Janine Truitt

centrictv.com

I find that so many people want the title of entrepreneur, yet too many are unwilling to accept the often unsexiness of this role. Becoming an entrepreneur is more than a title. It is a decision that requires you to constantly evaluate whether you are in it for the right reasons. For a long time, it is less than glamorous. Long hours, sacrificing leisure for focus and luxuries for maintaining basic necessities are just a short list of the realities of an entrepreneur.

There are quite a few sacrifices that you can face in the name of building a business. The reality is that the steps that you need to take towards the road to entrepreneurship will break you down and redefine you. Everyone isn’t built for it. You have to have an unshakeable faith that what you are attempting is worth the risk rather than left in a dormant pile of dreams or ideas never realized.

Did you know: Only 10% of people ever pursue their dreams?

If you get far enough in this process, you will reevaluate everything from your finances to the people in your life. There is no place for toxic people or wavering relationships. Your ability to continue will depend on your own wherewithal to see this idea come to fruition.  Additionally, you will often need to draw on the strength and encouragement of others to keep going.

If you are thinking of starting a business today, here’s a simple litmus test to help you decide whether to proceed or not:

1. Are you willing to sacrifice your current lifestyle to build something you believe
2. Do you have people in your life that support your vision? If no, are you intrinsically-motivated enough to push yourself through adversity?
3. Do you believe in your solution, product, or service?
4. Does your solution, product, or service solve a problem?
5. Will all of your efforts be worth it regardless of the outcome?

If you answered “yes” to all of these, you are well on your way to understanding the true essence of becoming an entrepreneur. If you answered “no” to any of these questions, it is worth it to explore any deficits or barriers to success prior to jumping on the entrepreneur bandwagon.

Know that it is worth evaluating this upfront. Entrepreneurship may not be an option for you. In fact, it may be just as well if becoming an entrepreneur isn’t right for you. That last thing we need is people going into business for themselves, just because it “seems” like the thing to do.  If you have been mildly coaxed to explore this, it is best that you go into it with some basic questions answered so you can make an informed decision.

In the end, it is a matter of how you plan to use the 90,000 hours experts say we will spend over our lifetimes working.  The call-to-action for us all is to walk and work within our purpose. It’s clear that doing anything otherwise hasn’t served us as a society; let alone as individuals.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

For all of the inspiration, quotes and calls-to-action both on and offline, we all fall short of greatness once in a while. Whether it is procrastination or just being inundated with work and life; we get off track at times and need to refocus ourselves on some key elements of our business that require some extra TLC.

As we wind down to the end of 2015, we should be entering a somewhat reflective time as business owners. The calm of fall invites us to clean up, clear out and plan for 2016. If we’re honest with one another there is no better time than now. Soon we will be greeted by the holidays, colder temperatures, and lots of distractions. It behooves us to stay focused and get our affairs in order before we regret it.

1. Get your expenses, billing and accounting in order. We start the year off great saying that we will put our expenses in as they present so we don’t get behind. Like most New Year’s Resolutions we do this one task well until about February or March and then we are back to letting it pile up on us. Use this time to get all of your receipts together and into your accounting system. You will thank yourself at tax time.

2. Run you Profit and Loss Report year-to-date. Doing this now will help you to see where money is coming in and how it is being spent. It also gives you a heads up on where you can cut back and/or reallocate funds within your business. It’s great to feel successful, but the numbers don’t lie. You need to have a clear financial outlook on your business going into 2016, so you can make improvements and be even more successful. Doing this one thing for myself, I have already identified an area where my rates need to increase to cover my labor as well as my expenses.

    2a. Get an Accounting System A.S.A.P. If you have yet to invest in an accounting system, I highly suggest you add it to your to-do list in the near future. The right accounting system will get you out of the rut of clunky spreadsheets and get you compliant and organized.

3. Unplug and Evaluate Your Business Goals. Take the time to tune everyone and everything out so you can reflect on what went right for the year and what you need to improve. It is in the realm of you can’t know where you are going, if you don’t know where you have been. It’s hard to purposefully plan for your business when you are buried in the day-to-day. I promise you if you step back and analyze your successes and lessons (notice I didn’t say “failures”), you will be in a unique position and space to create greatness for your business in 2016.

We all need and deserve the ability to hit the reset buttons on our lives and businesses. Get ahead of everyone else and start looking at these three aspects of your business. You will thank yourself next month when you know all has been cleaned, cleared, and planned for and you can sail into the holidays with no worries other than the inevitable expansion of your waistline.

Before owning my company, I worked in a corporate environment. While I have not always been a fan of how certain things were executed by the companies I have worked for – I find myself syphoning some of those “big business” practices now that I own my own business. I like having systems and protocols in place. Protocols provide clarity and guidance around the who, what, when, how and why of what you do in business. If you don’t establish some foundational precepts in your business- you are likely to have your people haphazardly and unproductively prancing around your organization.

Early on in my business, I developed a document that allows me to outline the scope of my services to my clients. My “scope of work” allows me to make prospective clients aware of my expectations and terms of engagement. In the beginning, one of my SMB clients was presented with my “scope of work” and felt strongly that a document with equal parts project detail, pricing and legal jargon was not needed when working with small business. It was said that this document was intimidating. To which my reply was: “I’m sorry you feel that way, but this is how I conduct business.”

In my humble opinion, running a small business does not mean that your business is a free-for-all. There are certain checks and balances that must be accounted for regardless of whether you run a corporation or a local store. If you don’t explicitly outline your approach to the job or tasks at hand – who else is going to do it for you? We teach our clients how to treat us by the way we conduct ourselves in business. I would love to trust that every client I take on will pay on time or have the better sense to reschedule conflicting appointments in advance. The reality is: someone along the way is going to be “the one”. That is, “the one” to not pay you as discussed or to forget that you couldn’t promise certain outcomes without them providing timely information or access to systems.

I haven’t figured out all there is to know in business. However, there is one thing I know for sure. If you do not start your business on solid ground with systems, protocols, contracts, scopes of work etc. – you will likely be out of business pretty quickly. Should misunderstandings or conflicts arise, you need to be able to refer to an agreement, contract, or scope of work to reestablish order and refocus all parties involved on the client’s specified needs against the proposed services.

It doesn’t matter what kind of systems and protocols you choose to use. Nevertheless, you should include the following information in your business agreements:

1. Cancellation Policy
If someone fails to keep your scheduled appointment you lose time and money. Clients should be well-informed about what they need to do should they miss an appointment and any applicable fees associated to cancelling your services.

2. Pricing Terms
If you don’t establish these early on, people will take advantage. People need to know upfront what your services cost, how you prefer to be paid and when you expect to be paid for services rendered. Do you prefer Net 10 or Net 30 for payment scheduling? Assuming that people will pay on time or at all is not a strategy. Ensuring that clients are made aware of your expectations and any legal ramifications is smart.

3. Scope of Proposed Services  
It is very easy to get off track during a project or job. Your scope of work will act as your base camp. It will become your go-to document anytime a concern,question or complaint arises. I have had clients who abandoned the purpose of our scope weekly to pursue more immediate interests. When changing focus regularly gets tired- it is your scope of proposed services that will serve as a reminder of what you initially agreed upon.

Many will tell you that there is no need with such formalities or that you should do business with people on a “handshake” or “good faith”. As a business owner, you have to remain diligent in making sure you establish and enforce the systems, rules and/or protocols you put in place for your business. You will thank yourself later.

There comes a time as an entrepreneur when you have to delegate some of your work. This is especially true if you are a “solopreneur” and doing it all. If you’re like me, you wake up every day with the conviction to move your business ahead. In the midst of all of my conviction, I have come to realize what I am really good at, what I love to do and what I absolutely have no zeal for. That latter part about what “I have no zeal” for is where I am currently focusing. The goal is to look at those items with an open mind and decide what needs to be kept in-house for now and what I can outsource so I can focus more on the things I am good at and enjoy doing.

The key in all of this is to recognize the signs that it is time to let go.

Here are some signs and/or indicators that it is time to delegate and/or outsource some of the burden:

1. You continuously procrastinate when it comes to the task. If you are constantly setting a certain task aside, it may be an indication that it’s time to relinquish control and get someone to help you out.
2. You’re forgetting tasks and making mistakes. When you look at the spectrum of your diversified duties as a solopreneur; you have to be realistic and understand that if you choose to continue doing everything for yourself – something will suffer.
3. Subconsciously you realize that you aren’t the “Jack or Jane of all trades”. As much as we like to convince ourselves that we are invincible and can master any and everything- we are not the master of every domain. It’s not a crime to delegate a few items where you lack the requisite skills.
4. Your business has scaled to a point where you feel frenzied. A little frenzy never hurt anyone. A lot of frenetic energy and stress starts to impact you, your business and well-being. Additionally, the new reality of chaos can cause you to resent the very business you have worked tirelessly to build. Who wants that?
5. There are a myriad of things left on your business bucket list that you have yet to address. Do you need to get your name trademarked or maybe you have wanted to launch an e-learning course? If you’ve got more of these bucket list items than you would like- it may be time to hire a professional or two to assist you with these projects.

I will be the first person to tell you that I am the absolute worst about asking for help. The interesting thing is eventually (if all goes well) you reach a point where you have no choice but to choose between efficiency and ego. If you choose ego, it could be to the demise of your business. If you choose efficiency, you give your business a lifeline to carry on.  The benefits of seeking help and delegating certain items, so you can be the best you in life and in business far outweigh any negatives you have conjured in your head. Find your weak spots and start looking for the right people to help you get things done.

Courtesy of Unsplash.com

When your business is merely a budding idea and you begin to observe the habits of fellow business owners, it is possible to make a lot of assumptions about what others are doing. There are people that I have watched for some time who by all reasonable standards are really great at what they do and in turn have become very successful.  It was not until I became a business owner and started to bring on clients, that I realized the hardest thing for any business owner to keep up is their level of execution.

In quite a few of my business dealings, the difference between me and my competitors has been easy to identify. The difference between what I do and what others do has been rooted in the fact that I take the time to understand my client’s needs. I get the work done and I have developed a unique approach to the task at hand. None of us start out with a flawless product. We start with an idea and some prototype of a product or service and the rest is history. That said, whether you are just starting out or at a point where you are scaling your business, you need to know that the only thing you have in business is your word and execution.

Each time you miss a deadline, an e-mail or fail to come through when you have promised execution, you may lose customers. I’m not saying that you have to function as a perfect being but try to get in the habit of never missing a beat; things happen. When you can anticipate and/or apologize for being a little off of your game, you will find that your customers will understand and give you the chance to get it right.

However, if you choose the road I see many business owners traversing down, overselling or promising more than what they are capable or willing to provide, you will quickly find yourself with a poor reputation (because news travels) and potentially out-of-business.

To avoid any pitfalls related to execution in business, consider the following suggestions:

1. Do your due diligence upfront to understand your clients’ needs so you can compare them against how you may be able to help them.
2. Recognize when your plate is full and know when to walk away from business. This is difficult, but we all have our thresholds in terms of bandwidth and what we can handle. This is where it is good to have other business owners that you respect and who do similar work to you on speed dial. This allows you to share the wealth in times of surplus. Everyone wins in this scenario.
3. Under promise and over deliver. Or so the saying goes. When you are honest about what you can provide and actually provide a quality product- there will be no end to the kudos you will receive from customers. However, the sweet spot is when you knowingly under-promise and over-deliver blowing any expectation the client had for your product or service. This is where you garner life-long fans of your work that will extoll the virtues of your execution on their project for years to come.

mackeyadvisors.com

One of the most difficult things for me as an entrepreneur has been deciding what my time and services are worth. It took me about a year of discomfort, poor decisions and many underpaid hours of work to realize the error of my ways. When you hear the common entrepreneurial advice of “fail fast and fail often”, this is one of those areas where I recommend you take heed.

As you start to bring on clients, they will want to know what you do and understand what it will cost them. Some will even try to deter you from charging the prices that you do for a variety of reasons. Having the following considerations in mind is my attempt to save you (if even slightly) from making some of the mistakes I did:

1. Do your research and set a price for your services.
When I say do your research, don’t just run a Google search, crowd source information from other business owners about how they valuate their services. Will you lag the market, lead the market or be on par with the market? These are just some of the questions you will have to ask yourself and answer to have a clear understanding of the value of your business. Service alone is like dollar bills without gold to back it. The only time your services mean anything is when you back it with a pre-determined attribution of time and effort. Of course, this may vary from client to client because of their individual needs. However, if you have a solid baseline price for your services you will rarely feel like you are underpaid for your work.

2. Minimize the costs you incur for delivered services.
If the project or service you are working on requires additional costs; don’t be a martyr and incur those costs. The danger in doing this is you can exhaust your own profits trying to fund a project or campaign; when in reality the cost needs to be absorbed by the customer. Part of owning your worth is being able to communicate these additions, changes or increases in cost without feeling guilty about it.

3. Be confident in the pricing framework you have set.
You will get the occasional client that wants to nickel and dime you for your services. As a business owner, I encourage flexibility at times-but by and large you need to be confident and steadfast about your prices. Only you can determine what your time and effort is worth. If they can’t afford you, you have to be comfortable with walking away from work in an effort to defend your worth and prices. Early on, this can be a difficult thing to swallow-as you are trying to establish yourself; but it is a necessary skill.

4. Keep accurate records of the time you spend on delivering services.
The only way to monitor the relationship between what you are charging and the actual labor is to keep timely and accurate records. Reviewing time and labor for each project and looking for trends over time can provide important data that should inform any price increases or adjustments needed.

5. Don’t be afraid to fire clients.
Yes, owning your own business is about helping people and passion and all of those virtuous things. However, you are also in business to make money. If you operate your business from a place of fear where you are unable to have frank conversations with clients about your rates and/or their inability to afford you- you will be broke and unhappy. Be transparent and upfront about what it costs to do business with you. If you get the hint that the client has quirks around paying on time or paying you at all- politely thank them for their interest and part ways quickly.

Having a pricing framework and realizing that you will be learning about the worth of your business throughout your time as a business owner is paramount. If you provide a value, the right client will pay you what you ask with no questions ask. The key is to put your ducks in a row and then go out and acquire the right clients for your business.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

talareq.com

There’s nothing more thrilling than landing a new client. Getting their business is the culmination of all of your efforts over the course of a few months (and in many cases years). That being said, if you have been in business for some time then you know that all clients are not made equal. Some are fabulous and you just want to clone them. Yet others require a prayer and a bottle of wine to tolerate.

When I went into business a few years ago, I spent a lot of time envisioning heavenly days working with near-perfect clients. I never thought about what I would need to do if I encountered a client who wasn’t the right fit for my business. The latter scenario is something every business owner should anticipate and spend time thinking about.

It’s not all about the money…

It can be very easy to get caught up with lining your bank account when it is tied to deciding whether or not to retain your clients or leave them. Before you decide either way, here are some client considerations:

1. Is there synergy between your business and the client’s business?

It’s not enough to know you can execute the work. You could be working with this company for months and sometimes years. Like any healthy relationship there ought to be chemistry or something more than money that makes the collaboration worth it.

2. Are your clients clear on the scope of their needs?

Yes, it is your job to assist them with what they don’t know. However, time is a precious commodity in business and the last thing you can afford to do is to waste time trying to get clear on their expectations and goals. Goals can evolve over time, but constant revisions to the intended scope is a waste of time, efforts and energy for the business owner.

3. Do you constantly need to have the dreaded talk about payments with your client?

Assuming that you and your client have reached an agreement on terms of payment in the beginning, you should not have to constantly defend the worth of your services. If you continuously have to deal with being questioned about your rate and any justifications of work to that effect, it may be time to reevaluate the relationship

4. How about the know-it-all clients? Are you able to execute your duties as agreed upon?

Have you noticed that despite your client’s cries for help, they seem to have all the answers? If they are going to hire you, they will have to trust you to provide the services you are contracted for. If you reach a point where you are never right and they always know better than you, it may be time to move on.

5. Are you going insane?

I have heard stories from friends about losing sleep, calls at odd hours during the night, heart palpitations, vomiting etc. while working with certain clients. If you are going through any of the above it may be time to call it quits.

Working with a variety of clients has been one of my greatest joys and lessons in business. You don’t need a client to be perfect for the partnership to work. In fact, it is the imperfection that makes my work necessary as an owner of a consulting firm. Making sure that you have a potential exit strategy and expectations are clearly communicated in the beginning can save you a lot of angst.

Don’t be afraid to let go of a client. It took me sometime to understand that this is okay. The key is to always end on a respectful note. While this client partnership may not be ideal; you never know where your next referral may come from.

There is a right kind of client for us all. Sometimes, you have to have a clear vision with the clients you want to work with and actively pursue that demographic. Otherwise, you end up with money in your pocket, stress and feelings of drudgery because you are working with a company that is not in alignment with how you do business.

The choice is yours.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]