Archive for the ‘Home Office’ Category

TGIF!! Welcome to our very first edition of Financial Fridays! I’d also like to extend a warm welcome to our very first guest blogger (who’s going to be a regular) Hilary McDonald – Accountant.

Every Friday Hilary will talk money; the ins and outs, ups and downs of small business finances. If you have a financial question – she is the person to ask.. Ask away and your question will be answered here – on the Foundation Studio blog!! FREE Financial Advice?! How cool is that?!

Hilary starts off the series with what to do now that the year has come to a close…

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Year-End and the New Year

Most unincorporated small businesses are required by the government to have a year end of December 31.  So while we rang in the New Year most of our businesses had “year-end”.    Did you miss it?!   No worries.  Thankfully, year-end for businesses is more a process of closing the books for 2009 and preparing for 2010.  Whether your record keeping system is manual, computerized or like so many of us, a box of receipts in the corner of the office, there are a number of things you should be getting ready and organized.   Tax deadline has a way of sneaking up on us each year.

1. Separate 2009 and 2010 – Close your computer record keeping software for 2009 and open a new year.  Follow the guidelines included in your software package and make sure you print everything your system suggests in hard copy and make a backup of your files before you close.   Any manual ledgers that you keep should be totalled for the year and new ledgers set-up for 2010.  If you are a box person, get a new box and write 2010 on it.
2. Round-up paperwork – Start getting your tax paperwork together and keep it all in one place.  T-slips from employer’s, investments and other income sources, UCCB, RRSP receipts, Fitness receipts for the Fitness Tax Credit,  2008’s Notice of Assessments and copy of tax returns, etc.  T-slips must be issued by end of February so if you are missing any slips at that time, call the issuer to get new ones as quickly as possible.
3. Communicate with your accountant.  Ask questions if you are unsure of how to handle “year-end” related items and book an appointment now to get your taxes done.   If this is your first year end, ask your accountant for a list of what information they are going to need to prepare your taxes for your business.

Getting organized will save you time and money.  Let’s make sure 2010 is a truly prosperous one for your  business!

Hilary L. McDonald – Accountant
www.HilaryMcDonald.com

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Got a financial question? Ask Hilary a question and you may have it answered in the next Financial Friday post!!

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TGIF! We made it! What a great Small Business Week – Loads of collaboration, prizes being donated, Retweets flying around and tons of business being drummed up! I would have to say, this week has been a great success!

We received great feedback from yesterday’s Tip sheet on “Got Less Than $500 in the Bank? MARKET Your Biz!!”, Our Retweets flew around – putting tons more entries into the prize pot!
Make sure you join us on Twitter and Retweet this post for your entry to win one of our great prizes!

So far, our Small Biz Week Prizes include:

• A $265 Small business Tax Package from Hilary McDonald Accounting
• A Virtual Office Subscription from 5050Biz
• The Couponizer coupon system
• New York Times best seller “One Year to an Organized Work Life” from the author herself Regina Leeds
• Limited edition T-shirts from RIPT Apparel
• The book 101 Media and Marketing Tips for the Sole Proprietor from Nanette Miner, a.k.a. The Training Doctor
• “How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain: using your brain style for small business success with less stress” from Eve Abbott, Organizer Extraordinaire
• .. more prizes arriving daily!!

Every time you Retweet this post you’ll receive one entry to win a prize!
Prizes were originally going to be given out today – but people who will be will be Retweeting this post will miss out! So plans have changed and all prizes will be given out on Monday!

As I said at the beginning of the week, this week’s posting would be out of our usual – with one post per day, Monday we will return to our usual scheduled posts – 1 – 2 per week. We have awesome spotlights coming up AND we have a new feature – Ask the expert – where you can submit a question to one of our experts (Legal, Financial, HR etc.) and receive an answer!  But for now, without further ado – here is today’s post!

SAVING MONEY IN YOUR FIRST YEAR OF BIZ! (Download Here!)

Everyone loves saving money but it can be a make or break factor in your first year of business if your money is not taken care of properly. Read the following tips on how to save money for things like staffing, advertising and even purchasing supplies!
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Get a Great Accountant
Save money your first year in business by keeping your finances organized. One of the most important components to staying on top of your finances is to make sure you are working with good accountant. A good accountant will make sure you are planning effectively for taxes so there are no surprises at filing time. Secondly, keep good records. This means keeping all of your receipts, business and personal together, preferably in some sort of filing system. The more you have them organized the less you will spend on bookkeeping and accounting charges.
Hilary L. McDonald, Accountant – www.HilaryMcDonald.com
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Take a Vacation
One of the often overlooked aspects of a successful business is time off to recharge the batteries. During the early years of my business I knew I needed time off, yet my wife and I were trying to conserve cash. One of the things we did was to schedule a 3 or 4 day weekend. Throw a suitcase in the trunk and pick a direction. We’d travel until some caught our interest, then we’d stop and check it out. We made sure that we had a room by 4:00 p.m., then we’d scout the area surrounding the area. For a few hundred dollars we were able to have a great time and energize ourselves. The key was not to have an itinerary. The combination of not having an itinerary and exploring new places was all that it took to refresh the mind and renew the spirit
Dale Furtwengler, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C. – http://www.furtwengler.com
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Swap It
Swap for the services you need like marketing and web development or even vacations on Zakle.com
Eric Stamos, Co-Founder – Zakle.com
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Share Expenses
Look for partners to share the cost of a booth with you at Trade Shows. I have been fortunate to have shared a table with Reiki Pet Healers at Pet Expos that I really wanted to attend. It was WELL worth it!
Lisa Illman, THE KRITTER KOMMUNITY – http://kritterkommunity.com
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Create Your Own Network
Create a Meetup.com networking group in your area of business and have prospects come to you for thought leadership! Just make sure you have content of value to offer them.
Michael Shostack, Qualified B2B Leads LLC – www.qualifiedb2bleads.com
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Go to College
I had a college intern this summer helping research and collect information for an email series I am about to launch. She was free (I fed her a lot)
Denise LaBuda – www.moneywizdom.com
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Give Your Stuff Away
Make in kind donations rather than giving cash to get sponsorship exposure
Susan Barry, Hive Marketing – www.hive-marketing.com
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Catch Up On Your Reading
Read “5 Ways To Start A Business For Under $1000”
Heather Allard, The Mogul Mom – http://www.themogulmom.com
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Get Your Office Equipment for Free
Join your local Freecycle.com chapter (free) and ask for whatever you need to set up your office or store: office furniture, office supplies (binders, in baskets), office equipment, display stands, etc
Sue Freeman
Footprint Press, Inc. – www.footprintpress.com
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Question Everything
When you are considering spending money, on anything, ask yourself if you really, truly need it at this stage of your business. Maybe your website can be a lot simpler than you realize. Maybe you don’t need business cards yet. Maybe getting office space is premature. Small business budgets are usually so thin that money shouldn’t be spent until an issue keeps coming up and can no longer be ignored.
Mark C. Webster, Websterism – http://www.websterism.com
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Check Out the Credit Union
One of the “ankle bitters” that can nibble away on a start-ups budget is banks fees. You can avoid many of these fees by turning to and using a credit union. When I first started up my own company I first visited a national bank and they wanted to have average balances or there would be a fee, there were check fees and all kinds of fees. When I went to the credit union all I had to do was to deposit $25 into a savings account to open up an account and there were no fees and on top of that I earn a little tiny interest each month from my money. I have found the credit union I use to be friendly and are more start-up friendly verse the large national banks.
Sharon Evans, Founder of Trillion Dollar Funding – www.trilliondollarfunding.com
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Become a Community Member
Give up your gym membership, and take up walking/running. Gyms are expensive, plus it’s easy to zone out at the gym. Instead, walk or run through new parts of your city. While you are out, take mental notes on new businesses in your area, or business owners you would like to contact. The only way to understand how to do business in your community is to be a member of your community!
Ansley Meredith, Owner, ENERGIZED Media Relations – www.energizedmediarelations.com
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Rack Up the Points
Use a small business rewards credit card to pay for every day purchases (including advertising) Just pay it off at the end of each month and keep the points!
Carolyn Adams, Borders + Gratehouse – www.bordersgratehouse.com
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Use Coupons
Using coupons can save you tons of money in the first year of business and beyond! A great system to use to keep your coupons organized is the Couponizer, a proven system of tools designed to help you save more money, more consistently.
Ariane Griffiths, President, Foundation Studio Marketing & Promotions – www.foundationstudio.ca
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Create Bench Marks
When you sell X amount of dollars, get a part time secretary or a new phone system, or anything else you may need.
Orit Pennington, TPGTEX Label Solutions, Inc. – www.tpgtex.com
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Be Energy Efficient
Not only is this good for the planet, but often times it saves you money! Turn off all the lights when you leave or if you aren’t in a specific room. Unplug machines from the wall over the weekend. Set the A/C or heat to reflect when you are or aren’t in the office. Use fluorescent light bulbs – they require less power and last longer. Purchase paper and toilet paper made of recycled products.
Samantha Scott, Grand Poobah, Pushing the Envelope – http://www.GetPushing.com
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Get Advice
Start an advisory board consisting of an attorney, accountant, business coach, marketing director, etc. This way you get free professional advice on an ongoing basis.
Marian H. Gordon, Yippee Print & Marketing – www.yippeeprinting.com
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Lose the Commute
The biggest, and most costly, mistake I almost made was leasing an office when I started my PR and Marketing Communications firm. Now, I have 2 employees who work for me out of their homes, as do I, without the added cost of office rent. I think it’s the largest single cost, apart from labor or raw materials that a company can incur in many instances.
David Manzer, The Sage Closer – www.thesagecloser.com
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Educate Yourself
Free Learning – NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation has a free entrepreneurship curriculum for educators, but you can get it too. Go to universities for lectures. It’s just as good or better than networking events you pay for.
Kathy Korman Frey, Founder, Hot Mommas Project – http://www.HotMommasProject.org
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Negotiate
Many people know next to nothing about negotiation when they setup their first business; Learning that skill is the single greatest opportunity to save money. Slash 10% on supplier’s prices or office rent and that money goes directly to your bottom line each and every month afterwards. You don’t have to be Donald Trump to negotiate, and there is one secret few ‘insiders’ will share: Often simply making the effort to negotiate will get a discount.
Richard Kershaw, Quality Nonsense Ltd. – www.QualityNonsense.com
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Do It Yourself
Do everything you can by yourself for as long as you can, and then do it a bit longer.
This allowed us to learn the business first and focus on ancillary skills second. This trades efficiency, i.e. time which we had, for money which we did not have. There is no better way to get better at something than doing it over and over, even if you don’t want to.
Damien Casten – www.candidwines.com
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Join a Co-op
Joining a group of like-minded individuals can save you lots of money! The Mom Entrepreneur has a seasonal co-op shop where you can advertise your company for less money than if you were to advertise by yourself. By pooling your resources, you can get the same (if not bigger) bang for your buck than going it alone!
http://coopshop.themomentrepreneur.com/
Ariane Griffiths, President, Foundation Studio Marketing & Promotions – www.foundationstudio.ca
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Keep Your Eye on the Little Things
As a new business owner, an excellent way to save money is by watching the little things. I added up the little subscriptions for $10 here or $15 there to be listed with this service, etc and I spent $205 just trying to get my business’ name out there and I don’t believe there was any ‘payoff’!
Monica Barnett, President, Blueprint for Style – http://www.blueprintforstyle.com
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Be Selective
Be selective when choosing networking events to attend. A luncheon can easily cost $30-$45, but you might get away with $5-$10 to attend a happy hour. You can meet just as many people, if not more, when attending a cheaper event. (Nobody talks at a luncheon while you’re eating all that expensive food anyway!) Also, if you have attended one group’s networking functions for a few months in a row, take a couple months off to try a different group. You could make new contacts by exploring different opportunities, and you will have that “new kid on the block” cache when you eventually return to your first group!
Ansley Meredith, Owner, ENERGIZED Media Relations – www.energizedmediarelations.com
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Ask for Help
Just ask for help, many people will help you out if you plead your case.
Peter E Raymond, President + Chief Innovator, Human Condition – www.hcxdesign.com
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Carpool
Carpool to lunches, meetings, etc – you get a double benefit – save gas and network/build a relationship with the person you’re riding with
Shari L Frisinger, CornerStone Strategies LLC – www.cornerstonestrategiesllc.com
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Give an Incentive
Create an incentive for customers and prospects to post testimonials to a Facebook fan page. An example might be: “Post your favourite reason why our product is so good on our fan page (using YouTube video) and win free tickets to a sporting event provided by XYZ partner”.
Nathan McKelvey, Founder, Hidden Equity LLC – www.hiddenequity.com
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Put Down the Bottle
My first year in business I drank tap water. It won’t kill you and it’s a lot cheaper than bottled water.
Shane Fischer, Attorney at Law – www.fischer-law.com
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Volunteer Your Time
I knew that I had to build my business through networking but I didn’t have a lot of money to join associations and networking groups. My way around this was to call the group facilitators to volunteer my services of running the registration table, or any other helpful tasks that would offset my attendance fees. The majority of people took me up on my offer. I was able to find out whether or not this was a membership I wanted to pursue, AND promote my business, AND provide an extra hand when needed, all on my shoestring budget.
Lauren Milligan – www.ResuMAYDAY.com
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Go Digital
Instead of paying for my own business telephone line, I now have a GoogleVoice account which picks up my calls and creates text messages for me!
Monique Harris, Photographer – www.mportraitphotography.com
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Rent It
Don’t waste money setting up a fancy office. Either work from home or find a low-rent out-of-the-way space. If you need to impress a client, there are plenty of places to rent a conference room by the hour.
Shel Horowitz, Author, 8 books – http://www.frugalmarketing.com
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Outsource It
My biggest expense today is payroll. But when I first started I saved a ton of money by farming out work to independent contractors across the world, which I found on sites like Guru and Elance. I connected with talented people and paid by the project, and had almost zero in payroll, payroll taxes, workers comp, employee benefits, bonuses, etc.
Jay Kamhi, President, Kamhi World – www.kamhiworld.com

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I truly hope you enjoed this series of tip sheets! I had a great time putting them together and more than anything else – meeting all of these great people who went out of their way to provide a little insight in helping you get your business started (or revitalised) on the right path!!

* All of our Retweeters will be listed on Monday along with all the winners too!!!

Have a great weekend!
Ariane

Happy Thursday!
I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s Tip sheet on Turning Admin Nightmares Into A Dream! I have to say that I am sorry – I forgot to include the download link – so here it is!

Our Retweets continued – putting tons more entries into the prize pot!
Make sure you join us on Twitter and Retweet this post for your entry to win one of our great prizes!

So far, our Small Biz Week Prizes include:

• A $265 Small business Tax Package from Hilary McDonald Accounting
• A Virtual Office Subscription from 5050Biz
• The Couponizer coupon system
• New York Times best seller “One Year to an Organized Work Life” from the author herself Regina Leeds
• Limited edition T-shirts from RIPT Apparel
• The book 101 Media and Marketing Tips for the Sole Proprietor from Nanette Miner, a.k.a. The Training Doctor
• “How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain: using your brain style for small business success with less stress” from Eve Abbott, Organizer Extraordinaire
• .. more prizes arriving daily!!

Every time you Retweet this post you’ll receive one entry to win a prize!
Prizes will be given out tomorrow so keep the Retweets coming!

Please accept my apologies in advance as you will be receiving 1post a day (only for this week), but I know you will not be disappointed with the content!

Check out today’s article to learn about proven tips, must haves and Must NOT do’s for Marketing Your Biz!!

Less Than $500 in the Bank? MARKET Your Biz!!

Many Business owners have been conditioned to believe it takes tons of money to successfully market a business! The time has come to be “re-conditioned” – to KNOW that you don’t need money! We’ve rounded up some of the best Proven Tactics and Must-Haves for a Cheap Campaign as well as pointed out what NOT to do when marketing your business! Grab a pen, a pad of paper and get set to market!

Proven Marketing Tactics

Make Google Do the Work
Take “Google Alerts” out for your name and company and also on “keywords” that target your marketing niche. I have Google Alerts on “kindergarten” and “Let’s Get Ready for School”. Everyday Google sends me a list of free leads that tag all the stories and blogs that include my key word(s). Those leads are for journalist and bloggers who tell you amazing details – like a school just received 1 million dollars for their early education program!
Stacey Kannenberg, Cedar Valley Publishing, www.cedarvalleypublishing.com
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Network
Creating relationships with other small businesses will fuel you forward. Think of companies or products your clients might also be interested in and develop relationships with those business owners. Offer coupons to their customers or a referral bonus to the business.
Laurie Davis, Founder, eFlirt – www.eFlirtExpert.com
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Give ‘Em Something for Free
Offering a free resource related to your business, such as an e-book that guides your prospective customers through a particularly difficult part of the purchasing process, can be a way to attract attention within your industry. Such an approach does require you to spend a little time promoting that resource (as well as creating it), but the monetary cost is negligible – most business owners know more than enough about their businesses to effectively educate clients.
Thursday R. Bram – www.thursdaybram.com
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Enter a Contest
I entered every entrepreneur contest I was old enough for and some that I wasn’t. At age 11, I wanted to enter the Young Entrepreneurs of America contest but the minimum age was 16. I entered anyway and in my entry essay explained why I thought they should consider me. I was told the judges were so impressed with my creativity that they created a new category for kids under 16 and I was the first recipient to win.
Jason O’Neill, Creator, Pencil Bugs Plus, Forbes Top 10 – www.pencilbugs.com
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Establish Yourself as an Expert
Answer questions on appropriate online forums and groups (such as LinkedIn, MarketingProfs, etc). Being helpful establishes you as an expert and keeps you top of mind when members of the forum have a problem you can solve
Jodi Kaplan, Principal, KaplanCopy – http://www.kaplancopy.com
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Pick Up the Phone
I know its old fashion but a new start up cannot be afraid of using the phone. Creating a script, a sales letter and looking up suspects online doesn’t cost anything. Instead of waiting for social media (blogging, tweeting, answering questions online) to get results take a proactive approach and this will result in uncovering qualified contacts.
With the $500 spend it on creating a website that reinforces the message that is being said during the phone call.
Ceri Ruenheck, It’s Your Call – www.itsyourcall.com
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Beg, Borrow & Sell
Borrowing someone else’s audience is all about finding a win-win. For example, I wanted to produce seminars but with no list, no facility and no built-in audience, it would be expensive and difficult to get started. Instead, I joint ventured with local organizations to put on seminars for their audiences. Leisure Learning Unlimited hosts a variety of classes on everything from computers to dance to goat farming (Really!). Getting my courses into their catalogues meant that they handled the marketing, registrations and other administrative tasks, while I could just show up to speak.
Cathy Stucker, The Idea Lady – http://IdeaLady.com
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Show It Off
One of the best ways to market start-up small business on the cheap is by attending live networking events—and paying for a display table. The key is to commit to attending at least 2 per month, and making sure you have some helpful, fun or interesting freebies on your table for people to take away. This works whether you’re selling products or services. When I launched my last business as a small business marketing copywriter I did it exactly this way. Even though I was selling a service, I had writing samples, one-page tips sheets people take-aways, a promo letter explaining my services and business cards. Together these made a nice little display. And within 6 months I was very busy with new clients.
Stacy Karacostas, Practical Marketing Expert, Success Stream – www.success-stream.com
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Put It On The Map
Set up a profile in the Local Business Listings on Google Maps, Yahoo Local and Bing Local. It’s free, it doesn’t take too long and will give them a presence in the Local search results for the area in which they do business. It will also serve as a mini website where they can give details about their business, themselves and their products and services, offer coupons, post photos and videos and get reviews.
Mary Bowling – http://www.seoverflow.com
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Pay For It
Offer finder’s fees/commissions to people that refer you business.
John Schulte, President and Chairman, National Mail Order Association (NMOA) – http://www.nmoa.org
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Have an Open House
If you are lucky enough to have a retail location use it to your marketing advantage. Invite speakers, have distributors give product demonstrations. Then serve tea or wine & cheese and invite your customers & prospects. Tell them to bring a friend. You’d be surprised how well this can work for you.
Randye Spina, Chief Solutions Officer, Affordable Marketing Solutions LLC – www.myaffordablemarketing.com
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Get Media Coverage
Belong to all the free sites for media leads: www.helpareporter.com; www.pitchrate.com; and http://www.reporterssource.com to name a few. I have been interviewed on hundreds of radio shows, over 30 parenting magazines, over 30 television segments and 15 newspapers! Can you say free publicity and free credibility?
Stacey Kannenberg, Cedar Valley Publishing – www.cedarvalleypublishing.com
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Reach Out

• Change your voicemail monthly – have you listened to your voicemail lately? If not, try it.
• Give one referral away every day – who will you recommend today? I believe the more you give out the more it comes back to you 10 fold! It works, try it out.
• Write one thank you note every week – there are so many reasons to thank people but few people take the time to do this, it will make you more memorable.
• Invite someone to a networking event with you – help them expand their network while you get to increase yours too.
• Conduct a tele-coffee – (this is where you make a coffee, and I make a coffee and we talk on the telephone!) I do tele-cocktails on Fridays! These take no more than 15 minutes and they are very productive!
• Ask your network for help – reach out, you will be so glad you did. People want to help you but maybe they don’t know what you need? Choose to reach out to one person today.
• Join a non-profit Board – giving back in your community will increase your brand and your network and feels great too!
• Donate your time – give to a cause you are passionate about i.e. read at your local school, volunteer at a soup kitchen, visit aged care facilities where you live, and offer to shop for someone – there are so many people who could use your time and talents.

Neen James CSP – http://www.neenjames.com

Must-Haves for a Successful “Cheap” Campaign

Get A Signature
One of the biggest returns is to put testimonials in your signature lines on email.
Colleen Francis – www.engageselling.com
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Have a Website
The most important marketing tool a startup needs is a website and it doesn’t have to cost you. You can have a website that works for you and one that is cheap; about $8/month for hosting. My website is not the most fancy but it does what it’s supposed to do.
Tina Hill, Owner, Kidzsack – www.kidzsack.com
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Use Postcards
They are cheap (both to print and to mail) and they are colorful and eye catching.
You cannot NOT read a postcard; If an envelope comes in the mail you look at the return address and decide to pitch it in the garbage right then or look at it (usually later) with a postcard, by the time you look at it – you’ve pretty much read it
They allow you to send small bits of information to your target base on a regular basis –staying in front of your clientele rather than doing a big push and hoping it hits.
Nanette Miner, Ed.D., The Training Doctor, LLC – www.trainingdr.com
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Send a Greeting Card
Use greeting cards to market your service…they are affordable, effective and boast a 99% open rate. They must however, identify and relate to the problem your target is experiencing and include a strong call to action.
Donna Pullan, MAKE CONTACT MARKETING – http://www.MakeContactMarketing.com
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Have a Writer in Your Corner
If you’re starting a new company, I also strongly urge you to hire a talented writer. Tweeting about something timely, interesting and newsworthy will certainly help you acquire Twitter followers and drive them to your website, but you’ve got to have something attention-grabbing on your site to keep them there. Write a monthly newsletter or a blog – again, both free. And don’t boast. Write about things that are affecting your market. Think outside of the box.
Jessica Knott, Marketing Coordinator, Mary Kraft Staffing and HR Solutions – www.marykraft.com
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Use Creativity
During a conference a few years back, I went to the Dollar Store and put together “survival kits” for all attendees, which included an assortment of goodies – pens, doodle pads, post-it notes, breath mints, a highlighter, paper clips, and a piece of chocolate. I put them in quart size Ziplock bags that had my photo and contact info on them.
After the conference, I sent a pair of Dollar Store flip-flops saying, “It was great to get my foot in the door. I can’t wait to meet you.”
In the end, 4 business owners each gave me $3500 sponsorship packages, which totalled over $14,000.
Nancy Michaels – www.GrowYourBusinessNetwork.com
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Give Incentives
We are currently around 1000 fans on both Facebook and Twitter. We feel that creating a community is key to maintain a customer base and have it grow quickly. We currently are running a tee give away promotion on twitter where we give away a free tee each week to a follower who tweets a phrase mentioning our name. In the past 10 days that has reached over 4800 people. Facebook is great because our new design shows up in the news feeds of our fans each day. If they comment or “like” the design this is then put on their friends news feeds.
Matt Ingleby, RIPT Apparel – www.riptapparel.com
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Make it Visual
Create a home grown video and put it on You Tube and your website.
If you don’t have a camera you can get an inexpensive flip camera for under $165. Provide information that’s of real value to your prospective clients or customers.
Make it short, sweet and pertinent.
Lisa Tener, Author, Book Coach – www.LisaTener.com
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A Social Profile
Create social networking profiles on all the sites that match your target market as well as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I am on over 40+ sites. Even the sites that I am not active in get traffic. I have one that has over 24,000 page views, another over 5,000, 6,000, 150 — now times that by 40 and that’s free exposure for YOU! The more people that know your name, the bigger you will be! The best compliment I get is – I see you “everywhere”!
Stacey Kannenberg, Cedar Valley Publishing – www.cedarvalleypublishing.com

Do NOT Attempt These Marketing Snafus

Inconsistent Branding
Make sure that your company brand is consistent across all of your marketing mediums. If you have a social profile, ensure that the look is in line with your website and print marketing collateral. If it is not consistent, you run the risk of confusing potential clients and making yourself look unfocused.
Ariane Griffiths, President, Foundation Studio Marketing & Promotions – http://www.foundationstudio.ca
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Don’t Buy It
The most expensive and least effective thing you can do as a new business is to pay for advertising. It will suck up your budget instantly and rarely has the desired result. Come up with your own “advertising”…it could be as easy as printing out handouts and distributing them at a local Farmer’s market.
Dick Barnes, The Freeland Group – www.freelandgroup.com
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No Pushing or Bribery
Do not try to push journalists and bloggers who are not interested in writing on your topic and do not offer payment for PR people to do things for you.
Danny Wong, Director of Marketing, Blank Label – www.blank-label.com
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Don’t Forget to Follow-Up
Most sales are lost because no one bothered to follow up and no one asked for the sale. Don’t leave money on the table.
Deb Kolaras, Small Business Coach – www.bizcoachdeb.com

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Here is the link to today’s tip list! Go forth and MARKET! and don’t forget -Prizes will be given out tomorrow so keep the Retweets coming!

Have a great day!!
Ariane

Happy Hump Day!
Hopefully you’ve had a chance to check out yesterday’s Tip sheet on Managing Your Time Effectively!
We had lots of Retweets for yesterday’s post; entering themselves to win one of the great prizes we’ve got lined up, including a new one!!
Make sure you join us on Twitter and Retweet this post for your entry into the prize pot!

So far, our Small Biz Week Prizes include:

• A $265 Small business Tax Package from Hilary McDonald Accounting
• A Virtual Office Subscription from 5050Biz
• The Couponizer coupon system
• New York Times best seller “One Year to an Organized Work Life” from the author herself Regina Leeds
• Limited edition T-shirts from RIPT Apparel
• The book 101 Media and Marketing Tips for the Sole Proprietor from Nanette Miner, a.k.a. The Training Doctor
• “How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain: using your brain style for small business success with less stress” from Eve Abbott, Organizer Extraordinaire
• .. more prizes arriving daily!!

Every time you Retweet this post you’ll receive one entry to win a prize!
Prizes will be given out at the very end of the week – Keep the Retweets and Comments coming!

Please accept my apologies in advance as you will be receiving 1post a day (only for this week), but I know you will not be disappointed with the content!

Today’s article is all about Turning Your Admin Nightmares into a Dream.

Absolutely every business owner agrees on one thing – Administration is a “nightmare”, a “burden of time” and usually results in “just not doing it”. A few experts weigh in on how to change that nightmare into a fully functioning dream. Read on..

Getting a Handle on Paperwork

Take 5
Always take first five minutes (or last five minutes) of the day to file.
Jeffrey Cohen, ImageWorks, LLC – www.ImageWorksLLC.com
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Just STOP!
It’s key to STOP doing – versus doing everything on your lists. Daily & Weekly Entrepreneurs and their teams should find stuff to not do at all. Get rid of or don’t bother doing stuff that seemed like a great idea at the time but now isn’t. Start focus on working on the critical few things versus the important many. I could give you lots of ideas and specifics around this if you’d like.
Cameron Herold, Founder, BackPocket COO – www.BackPocketCOO.com
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Everything Happens in 3’s
On my desk, I have 3 file folders: one for things to do this week; one for things that need to be filed; and one for things that I eventually need to look into. Inside my filing cabinet, I have 26 files – one for each letter of the alphabet – and everything is filed by the company name that issued the document.
I clear out the “needs to be filed” folder at the end of each day. It’s only purpose is to allow me to work each client more effectively. Once I’ve gone through my emails at the end of the day, I also look at the “to do this week” folder to ensure I haven’t missed anything, and to create a must do list for the following day.
Dawn Martinello, Monday Morning VA – www.mondaymorningva.com
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Become Regular
DO file on a regular basis. Filing regularly prevents eventually having to face a mountain of filing.
DO make a habit of filing on a particular day or at a particular time. That will remove the decision making process from the mix and put filing on auto-pilot.
Alice Price CPO-CD®, Organize Long Island Inc – www.organizelongisland.com
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Digitize It
When it comes to filing – build a computer based structure of folders that matches the paper filing system, then, you only have one logic to follow.
Susan Lannis, Time Liberation Agent, ORGANIZATION Plus! Inc. – www.LiberateTime.com
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Go Paperless
We worked very hard to reduce the amount of paper in our office;
All faxes are coming into a computer – and are left there. They are not printed out!
Invoices and quotes are sent via email directly from QuickBooks – none are printed
Bills are filed based on vendor
We registered with every credit card we have – as opting out of any offers, etc – this has reduced our junk mail by about 90% ( aside benefit is that we spend less time processing mail.)
Orit Pennington, TPGTEX Label Solutions, Inc. – www.tpgtex.com
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Go Mobile
Make time and expense tracking brain-dead simple by using mobile/web based solutions like Xpenser
Parand Tony Darugar, Xpenser – http://xpenser.com
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Outsource It
Small business owners that outsource their Human Resources have more time to focus solely on the day-to-day tasks of running a business, without having to spend time and energy on employee issues. Overall an HR outsourcing firm shoulders the tasks that business owners don’t have time to deal with — including HR, providing competitive health coverage, claims management, payroll taxes, direct deposits, etc. It is a way to simplify a small business owner’s life by taking away the administrative burdens.
Rob Wilson, Employco – www.employco.com
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A VA is Always the Way
Hire a part time administrative assistant who comes to my home based business. It’s helpful to have another computer (or a laptop.) – She works 3 to 10 hours a week. She does typing, filing, manages my customer contacts, addresses Christmas cards, takes meeting minutes and cleans and organizes my supply and filing cabinets.
Valerie McCaw, President – VSM Engineering, LLC
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Don’t Bungle – Tungle!
One area where a lot of small businesses are wasting time is scheduling. The endless back and forth of emailing & phone calls to find a time to meet is a huge time suck. Add in the fact that small businesses do a lot of business with people outside their organization and it gets even more complicated.
Enter Tungle.com. It works in sync with existing e-calendars making it quick and easy to make meetings happen. Syncing your calendar with Tungle lets you share calendars across systems and companies, send meeting invitations that propose multiple times, publish your free/busy schedule and more.
Erin Lariviere, Marketing Analyst, Tungle – http://www.tungle.com

Email & Voicemail Nightmares

Broadcast Your Availability
First, choose when you will—and won’t– be available electronically. For example, if your business sees fewer customers on Tuesday afternoons, create that slot as your no-click zone, and use that time for focused thinking and action to strategize around your biggest business challenge.
Then, once you’ve decided, teach people by example. Set clear expectations with your team and others so they know not to expect email responses from you during that time. Clarify the exceptions for them (i.e., I’ll only check email if we’re on deadline and we’ve agreed in advance on a time I’ll be online.”) And stick to it—no matter what. It’s a rare business situation that has to be handled immediately—in fact, most situations benefit from taking a little time to think about the right response.
Darcy Eikenberg, President & Chief Creative Officer, Coach Darcy LLC – www.coachdarcy.com
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Make Some Rounds
Handling Email and Voicemail: In my personal business, I work in rounds. That means that when I’m working on Customer A and I receive a personal email – it’s ignored; if I receive a phone call from Customer C – it’s ignored. At the beginning and end of each day, I check ALL voicemail and email that may have been missed to ensure that I catch any potential problems and handle any rush assignments that have come up.
Dawn Martinello, Monday Morning VA – www.mondaymorningva.com

Procedures and Policies

Policy Can Be Lame, but Systems Can Save Your Life.
There is nothing worse than a useless procedure doc or process. At the same time, we found creating and using some simple systems such as work folders, file management, resource tracking, etc, saved us a ton of time. The key for us were to find the areas that were repetitive, and create a system that worked well for us. We found that in some cases clipboards and pencils worked better for us than spreadsheets. Find what works for you.
Tyler Hammond – The Engine Is Red – http://theengineisred.com
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Make it Manual
We do have an operations manual. It makes it much easier to train staff.
If an employee knows the rules, they are less likely to make up their own rules (which could result in last sales).
Sharon McRill, The Betty Brigade – www.bettybrigade.com
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Map it Out
Every biz needs to map out their systems – how they get clients, how they engage them, how they retain them, office/team mgt and financial mgt. I don’t call mine policies and procedures, but the steps are laid out clearly and can be replicated over and over.
Ann Ronan, Ph.D., Authentic Life Institute – www.authenticlifeinstitute.com
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Be on Alert
Set up alerts in Outlook if you need to, in order to keep yourself on schedule. All reoccurring tasks should be scheduled and broken up evenly throughout the week. For example, in regards to social networking, schedule yourself to add x number of new twitter followers every Monday, and every Friday delete the ones that haven’t followed you back.
Hilary Brooks, AVirtualEdge – http://www.AVirtualEdge.com

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So now that you’re set on the right path to admin euphoria, make sure you Retweet this post and come back again tomorrow because we’re discussing super cool ways to market yourself and your biz for LESS than $500!!! You won’t want to miss that!

Cheers!

A

HAPPY SMALL BUSINESS WEEK!!!

As I mentioned last week, we are going to be having a week-long celebration – complete with PRIZES!!

All throughout the week, I will be posting tip lists about how to start a business (or grow yours) on the right path. I’ll touch on everything from saving money, marketing for less than $500, handling admin tasks and even time management. Please accept my apologies in advance as you will be receiving 1post a day (only for this week), but I know you will not be disappointed with the content!

So far, our Small Biz Week Prizes include:

• A $265 Small business Tax Package from Hilary McDonald Accounting
• A Virtual Office Subscription from 5050Biz
• The Couponizer coupon system
• New York Times best seller “One Year to an Organized Work Life” from the author herself Regina Leeds
• Limited edition T-shirts from RIPT Apparel
• The book 101 Media and Marketing Tips for the Sole Proprietor from Nanette Miner, a.k.a. The Training Doctor
• .. more prizes arriving daily!!

Every time you Retweet the post you’ll receive one entry to win a prize!

Prizes will be given out at the very end of the week – Keep the Retweets and Comments coming!
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Our first article is about setting up a proper home office.

I asked business owners across North America what they thought were Mandatory, Desired and Unwanted items for an optimal home office setup. I got some FAB tips – and even pretty cool pics of home offices. Read on and then let your creativity flow into your office space!!

Mandatory Items for a Functional Home Office

A Multi-Function Centre
Invest in a four-in-one office machine: printer, fax, scanner, and copier.
For the desk space footprint of one machine you get four functions.
It is also easier to scan papers to be filed in the computer than it is to just file them in the drawer.
This upgrade really helps professionals who want to go more paperless in their office.
Eve Abbott, Organizer Extraordinaire
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A Label Maker
Everybody needs a label maker. Labelling files, containers, and drawers helps to define where your stuff and your paper live, and makes their homes more official. When things are clearly labelled, it’s easier to put things away and to stay organized. Label makers aren’t too expensive – some of my favourite Brother models can be found on sale at many office supply stores for under $30. Keep your label maker and extra label cassettes handy, and as soon as you create new file folders or put stuff in a container, create a label immediately.
Joshua Zerkel, Professional Organizer – http://www.customlivingsolutions.com
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A Table Lamp
Put a lamp on your desk; not a desk lamp with an occlusive shade, but a table lamp with a translucent shade. This gives you a larger and more softly diffused circle of light on your work surface. Why is this important? Less eye strain and fewer headaches. Use “warm white” or “soft white” compact fluorescent light bulbs in the lamp. “Cool white” and “bright white” give any room a cold institutional look.
Linda Varone – Nurturing Spaces Consulting
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Current Software
Get the current version of the software used by your customers, and then buy a machine that’s adequate to support it. Don’t “cheap out” on video cards or monitors: you’ll be staring at the screen for four to eight hours a day, so you’ll be smart to get the largest, sharpest display you can afford. It’s a lot easier to compromise on machine speed or memory, but top-notch video quality is essential.
Bill Horne
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Paper & Pens
Lots of pens and paper, for capturing ideas. I personally have a few open notepads open around me so I can capture notes and ideas wherever I am in the house/office.

Good Coffee-Maker
Although coffee is usually not good in the office, at your home office you have the opportunity to have the best coffee in town.
Harry Mylonadis, Mimimoko Design

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Plenty of Supplies for You AND Your Family!
The family’s scissors, tape, markers, pens and pencils should be in an area that is easily accessible to them so they won’t have to interrupt you in order to use your supplies. Make sure they understand that your office is not the family’s office supply store.
Holly Uverity, Certified Professional Organizer®, Office Organizers – The Entrepreneur’s Organizer
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Ergo Chair & Keyboard Tray
The most important tools in a home office are the correct chair and a keyboard tray. A chair that fits your body correctly can alleviate or prevent all types of aches and pains. An adjustable keyboard tray, not a single height keyboard drawer, allows you to get the keyboard and mouse to the correct height reducing strain on the neck and shoulders as well as alleviate contact pressures and adjust the wrist angle to minimize risk for carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis.
Chris Sorrells OTR, CHT, CEAS, President, ErgonomicsSimplified.com
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Room Separator
If you absolutely cannot get your own room, get a room partition or oriental screen to separate the work portion of the room. (This is what I do). You do not want to be able to see the unmade bed, or that pile of laundry, or any other mess from your normal life or you will find yourself doing chores instead of working.
Kris Hull – KR15.com
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Desirable Items for a Functional Home Office

Uninterrupted Power Supply
This doesn’t always come cheap but it’s a good investment. A UPS will save you and pay you back the investment when you are working on that very important project, the power goes out and you hadn’t saved a thing.
Harry Mylonadis, Mimimoko Design
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Labelled Notebooks & Bookcase
For some, hundreds of files can be daunting. It is helpful to have a bookcase with frequently used information contained in easily accessible labelled notebooks
Anne Jones
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Two Monitors
Set up a two monitor system. One to put your email, social network, news sites on. And the other you can do your work
Gary Unger, Creative-at-large – www.garyunger.com
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Custom Designed Workspace
Get a custom designed workspace to make the most of your available space. One that anchors to the wall with shelves is a particularly effective without using much of your floor plan. Also a standing height work surface make a great variation for tasks such as cutting or mounting, or just a change in posture.
Ben Thompson, Creative Director – Studiofluid, Inc.
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Microphone & Headset
One way to make money is to create your own products. A great product is to do a teleclass and charge for it. “Make money in your p.j.s” is a common phrase (although I don’t recommend doing business in p.j.s for the simple reason that when you’re not dressed you don’t feel as professional and may not come across as one on the telephone.)
Eileen Roth, Your Organizing Tour Guide – Speaker and Author of Organizing For Dummies(R)
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Unwanted Items for a Functional Home Office

A Television
…this is a time waster and if you are like me you will want to watch CNN or HGTV for a few minutes and 30minutes later you are still watching…
Leslie Jacobs – www.lesmess.com
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Other Necessary Items for a Functional Home Office

A Post Office Box
For safety purposes, consider getting a P.O. Box instead of using your home address for your business mail. You never know what crazies may be out there.

Professional Clothing
Get up every morning and dress professionally enough that if a surprise opportunity presented itself, you wouldn’t be caught with bed-head in your bathrobe.
Susan Wilson Solovic – SBTV.com
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Interior Décor Foresight
Sit comfortably at the desk and sweep your arm left to right. The desktop under the space between your elbows to your wrist should be empty or have just your keyboard/mouse – this is the active workspace. Place things you grab daily – stapler, tape, pens etc. in the space covered by your wrist to your fingertips. Place things you grab less frequently just past the finger tips and place decorative items to the back corners.
These are my Frequency of Use Rules:
Use it every day – place in or on the desk. Use it every week – put it in the desk or within reach of the desk. Use it at least once a month – it should be within reach of the desk or elsewhere in the room. Use it less than once a month -it can be in the room or even somewhere else in the house.
Placement has a big impact on clutter and productivity. Use this information on where to place things and you’ll have a big head start of setting up an effective and efficient home office.
Susan Lannis, Time Liberation Agent, ORGANIZATION Plus! Inc.
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I hope you’re inpsired to start setting up your home office, or to rearrange – get in gear and be productive and profitable!
Feel free to download the tip list here (PDF format!)

Don’t forget to Retweet this post to be entered in to win one of our amazing prizes – every retweet is an entry!!
Have a great Monday!!
A