Stop Doing Everything Yourself: A 5-Step Recovery Program

Everyone has to start somewhere, and most entrepreneurs start out by doing everything themselves. From buying supplies to sweeping floors to paying bills, there's a good chance that you can do everything in your business. But continuing to do everything yourself is like treading water instead of swimming - it won't get you anywhere.

At least 80% of your time should be spent moving your business forward. This includes motivating your people to do great things, hiring awesome new people, and dreaming up new ideas.

The other 20% of your time will likely always be spent doing less important things that you really can't delegate to others. This is the equivalent of "Treading Water" or just keeping things afloat.

"Doing stuff" is a personality trait common among successful entrepreneurs. While many people have great ideas, only a few actually have the drive to get things done and build a viable business. Eventually, you capacity for "doing stuff" turns from an asset to a liability, and it's an addiction you have to break.

Here is an Entrepreneur's 5-Step Recovery Program to stop doing everything yourself:

1.  Assess your value:
What are you actually good at? What is your primary value to the business? Think about the part of you that you really can't hire someone else to do for you. Your greatest value is probably your creativity, and your ability to inspire others to believe in your vision. I promise that you can find other people to keep the lights on and the floors clean, but you can't replace your core value to the company.

2. Assess your time:
Where are you currently spending your time? You don't have to go all crazy with this, but take a hard look at where you are spending your time over the course of a week. For example, you might spend 34% of your time on bookkeeping functions, 36% of your time on office management functions, 15% of your time managing employees, and 15% of your time working with customers. Most likely, you are spending most of your time treading water, and very little time moving your business forward.

3. Hire someone:
Figure out the area that is taking up most of your time that can be handled by someone else, and invest in finding someone to take it over for you. For example, if you spend a lot of your time bookkeeping, then hire a freelancer, consultant, or full-time employee to help. I know it will be hard to find just the right person, but you have to bite the bullet and make the commitment to trust someone else to do the work for you.

4. Reassign your time: 
Sure, it will take you a few weeks to hire someone, and then a few weeks to get them on board, but as soon as that happens, go back to your time assessment. Remember the 34% that you were spending on bookkeping? Well, now you may need to save 10% of that to manage the bookkeping process for a while, but you should have at least 24% of your time now free to work on value-driven projects to move your company forward. Resist the urge to fill that 24% with more water-treading. Make the commitment now to use your extra time moving the company forward.

5. Repeat
I know that this process will be hard. It will take more time, and make you feel overwhelmed and frustrated. But now you have to push yourself to do it again. What is the next major chunk of your time that is wasted? Hire someone and reassign your time. If you go through this on a constant basis, you will eventually get to the point at which you working at your maximum value level 70-90% of the time.

It is only when you are investing your maximum value in your business regularly that your business will get out of the treading water stage and move forward fluidly into growth and expansion. Dive in!

  

So You're Not Good at Finance...

I haven’t done a really good blog rant for awhile.  Here goes…

What would a world look like where mental health treatment made people worse rather than better?  Mass murderers would kill school children after receiving mental health treatment.  Soldiers returning from combat would shoot up army bases, kill their families, and commit suicide.  We’d sell deadly guns to nuts, because not selling to them would violate their constitutional rights.  The evidence suggests we inhabit that world.

Comedian Ron White  did a bit around the phrase, “You can’t fix stupid.”  Apparently, we can’t fix crazy either.  Why did WWII veterans come home and not shoot up military bases despite no mental health treatment, when veterans from Afghanistan shoot up bases after treatment?  Mental health “professionals” have some explaining to do.  Calling Dr. Phil.  Calling Dr. Phil.  I’m not getting an answer.  He’s too busy with Lindsay Lohan’s parents.  Now on to our regularly scheduled blog.

Business owners frequently tell me, “I’m not good with finances.”  Is not being good with money really an option for business owners?

Jan owned a multi-million dollar printing and marketing business.  She wasn’t good at finance so she paid a six figure salary to hire a chief financial officer.  She paid lots in taxes on her earnings, but never asked why the company bank accounts were always empty.  After all she’d hired a professional to manage that.

One day two banks called her and wouldn’t talk to her CFO.    They told her she was overdrawn in all the company accounts and needed to deposit $100K immediately.  She walked down the hall and confronted her CFO, who confessed to stealing $750K from the company.  He had covered his theft by kiting checks.  Check kiting is depositing checks from one overdrawn account to cover checks written on another overdrawn account.  Obviously, you can’t do this forever.  Back in the 1990’s, you could do this for a month or so, because checks cleared in about five days.  Don’t try this today since checks clear overnight.

Jan was bankrupt, despite having a successful business, because she wasn’t good at finance.  Business owners need two essential skills.  First, you have to be technically proficient at whatever service you offer.  If you own an auto repair shop, you’d better be able to change the oil in your car.

Second, you have to be good at business.  This is much harder than technical proficiency since it involves a lots of areas.  You need not be an expert in any of these areas.  You can hire experts,  but you must be capable of supervising your experts, which requires at least a degree of proficiency in many areas, such as finance, marketing, and management.  Please read Michael Gerber’s “E-Myth” series of books.  He writes that business success is about working on the business not in it.  Technicians work in the business.  You can hire them.  Business owners work on the business, which is much more difficult and requires entirely different skills.

But what about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates?  They were techie guys, not business people, weren’t they?  You are wrong on two counts.  First, pull your driver’s license out of your wallet.  What’s the name on the license?  Probably not Jobs or Gates.  People win the lottery, just not you.  Jobs and Gates are Michael Jordan to your Greg Jones.  Who’s Greg Jones?  I don’t freaking know either.  That’s the point.  You aren’t Jobs or Gates.  You’re Greg Jones, and nobody knows who you are.  I’m Greg Jones as well.  That doesn’t mean we can’t be successful – maybe not Apple successful, but successful nonetheless.

Second, both Jobs and Gates had incredible business skills in both marketing and finance.  Both had lesser known techie buddies, Steve Wozniak in Job’s case and Paul Allen in Gates’ case.  These sidekicks were the tech geniuses behind the initial success of Apple and Microsoft.  Jobs and Gates understood the technology, but more importantly understood the importance of the technology and how to sell it for a profit.  Their business skills were exponentially more important than their technical skills.

Thanks for reading!  As always, please visit the main S&K web site at www.skcpas.com and like the “How to Screw Up Your Small Business” Facebook page.

Until next time, let’s do it to them before they do it to us.

Weird Al Yankovic Knows Internet Marketing

Weird Al Yankovic pulled off a major feat in viral marketing when he released a video each day for eight straight days to launch his new album, "Mandatory Fun."

Here is a man who launched his career in the 70s and 80s and somehow broke through the clutter of the online marketplace to establish relevancy 40 years later. Businesses and brands everywhere can learn from Weird Al's success in Internet marketing.

Weird Al's parodies of Pharrell Williams "Happy," Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's "Sweet Judy Blue Eyes" and Lorde's "Royals" hit the Internet with force, and prove that an old dog can learn new tricks and make the transition from MTV to YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and the Internet of all Things. 

My personal favorite, as a grammar junkie, is Weird Al's parody of Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines," called "Word Crimes." 

3 Things Weird Al Yankovic Knows About Internet Marketing

1. Be Who You Are
Weird Al Yankovic didn't try to relaunch himself as someone different. In fact, he maintained many of the 80s fashions so familiar to those of us who were children when he first hit it big (the hair! the shirts!). Nor did he decide that what he really wanted to be was a "serious" singer and abandon his strength in parodies. Weird Al knows that his entire history is visible to us online, and a quick check of Wikipedia can tell us everything about him, from his hits and flops to his LASIK eye surgery. Instead of trying to change his image, he maximized his opportunity by reflecting his existing online profile rather than trying to reinvent it.

2. Stay Relevant
It might seem counter-intuitive to what I just wrote, but Weird Al did not get stuck in a time warp. On this album he does a great job of spreading his parodies across relevant songs and high-trending social topics. In doing so, he connected with a variety of people on the Internet. If he had only parodied current Billboard Top 5 songs, or chosen to only be the grammar police, he would have fallen flat. Instead, he offered variety of content that was relevant to a broad audience.



3. Get Professional Help
When we see a performer, it's common to attribute everything to the person on the stage (or in the video), but Weird Al Yankovic clearly knows how to get the right professional help. He might be the mastermind behind his parodies, but those videos weren't produced overnight. It took a team of producers, talent, writers, musicians and graphic artists to create the videos. And then, just as importantly, it took a team of digital marketers to create the marketing strategy and start the viral avalanche accompanying the release.

As someone who owned his first album, "'Weird Al' Yankovic in 3D," I already thought Weird Al was funny, but now that he has accomplished this latest feat, I'm deeply impressed with his business savvy as well. 

Social Media Marketing: 5 Tricks You Have to Know as a Small Business

Social Media Marketing Tricks for Small Business

Social media can be a critical part of your digital marketing strategy, but it can also be confusing, overwhelming, and, as a direct result, done poorly. Here are five tricks you should know as a small business owner about social media marketing. 

1. Every platform is different
The biggest mistake you can make is to approach social media as a single entity, as if Facebook is the same as LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, or Google+.

Instead, you need to get to know each of the unique settings of each social media platform.  Hang out there for a while to get a feel for what other people are doing. For example, LinkedIn is similar to a business networking event or presentation. It's OK to promote yourself and your business, as long as you do so eloquently and professionally. On the other hand, Facebook is more like a coffee shop. If you walk in there expecting to hand out business cards and make connections like you do at a networking event, you will fall on your face. Instead, you need to be more subtle. Regardless of what social networking platform you're learning, pay attention to what is encouraged by others, and how you gain positive attention within the community.

LinkedIn vs. Facebook marketing strategies

2. Consistency is key
Anyone can join 5-6 social media platforms in one day, then create amazing profiles and the perfect first post. Most people can keep up their enthusiasm for a week. But after that, most people drop off, unable to maintain the single most important thing in marketing: consistency.

Whatever platform you choose, make a commitment and show up consistently over time. Social media is frankly a big waste of time if you just float in and out, posting updated occasionally, but never making a true impact on the community.

3. Make a commitment
If you are running a small business, there is a good chance that you don't really have time to hang out on social media networks. You probably have real customers to worry about on a daily basis, and are struggling to keep them happy, while managing a staff and cashflow.

Social media marketing is like all other forms of marketing: it requires a commitment. If you decide that your prospects are hanging out on social media, then it is worth making a commitment to marketing your business on social media, but don't try to do it all yourself. Hire someone to help. If you are knowledgeable about social media and marketing, then you can hire an assistant and guide them on how to do the work. But if you don't know much yourself, then find an expert who can guide the way for you. 

4. Use photos, infographics, etc.
More and more, social media is about graphics. It wasn't always that way. Four years ago, Facebook and Twitter relied mainly on words and links. Now, they are heavily graphically-oriented. Newcomers like Pinterest and Instagram are almost entirely graphics-based. The fact is that if you want to be on social media, then you need to accompany most of your posts with photos, infographics, and other images that make your posts more interesting to readers. In the end, human beings are attracted to pictures, so make sure you use them! 

5. Share the love
Social media is set in a basic foundation: social. This means that basic human instincts such as sharing and communicating are maximized. Don't show up to the party as the bore who only wants to look in the mirror and talk about himself. If that's who you are, then it's frankly better not to show up on social media at all. Instead, take note of the human nature involved, and show your businesses' humanity in the process. Comment on real situations that you care about. Comment on other people's posts as much as (and more than) you post about yourself. Follow the golden rule, and you can't go wrong. 

Automatic Papad Making Machine for Home Based Small Business Price and Manufacturer

Automatic Papad Making Machine for Home Based Small Business Price and Manufacturer:-

Demand and Market of Papad:

Generally papad is served after meal in almost every occasions and festivals. The demand of papad is found all throughout the year especially in festive season. With the Automatic Papad Making Machine you can make papad and after packing it you may sell it in local market or supply orders.

How to make papad with Automatic Papad Making Machine/Papad Making Process:

With the Automatic Papad Making Machine you can make upto 40 kg papad per hour. You need a Dryer Machine also.

To make papads of various tastes you need flour, powdered pulse, beuli dal, pea/ dal/chick pea etc. ingredients. You have to mix oil, salt, various spices etc. and have to pour it on the directed place of the Papad Making Machine. If it has Mixing attachment, the mixture will be made automatically. Then papad will be made automatically

Now you may dry it with Dryer Machine or in sunlight.

It needs 2 hp motor to operate the Papad Making Machine and 1 hp motor for Mixture Machine and 1 hp motor for Dryer Machine.

And it needs 220 to 440 volts to operate the Papad Making Machine.

Price of Automatic Papad Making Machine:

The price of varies upon production capacity of the Papad Making Machine. The price of the Automatic Papad Making Machine which can make upto 40 kg papad is approximately Rs. 1 lakh 50 thousand.

The price of Dryer Machine is approximately rs.80,000.

The price of the Mixture Machine is approximately rs.40,000.

The price of the hand-operated Papad Making Machine is approximately Rs.10,000.

Where to buy the Papad Making Machine/ Papad Making Machine Manufacturer:

Bharat Machine Tools Industries,

61, Ganesh Chandra Avenue,

Kolkata-700013

11 July 14 Kk

D.C.A.A. Compliance for Beginners

If you are a government contractor, you need to be aware of the Defense Contract Audit Agency (D.C.A.A.)  The D.C.A.A. approves your accounting system for the purposes of offering products and services to the federal government.  They may also audit the results coming from your accounting system for the purposes of determining compliance with Federal Acquisition Regulations (F.A.R.)

If you are new to the government contracting world, get used to acronyms.  Here is another one – D.O.D. (Department of Defense).  The D.C.A.A. has jurisdiction over the accounting for D.O.D. contracts, N.A.S.A. (yes, the space people), and some other agencies.  Making your accounting system D.C.A.A. compliant seems a daunting task, but here are first three steps toward making your accounting system compliant.

First,  your accounting system must segregate direct, indirect costs, and unallowable costs.  Direct costs are the actual costs of performing a contract such as contract labor, contract materials, and potentially travel related to a contract.  For example, if you provide  IT support to a federal agency, the labor costs of the people you have assigned to providing the services is contract labor and thus a direct cost.  The salary you pay to your bookkeeper is not a direct cost, since he / she is not providing services directly under the contract.

However, your bookkeeper’s salary is a perfect example of an indirect cost.  An indirect cost does not directly benefit a contract but supports the execution of a contract.  Telephone, office supplies, payroll taxes, employee benefits, and rent are typically considered indirect costs.

Unallowable costs are costs determined under F.A.R. to not be chargeable as either a direct or indirect cost.  Interest expense and income taxes are considered unallowable costs as well as alcoholic beverages.  No drunken fun allowed on the fed’s dime.

Key to segregating these three types of costs is setting up the chart of accounts in your accounting system properly.  You should group the accounts for your profit and loss statement by these types of costs.  For instance, accounts numbered 5000 through 5999 might be designated as direct costs.  Accounts 6000 – 8999 might be designated as indirect costs and accounts 9000 through 9999 could be used as unallowable costs.

Second, you must account for direct costs by contract.  For instance, if you have five contracts, you must be able to produce reports showing each type of direct cost by contract.  Accounting software typically helps you with this through job costing functionality.  Accounting for federal contractors has much in common with construction contractors in this regard.

Third, you must have a D.C.A.A. compliant time tracking system for labor.  The F.A.R. sets forth a host of timekeeping requirements, which are enforced by the D.C.A.A.  Most off the shelf accounting software packages, like the time tracking in QuickBooks, are not compliant by themselves.  Most require some sort of additional procedures, sometimes manual, to provide D.C.A.A. / F.A.R. compliance.  You can, however, find specialized D.C.A.A. compliant time tracking software that may integrate with your accounting software.

As you can see, understanding the basics of D.C.A.A. compliance for federal contractors isn’t difficult. Compliance requires up front planning when designing your accounting system.  Most small contractors can accomplish this planning in a day or less.  Ask your CPA for help if you don’t feel confident in this area.

Thanks for reading!  As always, please visit the main S&K web site at www.skcpas.com for real tax and accounting advice.  Also, please like the “How to Screw Up Your Small Business” Facebook page.  I post helpful and snarky business hints there daily.

Until next time, let’s do it to them before they do it to us.

Secrets From a Productivity Rockstar

Entrepreneurs: How to Be a Productivity Rockstar

"I have way too much time on my hands!" said absolutely no businessperson anywhere.

All entrepreneurs must struggle with time constraints, and the global marketplace continues to squeeze every last drop out of us every single day. Whether you are in the startup stages or are running a mature company, I'm guessing that you need help improving your productivity.

Here are five secrets from an entrepreneur I spoke with who can be best described as a "Productivity Rockstar." She is juggling an established small business, a brand new startup, and three children under the age of five. Somehow she manages to do all that while also fitting in exercise and sleep. Seems crazy, but it's possible!

Plan It Out: The most simple way to accomplish more is to have a plan for doing so. Each week, entrepreneurs should roughly plan out their critical tasks. Then, because "stuff" always comes up, they need to revisit their plan every morning and at the end of each day. If you are juggling multiple companies and/or family obligations, include them in this planning process. Entrepreneurs never just work on one thing at once, and you don't have to do that as long as you are keeping the big picture in mind.

Ruthlessly Prioritize: Because something will always be competing for your attention, you must ruthlessly prioritize based on the plan you created. Of course you need to be flexible, but you simply can't be so flexible that critical actions don't get done. It's all to easy to drop a true priority, like developing a sales strategy for a new product, for a "fire" that demands attention right now. You have to ruthlessly evaluate each fire that comes your way, and be careful not to spend all of your time being a firefighter, which results in absolutely nothing getting done.

Delegate: Entrepreneurs are naturally wired to want to do everything themselves, but you can't scale yourself, so you have to figure out how to delegate tasks to others. The more you can get great people around you who you trust, the better your chances of success in business and in life.

Let It Go: One of the reasons the Disney movie "Frozen" hit it so big is because of its catchy theme song, "Let It Go." All of us can relate to the idea that we are held back by our personalities, gifts and circumstances. And all of us fantasize about letting go of those restrictions to find freedom. An entrepreneur, more than anyone else, must learn to "Let It Go" - let go of perfectionism, fear, failure, money, and everything else that is holding you back from achieving your dreams.

Move + Sleep: So many entrepreneurs fill their days to the brim with work. But when the future of the company rests on your shoulders, there is nothing more important than taking care of yourself. Make time to move your body every day and sleep at least 7 hours. Sure, there is a strong fantasy of the entrepreneur getting by on less than 3 hours of sleep per night, but that's really only sustainable for a short period of time, and is typically associated with severe mental illness and/or breakdowns. Don't be an idiot: take care of your body and it will work hard for you for the long-term.

Check out my Slideshare presentation on productivity if you want to learn more:

4 Critical Hiring Mistakes

Picking Just The Right Fit For Your Company Can Be Hard!

Hiring employees is quite possibly the single most important activity for any entrepreneur. Despite this fact, most business owners don't have a strategy in place to guide their hiring practices. They typically wait too long to begin the hiring process, approach it haphazardly, and then hire too quickly, often selecting the wrong person. To top it all off, many small business owners skip a training program that would save even the worst hiring strategy from failure.

1. Waiting Too Long to Start
Most entrepreneurs wait until the last minute to start the hiring process. This is based on a number of factors, including the fact that entrepreneurs tend to be "just-in-time" personality types, not wanting to spend too much time planning; preferring to dive in opportunistically at just the right time. While this can work in your favor in many cases, when it comes to hiring, you have to consider that the hiring process can take time, and is best approached thoughtfully.

If you foresee a hole in your production line two months down the line, then now is the time to start! Even better are the entrepreneurs who can see several months ahead and have a constant recruiting process ongoing.

2. Haphazard Approach
There are a number of critical elements involved in the hiring process, many of which are easy to skip but can result in serious hiring mistakes. First, clearly define the role you are trying to fill. Talk to your other employees as you work on this - what do they think you need? Sure - they could be wrong, but it's still worth asking them to get their opinion from the "front line." Check online resources to find out what title you should assign and how to define the role. Think through what sort of background and training you want your new employee to have and include that in the job description.

Once you post the job opening and begin receiving applications, have a process in place for sorting resumes and evaluating candidates. You can utilize technology to support your hiring process. For example, set up a form on Google Docs to gather information from your candidates. For more detailed candidate quizzes and tests, try ProProfs' quiz-making tool.

When you get to the interview stage, try to have a standard set of questions to ask all candidates so that you can try to control for the many variables that cause us to make bad hires. You can find a lot of advice about interviewing online, since it's a surprisingly difficult task.

3. Hiring Too Quickly
Whether you waited too long to start or followed the rules and started early, you still might fall into the trap of getting tired of the hiring process and hiring too quickly. The fact is that hiring people is time-intensive, exhausting, and just plain boring at times. It can start to feel as if you will never find the right person, and you might start to doubt the market, or your own judgement. 

Hang in there and have patience! Remember that in a small or emerging business, every single individual counts towards your potential for success and growth. One employee can either improve or ruin your chances for business success.

When you jump the gun, you tend to hire for the wrong reasons. Take your time and ensure you are picking the best person for the job.

4. Failing to Train
No matter how careful you have been in the hiring process, you can't ignore this critical step. Don't just think that hiring the right person means you can throw them into your business and expect them to do great things. Each employee is an investment in your company. Set up a training program so that your employees know what is expected of them. Build out a brief but comprehensive training program in which the expectations you laid out in the hiring process are reinforced. Then make sure you check in with new employees: daily for the first week; weekly for the two months following that; monthly for the following four months; and quarterly from then on. 

Steel Furniture Making Machinery Price and Supplier

Steel Furniture Making Machinery Price and Supplier:-

Demand and Market Steel Furniture and Iron Furniture::

The demand of Steel Furniture is found all throughout the year. It needs Pipe Bending Machine, Pipe Cutting Machine, Welding Machine, and Compressor Machines to make Steel or Iron furniture.

How to make Steel Furniture with Furniture Making Machines:

To make Steel or Iron furniture you need a little training before you start this business. Please ask the manufacturers to know the procedures of making Steel or iron furniture.

It needs 1 hp motor and 220 volts to operate Pipe Cutting Machine.

Price of the Steel or Iron Furniture Making Machine:

The price of the hand operated Pipe Bending Machine is approximately Rs.7000.

The price of the Hydraulic Pipe Bending machine is approximately Rs.35000.

The price of the Motorized Hydraulic Pipe Bending Machine is approximately Rs.70000.

The price of the Pipe Cutting machine (including motor) is approximately Rs.7000.

The price of the Welding Machine is approximately rs.8000.

The price of the Compressor machine (including motor) is approximately rs.12000.

Where to buy the Steel Furniture Making machine/Steel Furniture Making Machineries Supplier:

Bharat Machine Tools Industries,

61, Ganesh Chandra Avenue,

Kolkata-700013

13 June 14 Kk

Ice Cream Cone Wafer Making Machine for Small Business Price Manufacturer

Ice Cream Cone Wafer Making Machine for Small Business Price Manufacturer

Demand and Market of Ice Cream Cone Wafer:

Ice Cream Cone Wafer Making Machine is a very good option to set up small business at home it is very good option for making handsome money  because of its high demand in market, specially in summer season.

With this Ice Cream Cone Wafer Making Machine you can make Ice Cream Cone Wafer and may sell or supply orders in local sellers, shopping malls, ice cream manufacturers.

How to make Ice Cream Cone Wafer with Ice Cream Cone Wafer Making Machine:

At first you need an automatic Ice Cream Cone Wafer Making Machine and an electrical heater to make Ice Cream Cone Wafer. And the materials you need are maize, flour, milk, baking powder, flavour/scent etc.

At first, you have to pulverize the maize. Then mix milk, flour, scent, sugar and baking powder in indicated quantity with the pulverized maize. Then pour the mixture on the indicated place of the machine. Now start the electrical heater and con wafer will be made automatically.

It needs 2 hp motor and 220 to 440 volts to operate the Ice Cream Cone Wafer Making Machine.

Price of the Ice Cream Cone Wafer Making Machine:

The price of the automatic Ice Cream Cone Wafer Making Machine is approximately Rs.150000. The price of each dies is approximately Rs. 1000.

Where to buy the Ice Cream Cone Wafer Making Machine/ Ice Cream Cone Wafer Making Machine Manufacturer:

Bharat Machine Tools Industries,

61, Ganesh Chandra Avenue,

Kolkata-700013

16 May 14 KK