Leveraging the Talk Around the Water Cooler

What if you could literally change the fate of hundreds of non-profit organizations just by making a small change in your office break room?  

Nope…not by installing compact fluorescent light bulbs or implementing a recycling program, but by giving “water cooler talk” an entirely different meaning.  That’s exactly what Portland, OR-based NedWater has set out to do, one water cooler at a time.

A New Definition of CSR

Ask NedWater co-founder Perry Gruber about his business and it will take some time to get to the water part – here’s what comes first, “Our passion is to change the way business gets done.  NedWater is a living example of this new model.  We’ve taken the liberty of rebranding the traditional CSR acronym to ‘Commodities Spur Revolution’.”

Perry knows a thing or two about CSR – he spent years as a CSR big whig at Intel.

Perry explains how they do it:

-“A business signs up to get water service from NedWater on a monthly basis (and, yes, of course it’s fabulous water from a local source) with competitive pricing and no required service agreements…

-5% of the gross revenues (yes, you read that correctly…gross revenues not net profit) goes to non-profit organizations determined by NedWater customers.  Customers nominate non-profit organizations to receive funding and ultimately vote for the recipients.”

Here’s where it gets interesting:

-“Non-Profit organizations can also apply to become ‘Better World Partners’ with NedWater.  Through what is essentially an affiliate relationship, selected non-profit organizations earn 20% on every customer they refer to NedWater.  What this creates for that Better World Partner is a passive income stream.”

Examples of these Better World partners are Portland’s National College of Natural Medicine and Incite.

It’s so hard to decide where to begin addressing the coolness factor of this business model, but let’s start with…

The Business Benefit

I’m not sure if there could possibly be lower hanging fruit for the business that is interested in engaging customers and employees and making a statement about their commitment to community in an eminently affordable, accessible and simple way.  I mean, really?

Replace your existing break-room water cooler (sorry Sierra Springs) and start the conversation with your employees and customers on whatever level you’re comfortable.  Make a big deal out of it…or don’t.  Show your support for your favorite local non-profit organization by nominating them to receive the monies or get your employees involved.  Who knows?  If this model of affiliate funding works for non-profit organizations, the amount you’re asked to contribute may decrease (OK, maybe that’s wishful thinking, but stranger things have happened).

The Non-Profit Gold Mine

Ok, all you non-profit organizations out there bemoaning lack of funding, reduced contribution budgets and diminishing grant sources – LISTEN UP.  This is an incredible opportunity for you to start generating some residual income for your organizations, in a way that adds value to your business partners (see above) and doesn’t require a long-term investment of your time.

Yes, you will initially have to (gasp!) get out there and talk with your business neighbors, partners and board members but since you’ve read my previous blog postings about developing good relationships, you’re already doing that, right?  This is an easy experiment that has the potential to lead to a new way of funding your important projects and your mission.  If nothing else, this gives you a great excuse to get out and talk to those business partners again.  Remember…if this model works for you, it could reduce your future asks to that business partner.

But Don’t Bother If…

…your primary mission is to keep yourself in business (versus addressing your cause), because NedWater isn’t interested in your kind.  And if your internal dialogue right now sounds something like, “But I’m not in sales and I’m certainly not in the water business…”, you should probably take a pass, too.  This undertaking is only for those courageous enough to put themselves out there, try something new and understand inherently that it’s a risk….but one that could reap big rewards.

Next Steps

I personally am going to keep a close eye on the progress of NedWater and encourage you to do the same.   NedWater’s new definition of CSR,  “Commodities Spur Revolution” may just leverage our dependence on commodities for good.

To sign up for NedWater service in your office or to inquire about their Affiliate program, connect with Perry via email or Twitter.

P.S.  Some of you may know that I’m one of the hosts of the new marketing podcast, The Naked Marketers, where we dish on all things marketing, cover relevant news, discuss the tools we’re loving and interview interesting people. Perry was one of the people we interviewed recently.  You can hear our interview with him by downloading the podcast here.

-@MeganStrand

Seventh Generation Co-Founder  Jeffrey Hollender was recently interviewed by Olivia Khalili of Cause Capitalism.  I was so impressed after listening to just 8 minutes of the interview that I went out and purchased his new book, The Responsibility Revolution.

Speaking of Competition…
I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that the Co-Founder of this green household products company boasting $150 million in sales is living his core purpose through this company, but I was still darned impressed when the topic turned to the accomplishments of which Hollender was most proud.  The first thing he mentioned was the emergence of competition in his market niche.

Hollender’s take:  “…if we fail to create competition, if we fail to get other businesses to move in this direction, we will really not have made much of a difference at all.   I am thrilled that so many businesses are moving in this direction and creating more direct competitors for Seventh Generation.”  Yeah.  Impressive perspective I don’t think you hear often from the mouths of CEOs (or a Chief Inspired Protagonist, as Hollender is known).

I take inspiration from Hollender’s message because I guess on the inside, I’m still a teeny bit cynical that small, passionate companies can grow into large companies that remember who they are.  Hollender’s welcoming of competitors as an indicator that they’re on the right path is a page from the annals of a utopian society where abundance rules supreme  – a world in which I personally want to live.

It strikes me that perhaps this philosophy should be our collective litmus test of whether our corporate social responsibility (or cause marketing) efforts are worth our time, resources and passion.  Would it be considered a good thing if your CSR initiatives caught on en masse and spread like wildfire?  If the answer is, “no”, then perhaps either we’re either undertaking these efforts for the wrong reasons or, at the end of the day, they’re not worth doing.

An Example of a Custom-Branded Gift Card

So today I met with Josh Warren, President and Founder of OvationWorx Inc., a company devoted to “…helping companies engage, motivate, and reward those who matter to them most” – namely employees, customers and sales staff.  And let me tell you, I’m beyond excited about our conversation (If you’re a Development Officer in a medium to large Non-Profit organization, trust me…you’re going to want to read this post all the way through).

Pioneer of the term, “SRM”, or “Sales Recognition Management”, OvationWorx is in business to revolutionize the way reward and incentive programs are implemented and managed.

After witnessing firsthand the dismal state of affairs that exists today in current sales incentive and employee motivation programs (think catalog of random items where a toaster oven costs 50,000 “points” or a non-motivating sales reward trip the same guy wins each year), Josh Warren and co-founder John Cava figured there had to be a better way.  Solution:  a strategic reward and incentive program featuring brand-able AmEx gift cards, redeemable at over 170 selected retail, travel and entertainment establishments of the employee’s choice and a back-end platform to manage incentive programs for sales staff, employees or customers.

Josh can talk for hours on the benefits of this type of reward and incentive program (they’re more green, have a proven ROI, research supports using items with “trophy” value versus cash, better employee engagement, etc.) but co-founder John Cava’s summation probably suffices.  “If your company is buying gift cards, we have a better one.”

And companies DO already spend a serious chunk of change for incentive and reward programs, both for employees and customers.  I about choked on my latte when Josh informed me that companies spend over $50 BILLION annually in travel and merchandise programs (around $127 BILLION if you included cash awards).  Wowzers.

Now for the part that I think is WAY cool about OvationWorx and an opportunity for savvy Development Officers out there.  Josh explained how a non-profit organization might capitalize on this type of program with their business partners.

Say I’m a Development Officer and one of my partners is a major car dealership.  I work with OvationWorx to produce a customized gift card featuring my non-profit organization, put my logo on it and the logo of the car dealership.  Then the car dealership purchases gift cards as a promotion and hands them out to customers doing a test drive.   As a monetary benefit, the non-profit organization gets a fixed amount per gift card purchased and a percentage when the card is redeemed.   The car dealership is able to offer an incentive to customers AND let them know a portion of the proceeds benefits the non-profit organization.

And it gets better.  Say my non-profit organization also has a business partner in the insurance industry.  As the Development Officer, I turn around and use the same custom-branded gift cards and use the insurance company logo this time.  The insurance company then uses these gift cards for their sales incentives programs, mentioning that a portion of the proceeds benefits the non-profit organization.  Again, the non-profit organization gets a monetary reward and some additional visibility.  The insurance company gets a more effective way to execute and track their sales incentives programs AND the added benefit of showing their employees their commitment to the community.

You could do this all day long with a variety of partners.

I love this for several reasons:

-       Flexible.  This gift card program gives the non-profit organization a way to think creatively and proactively on behalf of their business partners.  There are endless ways to use gift cards for employee incentive programs, length of service awards, sales force incentives and contests, customer incentives or rewards…the list goes on and on.

-       Proactive.  We all know this is a new economy.  Many employers are downsizing and are challenged to effectively motivate the employees that remain.  “Employee Engagement” is the new buzzword in human resource circles.  “Sales 2.0” is all about helping your sales force become more productive.  These gift cards are about helping your partners help themselves (while helping you, the non-profit organization, as a low-maintenance added benefit).

-       Classy.  How cool would it be to have a visual of your non-profit organization front and center in someone’s wallet, carried around with them daily and referred to often?  Oh, and these gift cards are reloadable, so it’s entirely possible the shelf life would be long.  What a great visual anchor to have your logo subtly associated with someone’s billfold!  ‘Nuf said.

-       Recruitment Tool.  Think how powerful this gift card program would be as a recruitment tool for new potential partners.  It’s different, highly visible, valuable to a partner and simple to implement.

So, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner (I know, I know…it seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the ever-important Groundhog’s Day!) and I don’t know about you, but outside of conversation hearts, I find it a pretty useless “Hallmark Holiday”, all dressed up in a doily.

It’s too bad because isn’t Valentine’s Day supposed to be about love?  Expressing love for those in your life you hold most dear? Or at least appreciation?  It seems this holiday is just not living up to its full potential.

Here are 7 ways to raise the bar for this holiday and make this year’s Valentine’s Day an opportunity to give from the heart for personal or professional reasons.

1)  Buy a gift card from TisBest.org (or win one by reading this blog…read on!) Purchase a gift card from TisBest.org and the recipient of the your gift gets to decide to which charity the donation is directed.  You can even customize the look of the gift card with your own photos or artwork and send giftcards via email or snail mail.  The selection of 250 charities is ample and well-categorized. This gift is meaningful on a personal or professional level.

2)  Parents, check this out. Instead of purchasing the typical Valentine’s Cards for your kids to bring to school, consider making a donation to Save the Children to receive this set of 25 Valentine’s Cards, created with artwork done by children.  I like these cards because they’re a simple way to help you raise awareness with your own kids.

3) Kids will also enjoy creating hand
made “Love Letters” to send to Random
Cards of Kindness that get sent
to children with life-threatening illnesses.

4) Enjoy a great home-cooked meal
…at a soup kitchen.  Many soup kitchens
offer opportunities for groups or individuals to come in and serve a meal.  If you’ve not done this before, it’s an amazingly rewarding opportunity.  Doing this with a group, employees and/or your kids is great fun.  Check your local volunteer bank or Volunteer Match or 1-800-Volunteer.

5) Drop a note to the people in your life that you love and appreciate.  A meaningful one.  Remember all those people that don’t often get a “thank-you”…your favorite barista, professional vendor, childcare provider, co-worker, Sunday school teacher or blogger.  In today’s technology-driven society, a hand-written note speaks volumes.

6) Go for a run with or on behalf of someone you love.  Check out Active.com’s list of runs near you.  Most race entry fees go toward a worthy cause.

7) If you must purchase a product, think sustainably.  Elaine Gast has outlined a great list of Fair Trade Chocolates and other gift suggestions.

So this year, take a different approach to Valentine’s Day.  Who knows?  It just might become a favorite holiday after all.

To win a $25 gift card to give to your Valentine, submit a comment below with your favorite Valentine’s Day memory or an idea for a more heartfelt Valentine’s Day.  I’ll pick one on February 4th and we’ll get the TisBest.org gift card sent directly to you!

It’s a changing economy, folks, everyone recognizes that.  The way we do work is changing, the way we interact, our view of “security” – all evolving toward something we’re just beginning to understand.  In his new book “Linchpin”  (awesome read by the way), Seth Godin explains, “We can’t get profitably more average.  We can’t get more homogenized, more obedient, or cheaper.  We can’t get faster, either.” Godin posits that those who rule this new playing field, the “Linchpins”, will do so by being more human, more authentic and more willing to share their unique gifts.  I’ll add that Linchpins also need to communicate from this place.  Clearly, simply and authentically.

It appears that consumers agree.

For all of you that need a little “proof” (or need proof for your clients) that authentic communication is critical and community partnerships or mutually beneficial marketing is essential, let’s take a look at Edelman’s 2010 Trust Barometer survey .  It primarily asked consumers about corporations, but the findings reflect current consumer sentiment and may be relevant to any organization.

According to this survey, only 17 percent of consumers found corporate or product advertising to be credible.  Think about THAT before you dump a whole ton of cash into your next advertising campaign.  When asked about the credibility of corporate communications “such as press releases, reports, and emails as sources of information”, numbers rose to 32 percent, still lagging behind stock/industry analysts (49 percent) and articles in business magazines (44 percent).

So what can organizations (small business, entrepreneurs, non-profits organizations) do to increase their level of consumer trust (assuming they’re an organization that operates from a solid core purpose with solid products or services)?  Although Edelman’s report is chock full of revealing information, we’ll focus in on two general areas:  communication and strategic community partnerships.

1)  Communicate frequently.  Yeah, I know…duh.  In terms of transparency and trust, this may well be one of the most important factors in the “trust” equation.  When your clients and partners know what you’re up to on a regular basis, they don’t have to fill in the blanks.  Not to mention that you have a better shot at remaining top of mind.

Seventy-five percent of consumers ranked “Communicate frequently” as a critical factor to corporate reputation.  Edelman’s 2009 Trust Barometer Survey revealed, “…people need to hear something about a company three to five times to believe its veracity.”  They appropriately mention the importance of a multi-platform approach (think:  a strategy that includes HARO, a blog, Twitter, Facebook, website, video, etc.).  With the tools available to all of us today, “multi-platform” no longer equals “expensive”.  Do you take every opportunity possible to communicate with your stakeholders?

2)  Partner up.  Identifying a like-minded community partner is a fantastic way to leverage resources, pool ideas and get something truly remarkable done and done well.  I personally like the term “Mutually Beneficial Marketing”, since it implies that everyone needs to get involved.

According to Edelman, about 56 percent of US respondents cite non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as trustworthy.  What’s more, looking back to Edelman’s 2009 goodpurpose Report, a whopping 67 percent of Americans agreed that companies should “integrate good causes into their day-to-day business”.  And not only do they expect good things from the companies with whom they interact, they’re willing to pitch in as well.  Sixty-one percent of Americans said they’d “help a brand promote their products or services if there is a good cause behind them.”  Ummm…cool!

So, non-profit organizations, grab this data and find a worthy local business.  Businesses, grab this data and find a worthy local non-profit organization.

The days of companies barking down at the masses from on high are over.  The good news for small to mid-sized organizations is that the playing field has never been more level, provided you’re clear on your purpose.  Opportunities to make an impression…your impression…abound.  And it turns out that old-fashioned values like honesty truly are the best policy.

When offered the chance to donate to the
Acumen Fund in exchange for getting an
advanced copy of Seth Godin’s book,
Linchpin, I jumped at the chance.

In true practice-what-you-preach form,
Godin sent several emails after my
donation letting me know the status
of my book shipment.  When I received
the book, there was a letter included
from Godin which shocked me by
commencing, “The scariest words an
author can write are, ‘here’s my new
book.’”  I thought, Seth Godin…scared?  Cool.
I was hooked from the start.  Even after I realized that what I was reading was the table of contents.  I devoured the book in a day and a half.  Then I went back to re-read and take notes.  It’s THAT profound.

I’ve written a letter to you and to everyone in response to this book.

Dear Everyone I’ve Ever Cared About or Ever Will,

Have you ever wondered why you were put on this earth?  Even in passing?  Questioned whether you were making the most of your potential?  I have.  I do.

Because I see the genius in you that sometimes you forget to acknowledge, I have a recommendation for you.  It’s a book called Linchpin by Seth Godin.  Out the 26^th of January, just 6 days from now.  Get it.  Read it.  Read it again.  My hope is that it will inspire and educate you as it has me.

I won’t attempt to do Godin’s concepts justice by summarizing them here.  But know this.  The world needs your unique talents and your voice now more than ever.  You’re hard-wired to resist this “risky” contribution to society but you have the choice to overcome this resistance.  To deliver on your own greatness.  To dream big.  Draw your own map.  Whether you’re self-employed or an employee, this book will change your perspective.  If you have kids or work with kids, it’s a must-read.

Stand up to embrace your role as a “Linchpin” and join the ranks of those changing the world in their own special way.  And, please, once you’ve opened the door to inspiration, let me know so we can walk this road together.

It’s not often that I recommend books this strongly.  So do me, yourself and mankind a favor and check this one out!

1)  Choose a camera.  Please, please, please don’t get too hung up on this. Rumor has it that the best camera for a small budget is the Kodak Zi8 . Priced at around $180, it’s better than the Flip Cam for online video in that it allows you to use an external mic jack (you’ll have to purchase a mic separately) whereas the Flip doesn’t.  Surprisingly, audio will be your biggest concern in producing online video.  Quality audio will be the factor to ramp up the level of your professionalism significantly.  For larger budgets or tech enthusiasts, check out CNet’s reviews of video cameras as a starting point.

2)  Determine the subject of your video.  Outside of a basic sales video, consider giving some “tips” to customers for free.  What are the top questions you get asked in your business?  Answer those questions in your video(s).  If you want to go all-out on video, Traffic Geyser has an amazing program.

3)  Keep your videos short and sweet.  Remember that attention spans run low, especially on the internet.  Research from comScore shows that the average amount of time viewers spent viewing online videos was 3.5 minutes.

4)  Zoom to an appropriate capture.  Remember that when you’re viewing online video, the viewing window is small.   If you’re zoomed too far out, faces will be hard to distinguish and viewers may lose interest.  Zoom too far in and you’ll scare your viewers!  Try waist-up or chest-up shots for online video.

5)  Keep your backgrounds tasteful and simple.  If you’ve got too much going on in the background, it will distract from your message.

6)  Use ample lighting.  Again, it doesn’t need to be professional grade lighting but plenty of light will increase the quality of your video.

7)  Include a call to action.  After viewing your video, what do you want people to do?  Sign up for your newsletter?  Download a free ebook?  This needs to be part of your marketing strategy – ask viewers to take one step.

8)  Practice.  Shoot it until you’re fully satisfied with your video.  Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression.  Pay attention to body language, volume levels, excitement and enthusiasm for your product.  Imagine you’re a potential client watching the video for the first time…would you be compelled to take the next step based on your video alone?

9)  Upload your videos in as many places as you can.  Your website, obviously, but also sites like YouTube , Google Video, and YahooVideo.  Remember to tag your video with relevant keywords and titles so interested viewers can find you!

I can’t stress enough the importance of getting started.  I know several professionals with all the latest video equipment, access to recording studios, green screen technology and professional lighting.  Guess how many videos they have on their own website?  Yup.  Zero.  Don’t get trapped in analysis paralysis – grab a camera and get shooting!

Think of Ning as a customizable Facebook.  A “create your own” online community, if you will.

The free version will allow you to create your own network and invite friends in about 5 minutes.  And it’ll drop ads onto your community.  For a mere $24.95 you can upgrade and go ad free (my preference).  However, with Ning, you go it alone.  If you’d like personal responses to your inquiries, you’ll pay $10/month for a personal account and $100/month for a professional account.

Once you’ve created a community, the site’s your oyster!  Feel free to customize all the tabs at the top, add or remove features to your community or create subgroups within the community.  These subgroups can be open to anyone or they can be permission-only to restrict access and content.  You can remain the moderator of these subgroups or you can give moderator rights to another member of the community.

The interface is customizable, you decide what people see on any given page.  Want videos front and center?  You got it.  Prefer the Forum up top?  No problem.  Again, you designate who is abje to view and post.

Like Facebook, each member gets their own page that they can customize as they’d like and can find “friends” within the community.  Also like Facebook, you have the flexibility to create events and have people respond to them.

Online communitites are a great way to activate your customer base assuming you’re providing an online forum for something in demand.  And think outside the box on this one.  Pass up the opportunity to offer just a “Company x’s Customers” community and instead use this portal as a place to figurevout what people really want out of your industry.  Then provide some great content, find some great moderators to help your content stay fresh and away you go!

Here’s the challenge with that.  Time and money.  We only have so much of each.  When we choose to “do it all”, we spread ourselves and our resources too thin.  And sometimes we risk confusing the very customers we’re trying to woo.  Here’s an example.  Perhaps your passion is making cupcakes but you think cupcakes alone may not draw the revenue you need to sustain your business.  So you decide to sell brownies and coffee drinks, as well.  Now instead of focusing on the one thing at which you’re truly gifted…making cupcakes, now you’re forced to spend time and energy and resources either getting up to speed on making brownies and coffee drinks or finding the right vendor to whom to outsource these products.  Instead of the best cupcake-maker in town, you’ve now established yourself as another middle-of-the-road coffee shop that happens to have some good cupcakes.  See how the message gets lost?

As entrepreneurs, part of our challenge in staying focused has to do with our desire to be doing something new and novel.  We are easily bored and constantly need a challenge and a change of scenery.  Sometimes we forget what we do best and forget that there are plenty of people out there that haven’t been introduced to our product or service yet.  Of course we need to remain challenged, but the trick is to grow and expand and experiment around a central focus point to ensure our message stays strong.  We need to be known as the “expert” in a particular area, be it cupcakes or social marketing tools.

A better strategy is to start small and focused.  Introduce a product and give it a solid foundation.  Figure out what works with your customers.  Make sure you know who your best customers are.  Then take the learnings from that strategy, tweak it to make it better and then roll out the next product using the same steps.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Take a moment today and put yourself in the place of your customers.  Do they know what to expect from you?  That new project you’re considering…is it in line with who you are to your valued customers?  Your blog postings, your Tweets, your Facebook postings…are they working to solidify your message?  To communicate who you are and what you believe?  Or might they be confusing to a customer?

And so this letter got me thinking about perfection.  The opportunity cost of perfection.  The difference between excellence and perfection.

Interestingly, when I looked up “perfection” in Wikipedia, it provided pages upon pages of historical origins, references, contexts – so much more than I could have imagined.  One of the things that stood out to me was under the “Physics and Chemistry” subheading.  Various concepts of “perfection” were outlined – many of which were not naturally occurring but rather an ideal…states that didn’t exist unless chemically manipulated.  For example, “The physicist designates as a perfectly rigid body, one that ‘is not deformed by forces applied to it.’ He uses the concept in the full awareness that this is a fictitious body, that no such body exists in nature. The concept is an ideal construct.”  Or  “A perfect fluid is one that is incompressible and non-viscous — this, again, is an ideal fluid that does not exist in nature.”

And isn’t this what we, as a society, have attempted to do?  To appear perfect, like my friend’s Christmas card, we manipulate our own reality….to our friends, to our family, to our customers.  I read, with horror, that Jennifer Hudson lip-synched her perfect rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl and that the inaugural performance by Yo-Yo-Ma and Itzhak Perlman was pre-recorded.  Does excellence have to equal perfection?  And at what cost?  How much effort and time are you putting into this manipulation – into appearing to be something you’re not?

The other part of the Wikipedia history lesson that I found incredibly interesting was the historical paradox of perfection and the theory that true perfection was, in fact, imperfection.  That if the world were truly perfect, there would be nothing to strive for, nothing to improve upon.  Think about this from your own experience.  You’re probably the person you are today, the business owner you are today because of the lessons you’ve learned from the past.  Somehow I doubt you’d label those lessons as examples of your own personal perfection.

And here’s the thing about manipulating reality to conjure up this smokescreen of perfection.  No one’s buying it.  And if they do buy it, they’ll pass you by because they can’t relate.  By creating a zip code in Perfectville in which your family or your business supposedly lives, you build walls that alienate you from “your people”.  And trust me, you need “your people”.

Now, all this being said, consider an alternate definite of perfection:  that which completely achieves its purpose, or that which is fully harmonious.  Now these are definitions of perfection that may be worth striving for.  But this assumes you know your purpose and refer to it often.  It assumes you know the elements that must be in harmony in your business and your life.  It assumes a “realness” that not everyone is ready to reveal.  It takes courage to strive for this type of perfection.  So go ahead, be the perfectionist – just change your definition of perfection.

Dear Small Business Owner.

It’s the end of the calendar year and yes, I know you’re all caught up in the holiday season but I’d like to take this opportunity to remind you that, very soon, you’ll be needing to deal with me – your money.  Whether you earned a lot of me last year or lost me, the fact of the matter is that, as a small business owner or even a contractor, you really need to keep a good handle on me.

So, as we draw to the end of the year, allow me to remind you of a few critical details because, as you know, I can make or break your business.  And since I know you’re busy, I’ve taken the liberty to gather together a few reading resources for you to make your life easier.

TAXES
Here’s a great primer entitled How to Reduce Your Small Business Tax Bill from Inc. online (note there are multiple pages to this article).  Full of great end-of-year reminders and tips to reduce your tax bill.

Or this easy-to-digest list of  2009 Year-End Tax Tips.  Again, some great reminders and some things you may not know!

The Most-Overlooked Tax Deductions.  This one deals with personal taxes, too, so be sure to give it a read.

ORGANIZING
So maybe you haven’t done the best job keeping track of me last year – 2010 can be a new year.  Here’s a great article offering tips along with applications to keep you organized - written primarily for business travel.

CASH FLOW
And since we all know cash is king, here’s are a few great articles about calculating and improving cash flow.  This first article from BankRate.com is a great primer on calculating and managing cash flow.  If you don’t currently use a cash flow document in your business, you MUST.  This article will get you started.  It’s a simple but often overlooked tool.

This next article from PowerHomeBiz.com is about improving your cash flow.  It’s written from a home business perspective, but its lessons are cross-contextual.

So there you have it – your end-of-year assignment from yours truly.  Oh, and put in a call to that CPA , would ya?
Happy Holidays,

Your Money

A small business owner I know is hosting her newly named “Winter Party” in January this year and getting a 30% discount off the space.  According to a December Wall Street Journal article, a company called Jersey Street Furniture Rental out of Clifton, N.J. is throwing a “Bring Your Own Business” party, selling invitations to small business to “drink, dance and mingle with other small business employees”.  Also mentioned was Proforma Worldwide Support Center – whose executives have offered to scrape snow off of windshields of employees at least once a month this winter.

And then there’s the charitable giving angle (my personal favorite).  An organization I’ve recently been introduced to, TisBest offers charity gift cards where the recipient gets to choose to which of 250 charities the funds are directed.  I love founder Erik Marks’ recent quote from a Seattle Times article, “I think the world would be better if people focused on how to make it better rather than how to get more stuff.”  This is an awesome way to give a personalized gift and give back at the same time (and get a tax deduction!)

Other businesses offer discounts for customers bringing in donations to local food banks or other local charities.  I think probably the best way for small businesses to “give” during the holiday season (or really at any time of year) is to make use of the resources they already have.  I stumbled upon this blog post about an annual “Train the Trainer” fundraiser Momentum Fitness hosts every year to benefit local charities.  Clients make a donation to put their trainer through any exercise – usually the ones they despise the most.  To date, they have “raised over $40,000 and donated over $50,000 in services”.  Not too shabby!

With the need greater than ever, sometimes all it takes is a little out-of-the-box thinking to come up with a pretty amazing holiday season.

When the news first broke about McDonald’s providing free Wi-Fi in an attempt to become more of a community “hang out”, the commentator I was listening to referenced the head to head competition between McDonald’s and Starbucks.  Huh?  What head-to-head competition between McDonald’s and Starbucks?  Seriously?  In my model of the world, that’s like saying Target competes head to head with Barnes and Noble.  Besides clean bathrooms, I was hard-pressed to see how the two were even a comparison.  Apples and oranges in my book.

But this McDonald’s Wi-Fi thing has stuck with me over the past several days.  I mean…think about it.  No offense to McDonald’s, but besides the occasional road-trip or Red Box stop, I don’t spend a lot of time there.  And, come to think of it, the times I have stopped, the place seems incredibly…empty.  Making Wi-Fi free…do they really think it would encourage people to “hang out” there?  But wait, come to think of it…I have a McDonald’s less than a half mile from my house.  And I hate, hate, hate that Starbucks charges $10 to jump onto their Wi-Fi.  Maybe I WOULD hang out there with the carrot of free Wi-Fi.  Could this free Wi-Fi be a good thing?

Then I started thinking about the aforementioned road trip.  How many times have I been out of town, in a desperate search for a coffee shop with Wi-Fi?  Too many to count.  But surely there’s a McDonald’s in even the smallest town.  Score!  This free Wi-Fi thing might actually be a good thing.  It aligns perfectly with McDonald’s reputation for providing consistency.  You know exactly what to expect at any McDonald’s you venture into.  Adding free Wi-Fi as one of those expectations…brilliant!

And then I started thinking about how McDonald’s exists in even the smallest towns where other franchises don’t dare step foot.  And I started wondering what the “McDonald’s Factor” might be in these more rural locations with the addition of free Wi-Fi.  I started thinking about small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs and students who need online access to learn, to research, to apply, to thrive in the 21st century.  This free Wi-Fi thing might actually be a really, really good thing.  The internet opens the door to opportunity, even in the smallest locations.   But not everyone can afford it.  Most people CAN afford a cup of coffee at McDonald’s, however.

It’s a smart business move on the part of McDonald’s.  Implemented correctly, it has the potential to have some pretty interesting social impacts as well.

“When the economy tanks, it’s natural to think of yourself first. You have a family to feed a mortgage to pay. Getting more appears to be the order of business. It turns out that the connected economy doesn’t respect this natural instinct. Instead, we’re rewarded for being generous.”

Page 1 and I’m hooked already.  And this is why I love Seth Godin.  He makes you think.  Somehow he manages to do this using a few short paragraphs.  His eBook is a collection from some amazing thinkers, authors and business minds – some you’ve heard of, some you haven’t.  Most all of them will make you think.  Or laugh.  Or question.  Seth Godin inspires me to be more concise.  To act more strategically.  To be more consistent.  To step into who I am and share my “art”.

Take this free eBook and download it.  Find an essay that speaks to someone in your life – a friend or colleague – and share it.  Print out the essays that speak to you the most directly and post them somewhere you’ll see them often.  Follow some of these great contributors on Twitter (I think I have 8 new people I’m following).  Check out their blogs and their “art”.

Here are a few excerpts from my favorite essays in this eBook.

From Anne Jackson on Fear:
“Until Fear is gone, (and realize he may never completely leave) make the decision to be courageous. The world needs your story in order to be complete.”

From Elizabeth Gilbert (author of my favorite book Eat, Pray, Love) on Ease:
“Dear ones, EASE UP. Pump the brakes. Take a step back. Seriously. Take two steps back. Turn off all your electronics and surrender over all your aspirations and do absolutely nothing for a spell. I know, I know  – we all need to save the world. But trust me: The world will still need saving tomorrow. In the meantime, you’re going to have a stroke soon (or cause a stroke in somebody else) if you don’t calm the hell down.”

From Howard Mann (first I’ve heard of him but am now following on Twitter) on Connection:
“More megaphones don’t equal a better dialogue. We’ve become slaves to our mobile devices and the glow of our screens. It used to be much more simple and, somewhere, simple turned into slow.”

From Steven Pressfield on Tough-Mindedness (I’ve been looking for a topic like this):
“We live in the age of distraction, of Twitter and multi-tasking and short attention spans. Even these micro-essays are part of it. Whereas what produces real work (and happiness for each of us, in my opinion) is depth, focus, concentration and commitment over time.  The antidote to these scattering influences is tough-mindedness, which I define as the ability to draw lines and boundaries within which we protect and preserve the mental and emotional space to do our work and to be true to our selves.”

From Mark Rovner on Timeless:
“Like all good Buddhists, I believe that when things become chaotic and complicated, it becomes ever more urgent to cut through the noise, simplify and hone in on what really matters.”

From J.C. Hutchins on Gumption:
“Declare war on passivity. Hush the inner voice that insists you’re over the hill, past your prime, unworthy of attaining those dreams. Disbelief is now the enemy, as is the notion of settling. Get hungry — hyena hungry. Get fired up. Find your backbone, and your wings.   Flap ‘em. It’s the only way you’ll be able to fly.”

It’s that time of year again.  The days grow shorter as the year draws to a close.  For most of us, it’s a time to celebrate with family and friends and recognize the gifts of the past year.

This time of year often means taking a good hard look at thoughtful gift-giving.  Sometimes it’s business, often personal.  Finding the “perfect gift” seems to get more and more elusive.  For some, finances are tight.  With unemployment at record highs and the financial systems tumbling around the globe, there’s one gift I’d like to recommend that’s always appropriate, often unexpected and more customizable than you might expect:  the gift of giving to those in need.

If you know the recipient’s charity of choice, you might make a donation in their name to that charity.  If you’re considering a gift for business purposes, turn to your mission.  If your mission aligns well with a particular social organization, consider a donation in the name of your clients and send out a card to share your donation.  While not edible, the positive taste it leaves will last much longer than popcorn or chocolate.

Here are some of my favorite, very entrepreneurial-focused charities with a brief explanation of what they’re about.

Kiva – A “person-to-person micro-lending website”.  As the recipient of your gift of a specified loan amount (as low as $25),  I can choose a micro-entrepreneur I’d like my loan monies to benefit by viewing online profiles from around the globe.  At the end of the loan period, the entrepreneurs pay back the loan and the recipient can determine whether to cash it out or re-loan it to another entrepreneur or donate it to Kiva.  A quick browse of the site today shows I could loan $25 to Aisha, a mother of 5 living in Ghana to purchase textiles to sell.  Or loan my $25 to Murotjon, a 27-year old father of 3, living in Tajikistan to purchase seeds and fertilizer for his business.  Just a few out of the hundreds of micro-entrepreneurs listed on the site.

World Vision - If you’re looking for a “customizable” charitable gift, you’re likely to find it at World Vision.  They provide a card for your recipient that they’ll mail to you to give as a gift.  Or, if you’re a last minute person like me, you can also email the card or print it out on your home computer.  Your gift donations can “purchase” a huge variety of donations like:

• Art and Music Instruction for children in countries like El Salvador, Mozambique, and Romania. ($20)
• 2 chickens to provide children and families a lasting source of nutrition and income ($25)
• Maternal health programs in Afghanistan to provide training for midwives, prenatal and ongoing medical care for mothers and children ($25)
• 10 Fruit Trees to provide both needed nutrition and additional income to families in El Salvador, Myanmar, or Zambia ($60)

Just a disclaimer that World Vision is a Christian humanitarian charity organization.

‘Tis the season to be generous.  Remember, there are people who need both your gifts and your support.  What better way to show your generous spirit and help someone in need this holiday season?  Happy Giving!

From the beginning of our relationship with this vendor, we were introduced to the Sales Manager, a gregarious, likable guy with a mean sense of humor that we’ll call “John”.  At the beginning of our relationship, we didn’t have much contact with John, dealing with rotating account reps on our project.  As things started going south, we began having more and more contact with John, bypassing the account reps to deal directly with him.  He was the one person in the vendor organization that leveled with us, seemed to understand our perspective and advocated on our behalf with the Web Developer and CEO.

Even when things got rough and our frustration level grew, he continued to answer the phone…sometimes at odd hours of the night…and talked us off the ledge.  In hindsight, he was put in a terribly difficult position – representing his company while still trying to advocate for us, the customer, even when our position wasn’t popular.  He maintained the only level of professionalism we saw from that vendor after our initial meeting.    We trusted him and felt comfortable continuing to be honest with him.  We kept him in the loop for the most part, even when our attorney got involved.

It would’ve been easier for him to write us off as a “difficult client” and shy away from advocating on our behalf.  It would’ve been easier to lie.  To conceal.  To allow our calls to go unanswered.  But he didn’t.  He stepped up to face the music, played the intermediary between us and the vendor.  To ensure the success of the project.  To ensure that we had a website after investing pretty much all the capital we had.

All the tools we’ve discussed over the past week in this blog are valuable and useful for entrepreneurs and small business owners and can bring your project to the next level, to be sure.  But at the end of the day, it truly does come down to the people with whom you interact.  Their integrity level.  Their belief in what you’re trying to accomplish.  And similarly, your integrity level, your commitment to the project.  So, above all else, pay attention to the people.  Their purpose.  Your purpose.  Do they match?  If not, keep moving.

We were fortunate enough to happen upon a “project angel” in John, for which we remain eternally grateful.  The lessons John taught us about maintaining professionalism and integrity in a firestorm may be the most valuable thing we learned through our tumultuous experience.  At the end of the day, projects get done because outstanding people are committed to getting them done.

At the beginning of a relationship (vendor or customer relationship), you truly want to believe that everyone is coming to the table with the best of intentions.  And perhaps they are.  Feelings are good all around, excitement is high.  You want to trust in the good intentions of the other party.  It can feel like you’re expressing a level of distrust in your vendor or customer when you bring up contractual obligations and point the conversations toward a thorough revision of the contract.  But the beginning of the relationship is precisely the time that these conversations need to happen.

In our “New-Fangled Website” case study, we didn’t spend the appropriate time thinking about and reading our contract line by line.  We read it, of course, but didn’t spend time devoting actual thought and risk analysis that we needed to ensure our own security in the relationship.  And we paid the price.  In time.  In resources.  In missed deadlines.  In not having an “out”.  Not even controlling our own assets.  In attorney fees.

Contract Management is a concept that is proactive in nature.  It basically views the contract as a living, breathing entity that needs to be monitored, similar to any other important milestone in the project.  The contractual relationship between parties should also reference the scope document, roles and responsibilities, including meetings, milestones, etc. so that everyone is on the same page.  A trick used by contract managers is to develop a contract “check list” based off the actual contract that provides an at-a-glimpse look at important deliverables, milestones, etc.

Important changes to the project must also be documented in the contract.  Typically it’s a good idea to have one individual responsible for the contract administration and management.  In a small business or start-up setting, this may be the CEO or Owner or designated Project Manager.

Consider the contract as important to your project (or really any part of your business) as your scope document or WBS.  The typical pattern is that the contract sits up on a shelf…until something goes wrong.  In a panic, the contract is dug up from whatever file it lives in, scoured through and held up as “proof” of your position in a conflict.  Or, in worst case scenario, you realize with dread that you have no legal standing whatsoever.  Proactive contract management ensures that everyone is on the same page from the beginning and that, as a small business owner or entrepreneur, you’re well aware of your rights and obligations.  It won’t prevent all challenges from occurring but, well done, can protect your interests if a challenge does arise.

So, give yourself a pat on the back! You’ve gotten your project organized with a WBS. Don’t you feel like you OWN this project now? Like it’s well-organized and you can see all the moving pieces? Now it’s time to spend some effort on estimating, which will now be worlds easier since you’ve broken your project down into smaller chunks. Why do we take precious time to estimate? Well, again, it goes back to money and time. Unless you have both of these resources in excess, which most entrepreneurs and small businesses don’t, you really need to get a handle on both costs and time to make sure they don’t run out of control. Estimating helps us do this. So, take a look at your lowest level of your WBS, where the actual work happens. If at all possible, ask the person who will actually be DOING the work to provide an estimate of time and cost. I know that it seems obvious but many a project has gotten out of hand because the big entrepreneur says, “This will only take a day to complete, when the reality is more like a week.” Same with costs. When estimating costs at this level, ask your team for a range of -5 to +10 of actual. Again, providing a good structure within which to work will set your team up for success. By turning to your team as the authority, they will continue to feel vested and accountable for the project, always a critical component of project success.

Fast forward to your completed time and cost estimates. Now what? It’s time to sequence your activities.* What are the dependencies of your project? For example, let’s say you’re building a house. You obviously can’t frame the house without pouring the foundation. But how long does it take to dig for the foundation, pour it and allow it to dry? What’s the next immediate step that can happen after all of this is completed? You get the idea. In your projects, what are the dependencies? What must be completed in order for the next step to happen? What things can happen in parallel? In the Project Management world, another graphical depiction is used to show dependencies within your project and is called the network diagram (see diagram). When you add the time estimates you just came up with to this network diagram, you can determine the holy grail of Project Management called the Critical Path.

Put simply, the critical path considers the dependencies and is the calculation of the longest path through the network diagram. And why do we care about that? Because it’s the shortest possible time to complete the project. And that assumes that you care about the project getting done as quickly as possible, as most entrepreneurs and small business owners do. Let’s simplify this a bit. So, say you have activities A, B, C and D. “A” must be complete before “B” can start. “B” must be complete before “C” can start. “D” can happen at any time. So you line up your project resources to ensure that A, B and C are lined up to happen in sequence without delay between them. Again, this seems intuitive, but too many projects to mention come in late and over budget because no one bothered to take the Critical Path into consideration.

Here’s an example (ok, it’s a slight exaggeration on a real example from the “New Fangled Website” case study). You’re putting certification videos online for credit. Everything is done, the videos filmed and edited, rendered into web-compatible format. Your quizzes are complete and loaded online. The website is ready to go. You’re advertising a specific launch date. You’ve known all along that you need to get these videos certified by the national organization that issues the credit you’re offering but you waited until the last step to handle that. What you didn’t realize was that it would take 45 days for the national organization to approve your videos. Oops. Bye-bye launch date. You now have an unnecessary 45-day delay because you didn’t plot out the critical path and estimate the time that step would take. Really, submitting the videos for approval should’ve occurred much sooner in the process. But if you carry this example one step further you realize that certification can’t happen until the videos are complete because the national organization needs something to approve, right? Real projects often get complicated and steps do loop back and forth like this example. This is why plotting out the network diagram is a critical step in most projects, as is estimating your time and costs.

These project management tools we’re outlining really are means to an end. The end is obviously a successful project for your small business or start-up, but in order to achieve that end, clear communication and expectations are essential. It’s about taking the time to plan your projects well. None of this is rocket science but in the small business or entrepreneurial environment, the old adage holds true, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

*As an aside, depending on the complexity of your project, you can get WAY geeked out in Project Management lingo in the realm of drawing network diagrams and determining the critical path, float and slack, etc. If you do have a complex project, you might consider investing in Microsoft Project, which calculates all of these things for you. This intention of this post is to give a GENERAL overview of these concepts.

There’s a technical tool in Project
Management called the
“Work Breakdown Structure”
(WBS) that can be incredibly
useful when planning
projects of any size.  It’s a
seemingly intuitive process
but I bet you didn’t use it on
your last project (unless you’re a Project Manager by trade).  As an entrepreneur or small business owner, have you ever worked on a project in your business where forgotten items kept cropping up, things that really should have been identified at the beginning of the project?  Or been involved with a project that just seemed hard to get organized and where redundancies were the norm?  Or how about a project that had severe cost or time overruns?  Or what about a project where no one seems clear on their role and work gets duplicated or overlooked?  A Work Breakdown Structure helps to solve these problems and helps the project team maintain some semblance of sanity.  In an entrepreneurial or small business setting where individuals tend to wear more than one hat, this tool can be a Godsend.

Here’s how it works:  the entire project is subdivided into hierarchical tiers based on project outcomes (see diagram).  So you start with the project as a whole and break it down into manageable chunks that get progressively more specific the further down the structure you go.  The key to this process is to envision every step of the outcome as you’d like it to end up and ensure that all the work it would take to reach that outcome is detailed out below it.  And, yes, you do this at the beginning of the project, though certainly it can be amended as you move through the project.  You can consider the WBS as almost a graphical translation of the Scope Statement.

Back to our case study.  In hindsight, I truly believe that our project was underbid by our vendor.  While they crafted a preliminary scope statement, they were certainly NOT using a WBS.  Had they taken the time to create one, they probably would’ve had a much more realistic idea of what our website and video platform would cost to develop and how long it would take.  And perhaps putting one person’s name next to every single item contained within the scope statement wasn’t a great idea, either.

The benefits of this process to entrepreneurs and small business owners are many.  First, it provides additional clarity to the Project Team.  It’s much easier to look at a visual representation of a project and see what’s missing or out of place.  Next, it makes estimating much easier, both of time and financial resources.  For example, imagine trying to come up with a cost estimate for “New Affiliate Program Launch” versus “Graphic Design for Affiliate Logo”.  Similarly, assigning roles is much simpler with this graphical representation.  Also, it allows team members to see how their role fits into the larger project.  When you can see that someone else is counting on your piece to be completed on time and on budget so that they can complete their piece on time and on budget so the entire project can be completed on time and on budget, it provides for a greater sense of purpose and motivation versus the “cog in the wheel” mentality.

The other cool part of a WBS is that you can more easily see where processes can be systematized.  If a document or process needs to be created in one area of the WBS, odds are good that it can be adapted for another area.  It naturally facilitates cross-collaboration.

Try it on the next project you begin and note the difference in efficiency and increase in your own sanity!

I find this concept a fascinating one in the world of Project Management and an area often overlooked by entrepreneurs and small business owners.  My theory on this is that entrepreneurs and small business owners are optimistic by nature – we like to visualize what will go right.  We believe in our business and our products – that’s why we subject ourselves to the often overwhelming responsibility of doing it on our own.  We know it will all work out for the best.  So when it comes to risk identification, this isn’t an intuitive exercise for entrepreneurs and small business owners, we’re not naturally hard-wired to look for what might go wrong.  But it is an exercise that fits right into our problem-solving nature and a critical one if you want your project to succeed.

Back to our case study.  A little risk identification would’ve helped us out immensely.  Back to yesterday’s posting about the not obvious but critical oversight in choosing our vendor.  Did you catch it?  Some risk identification would’ve caught this for sure.  It’s a very technical term called “putting all your eggs in one basket”.  We were so excited that we found a vendor who could both design our website AND handle our video delivery system.  A little risk identification and old fashioned naysaying probably would’ve prompted us to say, “What if our vendor ends up not delivering to our expectations?”  And right there, in that question, we could’ve eliminated MONTHS of headache, lawyer bills and a Christmas present from my business partner…a voodoo doll with the vendor logo artfully taped to the head.  Because, and hear me on this, the most obvious solution to “What if our vendor is the pits?” is, “Have a backup”.  The next solution is, “Split the functional areas of the project between two vendors.  Find one vendor to do the web design and find a completely separate vendor to handle the video delivery system…that way, if one fails to deliver, the entire project doesn’t come to a standstill”.  And the final solution is, “Make sure you’re getting periodic source code updates (the back-end code to the custom design of our website)”.  Any combination of the above solutions would’ve changed our entire experience.  But then I wouldn’t be writing this, now would I?

As it turned out, we had major, major delays and cost over-runs.  We ended up 4 months behind schedule.  But we were $10,000 into a project without recourse.  No source code.  No website.  No where to go except start over from scratch or hang in there and try to play nice with a vendor we now despised.  Part of this was due to our insufficient scope document.  And part of it was due to not conducting an appropriate risk identification, assessment and response plan.

So, in an ideal world, here’s how it should’ve played out:  we would’ve received the scope statement; reviewed our recordings and added what was missing from our initial discussion.  Conducted an internal risk identification process and either decided not to move forward with all or some of the work from that particular vendor or written in specific source code delivery dates with penalties attached for non-delivery.  It would’ve been a very different experience.

So that’s how the risk exercise goes when working with your projects.  Play the naysayer (just for a little while).  Come up with options should you find yourself in any of the “worst case scenarios” you identified.  Go back and revise your scope statement and/or project plan if necessary.  That way, when less-than-ideal situations do occur, you’re prepared to implement a “Plan B” and keep the project moving forward.

Today we dive into the realm of something we’ve all undoubtedly heard of but probably don’t know nearly enough about:  the project scope statement.  As personally painful as this may be for me, I’ll share with you why we learned SO very much about the importance of a scope statement.  So there we were…looking for a vendor to develop our website and video delivery system…as if by fate, the President of our organization got a cold call from a company based out of Phoenix, Arizona delivering solutions for…guess what?!?  Website development and online video delivery platforms!  Hallelujah!  It’s a miracle!  God himself has dropped down from the heavens and put a vendor directly in our laps.  It must be a sign that we’re destined to do this.  And even more fortunate for us, we found a vendor that can do BOTH the website development AND the video delivery system – how awesome is THAT?!

We have numerous conversations with this company and their sales manager.  We like them.  A lot.  They speak our language and say “no problem!” as we describe our project aspirations.  We’re hooked.  We decide that if we’re going to do business with this company, we should really go and meet with them in person in Phoenix.  We book our flights.  We travel to Phoenix.  We meet with their sales manager and their lead web developer.  We all go to lunch.  We spend hours describing how we want the website to function, what features we’re hoping for.  The reporting we need.  The “back end” functionality of the site.  The video quality.  And on, and on, and on.  The developer takes copious notes and reads them all back to us.  We’re so excited!  This is going to be so great!   He really “gets it”.  We part ways and they promise to pull together a quote based on our discussions and send it to us ASAP.  We leave Phoenix elated – here we go!

We get back home.  I’m nervous because I know their final quote will end up being significantly more than their initial quote, now that they thoroughly understand our expectations.  Their proposal comes back with what appears to be a detailed outline of our website.  It has a price tag attached to the proposal, about double the initial quote, an amount we can all live with.  We all look at one another and say, “Should we go for it?”  The consensus is a resounding “yes!”  We call the company and accept their proposal and ask what the next steps would be.

At about this point, you should start to raise your eyebrows.  In hindsight, a few oversights are glaringly obvious to me. One, we didn’t do our homework on our vendors.  Not only did we NOT have more than one option to consider, we decided to work with this company based upon the fact that we LIKED them.  Bad move.  Did we check their client references?  Nope.  They mentioned to us that they were working with some pretty well-known celebrities…in their RADIO division.  They showed us one website they had worked on that contained some video.  Why this would suffice as sufficient proof of their quality baffles me.  Always, always, always…and I mean ALWAYS ask to see samples of similar project outcomes.  Ask to speak with satisfied clients that have long since completed their projects with the vendor.  Ask those clients how closely they meet their time and cost parameters.  Ask about their quality process.  Ask about customer service.  Ask any question you can think to ask.  We didn’t do this and sincerely regretted it and pretty quickly.  We later found out that we were essentially this company’s FIRST client in the video delivery realm.  Zero track record.  We discovered that the web developer was the brother of the CEO and that they feuded over resources.  We learned that almost every employee in the company was a high school friend of the brothers.  Not to say we would have discovered ALL of this in advance, but probably a good portion of it.

I’m going to leave the less-obvious but almost deadly oversight in the excerpt above for my posting on risk identification.  Did you catch it?

Back to the project…we get a scope statement from the vendor and it looks pretty good.  We take a look over the contract and again, it seems reasonable.  The scope statement is an addendum to the contract.  50% due up front, 50% upon completion. Anticipated due date for the website.  Some standard contractual language about liability and arbitration.  Nothing fancy.  We feel good about the contract, add a few things in about the streaming service we want and hand over the company credit card.

And again…here your eyes should be popping out of your head.  Your scope statement looks “pretty good”?  Your contract “seems reasonable”?  No, no, no!  You DID say this project was pretty much 100% of your business product, didn’t you?  This is supposed to be the lifeblood of your organization and you spend what seems like 10 minutes on the scope statement and contract?  Something is seriously wrong here!

Let’s do some analysis in hindsight.  Here was our #1 mistake.  We had no framework against which to analyze our scope document.  We should have been pouring over those documents with a fine-toothed comb.  So here’s the deal, folks.  If it’s not in the scope statement, it’s not in the project. If it’s not written down and documented very specifically, assume it won’t happen.  Had we looked at our scope statement and contract through this lens, I guarantee we would’ve spent a little more time with them!  You should do the same, whether you’re dealing with a vendor or not.

From here on out, consider the scope statement as the blueprint of your Project.  The purpose of a scope statement is to get everyone on the same page and make sure everyone that comes in contact with the project is very, very clear on how the planning and execution of the project will play out.  What if you only have 2 people in your organization?  Or what if it’s just you?  Doesn’t matter.  A scope statement is about getting clear about what the project IS and what the project ISN’T.  It’s a resource to refer back to throughout the project as a guiding document.  Obviously the more important the project, the more detailed the scope statement.  Small projects still need scope statements but you won’t need a wheelbarrow to carry it around.

So how did this play out for us in our case study?  Not well.  Remember our first meeting with all those “detailed notes” on things such as reporting and back-end functionality?  Yeah…those didn’t quite make it into the scope statement.  So when it came time for us to ask where they were, the vendor pointed at the scope statement and claimed it was “out of scope”.  This, of course, infuriated us, but really, at the end of the day, it was our responsibility to ensure that scope document represented exactly what we wanted.  If I had it to do all over again, I would have recorded our session with the web developer and, upon receiving the preliminary scope statement, would have reviewed the recording to ensure every last detail was spelled out in the scope document.

You may be thinking that you don’t have the time to put into developing a detailed scope statement.  But unless you prefer to spend more time and more money than you’d like for a project that doesn’t meet your quality standards I highly, highly recommend you make the time to put a concerted effort into developing this document.  If you’re in the business of delivering customized products or services to your clients or if you use vendors to purchase customized products or services, this could seriously make or break your business.

Tips For Creating Your Project Scope Statement for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses

-Yes, you need a scope statement.  No matter how small your project.

-Remember those stakeholder expectations and requirements?  Make sure anything you’ve agreed to appears in the scope statement.

-Think about the process for changes that need to be made after the project has started.  If a client/vendor relationship, Is there a penalty?  What other factors need to be considered when making a change?

-Determine what will the project include.  Then decide what it won’t include.  Be as specific as possible.

-List the important project milestones.  By when will which each major deliverable be completed?

-Include any assumptions in your scope statement.

-Document the expectations for the project team in terms of meetings, reports, etc.  This may seem trivial but again, it goes back to keeping everyone on the same page.  If yours is a client/vendor relationship…this is critical.  Are you expecting a weekly progress report?  A weekly meeting?  Make sure everyone’s expectations are in line.

-Detail how will you know when the stated outcomes of the project have been met.  What are the deliverables?

-Remember to take your scope statement BACK to your stakeholders for input to ensure you are accurately representing their positions.

-For the sake of simplicity, we’ll discuss budget and schedule in separate posts.

So, let’s set the scene.  We’re a new business and our product is an online education product.  We are PSYCHED.  We have a great idea, early focus groups love the concepts, we’ve got national presenters lining up to be a part of this.  This product is NEEDED.  This product will SAVE TIME.  This product will REVOLUTIONIZE the way education is obtained in this particular field.  We’re gonna be rich!  Our entire product, essentially our website and the videos contained within it, will be outsourced to a 3rd party vendor.  So let’s call this our case study project:  Build New-Fangled Online Education Website.

So, out of the box we do something right.  We assign someone (that would be me) to manage the project.  This is a seemingly obvious but often overlooked step.  Having one central point of contact is critical on a project.  If you’re a one-person shop, ignore this tip, since you do everything all by yourself anyway.  But literally, if there are 2 or more of you, designate one person to take the lead.  This person needs to be able to organize just about everything.  From people to schedules, correspondence to contracts.  If you don’t have someone in house who can fit this description, seriously consider hiring an outside Project Manager to step in and organize it for you.

Next, we need to determine how the project fits into our overall company objectives.  In the case of our New-Fangled Online Education Website, it pretty much WAS our company objective, since without it we wouldn’t have a product.  Case closed on this one for our case study.  However, there truly are times that someone comes up with an idea.  It’s a cool idea.  Everyone likes it.  It’s hip, competitors are doing the same thing.  Of course it makes sense.  But does it?  Anytime you plan to spend money or resources, really take a step back to make sure the project you’re about to undertake supports your overall company objectives.  How will this project, in particular, forward your mission as a company and help you meet your stated objectives?  If you can’t answer this question, don’t do the project, as unpopular as that may be.  Small business resources are limited enough without diverting precious assets away from your primary goals.  This, of course, assumes you have company objectives.  If not, we’ve got some serious work to do!

So back to our case study.  So far, we’ve done 2 things right – yippee!

Moving on to the next key point…here’s a step we skipped over that, in hindsight, may have helped us get a bit more clarity in dealing with our vendor:  document the project’s objectives.  At the end of the day, what are you trying to accomplish?  Write it down.  Write it down.  Write it down.  These objectives are going to dictate what and how you manage all aspects of this project.  Without this initial document, it’s virtually impossible to get everyone on the same page and clarify what it is you hope to achieve.  This document is a preliminary, high level view of the project.  Had we written a Project Objective, it would’ve looked something like this, “By September 1, 2008 design and build a state-of-the-art, fully-functional, online website where professionals can earn professional continuing education credits through watching online videos presented by industry experts and participating in online self-examinations.  The website will be designed and built with a budget of $20,000.”  Just to reiterate, this project objectives document is a high level view of what you’re trying to achieve.  It’s meant to be a starting document upon which other, more detailed documents will be crafted.

The final item we’ll discuss today deals with stakeholders.  This is another step that we mostly whizzed right by in our hurry to get to work on our New-Fangled Website.  Who are our stakeholders?  So what’s a stakeholder?  Basically anyone who will be impacted by the project.    Depending on your business structure, it may just be your team and your customers.  Or perhaps it includes investors, community groups, etc.  An critical step is to figure out who all of these individuals are so you can get to the heart of the matter:  what are their expectations of your project?  Why is this so crucial when you’re starting out on a project?  Because if you fail to identify your stakeholders at the beginning of a project and figure out what their expectations are, your project could be seriously delayed with both unexpected changes and unexpected costs.

For the purposes of our case study, we realized that the primary stakeholders were ourselves, the project team and our customers.  But we didn’t document any of our own expectations and “must’s”.  Had we done this, we would’ve realized that the President of our company expected that only the best in video technology would be used and, in fact, that he had a vendor in mind that he wanted to be sure we used. Instead, we spent countless hours researching video delivery systems and servers before we were given the directive to use this company that the President had had in mind all along.  We may have also realized how critical it was for us to have a content management system that enabled us to change individual pages on our own website.  Instead, that “change” to our requirements cost us at least a month in delivery of the website and thousands of dollars in additional vendor time.

We did, however, do one thing right in terms of stakeholders and that was to hold focus groups with our target market.  This is simple and inexpensive to do and can help you immeasurably.  We asked a group of our target customers if we could bring lunch to them one day and get their feedback on our concept.  We documented everything they said and a lot of their feedback ultimately impacted the design of our product.    It is much, much, much less expensive to incorporate customer comments into the project plan than it is to make a change once the project is underway.  The power in this concept is getting everything out there on the table, so all the requirements and expectations are in plain sight at the beginning of the project.  While you may not be able to meet everyone’s expectations, at a minimum the stage is set for open and honest communication about the project.  Compiling all stakeholder expectations and requirements is a great lead-in to our project “bible”, the scope statement, which we’ll discuss tomorrow.  Be prepared to learn a LOT from my mistakes on this one!

Think about a project you’re currently involved with or that you plan to start.  How can you apply at least one of the concepts above to make your project flow more smoothly?

Don’t get me wrong…I’m a person who loves my projects.  I mean, I really, really love my projects.  Ask anyone.  Mention something that even remotely smells like a project to be managed, I’m taking a giant step forward to volunteer.   My husband hates it.  My entire professional career I’ve spent managing some type of project or another.  I think it goes back to the definition of a project – “a temporary endeavor”, and back to my blog post about creativity.  Because there is a defined start and end with parameters to delineate the desired outcome, I’m free to be creative about how that outcome is accomplished.  I love putting all the pieces together in just the right place to complete that puzzle in the end.  And, quite frankly, I love that there is an end.  I need that sense of completion and closure so I can move on to my next puzzle.

So when I first opened the PMBOK, I was incredibly disappointed and confused.  How could this book, this book about PROJECTS be so…so…boring?

Again, it goes back to the parameters.  Whereas I enjoy working within general parameters, the “science” of Project Management was developed to put a heck of a lot more infrastructure underneath those general parameters.  They call them “processes”.  And there are many, many, many of them.  Processes to explain how to do a process.

And here I’m going to let you in on a little secret.  Project Managers are predominantly involved in industries that are incredibly complex and detail-oriented.  Technology.  Aerospace.  Construction.  When you’re designing a process to ensure that quality standards are met on the design of a surgical instrument that will perform complex surgeries on heart patients, you need to make darned sure that there is pretty close to zero room for error.  Hence the proliferation of processes.  Same thing when you have billions of dollars on the line and a delay of a day can cost millions. The precision of Project Management becomes important stuff.  As an aside, some Project Managers would benefit from laying off their addiction to processes for a while and leave SOME room for creativity, but that’s an entirely different subject.

Back to my story about the PMBOK.  When I put down the PMBOK and started to research how formal Project Management principles are utilized in real life, the incredible value of basic project management principles in a small business setting became crystal clear to me.  As an entrepreneur, attempting to read the PMBOK cover to cover is the equivalent of reading the manufacturer’s design specification guide of my dishwasher, when I could’ve just loaded the thing with dirty dishes and hit the “on” button.  Formal project management processes are incredible useful tools but knowing the detailed inner-workings behind each and every process is overkill for most small businesses and entrepreneurs.  The PMBOK is a useful reference guide but not recommended reading for most small business owners and entrepreneurs, unless they suffer from insomnia.

This coming week, this blog will be devoted to the practical application of project management principles, specifically for entrepreneurs and small businesses, a Cliff Notes version of the PMBOK, if you will.   A recent study entitled Researching The Value of Project Management showed that the value of project management practices is highest in companies that are in the initial stages of adopting project management principles.  Adding general project management principles to any small business or entrepreneurial venture almost guarantees a decrease in risk and an increase in productivity.  It could quite literally save your business.  Why?  It goes back to those parameters again…the freedom is in the structure.

So you’re thinking about going it alone and starting your own business.  Perhaps it’s something you’ve always dreamed of doing.  Perhaps it’s a hobby on the side begging to take center stage.  Perhaps it’s a brand new venture.  First, and most importantly…good for you!  It’s easy to be lulled into complacency by the familiar.  If you’re reading this letter, my suspicion is that you’re the type of person who refuses to incorporate “common”, “good enough” or “average” into your vernacular.  Greetings, kindred spirit.

Choose to accept this challenge and discover your inner entrepreneur and you’ll embark on a journey that will fundamentally change who you are and how you see the world around you.  Scared?  Good.  You should be.  A healthy dose of fear will keep you on your toes, push you to do your best and, probably most importantly, keep your ego at bay, at least for a little while, encouraging you to learn all you can.  Choose to explore the uncharted territory beneath those feelings of fear and discover the gift of excitement lying in wait.  Welcome that excitement with open arms.

Whatever your venture of choice, this is an undertaking you should take very, very seriously.  Give it the time, the thought, the planning it deserves.  It will likely take longer, more money and more energy to accomplish your goals than you ever anticipated.  But rest assured, no matter the outcome, the journey will be well worth the effort because, at the end of the day, your growth and perspective will catapult you into a level of resourcefulness that will serve you for life.

The name of the game is action.  Set out a plan for yourself and follow it.  Reject analysis paralysis.  You’ll never know it all, so polish up the basics and get moving, one step at a time.

Not everyone will support your decision or understand why you’re choosing to leave the security of the known to put it on the line and risk a shot at the entrepreneurial life, the unknown.  Some people, even those who know you best, may look at you with skepticism.  Bring it on!  Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur.  Your job is to believe in yourself and find others who believe in you to support your efforts along the way and pick you up when you fall.  It takes an amazing amount of courage to break out of the mold and carve your own path in this world.  I commend you and encourage you on this journey.

With you in mind, I humbly bring you the top tips I’ve personally learned along the way, most of which stem from learning the hard way. Items with asterisks will be discussed in more detail in future blog posts.

1)  Read Start with Why and figure out YOUR “Why”.  Ensure any business venture you undertake closely aligns with your “Why”.  When you know your “Why”, you’ll be able to hang in there when the going gets tough and make your mark on this world, inspiring people as you blaze a trail.

2)  Read E-Myth by Michael Gerber and Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki if you haven’t already.  They’re quick but important reads.

3)  Have a plan.  Try Palo Alto Software for business planning software.  Know where you’re headed.  Once you figure out your plan for getting from Point A to Point B, put it to the side and plan it all over again from scratch, not using any of the same steps.  Once you’ve done this, set that aside and then do it again.  Why?  Because when you hit a roadblock, you’ll have a plan “B” and a plan “C”  to fall back on.  It’s preemptive flexibility that you’ll be grateful for in the long run (thanks to Steve Linder for this idea).

4)  Choose your partnerships carefully.  Whether a business partnership or a key vendor, choose cautiously and choose well.  There’s a reason they call it “Due Diligence” – it’s something you MUST DO!

5)  Know how to write and read a contract.  Be diligent in doing so.***

6)  Start as you wish to end up.  Don’t want to be tied to your business in 5 years, where nothing can happen unless you’re at your desk?  Design it from the start so you have the systems in place to allow your business to run without you.  A great exercise is to graph out the organizational chart of your future business 5 years from now.  ***

7)  Document everything.  For really important conversations, record it.  ***

8)  Know the basics of all the aspects of your business, especially the finances.  Even if you’re not a numbers person, educate yourself to a basic level.  Sometimes it’s really just a numbers game but you need to know the rules of that game to recognize when the numbers don’t add up.  ***

9)  Start small but dream big.  Know your long term vision and goals and start small.  Do fewer things and do them incredibly well.  Then expand, building on your success.  Bite off more than you can chew in the beginning and you’re in for a rude awakening.

10)  Stay true to your integrity.  If you don’t have the highest levels of integrity then please, do us all a favor and don’t even throw your hat in the ring.  Refuse to deal with anyone whose integrity you question, which brings us to the next point.

11)  Trust your gut.  Ignore this rule at your peril.  If a contract, business partnership or direction doesn’t “feel” right, it’s probably not.

12)  Read The Dip by Seth Godin.  Knowing when to quit and when to hang in is critical for an entrepreneur.

13)  Evaluate yourself on a regular basis.  Schedule it.  Stick to it.  By getting this objective view regularly, you’ll make better decisions, able to check your emotions at the door.

14)  Use social media tools.  They’re predominantly free and incredibly powerful.***

15)  Use the appropriate level of technology.  You’re not NASA.  You don’t need a phone system for 15 people if it’s just you, even if it does have lots of cool bells and whistles.

16)  Network.  Find a supportive group of like-minded people.  This will increase your access to great and creative ideas, as well as moral support and years of experience in a variety of areas.  You’ll know these people when you find them because you’ll feel like you’ve finally found your home.

17)  Learn about general Project Management principles.  Most of the items with asterisks above have something to do with these principles that we’ll be discussing in more detail over the coming weeks.

I leave you with this quote from Marianne Williamson:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

With You in Spirit,

A Fellow Entrepreneur

I recently read a blog post with a headline that read, Love Your 4 Day Vacation? Does that mean you DON’T love your job? The blog post was a good one that ended up being about flexible work schedules, of which I’m a huge fan but it didn’t address what I THOUGHT it would.  I thought it would be about how taking time off gives you a renewed outlook on your jobs, your projects, your life.  Isn’t that what vacation is for?

Everyone needs some time of “forced” vacation.  My hairdresser shared with me today that she spent the weekend doing some “serious soul searching” and ended up deciding to jump in and lease that new 1800 s/f space she’d been looking at and bring on up to 5 hairdressers to lease space from her – a huge shift from her one-woman, independent shop.  She confessed that, in part, the reason she was able to make the time and space necessary to make this decision was because “nothing was open”.

We are not a society of limited choices, of this I’m certain.  There are always things to do, places to go, money to burn.  Don’t get me wrong, I like doing all of these things as much as the next person and I’m grateful for the choices and freedoms we enjoy.  But sometimes, just sometimes, could we take some time to be alone and do some soul-searching and, at the risk of sounding new-age-ish, self-reflection?

When I entered the Peace Corps at the age of 22 and was placed in my site, I was a complete wreck.  Was it because I missed home?  Was it because I was overwhelmed with saving the world?  Was it because I didn’t have running water every day?  Was it because a huge rat lived in my kitchen sink?  Nope.  It was because, for what felt like the first time in my entire life, I was forced to spend time with myself.  A lot of time.  No TV, no radio, not much of a job to do.  No real friends to speak of.  No public library.  It was sheer hell.  But it was during that time that I learned more about myself than I had before or since that experience…no distractions, just me.  Go figure.

Every time I’ve created the space to think about a project at hand, a direction I’m considering, a new strategic partnership, amazing things happen.  One of my best ideas for a partnership project came from a long run where I made the space to just focus on tossing ideas around.  I made the decision to leave a beloved job after the birth of my first daughter on a beach in Hawaii.  Clarity seems to come more easily when you give it the space to exist.

And here’s the kicker.  If you don’t create space for your ideas, decisions and direction to exist but they’re still somewhere on your radar…guess what?  These things will take up precious emotional real estate.  On some level, you ARE thinking about many of these things all the time.  But by not giving them the space they deserve, all of these things begin to creep into places they shouldn’t – distracting you when you should be focused.  We’re so busy being busy on a daily basis (and yes, I’m guilty of this too) that we don’t realize that by NOT slowing down, by NOT taking the time we need to create space for reflection about these things, we’re actually shooting ourselves and our own progress right in the foot.  While the voice of these thoughts may start out as a whisper, they eventually grow into a roar if we choose not to listen.

A great quote by Andrew Jackson advises, “Always take all the time to reflect that circumstances permit, but when the time for action has come, stop thinking.”  Until we leave space for that reflection, it’s impossible to stop thinking.

For the sake of your sanity and your productivity, find a time to create that space for that thing you KNOW you need to address.  Take a few minutes each day and pick one thing on which to focus.  Or take a few hours each week.  While it may seem counterintuitive at first, when you do this regularly, the jump in your clarity and productivity will astound you.

Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address this evening was a much-needed reframing of our current economic situation.  President Obama did an incredibly balanced job of walking that fine line between acknowledging the seriousness of our economic woes and inspiring productive action.

My words don’t do his justice, so I’ll include my favorite portion of his speech below:

“I know that it is easy to lose sight of this truth – to become cynical and doubtful; consumed with the petty and the trivial.

But in my life, I have also learned that hope is found in unlikely places; that inspiration often comes not from those with the most power or celebrity, but from the dreams and aspirations of Americans who are anything but ordinary.

I think about Leonard Abess, the bank president from Miami who reportedly cashed out of his company, took a $60 million bonus, and gave it out to all 399 people who worked for him, plus another 72 who used to work for him. He didn’t tell anyone, but when the local newspaper found out, he simply said, ‘I knew some of these people since I was 7 years old. I didn’t feel right getting the money myself.’

I think about Greensburg, Kansas, a town that was completely destroyed by a tornado, but is being rebuilt by its residents as a global example of how clean energy can power an entire community – how it can bring jobs and businesses to a place where piles of bricks and rubble once lay. ‘The tragedy was terrible,’ said one of the men who helped them rebuild. ‘But the folks here know that it also provided an incredible opportunity.’

And I think about Ty’Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school I visited in Dillon, South Carolina – a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom. She has been told that her school is hopeless, but the other day after class she went to the public library and typed up a letter to the people sitting in this room. She even asked her principal for the money to buy a stamp. The letter asks us for help, and says, ‘We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world. We are not quitters.’

We are not quitters.

These words and these stories tell us something about the spirit of the people who sent us here. They tell us that even in the most trying times, amid the most difficult circumstances, there is a generosity, a resilience, a decency, and a determination that perseveres; a willingness to take responsibility for our future and for posterity.

Their resolve must be our inspiration. Their concerns must be our cause. And we must show them and all our people that we are equal to the task before us.”

Of all the stories President Obama told, I was most moved by the story of Ty’Sheoma Bethea.  Just stop for a moment and imagine sending your child to a school where the ceilings leak.  Where trains interrupt class 6 times a day.  And in that school is a girl who takes the initiative to write to Congress asking for help, on her own time, and resourceful enough to ask for a stamp from her principal to ensure the letter arrives because she knows her message is important and will be read if only it can make it to its destination.

I question what I’ve personally done lately that could measure up to Ty’Sheoma’s act.  Me, a resourceful, educated adult…what have I done  lately to stand up for the future of my community and my peers?  I’m grateful for Ty’Sheoma’s act because it motivates me to ask this question of myself.

To you, Mr. President, I say “bravo” for having the courage to use your gift to move and inspire our nation.  And to you, Ty’Sheoma Bethea, I extend my most sincere gratitude for InCouraging this humble blogger with your action and your faith in humanity.

Newsweek’s article A New American Job does a great job explaining this trend with some interesting statistics and anecdotes but, in my humble opinion, misses the boat on potential “winners” of this trend.  They claim that job-auction websites may benefit from this trend, which is certainly true.  But what about families?

Let’s take a typical family example.  Say Dad loses his corporate job and is forced to make ends meet by jumping on the “gigonomic” bandwagon, piecing together project-based jobs and some part-time work.  While some may see this as a “bad” thing…lack of corporate benefits, security, 401K plan, I see opportunity.  Opportunity to get out there and nurture new skills while honing existing ones; meet new people, which inevitably expands the professional network; try new things; challenge oneself; and spend more time with family.  

And what about all those stay-at-home, college-educated moms who would LOVE to do some work on a part-time basis as long as they can be home when the kids get home? Bingo.  Gigonomics.  What if Mom could help pay family bills as well?  Hmmm…it’s beginning to sound like “balance”…now that’s a novel idea!

I personally see this as a good thing.  The days of corporate job security may be behind us, but this trend is forcing more corporations to consider outsourcing to competent, talented individuals.  Gigonomics will reward corporations who are flexible and able to projectize work and create lasting relationships with gifted contractors.

Yes, there will be personal challenges:  how to keep project work flowing, increased costs associated with independent health coverage, “feast or famine” cycles.  But inevitably as more professionals enter into this gigonomic trend, more resources and tools will appear to make that transition easier.

Whether you’re considering starting a business or already have a plan in the works, there have been several InCouraging opportunities for small business funding that are worth checking out:

• Intuit’s Share Your Story and Win contest.  Small business stories and tips are ranked by Intuit community members.   Prizes range from Intuit Small Business Word of Mouth Marketing Toolkit (given to all entries) to $25,000 in cash.

• The Mark Cuban Stimulus Plan:  Open Source Funding.  Billionaire Mark Cuban issues an intriguing VC opportunity to entrepreneurs:  share your business plan on my blog and I’ll personally fund the good ones.  If it’s a fantastic idea, others will steal it…that’s the point – to get more businesses up and moving in this economy. Brilliant.

Entrepreneurs are typically creative and hard-working…exactly what we need in today’s economy.  Hats off to Intuit and Mark Cuban for being some of the first to actually put cash behind the theory that entrepreneurs can help fuel our communities and ultimately, our economy.