Posted by Melinda Phillips Zumski on April 28, 2009
As small business owners, we can get completely sucked into researching various tools, plans, programs, packages etc. And typically time is the most precious resource that we have. I, for example, am currently on a Twitter kick. I am spending a whole bunch of time trying to figure out how this works and how it might benefit my business and my clients . . . so how do we know when we are wasting time versus investing time?
I think the key is staying focus on creating results. Not every investigation will succeed. Maybe Twitter won’t improve my business. But if I investigate with the idea that I am trying to see how this could benefit my business, and constantly stay focused on the goal then I would argue it is time well invested. We all need to be looking for new ways to add value in our business. I think the real danger comes when you keep playing around with things and lose sight of any real business applicability.
This takes a lot of discipline though. And you have to be careful not to investigate too many things at once. Prioritize. And measure the results. If you can keep your eyes on the prize, a little playing never hurt anyone and might just become a great new addition to your business!
Posted by Melinda Phillips Zumski on February 12, 2009
As I look at my projections for 2009 I am trying to figure out how to maintain profitability in this challenging economy. And while I haven’t raised my prices in a while now, this sure doesn’t feel like the climate to raise prices . . . so how do I navigate this and make sure I stay a FIT business?
For my business, I am looking long and hard about HOW I price - instead of just thinking of our services as traditional hourly rate I am starting to explore pricing that is based on the value we deliver to clients. That gives us an incentive to become more efficient for our clients without constantly eroding our own income. I want to move to a healthy environment in which my interests and my clients interests are completely aligned. And I want to make sure we are creating customer delight always, not encouraging clients to ask why we spent 15 minutes doing one thing or another . . .
So on my short list is Ronald J. Baker’s Pricing on Purpose: Creating and Capturing Value . . . check it out! I think FIT businesses need to reflect on how they price themselves. Join me in talking through how we can all improve our bottom lines, even in a challenging economy!
Posted by Mike Doherty on February 10, 2009
In tough times, you have to work smarter, not harder . . .
It means doing more with less. It means leveraging your time wisely.
FITbiz provides you the tools to work smarter - We integrate a variety of tools in your business to make you work better - like linking QuickBooks so that it can seamlessly talk to your shopping cart. No more time wasting double entries. No more hidden fees.
At FITbiz we know it’s tough out there, but now is the time to train your business for success.
We offer a variety of time and cost saving tools that will help you become a FITbiz. It’s a small investment in your business to make a BIG difference in your bottom line.
You’ll be surprised how much you can save - contact us today!
Posted by Melinda Phillips Zumski on February 3, 2009
FIT businesses budget. Now is the perfect time to look back on what happened in your business in 2008, and put together your best estimates about what will happen in 2009. Budgeting forces you to focus on what might happen, what might change in your business, and how all of that will impact you and your general strategy and planning. The exercise of creating a budget makes you define the relationship between the various things that impact your business - if my sales decline in this economy, what do I do about my staffing? What is my equipment purchase budget look like for this year? Should I invest more in advertising and marketing in 2009?
If you are using QuickBooks, you can actually create a budget using last year’s data and then just tweak as needed. So actually putting the budget together is pretty simple - the catch is to get the numbers “right”.
Once the budget is in QuickBooks, monitor your actual performance to what you budgeted. This will help you revise your budget and understand in detail how your income and expenses may vary along the way. It was also help you see how some trends in your business are going to back up and cause you more challenges down the line.
So commit today - take 30 minutes and create a 2009 budget in QuickBooks. Then commit to spending 30 minutes a month reviewing your actual performance versus your budget. It doesn’t have to be perfect - just do it. Your business will benefit tremendously!
Posted by Mike Doherty on January 22, 2009
Please find the link to the Small Business California (SB-Cal) Survey of California small businesses. Last year it received 630 responses from every county in the state. Please take a moment to complete and forward to other small business owners you know. The results will form the SB-Cal agenda for 2009.
Survey Link: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB228QR44U46V
Posted by Mike Doherty on January 20, 2009
Duke University study shows that most folks need on average 30 minutes of exercise to maintain their weight. Duke also found a brisk 30-minute walk or jog three times a week may be just as effective in relieving major depression as are standard antidepressant drugs, researchers have found.
Live longer and fell better – imagine what 30 minutes a day could do for the life of your business? If you like me there never seems to be enough time in the day. But what if you spent 30 minutes a day talking to your customers? Following up personally on their orders and their satisfaction? In these days of cost cutting, a little customer appreciation can go a long way. Or maybe you spend 30 minutes a day making sure the website has fresh content and thus more attractive to visitors and search engine alike.
Nice idea – but you don’t have an extra 30 minute, right? WRONG
- Create your daily to do list before you check your emails – it will help you prioritize what need to get done that day. You can always add an item from your inbox.
- Instead of constantly checking your emails – allocate specific times to check emails. According to a study by Gartner Inc., which surveyed corporate email users, 53 percent of users check their mail six or more times a day. Men are twice as likely as women to check email more than 15 times a day.
- Remember the 3 D’s – Deal with it, Delegate it or Delete it.
- Clean Up Your Act – Seriously, organize your email folders - delete or file an email when finished. Use a spam filter to eliminate unwanted spam. A little time now, will save hours of searching through old emails later.
- Separate emails – don’t have your personal emails come to your office. That way at work you just have to deal with work. Added benefit – you employer or your IT guy doesn’t end up seeing your email exchange with your gynecologist’s office.
By checking your emails less often, you’ll remain more focused. And trust me, if an important email comes in and you don’t respond – someone will call you!
Posted by Melinda Phillips Zumski on January 19, 2009
Are you in the midst of trying to collect vendor information so that you can complete your 1099s? I often find that vendors are reluctant to share their tax id information and if you have already paid them, they often have little or no incentive complete your paperwork request. So my advice to you is to take care of this on the front end, so you don’t get stressed out on the back end. Before you pay a new vendor, ask them to complete a W-9 form so that you can “set them up” as a vendor. You can get a W-9 form on the IRS website at www.irs.gov. It is easy to just send this as an email attachment. If you request that a vendor complete this before you pay them, trust me - they have incentive to complete this quickly and get it back to you for your files! Plus this is the documentation that the IRS wants you to have on file . . . Once you have this information in your system, it is easy to input the information into QuickBooks. And once everything is in QuickBooks, printing our your 1099s at this time of year is a breeze! So resolve to reduce or eliminate 1099 stress - this could be your year . . .
Posted by Mike Doherty on January 14, 2009
I went to a business mixer last night. I was in a pretty good mood and I ran into a few folks I hadn’t seen in awhile. As is the norm - many asked, “How’s Business?” What used to be an ice breaker now carries a notable edge to it. Times are tough.
One long time acquaintance launched into a doom and gloom discourse. I excused myself. I am not typically a head in the sand kinda guy, but I can’t spend a lot of energy on how bad can might possible get. Especially, since I have little or no power to affect the state of the economy over the next few months. But for my own personal sanity, I just can’t wallow in it.
So I weather on . . .
When business is slow, I work on stuff I don’t have time for during busier times - I network, I update our marketing collateral, I pitch new projects. Am I being naive? Maybe. Or maybe (this is my more positive spin) I am preparing for a time when business returns. Some of our competitors have fallen away and we have an opportunity to competitively position ourselves for the recovery.
It’s your choice . . .
Posted by Melinda Phillips Zumski on January 9, 2009
Each year Small Business California does an annual survey of small businesses around the state to determine its agenda. Last year it survey received over 600 responses and had at least one business respond from every county in the state.
They would like to ask you to take a look at last years survey and forward to them any questions you think they should add as well as questions you think they should delete. You can access all of their surveys over the years by going to their website www.smallbusinesscalifornia.org.
Posted by Melinda Phillips Zumski on January 8, 2009
Did you ever wish you didn’t have to manually enter your web sales into QuickBooks? Have you wished that you could just press a button and have the information automatically import in? You can!
T-Hub is a great solution if this is all you need or want to do. Trust me, this can really save you a lot of time and headaches! Once you install T-Hub, you do a one-time set-up and mapping into QuickBooks. And then voila - when you have new web sales, you can simply launch T-Hub and ask it to look for new orders. You will then see a list of web orders. Simply press a button and instruct T-Hub to bring these into QuickBooks. Sales Receipts will be automatically generated for each web sale. This will take all of about 2 minutes start to finish. And it works like a charm!
This is one of those small changes that can make a big impact on your business. FIT businesses know that the right tools make everything work better. So if you are generating web sales, check out this tool to bring those orders automatically into QuickBooks. And if you have more questions, check us out at fitbiztools.com.
