How to Build A High-Performance Team

A study from The Oxford Review stated, “Employees spend an average of 54% of their time working within teams.” This shows that teams play an important role in the success of your business. Hiring team members who are high performers is increasingly important to maximize the impact it will have on your bottom line.

The question of the day is how do I find these types of people?

I want to share two things in the post today:

• How to find high performers.

• How to create a team that is full of high-performers

To go back to the first question; Where do I find these people? I did some research and found that the key to finding high performers is all in your strategy for recruitment. It’s important to figure out what type of employee is going to be a good fit for the team you are trying to build. In many cases a high performer type might be great as an individual contributor but not so great in a team environment.

Reviewing your recruitment process to focus on the potential that you can mold and not just skills is key. Additionally, looking for soft skills like communication and creativity could go a long way to helping your business become more innovative. A person who is highly adaptable and can inspire others is important. 

In response to the second point above, you can create a team of high performers by having clear objectives for how they contribute to the team, encouraging open lines of communication, setting clear goals that are S.M.A.R.T., proactively communicating that conflict is a natural part of team dynamics and emphasizing effective tools to manage it. Finally, it is up to you to create and foster a collaborative environment that builds trust, encourages open communication, and involves team-building activities.

You have worked so hard to grow your business but to get to the next level you will need a team. Finding those key people who are high performers can be challenging but having a list of attributes that you are looking for helps.

Once you find those future high performers, it is up to you to keep them motivated by giving them clear goals and objectives while fostering a collaborative and supportive environment.

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3 Tips To Handle Explosive Growth In Your Business

You are on fire!

The sales are racking up and your bottom line is growing expeditiously.

There is one problem.

You don’t want sales to start suffering and you are running out of gas. What can you do to keep the business party going? Check out a few tips below to help keep your ship sailing along.

Tip One - Streamline Your Service Processes

Is everything moving along without a bump in the road?

If there are bottlenecks in your current customer service or service delivery workflow, you could be headed for disaster. We have all read negative reviews on Google and quickly decided not to do business with that company. Check out these tips to help with streamlining your processes and these tools for creating standard operating procedures. Also, check out this resource for best practices for writing awesome SOPs.

Tip Two - Know Your Numbers

I know this sounds like a broken record BUT understanding financial data like how much you sell vs. how much you spend and if you are profitable by doing a break-even analysis will go a long way to help you achieve business goals.

Specifically, it’s important to manage your cash flow, use the data to update your pricing strategies and have the information needed to make capital purchase decisions. Check out this post I wrote about making money and measuring how well your business is doing.

Tip Three - Take Care Of Your Customer

We have all heard the phrase, “The Customer Is Always Right.”

Harry Gordon Selfridge, a very successful retailer from the early 1900s coined the term which is meant to promote a high priority for providing customer satisfaction. If you take care of your customers they will take care of you. I am sure we have all heard that phrase too.

One of the challenges of rapid business growth is maintaining the same quality of service as you scale. One good first step is to take the pulse of your current customers by using surveys and gathering customer success stories. Check out this tool for creating customer surveys and this tool can be used for collecting customer testimonials. Additionally, you can use this feedback in your marketing efforts but ask your customers for permission first. 

It’s a full-time job managing all the aspects of your business as it grows. The goal is to keep all the balls in the air and organized. I hope the tips I shared will help you to be an amazing entrepreneur juggler.

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Why Do I Need A Bookkeeper?

The life of an entrepreneur/small business owner is hectic! There are current customers to serve, new prospective customers to get and then there is all the stuff in between. The “in-between” stuff is the meat and potatoes of your business like creating your marketing plan, executing your marketing plan, managing your team (even if it’s just you:), and managing your finances. 

Wait!

What was the last line about “managing your finances”?

Yes, this is a real business to-do list item and more often than not it is a daunting daily task for many business owners. I recently did some research for this blog post and came across this question:

Do I need to hire a bookkeeper for my business?

It gave me pause for thought.

My first thought was no you don’t NEED to hire a bookkeeper for your business. If you have the time, money, and energy to learn accounting principles and apply them to your specific business model then you don’t need a bookkeeper and could do it yourself.

The problem with that is you now get to add being a bookkeeper to the other growing business hats you already wear. Additionally, then you have to keep going with your training and professional development in bookkeeping accounting to make sure you stay up to date on anything that relates to managing your business finances.

And the list goes on…..if you would rather NOT go down the rabbit hole of being your own bookkeeper then yes you do need a bookkeeper.

Why Do You Need A Bookkeeper For Your Business?

All the stuff I just mentioned above is taken off your plate. Whew! That’s a relief.

1. A bookkeeper can help you stay tax compliant and out of hot water.

2. A bookkeeper can help you manage your cash flow which can help you not break out in a panic.

3. A bookkeeper can help you to know if you are making money or taking your money and throwing it out the window. We can help you to see if there are frivolous expenses that need to be pruned out of your life.

4. A bookkeeper can help you plan for the future. What are your goals? If it’s to retire by the lake a bookkeeper can help you map out a financial plan a.k.a budget to help you reach your goals.

5. A bookkeeper can help you figure out how much money to pay yourself and when you can give yourself a raise.

6. A bookkeeper can help you figure out when it is a good time to start bringing on team members so you can take your foot off the brake.

7. A bookkeeper can help you stay ready for business opportunities that may come your way like investments, grant opportunities or if you need a loan to purchase capital assets. 

8. A bookkeeper can help you sleep better at night because you are not in charge of managing Quickbooks.

9.  What are your goals for business and your personal life? A bookkeeper can help you to get there. 

So are you ready to take the plunge? I hope this post gives you food for thought as you move along your business journey.

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Systems & Workflows - The Roadmap To A Happy Business Ecosystem

There is so much chatter about systematizing your business. What exactly does that mean?

According to this article on PI world.com:

The systematization definition for small business is: to arrange into a system, plan, or method, how the business operates from start to finish. In other words, simply mapping or writing down, step-by-step, exactly how each process or function in a small business works.

These are known as SOPs or Standard Operating Procedures in the corporate world. 

I remember when I would work on contract projects how the departments that I worked in were in chaos due to someone leaving and taking the information to do their job right along with them. That is and was a recipe for disaster. Thank goodness there are tools to help with creating SOPs so that you don’t fall into this trap. 

Check out this article that has a list of SOP tools that are low-cost or free to use.  Additionally, this article has ideas and practical steps to help create your SOPs. 

I hope these tools help you get your ducks in a row to run your business more efficiently. Check out the blog I wrote last month on tech stacks. Once you have your SOPs ready to go the tech stack will help you to automate some of those processes. 

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Do You Have An Efficient Tech Stack For Your Business?

First Things First

What in the world is a tech stack you might be wondering. It is all the technology used to systemize your business so that things run smoothly. According to Podium.com, the use of tech stacks is changing:

“The term “tech stack” most commonly refers to the combination of programming languages, software products, web servers, operating systems, and other tools used by software-as-a-service (SaaS) and development teams. However, as more and more brands move their operations onto their computers and mobile devices, tech stacks are no longer exclusive to the app, web, or software development process.”

It’s just a fact that more businesses are seeking ways to use technology to increase productivity, save them time and money, and improve their bottom line.

Now that we know what a tech stack is, let's look at different areas of your business to see examples of how a tech stack can impact your business.

Marketing & Selling - Apps like Hubspot can help with customer relationship management, Quotient can help with generating custom customer quotes and Panda Doc can help you create winning proposals.

Workflow & Accounting - Apps like Trello or Asana can help you with project management. Additionally, apps like QuickBooks Online or Xero can help you manage the accounting activities with the business. 

Meetings & Communication - Apps like Zoom, Google Meet, or Slack can help with efficiently running online meetings with useful screen-sharing tools.

Technology is here to stay and it is important to pick the right tools for your business. Additionally, it is so important that if you are integrating tools to work with each other, they play nicely together. For example, if you are using an app with Quickbooks Online it is best to get advice from an accounting or bookkeeping professional about which tools are proven to work best with the software so a nightmare can be adverted. Running a business can get pretty chaotic fast. I hope these tech stack tips help you run your business more efficiently.

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Quick Tips To Help You Stay Organized in Your Business

The life of an entrepreneur and business owner can get crazy busy! You are managing your business operations, employees if you have them, your customers, and you. No wonder the burnout rate is high among entrepreneurs.

According to Forbes, 42% of small business owners said they have experienced burnout in the past month; 24% reported they are currently experiencing burnout.”

That is pretty high!

Don’t worry, be happy. I have a few quick tips below to help you stay organized and avoid burnout. 

Tip#1

Plan the next day before you shut down for the day. 

Tip#2

Automate repetitive activities in your business

Tip#3

Create processes and workflows in your business

Tip#4

Declutter your workspace

Tip#5

Get help with the tasks you don’t enjoy doing in your business. 

I hope these quick tips will help you to avoid burnout and stay organized. Do you have any tips & tricks that allow you to stay organized? Share in the comments below. 

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Are You Working In A State Of Chaos?

The post today will be short & sweet.

Are you working in a state of chaos? If so check out this post I wrote back in 2018 that will help you to restore peace and balance back into your life.

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Are You Managing Finances Successfully In Your Small Business?

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The life of a business owner is so hectic. If you are working solo or with a small team, it can become completely overwhelming to stop and take stock of the health of the business finances. Many owners feel comfortable with managing their business finances with a quick glance at their business checking account and maybe a brief glance at the P&L. But that is not enough. It is important that owners go further to make sure that their business is going in the right direction financially before it is too late. The two areas below will help you to get on the right foot.

Hire a bookkeeping/accounting professional - This is the first step in the right direction. I have seen numerous clean-up projects from clients that decided to D.I.Y. their bookkeeping at some point in their business journey and it didn’t end well.

Use professional accounting software - This is important to put into place so that you are ready to file taxes in an organized manner. Additionally, software like QuickBooks Online will enable you to run management reports that help you to run your business better.

Read your financial reports - This is crucial. There is no point in doing monthly bookkeeping for your business and making the monetary investment if you don’t read your reports. A strategic partner like a bookkeeping/accounting professional can help you to make sense of your reports. To get a jump start check out this post I wrote about the Statement of Cash Flows report.

The life of a small business owner is not boring. It is filled with constant activity but if you are not on top of your business finances then all the sales in the world will not stop your business from ceasing to exist.

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3 Tips To Help You To Get Organized

Are you running your business in a constant state of chaos?

Is this costing you money?

According to the International Association of Business Organizing a Forbes ASAP article states that “the typical executive wastes 150 hours a year, nearly an entire month of work, searching for lost information.  For a salaried position earning $50,000 a year that is a loss of almost $4000.

That is a lot of time & energy going into the ether

No fear - Check out the 3 tips below to help you get started on the path to getting organized:

Tip One: Start where you are and declutter your work area. It is simple but provides the most impact. If you know where to find the items when you need them and your space is clean, your day will flow much better.

Tip Two: Document your work processes so that you will have the foundational standard operating procedures for your business. This will help you to understand which processes can be automated or when you need to bring in a team member to help.

Tip Three: Make a weekly habit of organizing your digital files so that you will be able to find things exactly when you need them. I like to do this on Fridays and use it as my admin day to get organized and ready for the following week.

I hope these tips help you to start getting organized so that you can work in a stress-free manner and minimize wasting money due to disorganization.

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The Final Piece of the puzzle: Licensing & Tracking Your Business Finances

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The entrepreneurial journey can be exciting and rewarding. In the previous post I shared a few tips to help you get started on your journey. This week we will finish the tips list with discussing how to make sure you have the correct licenses for your business and my recommendation on software to use for setting up the tracking system for your business finances.

Licensing For Your Business

It is so important to get started on the right foot when you start your business and making sure that you are operating legally is paramount. According to Legal Zoom, “Virtually all businesses will need a license of some sort, and many will need to apply for a number of different licenses and permits. The types of licenses and permits your business requires will depend on where you live and the type of industry you’re in.” Check out their checklist to make sure you have the right licensing/permits for your business.

System For Tracking Your Business Finances

You are going to put in many hours and days getting your business off the ground and selling to your customers. You will have your own personal money that you will use to fund your business and hopefully a ton of customer sales. Once the money starts flowing in then you will most likely focus on how to keep the process going and taking a moment to see how financially well your business is doing might take a backseat. That is unless you get started on the right foot. My recommendation is to set up your business bookkeeping system using Quickbooks Online. This will help you to begin tracking your business finances correctly from the start. Once you have opened your business checking account then you are going to want to subscribe to Quickbooks Online and connect your bank to the software so that you can start tracking your business activity within the software. 

This is important so that when tax time rolls around you will have all your ducks in a row to get the most tax deductions possible. My suggestion is to start with their basic subscription called Simple Start and as your business grows then you can always upgrade to a higher plan later. Incidentally, I do not recommend the Self-Employed Subscription as it only tracks the Profit & Loss activity and you can’t upgrade to a higher subscription later. This subscription is basically geared towards working professionals who intend on doing a side-hustle and not go into business as a full-time entrepreneur.

The entrepreneurial journey is filled with ups and downs but getting started on the right foot will help you to be a successful.

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I Have No Idea How Much Money I Made Last Month!!!

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Have you ever said this to yourself?

It is a common mantra among entrepreneurs who are so busy doing the daily work in their business that managing the financial performance of it gets lost in the sauce. This month we are taking a look at why it is important to track your business bookkeeping inside of an accounting software. One of the main reasons is to have the ability to answer the question: How Much Did I Make In My Business?

The best way to get this answer is to keep your books reconciled on a monthly basis. The art of reconciling the books just means grabbing your bank statement and literally matching it line by line item to what is showing in the accounting software. Once everything has been accounted for then you know that your books have been reconciled and can close the month and start fresh in the next month. Now bookkeeping and accounting is way more complex than pulling out a statement to match transactions but doing this aspect of it is necessary to pull reports that answer questions like the one above. 

So if you have no idea how much money you made last month then head over to the reports section in your accounting software and find the profit and loss statement or what it is known as in the accounting world, income statement. The income statement or profit & loss will tell you the story of how much you made by selling your services or products, what you spent on expenses and what was left over. The “what is left over” part will tell you how much you made in your business last month. 

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Welcome To The Month Of August! & It's My Birthday Month:)

via GIPHY

I can’t believe it is August. Where did the time go??? I love this month that is filled with a change in season (depending on where you live) and a start to new beginnings like taking classes or taking a fresh look at your business. 

This month I want to take a practical look at why it is important to have your books in order and tracked within an accounting software like QuickBooks Online. There are many reasons why it is crucial that your business finances are managed in an organized manner outside of just using an Excel spreadsheet that can help you to be more successful within your business.  I think that sometimes we just need to be reminded of the reasons why we are going through all the effort to manage the business bookkeeping in the first place.

It’s August & my birthday month - It is time to get busy!!

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Why Is It Important To Have A Good Systems Workflow In Place?

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Having a good system to run your business operations can make or break you. Picture this: Your business is busy and customers are coming out of the woodwork to buy your services. This is great. It is time for them to pay and you offer a variety of methods for your customers to pay including cash. Your customer pays you in cash and you put the money in your pocket and wave goodbye.

What is wrong with this picture you might ask?

It is great that you sold a service to a customer that wanted to buy it. What isn’t great is that you put the money in your pocket and didn’t have a system to record the payment in your accounting software or track the sale by giving your customer a sales receipt.

Why do I need to have a system in place you might ask?

If you want to know how many customers bought your services, what is a hot seller vs. a dud, how much money you made, and also make sure you keep the taxman happy then a system for capturing all this information is paramount.

In my post last week, I discussed that a workflow is an organized system that is created to handle your business operations. Most people know this as S.O.Ps or standard operating procedures. Creating procedures to handle each area of your business will ensure that nothing falls through the cracks and that you are able to measure and track information that is important to you. Next week we will look at tools that will help you to systemize different areas within your business.

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Welcome To The Month of July!

I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July holiday with your friends & family. The month of July is here and we are going to take a deep dive into all things related to workflows. What is a workflow? According to Kissflow, “A workflow process is a series of sequential tasks that are carried out based on user-defined rules or conditions, to execute a business process. It is a collection of data, rules, and tasks that need to be completed to achieve a certain business outcome.”

That was a mouthful!

Do you have an organized system in place to handle your business operations? If not now is a good time to start thinking about what that system will look like under the following areas:

• Accounting

• HR

• Marketing

• Business Development

• Daily Business Operations

This month we will take a look at the reason why having a workflow in place is so important, easy steps we can take to get us on the right track and what the ending resulting will feel like. Buckle up and let’s go on a workflow journey.

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How To Market Your Business?

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The idea of marketing for your business can be confusing and overwhelming. If you are busy with the day-to-day operations of running your business but your revenue is not reflecting your efforts then the most likely culprit is lack of marketing.

What Exactly Is Marketing?

According to the American Marketing Association, “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” Well, that is a mouth full. The key thing to take away from that definition is that marketing includes creating a process to communicate the benefits of your services or products to your customers that provide value to them. The next question is how do you carry out your marketing?

There are a variety of steps that you can take to deliver your marketing message. Over the course of the next few weeks I will take a look at the following areas as suggested by Small Business.WA.Gov.AU:

• Do Market Research

• Identify Your Target Market

• Identify your USP

• Create your business brand

• Select your marketing strategies

• Create your goals & budget

• Take care of your loyal customers

• Monitor and look at your effectiveness

Marketing is essential for any business to survive. The day-to-day operations of running a small business can take precedence over drilling into the intricacies of how to apply marketing techniques to your business. Although it can be time-consuming it is essential for growing your business. I hope the steps above are a starting point for you on your marketing journey.

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Why Should I Care About The Balance Sheet Report?

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Do you have your own system for keeping track of expenses and other things that go on in your business with a fancy spreadsheet? If the answer is yes then you might be getting only half of the financial picture of what is going on in your business. Don’t get me wrong. I love fancy spreadsheets and it is quite handy to use in a pinch. But it is not a long-term solution because no one ever asked to see your spreadsheet to learn how your business is doing. This is where the Balance Sheet report comes into play.

Begin With The End In Mind

What goal are you trying to achieve? Picture this. You just started your business and put in a lot of your own money but now you are in need of additional funds to help you buy key things for your business. You go down to your local bank and they ask to see your Balance Sheet so that they can get a better financial picture of your business. You look at them with a blank stare and the loan you need starts to look like a mirage. Or maybe you want to bring in a partner to help your business grow and they ask to see your Balance Sheet to see what your financial picture looks like before they move forward with you. The Balance Sheet in both cases plays a pivotal role in determining the outcome of your business decisions.

Why You Should Care About The Balance Sheet Report

The Balance Sheet Report helps you to:

• Learn how much you own, owe, took out & kept inside your business

• It could help you to obtain additional funds to help you grow your business

• It provides key information to outside stakeholders who want to do business with you.

What Is On The Balance Sheet Report?

• Assets - What you own

• Liabilities - What you owe

• Equity - What you took out & what you kept inside of your business

The Balance Sheet is a key report that helps you to run your business smarter. A spreadsheet can’t help you to do that because it only tells one side of the story.

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Tis The Season For Taxes

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The tax season is here. Are you ready? Do you have all your ducks in a row? If not do not fret. Here is a short checklist to get you started on your journey.

• Make sure your books are in order: Your accounting records should be categorized properly and reconciled by the month. You will need to have this in place to pull reports for your tax professional.

• Gather all tax-related documents: Your tax professional is going to ask for a plethora of documents so they can complete your filing. Check out this resource for a tax prep checklist and other goodies.

• Find a tax professional to take care of your tax filing: This is not the year to DIY it. Do yourself a favor and find a trusted tax pro to help you navigate the muddy waters this tax year. Check out this resource to help you get started.

Tax time is here and it doesn’t have to be a stressful time for you. Take some time to implement the 3 tips above and you will have smooth sailing.

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Why Is It Important To Get Organized Within Your Business?

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The life of a small business owner is fast-paced. There are meetings to attend, networking events to attend and then there are the day-to-day operations. If you have a personal life then throw that into the bucket as well. It is enough to make your head spin. That is why it is so important to get organized in your business. What you do inside of your business flows into other areas of your life. For example, if you have a personal meeting that you need to take during the week then you need to make sure that it doesn’t conflict with business activities. Here are 4 reasons why it is important to get organized for your business:

• It reduces stress

• It helps you stay on top of trends within your industry

• It enables you to pursue revenue-generating opportunities

• It helps you to stay on top of your finances

There you have it. I hope this quick blog post was a good reminder about why it is important to get organized within your business. Next week we will look at how to do it.

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Invest In The Right Tools For The Current Stage of Your Business Journey

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It is exciting running a business and there are so many pieces to the puzzle. As I mentioned in my last post I love tinkering with shiny new objects to see how I can use them in my business. But I recently decided to take a step back from that approach and only focus on the tools that I need right now to run my business.

Why?

The reason why I have decided to do this is to allow me to f.o.c.u.s. - follow one course until success as it relates to my tool kit. What I discovered last year is that I was running from one new shiny object to another new shiny object and I didn’t effectively apply any of the tools to my business and that left me feeling frustrated. This year I am only using tools that fit these 3 categories:

• I need it right now

• It fits comfortably within my current budget

• It is easy to use

That is it. It’s not rocket science but as I started to see what entailed using a particular product I started to see that it was costing me time or money or both. That’s not productive. I need to be focused on delivering quality service and value to my clients and not becoming a Ph.D. in whatever tool that I am trying to use. I do believe there is value in becoming an expert user once you have chosen what tools you will use to run your business. It is important to map out what tools you need to use for each step in your business and then stick to that.

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Welcome To The Month Of November!

Welcome to the month of November! I can’t believe how fast this year is going by. I know for alot of people the whole year can’t be over soon enough…lol I like to see the silver lining in every cloud. Yes, this year was tough but it also gave many of us a chance to reflect on life in general. I am not happy that all the madness that happened this year took place but there is always an opportunity to learn and grow even in the midst of chaos.

How is your business doing? Are you still on track with the goals that you set at the beginning of the year or are you way off track? This month I want to take a look at why setting b.h.a.g. type goals are so important for your business. B.H.A.G. stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goals. This term was started by Jim Collins who wrote the business book Built To Last. According to Investopedia.com,

A big hairy audacious goal, or BHAG, is a clear and compelling target for an organization to strive for. The term was coined in the book “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies” by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras. A BHAG—pronounced “bee hag”—is a long-term goal that everyone in a company can understand and rally behind. BHAGs are meant to excite and energize people in a way that quarterly targets and lengthy missions statements often fail to.

I also want to take a look at e-commerce and why it is important to make sure it is set up correctly to make sure your books are correct.

This year is pretty much over BUT it is not too late to make sure your business has a strong finish despite all the distractions that has occurred.

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