2,200 hours at work during a typical year—that’s more time than they spend watching TV, enjoying their families and engaging in leisurely activities. Given the time that is dedicated to a profession, it’s no wonder that many employers want to make the workspace the most collaborative, comfortable and productive environment possible.

Latest and greatest

As technologies continue to change and employees seek an increasing work-life balance, many companies are embracing new office design trends that engage and entice their teams to perform better and more efficiently.

Some of the latest and greatest office design trends to hit the market in recent years include collaboration, open-air offices and floor plans, tech-savvy spaces, going green, and creating custom office spaces.

Collaboration. Gone are the days of the cubicle jungle, where employees are roped off from their co-workers and secluded to their own 7 foot-by-7 foot cube. Today’s employers want their teams to engage with one another in collaborative, open workspaces that allow for constant interaction and brainstorming. It’s the same principle as a classroom or group meeting where everyone is asked to sit in a circle and share thoughts, opinions and ideas.

The best way to create a collaborative work environment in an office is to form team workspaces where desks are grouped together in a pod or common area. This allows co-workers to speak freely, solve problems together and transform ideas into innovative products. Another option is to create low-profile workstations with nice finishes that give the feeling of a private desk but still allow interaction among employees.

Open-air offices and floor plans. Open-air offices are the visual equivalent of the open-door policy employers like to communicate to their team. By creating executive offices with all glass fronts and no doors, team members feel as though they can openly communicate with their leaders. This type of office environment creates a perfect balance of quiet workspace and the ability for employees to feel comfortable interacting openly with their bosses.

Similar to open-air offices, an open office floor plan naturally creates connectivity, energy and the open flow of ideas in an office. This concept also creates a community atmosphere among employees and team leaders.

Tech-savvy spaces. Today’s workplace is drastically different than it was 20 years ago. Laptops, wireless printers and Internet, scanners and smart phones have changed the way we work and the spaces we do it in. Workers need less space to conduct business, but more adaptable spaces that will allow new technologies to be seamlessly integrated.

This means providing spaces that allow for easy WiFi connections and wireless technologies, aflexible information technology structure, collaborative workstations and any additional technology needs specific to the company occupying the space.

Green is good. After waning for a few years during the economic downturn, companies have once again turned their focus toward sustainable efforts. While there are varying degrees of green an office can accommodate, any move toward creating a more sustainable work environment is ultimately better for a company’s bottom line and its employees.

Most companies today have sustainability programs in place. These programs can be wide-ranging, from the types of office supplies they purchase to products used in maintaining their facilities to ultimately creating a LEED-certified office space.

Creating a custom office space. One goal we have is to pair companies with office spaces that fit their corporate culture and technology needs. Most businesses today are looking to promote cooperation and team problem solving, and creating an open environment is a key component to that goal.

The new corporate office for the Flagler team here in Jacksonville was recently retrofitted to incorporate the newest and most requested office features, including open floor plans, glass walls and workstations with low profiles to promote employee collaboration.

Vastly different needs

As the economy continues to improve, more companies are relocating, retrofitting or redesigning their office space. It is important to note that there is not a “one-size-fits-all” office design for every company.

Each business has vastly different needs for its employees, from technology requirements and desk space to gyms and social areas. When it comes time to redesign or relocate your office, it is necessary to communicate your needs with the building’s owner or your designer to ensure the new space fits the needs of your corporate culture.

Keith Tickell is executive vice president of Flagler, one of Florida’s oldest and largest commercial real estate companies. He oversees the company’s portfolio of 12 million square feet of Class-A office and industrial space statewide. Tickell is active in NAIOP and serves on the Board of Directors of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce. Tickell can be reached through www.flaglerdev.com.

6 lessons for turning public speaking into personal and business development

By Doug Wilder

Have you thought about going on the speaker circuit, but aren’t sure if it will be worth your time orstress? Whether you are just speaking up at a board meeting, presenting at a workshop, or giving the keynote speech at a convention, speaking in public can be good for you personally as well as professionally.

Good for personal development

Public speaking is good for personal development because enhances your leadership skills, boosts your confidence and courage, and actually becomes fun.

•Leadership skills. To lead is to inspire others into thought or action. People who speak publicly often acquire the ability to inspire and those leadership skills are carried over into normal non-speaking time.

Lesson 1: Create speeches that inspire and entertain. If you aren’t sure how to accomplish this, join a Toastmasters Club or ask someone to help you. Be bold. Sprinkle in heavy doses of character, wisdom and good cheer in your speeches. The more serious the topic; the greater the need for humor. As you inspire, be inspired.

•Confidence boost. Confidence is the belief that what you are doing is “right” and that you will be successful. By speaking in public you will find that you can and will rise to the occasion, and your worst fears are rarely realized. If you do not give up, you will continue to improve, and you will boost your confidence.

Lesson 2: Make it a practice to always say “yes” when asked to speak. Have courage. Face your fears and do it anyway. You will become more confident, and that confidence will help you on and off stage.

•Enjoyment. Speaking in front of groups can be quite enjoyable. As your confidence and courage increase, you will find your abilities and control increase and your stress will decrease.

Lesson 3: Choose to enjoy public speaking. You may need to fake it until you make it. Laugh at your mistakes. As Oscar Wilde said, “Life is too important to be taken seriously!”

Good for business development

Gerlach, Wilder, and Caplan

While eating lunch with two lawyers who do public speaking to enhance their business, they mentioned three ways they benefit from presenting at seminars: credibility, publicity, and direct business.

•Credibility. Howard Caplan, business lawyer (caplawfirm.com), said that public speaking brings him additional credibility. People can see and hear his expertise on Intellectual Property Rights, particularly when he is able to engage the audience in a discussion.

Caplan said, “For instance, at a recent Continuing Legal Education (CLE) class at which I co-presented with Patent Attorney Jo-Anne Yau, we welcomed dialogue and involved the audience.” Therefore the lawyers in the audience were more likely to see the presenting lawyers as subject matter experts and refer business to them.

Lesson 4: Keep track of the places you speak at so you can later furnish that credibility list when needed. Also, gather testimonials in a file.

•Publicity: Caplan said publicity is another reason public speaking is good for business development. “When the CLE classes were advertised, it was in essence an advertisement for me.”

Lesson 5: Before the event, ensure the event announcements are strategically circulated and that you are getting the publicity you want. If not, see what announcements you can create yourself. Don’t forget to use social media to spread the word. Let your clients and friends know what you are doing. After an event, you can tell everyone that you did it and perhaps something about it that might interest them.

•Direct business: Gregg Gerlach, an employment lawyer (harpergerlach.com) and the other lawyer at lunch, chimed in, “Public speaking is an integral part of our firm’s business development strategy. While we don’t solicit the audience to hire us, sometimes the attendees call for advice and do indeed hire us.

“Last week I was the main speaker at an HR conference where 65 supervisors were in attendance and listening to my ‘war stories’ about legal issues facing other supervisors. I have already received a phone call from one of the attendees wanting advice.”

Lesson 6: It is sometimes considered gauche to sell your services or products while speaking at an engagement. If you must, get permission first. For most speakers, just being a great speaker will entice some in the audience to want to do business with you. Be sure to leave something with your name and contact information with the audience so they may contact you later.

By applying the six lessons above, your public speaking will be good for your personal development and your business development. Speak up, and be prosperous and happy!

Doug Wilder is a speech coach with Wilder Business Success Inc., which  strives to create wilder success with less stress. He can be reached at 904-880-8877 or through www.WilderSuccess.com.

How to use QR codes to enhance your business

By Mark A. Carillon

The simplicity of the QR code is helping more and more businesses generate leads, bring in more sales, and create long-time customers. With the snap of a camera phone—or one equipped with a QR code reader—consumers can scan your QR code and instantly connect to various forms of digital media or retrieve desired information about your business, product or service.

A QR code changes the consumer experience by making it possible to “scan” instead of “type” to access your information on their mobile device. Think of these QR codes as “hyperlinks” that connect your physical world to the online world.

What are they?

In 1994, Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota Corporation, invented the QR (Quick Response) code—a two-dimensional barcode used to transfer information to mobile phone barcode readers. Where traditional barcodes only held 16-20 characters of data and were very slow, Denso Wave’s 2-D barcode could read up to 7,000 characters very quickly.

In 2002, while exploring ways to add more value and features to their devices, mobile phone manufacturers decided to use QR codes to allow access to website URLs and the Internet—and the rest they say is history. In 2010, the number of scans increased 1,300%—13 times more than 2009.

QR codes are almost always free to create, store a lot of data, and do not require expensive barcode scanning devices to work. Search Google for “QR code generator” and you’ll find tons of sites where you can make these codes for free.

A QR code reader is very easy to download from your app store or marketplace, but many mobile smart phones come with a QR code reader installed.

4 Ms of mobile marketing

When considering the use of QR codes, understand the 4 Ms of mobile marketing: market, mindset, message and mistake.

•Market. There are over five billion mobile phone users in the world today and it is the fastest growing segment on the Internet. Think about your own mobile usage—chances are you leave home each day with three things: your keys, wallet, and phone. If any of these are missing, you promptly return home to get what you forgot. Your clients do the same.

•Mindset. When mobile users are on their phone, they want info now and they want it fast. QR codes make it quick and easy for them to get to your information. They’re also three times more likely to “buy” when compared to someone searching from their desktop.

•Message. The message you give to mobile users must be concise and succinct. This is an excellent opportunity to offer up a coupon or a free report or video to further educate, entertain and engage your prospect as to why they should be doing business with you.

It should complement and add value to their experience and not repeat the same message that lead them to scan your QR code in the first place. A brochure which leads to a YouTube video that shows your product in action is a perfect one-two punch.

•Mistake. The most common mistake is to take customers to your full size website. Why? You’re stuffing 17 inches worth of information onto a 3-inch device. This forces your prospect to scroll left, right, up, down, etc.—making your mobile users work way too hard.

Instead, take them to a mobile optimized site that displays properly on their phone and make it “one-click simple” so they can call you, send you an email or text message, view a video, listen to an audio, import your contact details, etc. with one click.

Popular uses

Some of the most popular uses for QR codes include:

•Building a customer list. Create a QR code that links to an opt-in page where consumers will leave their name and email address in exchange for some type of report or incentive. Once a consumer has your QR code stored on their phone, it also serves as a reminder about your business.

•Enhancing marketing and advertising materials. QR codes can be easily placed on business cards, T-shirts, flyers, receipts, print advertising, signs, billboards, websites, store windows/displays, vehicle wraps, car magnets, menus, receipts and many others. And it’s easy to make changes to your QR’s destination when things change, so you don’t have to worry about changing your ad and then re-printing and re-publishing.

•Linking to social sites. Link to your social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube to create a powerful list-building combination.

•Obtaining reviews. Create QR codes to help get customer reviews on your online directory listings; such as your Google Places, Yelp, Insider Reviews, Super Pages, and the like. Good online customer reviews are powerful in converting prospects into customers and are one of the best ways to help get your website listed higher on search engines.

•Creating electronic connections. You can create a QR code that goes to an electronic version of your business card, commonly referred to as a VCARD or MECARD, and to an electronic calendar entry, commonly called a VCAL. A scan of the code and your contact information is being added to your prospect’s phone contact list or an event gets added to your calendar—making it easy to RSVP.

•Making business better. Service providers can have QR codes that lead to the service history of a particular item, or manufacturers can link to written assembly instructions that lead to a video that provides step-by-step displays through the building of that item.

There are so many different ways QR codes can help you and your business attract and retain more clients, so do yourself a favor and jump in with both feet now. The question is not if you will use QR codes, but rather when—so get ahead of your competitors.

Mark Carillon is president of Web904.com, a company specializing in marketing your business with custom websites, mobile websites, QR Codes, social networking and mobile phones. He can be reached at 904-375-0194, mark@web904.com, or through www.web904.com.

How to read a QR code

Anyone with a camera on their phone can read a QR code, but there are different ways to receive the results. A QR reader on your phone is much simpler and faster, but if you have an older phone, then emailing or text messaging for results will work as well.

• Download a QR reader for your phone. If your phone is nto already equipped with a reader, you can easily download one. There are multiple ones to choose from, with many being free.

•Send an email. Capture the QR code with your phone’s camera and then email that picture to scan@scanlife.com.

•Send a text message. Take a picture of the QR code and send it via MMS text messaging to 43588.