Business Record - Iowa Biz

Better Than the Stock Market

The stock market is jumping all around and people are wondering what they should do with their investments.  For many people these investments are their retirement funds. 

The only true control you have is to take your money out or put more in.  The performance of the stock market or stocks you have invested in are controlled by others, not you.

Would you like to have some control?  There is a way to get some control and that is through employee ownership. When you have ownership in a company you can make a difference.

As an employee owner you do have some control over your investment.  You can add value through managing your customers, implementing new ideas, improving processes, and even just plain ol' hard work. 

That is just one individual, but consider that you could have a whole team or company of owners focused on building value.  Not all employee owned companies give that much control to their employee owners, but the ones that do to add value and help control the fear that most employees feel in tough times.  Employee ownership is a proactive means to give some control back to individuals.  It is not easy, but the rewards run broad and deep when ownership is shared.

Imagine if you could have that much influence on your stock market investments - you may just sleep a little better.  Ownership can take a lot of the uncertainty out of peoples lives and that my friends adds value beyond dollars.

Flickr photo by Checco

It's 2012... May I interview you about your freakishly cool life?

Recently... DMJuice came to me to ask how I helped people to set goals without being "too cheesy" or "Tony-Robbins-esque." 

They wanted their readers to think about their dreams and goals but they also wanted people to have some fun.

So I said, "How about an interview?"

They said, "Well that's why we're talking.  Right?  An interview with you about helping people set goals?"

I corrected them and said, "No I'm talking about a strategy called 'the interview."'

Before the conversation escalated into a bad Abbott and Costello routine I explained that I often have new coaching clients go through a process that's fun but it also gets people thinking about their dreams and goals.

I call it simply 'the interview.'

What do you say?  Are you game?

So imagine that it's 2012 and a reporter is coming to interview you.  She's sent you the following questions to prepare you.

Now your job is to sit... relax... dream BIG and answer them as if your wildest dreams have some true.

Sound like fun?  Well, dig in.

1. I have heard you have a great workspace.  Describe what I'm going to see and experience when I come to see you.

2. I have heard it's been an amazing ride.  Tell me about where you started and what's happened over the past 5 years.

3. I have talked to some of your (employees/team mates) and they LOVE working (for/with) you.  How many people do you (employ/work with) and why is it such a great place to work?

4.  What products/services/offerings are you most excited about?

5. Looking back over the last 5 years, what would you say has brought you the most joy?

Okay, there are more questions but I'll stop there for now.

Dig in.  Take the challenge.  Get ready for the interview.

Oh and hey... maybe if you write it down and then put a little strategy behind your answers they might just play out by 2012! 

How cool would that be?

Maybe you'll hear an actual reporter say "Excuse me... May I interview you about your freakishly cool life?"

Photo credit and kudos to: newsphotog6801

Is Spiderman Covered Under Workers’ Compensation?

The visual that comes to mind is in Spiderman II when Peter Parker is having trouble with his powers. 

The doctor said, “Peter, have a clear mind and focus.”  That little conversation with the doctor leaves Peter sprinting across the top of a high rise building, jumping off, and yelling, “I’m back.”

Peter is descending very rapidly and slams into the side of a brick wall, bounces off a car, and hits the pavement. 

Still dressed in street clothes Peter Parker gets up and grabs his back.  He’s hurt pretty bad.  Good thing he’s Spiderman, because any normal human being would not have gotten up from a fall like that.

Spiderman is a volunteer who fights crime. And, under the standard workers’ compensation policy, would not be covered. Or would he? Could he have his day in court?

The city of New York could have placed an endorsement on their workers’ compensation policy to cover voluntary compensation and employers’ liability.  When workers sustain job-related injuries, they usually are compensated pursuant to the workers’ compensation laws of their state.  How would the people of New York view Spiderman?  Volunteer ….  Super Hero….

On a more serious note

We will leave Spiderman out of the picture and focus on the fact that volunteers can be valuable assets to special events and nonprofit organizations.  Out of good faith, it might be in the best interest of the organization to cover their volunteers. 

• Have you ever held an event and used volunteers? 
• What if one of the volunteers was a good friend and somehow suffered a severe injury?
• How would you feel if they sued you?  Would you care, or brush it off and say they assumed the risk? 

Workers’ compensation laws are in effect in all 50 states.  Coverage can be found by using private insurers, state funds, or assigned risk plans.  There are some states that require you to purchase coverage exclusively through the state.

Iowa is not one of those states.

A great resource on workers compensation in Iowa is www.iowaworkforce.org

Flickr photo by Amadika

Office Politics And The Project Manager

You are a small business owner/manager.

You have a project you want done.

You've made assignments and set the vision.

So why isn't anything happening?  It might be that your organization is a victim of office politics, a case of passive-aggression in your company.  I've written numerous articles on my blog about office politics, and many people have used GUST in their career planning strategies.  Want to read more on the subject?  Check out www.office-politics.com.

The one constant problem with office politics is that 1) most people start the conflict themselves without realizing it and 2) most people don't realize that they are involved in a game until it is too late.  Celine over at the Pimp Your Work blog shared a great post about what to do when your team loses.  Office politics can cost your company thousands of dollars, and when it rears its ugly head on your projects, Celine shares some things to do to help your team cope:

• Keep your spirits up
• Find out what you could've done better
• Show appreciation for everyone's efforts
• Focus on how well the team worked
• Look forward to the next challenge

As the business owner, if you have control over the circumstances that caused the loss, there are some additional things I'd like to suggest for you to do to mitigate the issue:

• Determine the motives of the perpetrators - it may be that the office politics prevented you from doing something really stupid.
• Figure out what can be salvaged - did office politics completely undermine your project?  Can anything be saved?
• Establish safeguards for the future - determine how to leverage accountability to ensure that accomplishment can still occur.  Remove those who prevented your success earlier.

Carpe Factum!

Thanks for Your Loyalty - Now, Get to the Back of the Line!

Airlines are notorious for rewarding loyalty. If you fly the same airline long enough, you earn status. This means you get to board early, get priority seating and if you fly stand by you get put to the front of the line. The airlines will also give you award tickets which you can redeem for tickets. This is a reward for your customer loyalty.

A few weeks ago my wife and I redeemed our "loyalty award" to fly on United Airlines to a weekend conference in Colorado.

The weather was bad the morning of our departure and we missed our initial flight. I find it interesting that the airlines expect customers to understand that they are not responsible for delays because of weather (thus, they aren't going to do anything for you) but they don't extend the same courtesy when you, yourself are delayed by weather. We were late for our initial flight and then were put on stand by for our connecting flights.

Because we were using the ticket they gave us as a "reward" for our loyalty, we were treated like the least important passenger that day. Faced with the choice of paying for our own hotel and having "a chance" of getting out of Denver the following day or renting a car one-way and driving to our end destination we paid the price and drove.

Somehow, it doesn't make sense to "reward" your most loyal customers only to treat them like the least important.

What do you think?

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and Matt Hintsa.

Is Your Business Too Small for a Website?

Is your business too small to have a web presence?

In times past, if you weren't in the Yellow Pages (remember those?), you didn't exist. In this generation, if you're not findable on the Internet, you don't exist.

Several months ago, I wrote about a study showing 30% of small businesses still don't have a web presence. While I'd like to think that's changed -- it probably hasn't. Just check out your Chamber of Commerce directory.

Do you know a small business without a web site?  Maybe it's because of cost or because of hi-tech fear.  Blogs are one way to clear both of those hurdles.

Here are a few samples of Business Blogs doing it simple, but findable:

Aldo Coffee Company
Conference Calls Unlimited
Lightning Labels
Maine Stay Inn
Three Angels Gourmet
Two Maids and a Mop

Isn't it time you become findable?

What's your water level?

People rise to expectations.  Or sink to them.  How high do you set the bar for your employees, peers and customers?

So often marketers create copy thinking that they have to live by the 3rd grade reading level rule.  I say that’s ridiculous.  Unless your product is for 3rd graders.

It’s okay to expect them to get clever.  It’s okay to treat them with respect.  It’s okay to expect them to make good choices.

I'm not suggesting that you pack your copy with insider jargon or huge words.  But it is okay to let your language set the expectation of what it's like to do business with you. 

When you read your print ad or brochure copy out loud -- does it sound like you and your employees talk?  Then you know you're on the right track.

You also do not have to write every and any possible contingency down -- just in case.  Give people some credit.  I just learned of a company that has “employees cannot sleep while working” in their employee manual.  Come on.  If you have to say that in writing, you need to revise your hiring policies.

Go ahead, expect a little more and watch your boat rise with the tide.

United States Now a Haven For Cyberstalkers

While many countries have made cyberstalking illegal, the United States has not. Several states have passed various types of legislation addressing cyberstalking, but the resulting hodgepodge of cyberlaws typically requires proof of a plausible threat of violence toward the victim. Until the United States enacts federal legislation, criminalizing cyberstalking, most victims are left to fight cyberharassment on their own.

What Can You Do?

What you can do to protect yourself depends on the type of cyberstalking involved. Consider the following five factors when deciding how to proceed:

The Factors

Who? In any situation where a child is threatened (cyberbullying), immediate adult intervention is a necessity. If it is a child harassing the child, the harasser’s parents and, possibly, the school administration should be contacted. If it is an adult harassing the child, contact the authorities immediately.

What? Depending upon other factors, name-calling, disrespect, lewd remarks and/or ridicule may or may not constitute harassment. Personally directed hate speech and physical threats are much more serious, requiring immediate intervention.

Where? Cyberstalking can occur via email, hacking, message boards, text messaging, social networking, blogs, online gaming, photo sites like Flickr and video sites like YouTube.

When? Cyberstalking typically requires repeated incidents of harassment. Not only does a single rant about a lost eBay auction probably not constitute cyberstalking, taking action against the one-time ranter prior to a subsequent incident may simply be poking a sleeping bear.

How? Even most state laws do not require physical, person-to-person, to make a case for cyberstalking.  If cyberstalking does turn into real world contact, however, immediate intervention of the authorities is likely warranted.   

Additional Factors

While the foregoing five points lay out the groundwork for determining the severity of a cyberstalking situation, the analysis does not stop there.  If you are aware that the cyberstalker has a history of harassment or violence it is probably wise to contact the authorities. Conversely, if the cyberstalker is well-known in a particular forum for spreading harassment over a broad number of individuals, simply lying low and refusing to engage the cyberstalker may be the key to alleviating the problem. The last thing you want to do is make matters worse. If the problem persists, you may wish to contact the forum’s administrator to determine if the cyberstalker is violating the site’s terms of use. Alternatively, you might try to make a similar inquiry of the cyberstalker’s Internet Service Provider.

Trump Card

Every case is different. Any impression that you are in physical danger, however, should trump the foregoing criteria and prompt a call to your local authorities.   

Brett Trout

Defending your deductions

If a canceled check were all you needed to satisfy an IRS agent that you are entitled to a business deduction, audits would hold few terrors.  Unfortunately, it's not enough to just spend money to get a deduction.  You need to show that it is a business deduction.  Paperwork matters.

If you are in a regular profit-seeking business with a decent accounting system, most of this takes care of itself.  Your accounting records will generate the purchase orders, invoices and payroll records for most of your day-to-day deductions. (And if you don't have a good accounting system, you should get one, and tax is the least of the reasons you need to).  But some deductions require support beyond what you might normally get from your bookkeeping records. 

If you want to deduct travel or meals and entertainment expenses, the tax law requires you to keep records that show:

• the amount of the expense;
• the time and place of the travel or entertainment;
• the business purpose;
• for business entertainment, the business relationship with the person being entertained.

If you want to deduct a charitable contribution, you at least need a canceled check or credit card statement for a gift up to $200.  For larger gifts, a written receipt from the recipient listing the amount of the gift and the value, if any, received for the donation is required.  Special rules apply when you make gifts of property; if you donate property worth over $5,000, other than publicly-traded securities, you need to get a qualified appraisal.

The IRS has more on documenting travel, meal and entertainment expenses.  To learn more about documenting your contributions, visit the Tax Girl.

Avoid A Stagnant Network

In my opinion, a network is only as strong as the depth of the people that are connected within it. 

By this, I mean that when you are in a situation that calls for an industry expert and your list of "go-to's" are not available; it is wise to have others in your network you know can pick up the slack.  That is why I'm firm believer in continuous networking even when you believe your network is complete/solid/strong enough.

In my line of work, I don't force a business owner to use any particular person in my network.  As a matter of fact, in any industry at any given time, I may have a list of 5 - 10 experts that I suggest the business owner choose from. 

These are usually based on the scope, price and most importantly the 'personality' of the situation.  How deep is your network?

If I stop adding to my networking list... I'm letting my network become stagnant.  With a stagnant network the odds of having the proper industry expert for a situation decrease.  Once your connections within your network decrease, you may be experiencing a failing network.  This is a common problem but one that can be fixed nonetheless.