What can you achieve in 90 days?
June 30, 2011
By Alycia Edgar, Coastal Accounting Services
How’s business? Travelling along okay? Or are you busily focused on end of financial year, just trying to make it so you can start fresh again on July 1?
Forget the End of Financial year guff going on; forget tax planning; and get back to what’s real – your business. Because if you don’t have a business, you certainly don’t need tax planning. I want you to answer the following questions:
- What is your core product or service?
- Who is your ideal customer/client? Are you attracting them?
- Are you serving their needs with your products or services?
- Are you the absolute best in your market? If not, why not?
- Are you profitable?
After answering those questions let me ask you this. Are you focusing on your core product or service/ideal client, serving their needs, being the best in your market and your profitability? Or are you being distracted by the latest and greatest new fad? Maybe you’ve become comfortable within your business, settled for the status quo and checked out?
Be really honest here. It’s super easy to laugh off questions such as this with, of course, I am, but are your daily focus and actions in business in alignment with the above? If not, you’re not giving 100% to your business and, like a child, it deserves kindness, encouragement and your attention.
What can you do?
Develop a three-year vision and quarterly bold goals.
With your vision, get really clear on where you want to be at the end of each of the three years. Write down all of the points, for example: revenue of $500,000 by end of year one, five new stores at the end of year two. List every goal for each year.
For the current year break down your vision into bold goals for each quarter. Bold goals are simply goals that stretch you beyond where you are now; they are uncomfortable but do-able.
Don’t stop with the list, what needs to happen for each goal to be reached? A bold gold is really a project and has tasks that need to be completed to reach that goal. Write down each task.
Now you’ve determined exactly which tasks you need to be working on each quarter to achieve those bold goals, get to it! Crossing those tasks off your list should be your primary focus each and every day. This laser focus will take your business to new heights; I dare you to try it.
What will you achieve by September 30th?
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY ALYCIA EDGAR
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Alycia Edgar – Coastal Accounting ServicesAs an accountant and former surf shop owner Alycia understands the issues that small business face everyday. She believes you can work on your business effectively simply by understanding your business numbers. She creates innovative systems and processes that enable business owners to be highly focused and productive in their business, including Bookzkeeper – The Accounting Survival Kit for Small Business. To get tips on how your numbers relate to working on your business, simply visit here
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What’s Next
June 2, 2011
By Alycia Edgar, Coastal Accounting Services
A colleague recently commented that as great as I am at celebrating hitting milestones – or reaching goals – I always ask, “What’s next?”
You see, I’m not willing to settle for the status quo – and nor should anyone. I don’t like to be in the comfortable zone for too long. For me, that means I’m not improving.
Let’s face it, when you’ve had a hard journey and you get to your destination, it’s fabulous, a load has lifted and you can relax. But stay there for too long and that relaxation grows to complacency. Hogwash you say; you’re just taking a breather. You’re deluding yourself. That breather can last for one month, one year, maybe two, before you wake up and wonder where did those two years go or why has my business stagnated?
You can’t rest. I’m not saying you can’t take time off – we all need to recuperate. This is different; this is about drive and striving for continuous improvement. Unless you keep the momentum in your drive, you will stagnate and pay the price, possibly two years later!
So what’s next for you? What goal will you pursue now? Be bold, makes goals that really stretch you. Be courageous, buck the trend, get out there and do it!
Is it hard? Absolutely! But what fun would life be if it wasn’t hard? Once the hard work has been done, you can then see the rewards of all that effort come to fruition.
Say NO to being complacent. Push yourself to achieve what you have been put on this earth to do. Have NO REGRETS. Keep striving. You are supported. But only you can strive and make change; no one else can do that for you.
And remember this – when you achieve something in life or business, that’s fantastic, celebrate, but please don’t stop there. There is so much more we are all capable of. So much that you don’t even realise, but it’s there in all of us. Have faith in your ability to achieve great things. You can and you will; you just need to keep striving. If you are struggling to keep that momentum and believe in your abilities, get help; find that someone for you who always asks, “What’s next?”
Tell me what’s your latest achievement. What’s next?
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY ALYCIA EDGAR
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Alycia Edgar - Coastal Accounting ServicesAs an accountant and former surf shop owner Alycia understands the issues that small business face everyday. She believes you can work on your business effectively simply by understanding your business numbers. She creates innovative systems and processes that enable business owners to be highly focused and productive in their business, including Bookzkeeper – The Accounting Survival Kit for Small Business. To get tips on how your numbers relate to working on your business, simply visit here
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Can you care too much about clients?
May 5, 2011
By Alycia Edgar, Coastal Accounting Services
What advice would you give a friend who is so wrapped in someone they haven’t noticed the other person doesn’t feel the same? You’d tell them to take a step back, put themselves first and let the other one come to their senses, right?
Well the same goes for business. I know I care more than the average service provider about my clients – and most of my clients work with me for that reason. But there’s the odd occasion where I care too much for them, if you know what I mean?
You might be thinking this scenario sounds a little bit odd, but depending on the profession you’re in or the service you provide, there are times when you discover something that should be of interest to your client, but they just don’t want to hear it. For me that has been quite a hard lesson to learn. Sometimes you need to be able to step back, realising that perhaps, as a service provider, even though you’re supplying the best information to the client, it’s just that the client is not in the right place to hear it.
Whether they’ve got their head in the sand when it comes to their business or they’re focused on other more exciting things; or their care factor being low due to their business diminishing, or doing it too long and they’ve lost their drive, there are various factors that come into it. These factors are not your doing, but can affect the relationship you have with that client.
When you are a caring service provider it can be really hard when you’re trying to tell your clients what you believe they need to hear, but they don’t want to listen. It can be heartbreaking because you are passionate about what you do, and really care that your clients thrive. But sometimes you just need to walk away. Down the track, perhaps, there will be a time where they are willing to hear it, but sometimes that chance may never arrive and you just have to accept that and move on.
If this does happen, accept that you can’t help your client at that point in time, as hard as it may be for you. You’ve just got to let it go – and maybe even let them go as a client – because you know you can’t help them.
When you really care about your clients and they don’t care, how do you deal with that? What do you do?
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY ALYCIA EDGAR
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Alycia Edgar - Coastal Accounting ServicesAs an accountant and former surf shop owner Alycia understands the issues that small business face everyday. She believes you can work on your business effectively simply by understanding your business numbers. She creates innovative systems and processes that enable business owners to be highly focused and productive in their business, including Bookzkeeper – The Accounting Survival Kit for Small Business. To get tips on how your numbers relate to working on your business, simply visit here
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Getting Naked
April 7, 2011
By Alycia Edgar, Coastal Accounting Services
Business professionals who provide a service, like accountants, fall into two camps – those who care about you as a client and those who care about the money.
That’s not to say you can’t care about both – of course a good business person must care about money – but it shouldn’t be the driving factor for why they work with you. I think you see a great distinction between those who care about their clients and those who care about their money.
Those people who care about providing you with a service care about your business, how it’s working for you and how they’re able to help you. These are the people you hang onto for dear life, because they’re such a rarity. Yes, you pay them, and yes, you’re probably paying them good money, and so you should, but there’s a distinct difference between those who are in it for the money, and those who really care about how what they’re doing is impacting your business.
So how can we, as service professionals, ensure that we are coming across as those who do care? Being authentic and vulnerable with your clients is how you show this. It’s all about getting naked. I read a great book recently called Getting Naked, by Patrick Lencioni, and he showed there was no longer that stiff client relationship we were programmed to keep up. It’s not, “Oh that’s a client, stand back, that’s a client,” anymore. Yes, we’re still professional, but clients can become really great friends. And that is how business works now; it’s a business reality. The advantage small business owners have is we are able to develop a real relationship with our clients.
It’s so fantastic we can do that, and it makes business so much more fun. The more we show we’re human, that we make mistakes, we’ve missed something, or we’ve forgotten something, the deeper that relationship gets. Obviously the best idea is that this doesn’t happen, but in reality, it does. Some might say it’s unprofessional, but the more I have opened up with my clients, the more they respect that not only am I providing them with a service, but I am a business owner with my own struggles, my family, my life. Sometimes, unfortunately, these things will impact the service I’m providing.
So, the more honest you are in your business and with clients and the more you get naked, the more real you can be. We all tend to wear a mask by maintaining professionalism at any cost, but by doing this we really miss out on so much.
Of course there’s room for professionalism, I’m not saying there’s not. There’s still a need for boundaries, but sometimes when you think, “I’d really like to say this” or, “I’d really like to make this gesture,” but you don’t because it’s not professional, try going with the first thought. You might be able to take the relationship you have with your client to the next level, just because you overrode that ‘sticking to professionalism’ thought.
I’m not saying we’re going to stalk each other on Facebook or ring at various times throughout the day; I’m talking about just taking that relationship further. The more relationships you have in your business and life that are true and authentic, the more we develop as a community and the more we can help each other.
That’s what caring about your clients is all about. If you open up about something it might lead your client to say, “I’m having that same problem”. But unless you have been vulnerable, they would not have felt they could share that with you.
So do you care about your clients or are you just in it for the money? I know where I fit and how I help my clients. Are you going to get naked with me?
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY ALYCIA EDGAR
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Alycia Edgar - Coastal Accounting ServicesAs an accountant and former surf shop owner Alycia understands the issues that small business face everyday. She believes you can work on your business effectively simply by understanding your business numbers. She creates innovative systems and processes that enable business owners to be highly focused and productive in their business, including Bookzkeeper – The Accounting Survival Kit for Small Business. To get tips on how your numbers relate to working on your business, simply visit here
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Are you a passion killer?
March 16, 2011
By Alycia Edgar, Coastal Accounting Services
You should be. Yes, you read correctly. Passion has a lot to answer for in business. Everyone says you need to love what you do, be passionate about it and success will happen. Yes, it can, but, it can also kill a great business with too much kindness.
Don’t get me wrong, I love passion; I’m very passionate about what I do. What’s been frustrating me lately is why some business owners don’t “see” what is happening right in front of them, they’re pretty much blind to it. Why can’t they see that their results are not improving, that their business model is not working, that they’re wasting money on things that are not going to give them a return on investment (and no they’re not a “necessary” expense of the business). So just like I’ve seen many business owners bankrupt a business by living the high life personally when their business cannot afford it, I am also seeing a trend where passion is killing the business.
These business owners are so passionate about their community, their cause, helping others etc. that this passion is blinding them to the business reality. Even though the reality can be there in black and white, the passion they have is so intense that it’s flawing their logical business judgment. So, what can you do to make sure that your passion is not skewing your decision making capabilities?
Learn to be dispassionate about your business. Regardless of whom you surround yourself with to assist and guide you in your business, unless you are open to being dispassionate about your business you will not listen to anyone. Make sure your support group can show you where passion is getting in your way. They still need to support your vision, but are removed enough that they can show you when something’s not working.
Develop your own passion barometer and use it for decision making. Give a decision a score out of 10 as to how it’s related to your core passion. If it’s above a 5, you need to then look at the business barometer; is it a logical decision from a business standpoint? (i.e. will it make you a profit; remember that’s what business is about) If it doesn’t stack up on the business barometer I would refer to your support group for advice. Let them help you decide. This is not a scientific formula, just an idea to make you stop and think about where this decision is coming from and whether it really is a great business decision.
Passion can get in the way for all of us, but for those that can be dispassionate you will grow your business with kindness rather than potentially kill it.
Are you too passionate about your business?
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY ALYCIA EDGAR
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Alycia Edgar - Coastal Accounting ServicesAs an accountant and former surf shop owner Alycia understands the issues that small business face everyday. She believes you can work on your business effectively simply by understanding your business numbers. She creates innovative systems and processes that enable business owners to be highly focused and productive in their business, including Bookzkeeper – The Accounting Survival Kit for Small Business. To get tips on how your numbers relate to working on your business, simply visit here
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Give Up? Not a chance
February 10, 2011
By Alycia Edgar, Coastal Accounting Services
I reached one of those tipping points in my business this week. You know the ones, where it all makes sense and sense of order prevails.
How about you? Have you reached your tipping point yet?
I know I am now in the next phase of my business. I have created big plans for 2011 and I can now see not only will they be achieved, but surpass what I thought possible. This tipping point occurred with a little help from a friend; someone who was willing to really challenge what I’m doing now and what is possible. I am extremely grateful to this friend for seeing this reality for me and helping me understand that is indeed possible.
Do you have people such as this in your life? People who really challenge you to push yourself and move forward? Staying in the same spot – that comfort zone – can be ‘oh so safe’ and easy, but are you really living up to your potential? As children we are forever learning, pushing our own boundaries to mould who we will be. Why is it that so many us stop learning and pushing ourselves to become the best we can possible be?
Why do we lose that drive to improve? Or give up when it gets hard? Is it because what we are pursuing is not our “thing”; our genetic and environmental “thing” that we are put on this earth to excel at?
I competed in a sport when I was younger that I absolutely loved. My successes weren’t many, but I loved it nonetheless. And in competitive sport, the name is always winning. I realised later in life that I didn’t have that “edge” for competitive sport; where you are willing to get through that physical pain barrier. I started coaching in that sport and had more success. Hmm…. an insight into where my talents lie perhaps?
But all was not lost, as I have truly found where I will never give up – and that is in business. I proved that to myself this week. I’ve been proving it for quite a while, but had never realised that business is my “thing”; that “thing” that I will never, ever, ever give up on. Period. Does that mean I will pursue a non-profitable venture? No. But what it does mean is that I will be the problem solver for my business and do what it takes to make it work. If it works, repeat. If it doesn’t, adjust and move forward. And always revisit those “repeatable” steps to look for improvement as well.
By taking that undeniable “never give up” stance, and combining it with my love of teaching people, I can help business owners to never give up themselves. That tipping point is always just around the corner. It is. Sometimes you have so much junk to navigate before you reach that corner, but it’s there I promise you. Don’t let the junk get in your way. Don’t settle. Find that “thing” that is truly you, that makes your heart sing.
Am I saying let go of everything else in the pursuit of this “thing”? No, but be aware of what happens in your life – people you meet, comments made, wins you have, losses you incur – and use them as learning experiences to grow who you are so you can find your “thing” because that ability to never give up, get to that corner and have those tipping points is one of the most enriching internal moments you can have. You just made your soul sing.
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY ALYCIA EDGAR
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Alycia Edgar - Coastal Accounting ServicesAs an accountant and former surf shop owner Alycia understands the issues that small business face everyday. She believes you can work on your business effectively simply by understanding your business numbers. She creates innovative systems and processes that enable business owners to be highly focused and productive in their business, including Bookzkeeper – The Accounting Survival Kit for Small Business. To get tips on how your numbers relate to working on your business, simply visit here
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Just do
January 18, 2011
By Alycia Edgar, Coastal Accounting Services
Les McKeown author of “Predictable Success’ wrote the following as a blog post:
Forget the word ‘better’.
You’re already better.
Embrace the word ‘do’.
What a great blog post and he got me thinking (he always does). This time of year is always about planning for the year ahead. I love planning, in fact it can become quite addictive. So addictive it makes you inactive. Plan, plan, plan until the cows come home. Is that you? Are you addicted to the process of planning? Are you trying to be better at something in 2011? Stop, stop being better, you are there, go and do!
My commitment to 2011 is to simply ‘do’.
Do is a fabulous word, it means to execute, effect, perform (an act, action). Such a powerful word, just imagine if we were to “do” everyday; executing projects, affecting change, performing outside our comfort zone, acting on an opportunity, taking action on those plans. How would that feel? What we once thought impossible is not even thought about; just done. Our comfort zone disappears as we are too busy doing to get too comfortable. Sounds scary doesn’t it? And it will be, but if we can commit to “do” we can make a phenomenal impact on the world around us, serve those people that we are meant too, pay it forward, use our skills and knowledge to affect change in others.
I want to help small business owners, and I know I do already, but I want to “do” more. I want to step out there into my greatness, assist as many small business owners as possible; this is it, this is the year. And I am; it’s already started and this blog post is just one of the steps.
This reminds me of my theme song lyrics from Miley Cyrus ‘The Climb”:
There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes you going to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb
So climb those steps; you are already better. Go and “do”. I’m right beside you.
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY ALYCIA EDGAR
- As a solo-preneur does your business ever shut down?
- Are You Leaving Money on the Table?
- Your Email Inbox Contains a Wealth of Knowledge
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Alycia Edgar - Coastal Accounting ServicesAs an accountant and former surf shop owner Alycia understands the issues that small business face everyday. She believes you can work on your business effectively simply by understanding your business numbers. She creates innovative systems and processes that enable business owners to be highly focused and productive in their business, including Bookzkeeper – The Accounting Survival Kit for Small Business. To get tips on how your numbers relate to working on your business, simply visit here
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As a solopreneur does your business ever shut down?
November 10, 2010
Alycia Edgar, Coastal Accounting Services
How do you manage if you need to go away for business, or even a holiday? Is your business set up so that it can run without you, or do all your communication points go unanswered?
We use so many communication channels these days that it is not just a matter of putting a message on the answering machine and an ‘out-of-office’ email and going off to enjoy a holiday or conference. We must have systems in place to deal with enquiries and sales while we are away.
Unless you can afford to ‘shut up shop’, literally, you need to keep the money flowing to your business. Most of us would prefer to keep the business running, so how do we do that?
- Put a support team in place that can handle enquiries, e.g.: virtual assistants.
- Leverage your business by having others work for you, servicing your clients or customers and removing the need to temporarily shut down the business.
- Remove yourself as the chief problem solver in your business. Let your team use their initiative to sort out problems. Remember a problem is just a system waiting to be implemented.
- Implement communication systems within your business that don’t rely on face-to-face contact, and which don’t keep you chained to your desktop.
Putting a support team in place, leveraging your time and implementing communications systems in your business all require systems. And one of the best ways I have found to create these systems is in ‘the cloud’, otherwise known as operating solely on the Internet.
These are the systems that I can access from anywhere via my iPad, my laptop (if I chose to take that with me) or an Internet cafe:
- Time Management System – Harvest
- Project management system – Basecamp
- Customer Relationship Management System – Highrise
- Accounting System – Saasu
- Email – Gmail
- Files – Boxnet, Dropbox
- Business Intranet (how my business runs) – Backpack
Unfortunately these are not systems you can implement three days before you leave for that conference or holiday. But, if you can see how online systems would give you more flexibility with your business simply look at the systems you use now, what their actual purpose is, note their functionality and look for the equivalent online. You’ll be amazed at what some of them can actually do for you.
Do you have online tools (other than those listed) that you use? Let me know.
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY ALYCIA EDGAR
- Are You Leaving Money on the Table?
- Your Email Inbox Contains a Wealth of Knowledge
- The Business of Busyness
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Alycia Edgar - Coastal Accounting ServicesAs an accountant and former surf shop owner Alycia understands the issues that small business face everyday. She believes you can work on your business effectively simply by understanding your business numbers. She creates innovative systems and processes that enable business owners to be highly focused and productive in their business, including Bookzkeeper – The Accounting Survival Kit for Small Business. To get tips on how your numbers relate to working on your business, simply visit here
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Are you leaving money on the table?
October 22, 2010
By Alycia Edgar, Coastal Accounting Service
You meet people at an event, you swap details. You get back to your office and the ‘busy’ work takes over. Most of us don’t have assistants to delegate work to and even if we do, our client work always comes first .
But what about filling that marketing pipeline? Isn’t that just as important? Here are some questions that you need to consider:
- How you will capture prospects’ details?
- How soon you will follow up prospects?
- How you will go about following up?
- When to follow up a second time
- The point at which you will stop contacting a new prospect
- How you will put a reminder system in place so you don’t forget to follow up?
Pretend this prospect was one of ten that you followed up. You have found on average that one out of every ten new prospects becomes a client. Each client is worth on average $5,000 annually. That sounds like a nice sum that’s worth spending the time to follow up!
Put a system in place
How do you manage to continually follow up without getting distracted by the ‘busy’ work? You need a system in place for the entire process.
Let’s see how this might look:
- Determine the sequence of events that occur to ensure follow up and who is responsible for each step (this occurs once).
- Upload business card to customer relationship management system (CRM). Preferably get your assistant to do this and/or use photo recognition software to scan cards in.
- Set reminder for follow up with contact.
- Actually follow up with client.
- Continue this process until desired outcome is achieved or contact is no longer considered a prospect.
You’re probably thinking that this all sounds very easy. However, I can tell you from experience that unless you believe that follow up is a core part of your business, you will never make the time to complete the process. You will forever procrastinate and tell yourself, ‘Oh, I’ll call them tomorrow’. But of course, tomorrow never comes.
Make follow up an integral part of your business
- Outsource the components that are getting in your way.
- Block out time each week to concentrate on follow ups.
- Most importantly pick a time of day that sits right with you to complete this, whether you’re a morning or afternoon person.
When will you next follow up?
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY ALYCIA EDGAR
- The Business of Busyness
- Time Billing vs Value Billing
- Your Email Inbox Contains a Wealth of Knowledge
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Alycia Edgar - Coastal Accounting ServicesAs an accountant and former surf shop owner Alycia understands the issues that small business face everyday. She believes you can work on your business effectively simply by understanding your business numbers. She creates innovative systems and processes that enable business owners to be highly focused and productive in their business, including Bookzkeeper – The Accounting Survival Kit for Small Business. To get tips on how your numbers relate to working on your business, simply visit here
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Your Email Inbox Contains a Wealth of Knowledge
September 22, 2010
By Alicia Edgar, Coastal Accounting Services
If you dig deep into your multitude of email Inbox folders you will find a wealth of information that shouldn’t be hidden but should be shared with your team or clients. As a solo-preneur it’s quite easy to rely on your Inbox as the holy grail of much needed information. But as your business grows you often need to be able to share information with others in a more manageable way.
So, how could you change the way you access, use and store all this information?
Think of your email client as a tool, a gatekeeper that lets information in and sends it out. Now imagine that you cannot store any sent or received emails as they will self-destruct in 6 seconds. Does that have your attention? Makes you think twice doesn’t it? If your email Inbox would not hold that precious information where exactly could you store it?
Perhaps an email relates to a project? This could be an actual project such as building a new website or could refer to ongoing work with a client. This kind of information should be stored in a project management system.
What about an email communicating with a new prospect? This type of communication should be generated from and stored in your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
How about an email to a team member instructing them on a particular task or process? That type of information belongs in your business intranet and/or tasks management system of the business.
Does every email belong in another system? Not always, as some email truly is private and confidential. But you’ll find that proper storage and sharing of the majority of your email will not only benefit your team and other interested parties, but also create structure around information flowing in and out of your business.
How would you start such a process? I certainly wouldn’t try and tackle your entire email Inbox; you may never actually get started. But what you can do is setup your project management, customer relationship management and intranet systems and utilise these systems for all new communication (ie. Email). Once you get a feel for how these systems work for your business you will then know which “folders” in your email Inbox to tackle next; they will be the folders that hold the “gold” information that once shared could make your business run much more efficiently.
What about you? What wealth of information are you hoarding in your email Inbox that if shared could have tremendous impact on the efficiencies of your business?
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY ALYCIA EDGAR
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Alycia Edgar - Coastal Accounting Services
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| Phone: | 0403 983 529 |
| Email: | alycia@coastalaccounting.com.au |
| Twitter: | www.twitter.com/alyciaedgar |
| Blog: | www.numbersarelife.com |
| Member Profile: | See Alycia’s Member Profile |
