You think you're better...but you're not

Have you ever noticed that you are constantly comparing yourself with others?

And yes, I blame Facebook for most of this!

Was your vacation cool enough, is your car new enough, are you as fit and trim as you should be, etc.?

Many times you compare yourself to others, who are in worse shape, to justify your situation.

For example:

• An out of shape person may feel better about themselves after watching The Biggest Loser.
• A financially strapped person may feel better about their finances, after listening to the first few callers on the Dave Ramsey Show discuss bankruptcies and foreclosures.
• An overwhelmed parent may feel better about themselves after doing some service work in a shelter.

However, you may still be overweight, broke, and in disarray.

So should you bother comparing yourself at all?

If you are a business owner, the answer is YES!

Why?

 “What gets measured gets done!”

Unfortunately, there are many business owners still justifying their situations.

• A restaurant owner may feel good about their business, because they have great Yelp reviews, but they could still have a net loss for the year.
• A landscaper may feel good about their Accounts Receivable being an average of 60 days, because they know a consultant with an average of 90 days.
• A hotel owner may feel good about their debt-to-equity ratio being low, because it was even lower last year.

However, the restaurant is still losing money, the landscaper still has some collecting to do, and the hotel owner is still upside down on the business.

So how should you compare your business?

The best way to measure your business is against your competition.   This way you get an apples-to-apples comparison, instead of an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Common measurements are your costs-of-goods-sold (COGS), net profit margin, current ratio, payroll expenses, advertising expenses, etc.

In fact, the TSBDC has a “comparison” tool that compares your type of business vs. others in Tennessee and nationwide.

Comparing against other businesses in your industry is a more accurate way to determine how well you are doing and what you could improve upon.

And remember, nobody posts the bad stuff on Facebook, so stop comparing yourself there too!

p.s.
Email me at charles.alexander@volstate.edu to learn more about the "comparision" tool.

A Great Question

So...if happiness is such a good thing, what are the main influences on our happiness and which can we do more about? If happiness is considered 100%, what percentages would you consider the influence of genetics, life circumstances, personal choices, phases of the moon, etc?

Surprisingly, research has shown that our genetic set point influences 50% of our happiness. There are a variety of ways that our predisposition to happiness is heavily influenced by genetics. Regardless, this does not mean individuals are trapped. In the same way we are genetically predisposed to specific diseases (diabetes, heart disease) and we can make changes to lifestyle, diet, sleep and exercise to reduce risk, there are practical ways to positively impact our genetic predisposition with respect to happiness.

More surprisingly, life circumstances only impact long term happiness by  only 10%. At only 10%, this removes a significant portion of factors that can be blamed for unhappiness. The good news is that this also means we are not defined by out past or imprisoned in the present!  The reason why circumstances do not affect us much is that we adapt over time. A great example is that research has shown that money does not lead to lasting happiness because individuals will adapt to any level of money over time. Ask most lottery winners!

The most challenging factor influencing out happiness is personal control, calculated at a whopping 40%! It is not events themselves that determine our happiness, but our perceptions of those events. Our personal control suggests that being happy involves choices, the motivation to expend effort and the decision to see situations as opportunities for growth and learning. 

How often have you heard someone say "I didn't have a choice"? What they are really saying is "the right choice for me was too hard to make!".

If making the right choices for you is too intimidating, your coach can support you in creating process and accountability that will lead to greater happiness. 

The Myths Of Happiness

For many people, maintaining an optimal level of happiness seems elusive. When they are happy, they tend to ignore why and when their happiness drops, they instinctively start looking for ways to jack it back up. This is the point at which one or more of the myths of happiness take over.

The myths generally fall under the category of "if - then"; if I get something, then my happiness will improve.

So...what are some of the myths?

1. Once I obtain A, B, or C, then I can be happy.

People often live in the future as though tomorrow holds something special that today does not. Moreover, people make decisions about being happy if only conditions A, B, or C are present in their lives. There is no justification for not permitting yourself to be happy now. There is nothing wrong with setting goals - like A, B, or C - but not allowing yourself to happily experience the process of achieving them is a lost opportunity.

2. There is little to be happy about: I don't own my home, I have debt, I need to lose weight, I just got a divorce.

You get the picture. All of these things - and more - may be true. However, it's not what happens to us so much but it's how we thing about what happens that matters. Shakespeare famously wrote "there is no good or bad, but thinking makes it so". Research has shown that our personal circumstances account for no more than 10% of our overall sense of happiness. The reason it is not higher is that we continually adapt as our lives unfold. Understanding this reality is the first step to successfully navigating the rough waters life creates.

3. If I get therapy, read the right book, take a workshop, or watch enough TED talks I can become happy.

All of these things can make a positive impact on a person's happiness but they come with the potential trap of unmet expectations. Setting an expectation about what will happen is trying to accurately predict the future -  a risky exercise indeed! By all means be proactive, but wait until the end to see how it turned out. This reduces the potential for disappointment and the feeling that, once again happiness has eluded you.

A large body of credible research has shown that taking personal charge of nurturing our happiness is the most effective way to make a positive difference. Check out this short video to see why.

If growing your happiness appeals to you but you are frustrated with where to start, your coach may be just the answer!

Would you rather eat an elephant, a snowball, or a frog?

I know you have heard this one.  How do you eat an elephant? Wait for it…one bite at a time. We all know the saying, but we often fail to apply this lesson in our businesses. 

Brian Tracy wrote a book called “Eat that Frog.”  He quotes Mark Twain, saying, “If the first thing that you do when you wake up in the morning is to eat a live frog, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that’s probably the worst thing that’s going to happen to you all day long.”

Yuck!

And we’ll discuss snowballs in a moment.

Right now, I'm working with a business owner right now that needs to eat an elephant, a snowball, and a frog.

She has a decent size business with 5 employees.  She has been at the same revenue for as long as I've known her and she wants to get over the hump.

She wants to work on marketing, managing her production crew, her admin staff, bookkeeping, and her own day-to-day activities. 

In other words…everything.

• First eating the elephant.

She’s finally letting me really dig in and help her. We have identified her three major goals for the next year and are simply breaking down each area of her business, one bite at a time.

• Next is the snowball.  Well, she’s not actually eating it, but you’ll get the point.

She is taking on the easiest project of her business first, like Dave Ramsey's snowball method for paying off debt. In this case, it is just job descriptions. She feels like this would be easy to work on.  Once she has that done for November, she will have some confidence and see her progress paying off and we move on to the next project. 

• Lastly, she is eating the frog.

Even though she is taking on the easiest project of her business, she is committing to working on the hardest task first each day.   In the case of job descriptions, she works on them for 30 minutes each morning, before answering any email or phone calls.

It's never a perfect process and there can always be a reason to put it off. 

The key is to break down the process into small bites, starting with the easiest project, and do the hardest task first each day.  

This will make the process manageable, allow you to build some early victories, and make each day count toward your goal.   

Announcing the 2016 Jump START Your Nonprofit Finalist!

Help us congratulate the 2016 Jump START Your Nonprofit Finalists! Each of these great organizations have a chance to win a $10,000 office technology makeover!

Cincinnati Finalists:

• Cancer Family Care
• Faith Community Pharmacy
• Magnified Giving
• Music Resource Center
• New Life Furniture Bank
• Pathways to Home
• St. Vincent de Paul
• The Center for Family Solutions
• Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation
• YWCA Greater Cincinnati

Columbus Finalists:

• Advocacy and Protective Services, Inc.
• Children First, Inc.
• Clintonville-Beechwold Community Resources Center
• Columbus Speech & Hearing Center
• Fairfield County TeenWorks
• Franklin County Residential Services, Inc. (FCRS)
• Lancaster-Fairfield Community Action Agency
• Neighborhood House
• PCMA Food Pantry of Pickerington
• The Neighborhood Design Center

Dayton Finalists:

• Brunner Literacy Center
• Five Rivers Health Centers
• Life Essentials
• Lions Eye Bank West Central Ohio
• Miami Valley Life Alliance
• Middletown Fine Arts Center
• Nova Behavioral Health, Inc.
• Preble County Council on Aging
• Safe Harbor House
• Senior Resource Connection

Starting Monday, the MOM Team will be out visiting all 30 Finalists. Then, the voting stage of the contest begins onMonday, September 26 and will conclude on Friday, October 7. These great organizations need your help to win, so vote once per day at www.momnet.com for your favorite nonprofit! Good luck to all of the finalists!

The Heartbreak Market

A friend in the coaching business recently asked me why small-business owners tend to shy away from training and coaching. 

These were my thoughts:

Entrepreneurs tend to distrust consultants of all kinds (they've all been burned once or twice). 

As you probably already know, you have to have a relationship with them (or a prominent reputation) before they'll usually consider buying from you. They're wired to get the best bang for their buck, and they're looking for sure bets and guarantees - which of course don't exist.

Also, they don't really want to change. So when you say that coaching is all about transforming them and their results, they may just feel threatened. 

To sell to entrepreneurs, you need to stand out. What's your brand differentiation? Of all the coaches and consultants in the world, why should they rely on you? 

My friend offers a free initial coaching call. This might seem like a great door-opener, but he doesn't describe what it is or how it can help. Plus, he offers no reason why someone should call NOW! Busy entrepreneurs will always put off calls that cost them money, unless you can convince them an opportunity is slipping away! 

I call small business a heartbreak market. Entrepreneurs are always being sold to, so they have developed very strong resistance to conventional pitches. Unlike corporate types, it's their own money they're spending, so you really need to prove yourself first (case studies and success stories can help, and anything that reverses the risk).

You CAN sell discretionary good and services to small business. They just have to trust you first.

The New Overtime Rule

Recently a new overtime rule was passed.  Currently, salaried employees making less than $23,660 are eligible for overtime pay IF they work more than 40 hours in a week.  That amount is being raised to $47,476, effective December 1^st, 2016.

This will be a big adjustment for small business owners and they will have some tough decisions to make regarding salaried employees making less than $47,476.

What can you do?

1. You can simply pay those employees time-and-a-half for all hours worked beyond 40 each week
2. Scale back their hours to just 40 per week and still pay the same salary
3. Give the employee a raise to $47,476 or above so they can continue working more than 40 hours per week without overtime pay

You can also use any combination of the three options.

You will not be the only business owner impacted.  In fact, 4.2 million employees will be affected, which means your business could be impacted as well.

It is not time to panic, however, it is time to make some decisions.  Have you looked at your options?  Do you have the correct systems in place to handle those options?  What will be your best cost benefit?  

I would recommend talking to your payroll company or your accountant to make the best decision for you and your employees.