Business Record - Iowa Biz

Celebrate Everyday

The holiday season gives us many things to celebrate - family, faith, and the completion of another year.  I believe that celebrations need to happen more often than they do.

How often do you take the time to celebrate at your place of work? 

If companies spent half the time they waste on focusing on what does not work and put it towards celebrating what does work, they could see a huge impact on their bottom line.

I know of companies that are finishing their best year ever.  They hand out bonuses, say thank you , and in a blink of an eye they are scrutinizing and complaining about individuals, departments, and the woes of the company. 

This type of behavior permeates the business world today and is one of the reasons that 38% of the workforce is disengaged.  Disengaged workers suck the profits out of companies.

I encourage you to sit down and create a list of what your company does well.  Then take that list and devise a plan that reinforces the items on your list.  In that plan include time for celebration - we only have one life to live! 

Flickr photo by lorenzodom

Try stepping out of the sweet spot once and a while

It's ironic.

I spend most of my time coaching people to find their sweet spot.

You know?  A place where things just flow.  A job or biz opportunity that fits like a glove.  Something they are passionate about.  Something they'd do, even if no one paid them.

Yup.  The sweet spot.

But this past week... I attended an event that intentionally took its participants out of their sweet spots.

And guess what?  It was a beautiful thing.

The event?

East Village Books (located in Des Moines' historic East Village) hosted 'The Art Fusion Experiment.'

Part of the experiment was to take four artists out of their various sweet spots and have them work only with charcoal and white paper.

So, for example my wife Melissa who is an artist who's sweet spot is working with LARGE canvases and acrylic paints had to shift to charcoal.

Then there was Brent Houzenga who does AMAZING things with spray paint.  He also had to make the switch to charcoal.

The third... Darren McKeag... an incredible tattoo artist, also had to step out of the sweet spot.

Then... there was Allison Schneider. 

Her passion?  Graphic design.  And yes she had to step up the plate and work with the black on white palate too.

The next aspect of the experiment?

There were 4 pieces of white paper hung on the wall and each artist started by facing one of the blank white sheets.

Then, the clock started and they were given 15 minutes to work.

At the end of the 15 minutes they had to switch to one of the other pieces of paper.  And they repeated this process 3 times!

So not only were they working with a medium they weren't comfortable with. 

They also had to switch and restart with someone else's art work, not once but 3 times!

It was amazing to watch. 

And it was also amazing to debrief with the artists afterwords because they talked about wanting to both respect what their fellow artists had done, while also incorporating their own style into each piece.

They said that it stretched them to try new things. 

It forced them to look at their own style in new ways. 

Yup.  It forced them out of their sweet spot and out of their comfort zone.

I started to wonder. 

What are some ways... whether we're 100% in our sweet spot or not, that we could step out and be forced to experiment with some new things?

Take a class in wine tasting?  Maybe try a sport that we've never tried before?  Maybe even ask to shadow someone for a day that's in a completely different profession than us? 

What would stretch you?  Where might it take you?

Still need some convincing to step out of the sweet spot... out of your comfort zone?

Well,  I know for these artists they couldn't wait to bring back what they'd learned and incorporate the new ideas to their sweet spot work. 

How could that work for you?  What could you learn?

Okay, need one more piece of evidence to push you to try something new?

Well one of the other elements of the Art Fusion Experiment was to take the metal band freaklabel and force them to play an unplugged acoustic set.

The band was quick to admit this was a first for them but they delivered. 

During a 45 minute set, they displayed some truly impressive musical chops and some amazing heart even though they were completely out of their sweet spot.

The band's lead singer told us afterwords that the event had forced them to sit down, write some new songs, look at their music differently, and stretch. 

Heck they even generated some new fans who were demanding that their next CD be an acoustic compilation.  How about that?

Yup, proof positive that it's good to step out of the sweet spot once a while.

How about you?

How could you step out this week? 

How could you stretch in 2008?

Lastly, thanks to Teri and Andy at East Village Books for hosting another incredible event.  It was another example of the value of trying something outside the comfort zone!

See more pictures... including the final versions of art by clicking here.

A sad tale of cold weather and work exclusion

With the recent bad weather we have been having, you may have experienced the need for insurance. 

~ It could have been a recent slip on the ice requiring you to visit the emergency room.
~ Maybe you had a branch that came crashing down on top of your home causing roof damage.   
~ You may own the innocent car on the side of the road that was used like the side bumper of a billiards table.

Let’s look at a recent situation 

Mike, a sole proprietor operating a sign installation business, erected a sign on a tall steel pole for a convenience store.  Mike provided both the sign and the tall steel pole.  The next day, freezing rain came down and ice accumulated on the sign that Mike had installed.  Bob, the owner of the convenience store, noticed his sign was starting to resemble what looked like a very large popsicle.  And with each gust of wind, the sign would start to sway back and forth.   

Later that day, the sign fell on the convenience store and injured a worker.  Bob, had damage to the store, a worker, and a very expensive sign.

What is Bob going to do?

• File an insurance claim
• Sue Mike
• Worry about his worker

An investigation of the accident revealed that the sign and the steel pole were blown down because Mike had failed to secure them properly.

Bob sued Mike for the damage to the building and resulting business interruption.  The worker sued Mike for medical expenses, income loss, and pain and suffering.

What damages would Mike’s policy cover?

Mike’s policy would cover all damages claimed except the cost of replacing the sign and steel pole which were “his work.”

Pay close attention to the damage in your work exclusion.  It eliminates coverage for property damage to “your work” arising out of that work or any part of it.  It prevents the insurer from replacing faulty work of the named insured.

If you have not checked with you insurance carrier -- now is the time.  Some carriers are allowing you to buy this very important coverage.

Are Your Projects Ready For Year-End?

Have you returned all of your gifts?  Has your indigestion from over-eating cleared up yet?  Are your Christmas Decorations stored away for another year?  Have you made your New Year's Eve plans?  Are your projects ready?

Projects?  Year-end?

Yes, especially at year-end.  This is a great time to assess the health and status of your organization's projects.  It's an opportunity to set New Year's resolutions for the sake of your company's accomplishments.

Chrissy over at the Executive Assistant's Toolbox posted a great article about preparing for your annual review.  There are some useful year-end checklist points which can be extrapolated to doing an annual review on your projects as well.

At the Project Level:

1. For completed projects, did they end on time, within budget, and with a significant number of the promised features?  (If not, find out WHY.  See if there are repeating trends across projects.)
2. For current projects, is it on track (same criteria as above)?  Again, dig a little deeper if the answer is no.  Take corrective action on the problems that are preventing your projects from being successful (and it may mean removing people, as unpleasant as that may sound).
3. For current projects, is regular communication occurring?  If 70-90% of a project manager's job is communication, are you as the business owner receiving meaningful status reports?  Is the team playing nice in the sandbox?  Do your clients and suppliers know what is going on?
4. For current projects, is there a baselined and actively updated PROJECT PLAN?  If not, stop work until there is one.
5. For pending projects, is there a BUSINESS CASE (or project charter or statement of work or whatever you want to call it)?  Bottom line, is some document being created which outlines why this idea should be a project?

At the Portfolio Level

1. Are all of the projects being tracked collectively as well as individually?  Do you know how much of your annual budget is going toward project activity?
2. Do you have a dashboard in place which gives you a quick-at-a-glance visual of the project activity and performance?
3. Are your resources aligned to the right projects at the right times?  How many stops-and-starts are occurring across your project portfolio?
4. Are you tracking cancelled and rejected projects, and the reasons for them?
5. Are you identifying and tracking trends in project success and rewarding those responsible?

As you approach 2008, assess your project activity regularly to avoid surprises when it's time to look at 2009.

Carpe Factum!

Customer Service Lessons in the Checkout Line

Like most of us, I spent a lot more time than usual in the checkout lines this past month. I'm a generally patient person by nature, and I spent almost ten years working retail, so I'm fairly sympathetic towards the poor person working the cash register.

Some shoppers are very tactical in planning their trips to the checkout line. They have a playbook to rival Bill Belichick and have their families trained to scout the shortest lines, then divide and conquer. I'm admittedly your basic lemming when it comes to checkout lines, but I still expect a few common service practices from the retail customer service representatives.

While at Wal-Mart one early morning a few weeks ago I stood in the only open checkout lane. The person at the cash register was embroiled in a strange exchange situation that had escalated into a confused mess on the order of nuclear proliferation. I and a couple of people behind me sat in witness like poor citizens doomed to grand jury duty. Just a few feet away stood a handful of Wal-Mart employees. They were chatting. They were laughing. They were standing around shooting the breeze. They paid no attention to their struggling teammate and they refused to acknowledge the growing line of disgruntled customers. When I finally checked out and left about ten minutes later they were still standing there.

A few days later I found myself at Panera standing in what appeared to be the only open check-out line. I was behind two ladies who had all sorts of time to figure out what they wanted and insisted on turning their ordering experience into a real-life episode of Deal or No Deal. Behind the counter stood two other check-out people in their Santa hats. They stood leaning against the counter chatting with each other.

Pretty soon a manager-looking person walked out of the kitchen and joined the obviously social conversation. More customers began to queue behind me, but it made no difference. They were as oblivious to us as a teenager is to dirty clothes on the floor of their bedroom.

Call centers are all about getting customers out of queue and getting the issue resolved. Each moment the customer sits on hold is money out of the company's pocket. Retail doesn't seem to have that sense of urgency, and I don't forsee any tangible means of charging them for my time in line.

Nevertheless, I can choose to patronize businesses who train their front-line employees to:

1. Observe. Learn to be aware of the big picture. Look outside of your own checkout line. What are customers experiencing around you? Where do we need reinforcements?
2. Acknowledge. You can see the impatience in the customers. You know that this growing mess of an exchange situation is going to delay things for everyone. Acknowledge this to the customers in line with a, "I'm very sorry for the delay. We'll get this resolved as quickly as possible." Better yet, "I'm very sorry for the delay, let me get one of my teammates to open another register."

A little acknowledgment. A little empathy. A little communication with the customer. Three little things that are already on my wish list for 2008.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and Zeetz Jones.

Smart Surfing Stocking Stuffers for Your Browser

A lot of folks ask me how they can start paying attention to what's being said about them in blogs, if anything is being said, and how users are sharing information that is important to their company.

While Search Once and Subscribe tells us the "when" something is said, There are three buttons I use often to give me a glimpse to "what" is being said, and "who" is saying it.

When a blog that mentions us, I have these three "surf smarter" buttons right in my browser:

• Google Blog Search This
• Technorati This
• del.icio.us History

As an example, let's look at KitchenAid (random choice)

• Google Blog Search This shows us 25 blogs linking to the KitchenAid site.
• Technorati This shows 111 links (and we can sort by freshness or 'authority')
• del.icio.us History shows 84 users have bookmarked the site, using tags ranging from Kitchen to Cooking (what - no dishwashers?)

I have these buttons on both my Explorer 6.0 and Firefox browsers. The links below are the scripts that create the buttons mentioned here.

• For Firefox users, simply click and drag the link into your Bookmarks toolbar (or bookmark in your Bookmark Toolbar).
• For IE 6.0 users, right click and Add to Favorites in the LINKS folder.
  

• Google Blog Search This
• Technorati This
• del.icio.us History

Think of these quick and easy tools as extendable ears. People might be talking about you or your company on the web. And if they aren't, you should be reading more of this section.

Here's to smarter surfing. Remember to Search Once and Subscribe. You never know when you might say, "We Wuz Blogged!"

 

Peace on Earth

 

From all of us at IowaBiz and our sponsor, Professional Solutions Insurance Services -- we wish you a holiday season filled with love, laughter and peace.

We thank you for your time and we look forward to sharing 2008 with you.

Did Your Lawyer Sell You an Old Shoe?

Old Shoes
Did you just pay a lawyer to draft you a contract? Where did it come from? Historically, lawyers have always used old templates, updated and customized to address your specific transaction. Because clients never had access to the templates, you never knew how much customization your lawyer actually did. In large part, that is still true today.

Google Your Shoes
In the field of information technology (IT) related contracts (software licensing, terms of use, privacy policies) however, clients now have some ability to track down the provenance of their expensive compact. An interesting exercise you might try with your own IT or software contracts is to look over the contract for a unique string of words. Put those words in quotes and search them on Google. In who else's contracts do these words appear?

Whose Shoes are These?
Just because your contract language appears somewhere else does not necessarily mean there is a problem.  Someone could have stolen the contracts from your website or from another of your attorney's clients.

Another explanation might be that their attorney may be using the same form book as your attorney. Take a closer look. Are the contracts nearly identical or are only a few phrases the same? Depending upon the type of contracts at issue, the language may be very similar. Sometimes there are only so many ways to skin a cat.

Knock-off Nike's
While similar language, and even very similar contracts, might be justified in many circumstances, you should not be paying premium rates for online forms you could have cut and pasted for much less (I know my kid only charges $120/hr for cutting and pasting).

Granted there is some truth to the joke about the plumber charging $1 to hit the pipe and $99 to know where to hit it. Sometimes even small changes can take an experienced cyberlaw attorney considerable time to draft, especially if the differences between your contract and the one you found online relate to complex or unique aspects of your business.

Even in this case, there should at least be some marks where the the plumber hit it.   

Old or New Shoes
Sometimes simple "cookie cutter" language at a reasonable price may be sufficient to do the job.

Other times you need the magic only an expert scrivener can provide. What you do not need is to be paying Prada prices for an ill-fitting pair of used sneakers.

If you have questions about your "custom" contract that shows up on your competitor's feet, talk to your lawyer about it. More than likely, he or she will be able to explain the unique or complex aspects of your situation that merited the time behind the invoice you received.

If they cannot, or if it obvious that your "custom" contract was merely lifted in its entirety directly off of the Internet, it might be time to consider putting your shoes to use. 

Brett Trout

Should you prepay your 2007 income tax liability?

More and more small businesses operate as S corporations or Limited Liability Companies nowadays. 

As the income from these entities passes through to their owners, that makes personal tax planning hard to separate from business tax planning.  One of the most common tricks in the tax planning bag is prepaying your income tax liability that would otherwise be due the next year.  Does that make sense?

Sometimes.

State and local individual income tax payments are deductible as itemized deductions for regular tax, but not for alternative minimum tax, in the year paid.  Federal individual tax payments are deductible on the Iowa return in the year paid, regardless of AMT status.

There are some important questions you should ask before you send money to the State of Iowa, or to Uncle Sam, before you would otherwise.

Am I subject to Alternative Minimum Tax this year?  If you are, then you won't benefit from paying any more state and local taxes this year.  You might as well keep the money in your pocket until the payment deadline.

What will my tax situation be next year?  If you are going to be in a much higher tax bracket next year, your deduction for tax payments will be more valuable then.  If this is your big income year, then paying this year might give you a better deduction. 

If your income is subject to big yearly swings, you usually want to get your tax payments for your high-income years made before year-end; if you pay the tax for a high-income year in a subsequent low-income year, you might get only a low-bracket benefit, or in an extreme case no benefit at all.

Is the benefit of getting the deduction one year earlier worth it?  Iowa taxes for 2007 are due April 30, 2008.   If you pay your Iowa tax on December 31, 2007 you accelerate your deduction by one whole year, but you give up the use of the money for four months.   

If you are a top-bracket taxpayer, that deduction is worth at most 35 cents for a top bracket payer.  Is it worth getting 35 cents a year sooner to give up the use of a whole dollar for four months?  Probably. 

If you are in the 25% bracket, though, the answer is probably different.  It will almost always be worth it if it's just a matter of accelerating your fourth quarter estimated tax payment from January 2008 to December 2007.

So the question of prepaying taxes isn't always easy.  Unless you run the numbers, you're just guessing.  And it's always wise to check with your tax advisor before writing any big checks.

Who Is Maintaining Your Network?

A business is only as good as the people it employs... we've all heard it and most likely experienced situations that support that statement.

I'm going to change the statement slightly and say, 'A business is only as good as the network that its employees can maintain.'

My reasoning is fairly transparent.  If a business spends the majority of it's monetary resources on creating an image that portrays today's 'buzz words' but doesn't support those words within its people... why spend the money?

In today's marketplace, business is done through relationships and relationship building. 

Some of these relationships are 'time-tested', some continue to evolve, some are still in the discovery stage.  My point is... If you or your employees cannot maintain a network with those around you, then it may be wise to re-look at the focus of the image you are trying to portray.