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Are You Taking the Knowledge in Your Head for Granted?

November 7, 2011 in Questions, Video Blog with 10 Comments

After walking a client through the 20 Points Business Analysis I’ve created I realized that I’m taking for granted the knowledge I have in my head.

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In the past I would frequently think, “I have nothing to offer anyone else.” or “Everyone knows what I know.” or similar thoughts. What I’ve come to learn is that is completely wrong. I understand that not everyone is an accountant or wants to be. However, I’ve made the false assumption that all business owners understand the basics of accounting, and that just isn’t true. Many know only very little. Some know nothing at all and don’t even understand why they should know the basics.

Fortunately I can help with that. But that’s not the point.

The point is I have been taking for granted the knowledge that is in my head. I’ve assumed everyone knows what I know to an extent. And they don’t.

And that got me wondering. Do you take for granted the knowledge you have in your head? Do you assume that everyone knows what you know? Can do what you do?

Because I’m hear to tell you they can’t. Yes, some can. But many can not.

I would love for you to share with us, me and the other members of this community, what knowledge you have that you’re taking for granted. Maybe there’s people right here, right now that can really use what you know.

~Ivan

The Free Agent Toolbox Podcast – Have you heard it?!?!

November 3, 2011 in Podcast, Questions with 0 Comments

Yesterday was the launch day for the Free Agent Toolbox Podcast! In case you missed it, it can be found HERE!!!

So why should you care?

Because I’m a co-host of the show with my good friend Kevin Gainey!

That’s right, Kevin Gainey and myself have decided to join forces and put out the Free Agent Toolbox Podcast!

In this, the inaugural episode we spend a little time introducing ourselves, we tell you about how we met each other, and we cover a question Alana Mokma posed in a comment here.

Kevin and I are both super excited about this new venture and are looking forward to helping you and your business work better. If you’d like your question addressed in the show please shot us an email at feedback@freeagenttoolbox.com.

While you’re at it, go ahead and mark November 2nd, 2011 down on your calendar. Why? Because it marks the beginning of a great journey!

~Ivan

Know, Like, and Trust and why they matter…

October 27, 2011 in Marketing, Questions with 4 Comments

Know, Like, and trust. The first time I heard these three words together like this was from Justin Lukasavige over at CoachRadio.tv. He was talking about how if you want people to buy services from you then they need to know, like, and trust you.

I have since seen this phrase in various books and blogs discussing marketing and sales.

Why? Because it’s true. Especially if someone is going to pay for a service you provide, such as consulting or coaching.

Let’s break this down.

Your clients need to know you.

If people don’t know that you’re offering a service, how do you ever expect them to buy from you? If you just decide tonight in the comfort of your own home that you’re going to start offering a service to the world and don’t tell anyone, how do you expect them to know about it? Yet many business owners are doing the equivalent of that. They decide to offer a service, put up a website, then sit back and wait for clients to come.

To get people to know you you need to be talking about what you do. Get online and start combing through forums and other blogs and start being helpful. Provide them answers in their area of need and also let them know that you are offering a service that can address their needs as well.

People need to like you.

This is the one I personally have the most problem with. Why? Because I’ve always said I don’t have to like someone in order to work with them. We just have to be able to work together without our personal differences getting in the way.

But let’s be honest. Isn’t it much easier to work with someone who you like? Isn’t it a much more enjoyable time if you’re surround by people you get along with and care for and are interested in? I think so.

You might be asking, “Well how do I get someone to like me then?” My two cents, just be you. Be the man or woman that God created you to be. By doing this you will turn some people off. But guess what. You’ll also turn the right people on, the people you’ve dreamed of working with.

Just being me is exactly how I operate A Better Way of Business. Some people really don’t like my over the top energy levels, some people don’t like my bluntness, some people don’t like the fact that I can’t spell and have horrible grammar. And I’m OK with that. There are thousands of other people out there ready, able, and willing to help you that have the personality you’re looking for. Please, go see them.

But I believe there’s just as many people out there who like my personal pecuilarities, and will want to do business with me because of them.

So my advice for all of us trying to get prospective clients to like us is just be true to ourselves.

People need to trust you.

I’m big on trust. If I don’t trust you then I don’t want to work with you, I don’t want to talk to you, I don’t even want to be friends with you. Just keep moving, please.

To me, trust is all about doing what you say you’re going to do. That’s how you build it too. If you say you’ll respond to an email by tomorrow, then you better respond to that email or be dead or in the hospital. If you say you’ll keep information confidential, then it better not be in a tweet later today. If you say you’re going to make a video everyday for 90 days, guess what?! You better make those videos. Whether you feel like it or not.

There you have it. If you want people to buy your services (or products for that matter) then they better know, like, and trust you.

~Ivan

 

Mini-Podcast: Questions stemming from Who You Surround Yourself with Matters

October 24, 2011 in Community, Questions, Video Blog with 6 Comments

On October 11th I put out this post: Who You Surround Yourself with Matters and received a good bit of feed back from it.

In the comment section of that post my friend, Curtis Hollembeak, left the following questions:

How did you find your advisers?

How do you communicate with them? Phone, in person, email, Skype?

How often do you communicate with them?

What is your relationship with them? Do you pay them? Barter with them?

Here’s my answers (this video is a little long at 9:33, hence the name mini-podcast, but I jump on answering these questions with both feet):

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In a nutshell, find people doing what you want to do or going in the same direction and ask if they’d be interested in helping you get there, where ever your there might be.

~Ivan

What’s a P&L?

October 20, 2011 in Getting Started, Questions with 4 Comments

All of us take for granted certain areas that we have knowledge in and assume that what we know is no big deal. Everybody knows this, right?

No, everyone doesn’t know what we know!

Take for instance a conversation I had at the beginning of last week. I was having a discussion with a business owner that has been successfully self employed for a couple years. This owner asked me about the services I provide at A Better Way of Business and so I told them about how I help struggling small business owners get a better grip on their business and I do that initially by reviewing their books with them.

The owner asked for a more specific example, so I went on to talk about how I can analyze various revenue streams of a business.

He asked, “How would you do that?”

I replied, “By reviewing your revenues on your P&L.”

The owner responded, “What’s a P&L?”

…

That was basically my response for about 5 seconds. Confusion. I honestly thought everyone knew what a P&L was and was also analyzing their P&L on a regular basis.

The owner and I went on to have a further conversation about what a P&L is and how it’s useful. The owner recognized the value of the P&L, but also stated that they had never made one. The individual is profitable, because he pays his bills and himself and has a good bit left over, however I’m certain he could be doing considerably better if he 1) had a P&L and 2) analyzed it with some sort of frequency.

This conversation is what showed me that I take for granted the knowledge I have about financial’s, a company’s books. I understand that the majority of business owners were not and are not accountants. But due to thinking “everyone’s like me”, I just don’t think about what I know versus what someone else knows unless it gets thrown in my face.

So allow me to take a few minutes to explain a very basic P&L to you.

P&L = Profit and Loss Statement = a financial statement whose ultimate purpose is to show you your company’s ending profit or loss.

The way you get there is through the following formula (again, very basic example):

Revenue

- Expenses

=Profit or Loss

With this basic example, if your revenues, the income coming into your business due to products or services provide, is more than your expenses, out flow of money paid to vendors or suppliers for services or products rendered to you, then your business is earning a profit.

However, if your revenues are less than your expenses then your business is operating at a loss.

I’m a firm believer that there should be considerably more detail to a P&L than just the above two categories, but at a minimum every business owner should have the above two categories and know whether or not and how much of a profit or a loss their company is recognizing.

If you have any questions or would like to talk about this further, please feel free to email me. I can be reached by either commenting below or sending me an email (located at the bottom of the Hire Me page).

~Ivan

Who are you writing for?

October 4, 2011 in Blogging, Questions with 4 Comments

I’m starting off this post by making two assumptions. First, you have an idea that you want to build your business around. Second, that your putting out some form of written content in support of the idea.

Now that you know those two assumptions, I ask you, who are you writing for? When you write, do you have a clearly defined person in your mind you’re writing to? Can you see him (I’m going to go with “him” vs “him / her” because that is going to get old rather quickly!)? Do you know his name? What’s he do for a living? Employed? Self employed? Manager, owner, disgruntled employee? Where does he live? How much money does he make? What type of people does he hang out with? Is he religious? Does he have kids? Is he married? On and on and on…

Who are you writing for?

I’ve heard it said that you should go so far as to get a picture of your ideal client and hang it by where you do most of your writing so you can always physically SEE this person.

Do you know who you’re writing for so well you can even pick out a picture of him?

What if you have multiple, distinct people you’re aiming for? Is it OK to have multiple targets? It depends on who you ask.

I’ve recently read that you should ONLY have one person you’re “targeting”, that your message is intended for. If you have more than one person then your message will be diluted, watered down because you’re trying to reach distinctly different and separate people / groups.

In the same week, I have also read that if you have your market narrowed down enough (topic of future blog) then you can dissect that market into smaller pieces and have multiple, distinct people you can target, but separately, not collectively.

Both authors contend that the more narrowly you define who you’re writing for the more powerful your message will be.

And I tend to agree. You need to know who you’re writing for. Do you?

~Ivan

Question: how to stay focused in your current job when you are SO excited about all the possibilities that are ahead of you?

September 26, 2011 in Getting Started, Questions with 2 Comments

So a frequent visitor and personal friend (we’ve built our friendship through online interactions, which will be a great blog post in the future…), Alana, asked the following question:

Hi Ivan,
I’m not really sure the appropriate area to pose this question, but do you have any advice on how to stay focused in your current job when you are SO excited about all the possibilities that are ahead of you? I mean, you are still employed by another entity right now, as am I, and now that I am getting pumped and my eyes are opening to a world of opportunity, I find it even MORE difficult to make sure I am still producing for my current employer. Do you have any thoughts or advice on this?

This is a FABULOUS question and one I struggle with ALL THE TIME! To catch everyone up to speed, it’s September 24, 2011 as I type this. I am currently employed by a corporation as an Accounting Manager. My last day with this organization will be October 7, 2011.

I’M SO EXCITED I CAN BARELY CONTAIN MYSELF!

The prospect of being full time self employed is AWESOME and TERRIFYING all at the same time. My excitement leads me to thinking about and wanting to work on things for A Better Way of Business ALL THE TIME. At my day job, at home, when I’m spending time with Skye and Alexander, when I should be sleeping, when I’m driving (yeah… almost got into a wreck the other day when I was hashing through something for A Better Way of Business in my mind… not good). Like I said, ALL THE TIME!

But how should this be handled when you still have a day job? This is something that confronts me frequently. Honestly, I’ve not handled this the best, but I have some pointers that can REALLY help if you APPLY them to YOUR life!

1) Carry an Idea Notebook.

When starting your own business you need to make sure you don’t stifle your idea generator… which is YOU! But you also can’t take an hour away from your employer to hash out all the details of an idea that hits you while you’re “on the clock”. REMEMBER, your employer is PAYING you to do work for THEM, so you need to be focusing your efforts on DOING YOUR JOB!

What I have found to be the most help for me in retaining my ideas and allowing me to keep hammering away at my day job is simply to take an Idea Notebook with me to work. For me, it’s a 100 page spiral bound notebook (green). When ideas hit me or tasks that need to be accomplished I put them in my notebook to address later. This way, I don’t forget my ideas because I’m able to get them down in writing quickly (just take a few notes to jog your memory later) and I can then return to work KNOWING that I will be able to come back to the ideas I had during the day.

Since this is old school, you can supplement an Idea Notebook with emails to yourself (although be VERY CAREFUL using ANYTHING of your employers to do ANYTHING for YOUR business… not somewhere I’d want to go), take notes on your smart phone, or sign up for an account with Evernote (I do not currently use this service but will be looking into it shortly!).

2) Get up one hour earlier in the morning.

First, let me say I don’t want you to tell me, “I’m not a morning person.”

Guess what? I’M NOT EITHER!!! But I get up at 5:00 AM virtually EVERY MORNING because I know what my priorities are. Each morning I get up and get ready, then I have a quiet time, followed by 30 minutes or so of work on A Better Way of Business. On the weekends, getting up at 5:00 AM usually leads to THREE HOURS of uninterrupted work time on my business!!!

Getting up early and spending 30 minutes working on your business can help you get through your day at your “day job”. And it should help you speed up the process of going full time at your business (assuming you’re actually being productive).

3) Take your lunch break to work on your business.

I try to make my lunch break as productive as possible. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t miss meals, so I always eat, but you DO NOT have to go out to eat with your friends or keep working through your lunch break. Whether or not you get a 30 minute lunch break or an hour, you should be investing that time in your business.

Again, I would warn you in the strongest way I can AGAINST using your current employer’s resources to do ANYTHING for YOUR business. I just don’t think that’s a good idea.

However, in today’s world, I think Skye and I are two of the only people without smart phones. So use your phone to address email, jot down notes on ideas or tasks to accomplish, or typing up a blog post (if that’s part of your business).

If you don’t have a smart phone or even wireless access in a nearby restaurant, bring your laptop and sit in your car and hammer out some activities for your business (you can always type blog posts and emails offline and then post / send when you get home).

WOW! This is the longest post by me yet. However, I think these are some pretty useful guidelines on how to make sure you still get your day job done while you’re traveling down the road to self employment.

What do you think? Agree with my ideas? Have different or better ideas YOU would like to suggest??? Please throw them out in the comments below. They’ll benefit us all!

~Ivan