How’s Your Business Image? May 21, 2008

Analysing the way your business is perceived can be a difficult task. It’s hard to be objective about your own business, and often the people around us (family, friends, associates, long term clients) also have a “rosy” view of your business. Or they may not feel comfortable giving you critical feedback.

But there are some things you can do to check on your business image:
1. Compare your logo to well known companies. Does it project the image you want it to? 
2. Imagine you are a potential customer. What do they “see” (literally or figuratively) when they come into contact with your business?
3. How consistent is your brand across your business? Look at everything from business cards to website to the message on your voicemail.

How does your business measure up?

Valuing My Time

Do I really value my time? As a solo business owner, and therefore a wearer of many hats, I often wonder how to really “price” my time. Most business owners will spend many “unpaid” hours on their business, partly for the love of it, partly because there’s lots to be done!

I was challenged at a recent Business Expo by an accountant who guided us through a formula for setting prices. The first line item in his formula was not overheads or expenses, but wages – namely MY wage: what do I want to earn? It seemed a bit silly that I have never actually put that item first. After all, why am I in business? I have often heard the mantra “You are in the money-making business”, otherwise my business becomes a charity.

These thoughts are coupled with my purpose for running a business: I value my personal time and therefore I want my business to be a flexible venture that also works for me financially. Tash Hughes points out that “Sometimes a compromise will be necessary to achieve the desired flexibility” and this is definitely true.

How do you find that balance between valuing your time, being flexible and earning the money you desire in your business?

Networking April 26, 2008

Every person I speak to who is just starting a business ALWAYS asks me what marketing strategies I recommend. Sometimes, I am not sure they like the answer because it is not an “easy” strategy to implement, especially as a new business owner. And that answer is NETWORKING.

I suspect the reason people don’t like to think about networking is because of the negative connotations it can have. If you have only been in pushy, “hard sell” networking environments, I don’t blame you! But networking does not have to be an “ugly” word and should include a range of formal and informal strategies.

Find a good local business group (not always possible), join an online network (Business Mums Network is one example), contribute to online forums relating to your field and build a great referral network. As Melissa Khalinsky relates in her blog, an informal method of networking is “name dropping”. She is correct when she says it is “a great way to grow your business by looking after your network. Recommending people in your network has a great way of paying you back, and in many ways you may not realise initially” . Incorporating this strategy into the culture of your business provides genuine, valuable relationship building, as opposed to shoving a business card in the hand of every person you see at your local business meeting!

Yours in Design

Michelle Grice

Milestones

Perhaps it has just been procrastination, but I have always struggled to articulate and document my business goals. Individual and short term projects are no problem – it seems much easier to have clear and direct goals for these.

And then a business mentor suggested to me the idea of “milestones” rather than goals…a lightbulb moment! He said that goals imply you have “arrived” or “finished”, whereas milestones are markers that I identify as important. You reach a milestone on an ongoing journey, rather than “ticking off” a completed action.

The use of milestone vs goal is a little about semantics. But sometimes using different language can make all the difference to how something is perceived and accepted. Viewing my business as a journey with milestones, as opposed to, say, a race with goals, has lifted a load from my business shoulders!

Yours in Design

Michelle Grice

The little things April 11, 2008

The longer I am in business, the more amazed I am at the stories I hear about “bad” businesses. These range from outright rip-offs (e.g. people paying web designers 1000’s upfront and then never hearing from them again) to very “minor” incidents that turn clients/customers away (e.g. not having a call returned). 

These “minor” incidents are ones that “good” businesses can learn so much from. Hopefully we are already doing those little things like:
– returning emails/phone calls within 24hours
– follow-up calls/emails
– going the extra mile to make sure customers are satisfied
– dealing with complaints in a timely and satisfactory manner
– putting ourselves in the customers “shoes”

Doing these “little” things will go a long way to making your business stand out from the rest – and if you’re a small business, assist you to be one of those that make it past the 3 year failure average! And while they are significant to your customer, they really are “little” things, aren’t they?

But there are also “little things” we need to do as business owners to ensure we are not getting burnt out and that we are looking after ourselves and our business, as well as the customer. This is often about setting boundaries – especially for home based business owners. As Kylie Short from Tilda Virtual Services relates in a story about her business early on, “Not setting clear boundaries with this client was holding back my growth and ability to take on new clients”.

What little things are you doing that you know make a big difference to your customers and/or to the running of your business?

Yours in Design, Michelle Grice

Mentoring March 26, 2008

I was recently asked to be a mentor in a mentoring program for new business owners. My first reaction was to laugh at the person who asked me (politely!) but she proceeded to list all the reasons why she thought I would make a great mentor. I’m still not sure I feel confident enough to agree with everything she said, but it did get me thinking about mentoring in general.

I have been in business for 3 years and in that time I realised that I have informally mentored a number of women (mostly mums) just starting out. In fact, in the last month, two friends starting a business have peppered me with lots of questions that have done a number of things for me:
1. Made me realise how much I DO know
2. Caused me to reflect on my journey and look at how far I have come in 3 years
3. Forced me to re-evaluate some of my practices and procedures
4. Provided me with opportunity to research areas I probably wouldn’t have made time for otherwise.

In Donna-Marie Coggins’ blog, Small Business Diva, she shares some key factors to business success, including “seek outside help”.  Mentoring definitely falls in this category. and although I don’t have a formal mentor myself at this stage, I have various people with whom I informally “catch up” and bounce ideas off. And as shown above, the benefits of being a mentor (even if it is “informal”) can be much more than you first realise.

Yours in Design

Michelle Grice

I baked a cake… February 11, 2008

I baked a cake today. “Whoopee” I hear you say. But for someone who:
a) runs a business from home
b) has a 2 year old
c) has every Donna Hay magazine and cookbook ever published
d) loves cooking but never has time
it was a significant moment! I am attempting to do more “life” in the “work/life juggle” and it was sooooo satisfying. Even more satisfying was involving my 2 year old in the process, so I felt like I’d covered all bases today! It did make me realise though that it really can be just little things that make a difference to my stress levels. Admitedly at the moment, I am on top of my work (yippee!) but I have determined that my new credo is going to be: “there is always time to make a cake”

What are YOU going to make time for (literally or figuratively)?

Yours in Design, Michelle Grice 

The necessity of fear January 29, 2008

As I was driving yesterday I saw a van advertising Skydiving with the tagline “Fear is the thief of dreams”. A great motivator for potential skydiving customers, but also a great philosophy for business. As a sole trader business, I find that fear raises its ugly head in multiple forms and in many situations. Fear of failure, fear of stepping into something new, fear of success (yes, you read correctly!), fear of looking silly and so on. Without colleagues to share the load or bounce ideas off, fear can much more easily escalate if we let it. And of course, having to wear every ‘hat’ in the business means there will always be tasks outside our comfort zone that create fear.

So if we let fear control our actions, it WILL steal our dreams. I can think of numerous situations over the past 3 years of running a business where if I had let my fear stop me, I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am today. It doesn’t mean that I have all the answers to not fearing, but it does mean I am getting better at pushing on regardless.

Yours in Design

Michelle Grice (Shel Design) 

Work/Life Balance – Definitely a Myth October 23, 2007

At the Business Mums Conference in Melbourne last month, keynote speaker Sandi Givens announced to a group of enthusiastic, yet overloaded mums that work/life balance is a myth. I agree and feel it is much more realistic to view it as a continual juggling of roles and tasks with an aim to achieve some sense of ‘control’ over our situations. As the weeks race by, I am often faced with days of doing lots but feeling like I’m achieving little. And of course those things that are supposed to keep our life ‘in balance’ (exercise, ‘me’ time, etc) continue to fall by the wayside. As a mum in business, there is also the inevitable ‘mother guilt’ associated with the juggle between business and kids. Part of my motivation for having my own business is to spend more time with my child, but if I’m exhausted from late nights and meeting deadlines, is this quality time? OK, so that all sounds rather bleak and not particularly inspiring. But I’m sure any mum in business has similar thoughts and concerns, but pushes on regardless. And you know what? I think generally our kids are better for it. They learn so many good life lessons from watching mum run a business. They see multi-tasking at its best. They see how flexible life can be (who ever has the same day twice in their business?). They see how hard work can pay off – and if it doesn’t pay off, the virtue of ‘giving it a go’. So for those business owner mums out there having a ‘mother guilt’ day….don’t!Yours in Design Michelle Grice Shel Design 

It’s not the size of the mistake – it’s how you deal with it! September 25, 2007

Yep I made a mistake – not an earth-shattering one but one with potential consequences for my business reputation. I have always said when commenting on other businesses mistakes “I understand that mistakes happen, but it’s how they dealt with it that really matters”. And now i’ve had to put my philosophy in to practice!

So, yes I made a mistake but to compensate for it, I:
– dealt with the situation immediately (no time for the client to get more annoyed at the situation and/or my lack of response)
– gave the client a complete refund
– offered the client additional compensation (not monetary, but still worth a lot in kind)
– assured them that this was a one-off incident (it was!!)
– documented our conversation in an email so there was no mis-communication

So have my actions improved the situation? Well, at the very least, the situation has not been worsened. And in my conversation with the client, they appeared satisfied with my offers and seemed to be genuine in their thanks. There is still always the risk of negative word of mouth being generated, but hopefully that will be balanced with “…but the way she dealt with it was fantastic”!!

Have you had similar situations? How did you deal with them? What results did you get? Do you agree with my “it’s how you deal with it” belief?