In my previous post, Back At TweakYourBiz , I mentioned I had taken time to assess what I wanted to do next. Regular readers of this blog have probably noticed that I shy away from getting too personal.  But during a recent coaching session, I noticed that the questions I was asking my client were the questions I had to answer last year.

One Step Closer

A good friend of mine gave me a copy of U2′s How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb about 9 months ago. I have a copy already and some of the songs have resonated with me for a long time. Strangely,  it was like hearing the album for the first time. Circumstances had created a perfect storm that nearly ended my business. At one point, I actually thought it was over and I should just get a job. I truly felt as if everything in my life had just upended but this U2 song, One Step Closer kept echoing in my head.

I’m ’round the corner from anything that’s real

I’m across the road from hope

I’m under a bridge in a rip tide

That’s taken everything I own

That verse sounds so dramatic but it felt that way. I had built a small business but earlier crises had used up my resources and there was very little left this time. During a major crisis of confidence, it’s not unusual to question your values, choices and actions. When you’re a business owner, lots of things can trigger a crisis. They are personal events like a medical problem or family issue or business events such as losing your best customer or discovering an accounting error. Maybe it is a larger world event such as a recession or natural disaster.

The “backwards” trigger

The most surprising trigger is when the business is poised for growth. For small businesses, landing a more sophisticated client, hiring staff or expanding beyond the borders of a tried-and-true market is a big event. For the small business owner, it can be both exhilarating and intimidating. Old ghosts haunt us. Those beliefs that we’re frauds or incompetent or just too small reverberate in our heads. Managing this negativity and our businesses just taps us out. I’ve had clients tell me stories about how they are still the misfit they were as a child or there is something inherently wrong with them so they can’t be good bosses or major competitors in their industry. You know in your head this is complete BS but your heart…well, that takes a lot more convincing.

Stuck in between

I’m on an island at a busy intersection

I can’t go forward, I can’t turn back

The future is getting away from me

I just watch the tail lights glowing

Regardless of your particular trigger, it feels like your dream is abandoning  you. You might even try to convince yourself that your great innovation or exceptional offering is ridiculous.

The questions:

1. What do I want?

2. What am I willing to give up to have “It”?

3. What is it costing me to hold onto my negative beliefs?

4. What do I need to get my desired goal?

5. What is one thing that will bring me one step closer to my goal?

The gift

While a crisis isn’t something you seek out as an experience, there is a gift.

One step closer to knowing

One step closer to knowing

One step closer to knowing

To knowing, to knowing

To knowing

Adversity can be an amplifier, if you allow it.  We see all aspects of ourselves; our imperfections and where we disconnected from our own beauty. If we’re willing to open ourselves, we can learn more about who we are. This self-knowledge can profoundly affect our businesses.

It has profoundly affected mine. I took a risk and asked certain people in my network to help me. I have found mentors and friends. I have one current client who has stuck with me because he continues to find value in my coaching. I know more about me and have found I am less afraid. Consequently, I’m building my business back up to where it was pre-crisis. This work with small business owners is the work I love! There is more to discover and accept and I wish it didn’t have to be such a difficult experience but I am one step closer to knowing.

On this blog, I write a lot about managing the business owner. Sometimes the business owner who needs to do some self-management is…well. me. I took a break from writing on TweakYourBiz.com (formerly Bloggertone) to take stock of what I wanted to do next. (I’ll write about my experience in another post.)

Well, I’m back blogging on TweakYourBiz.com and, frankly, I missed my blogger friends and the comments that often follow the posts. You can read my posts here:

How Collaboration Creates Growth For Your SME  I’m a big fan of collaboration and working with complementary professionals. It is a terrific way to see what you do through another eyes, improve your skill set and serve your customers well.

If you want to be incrementally better: Be competitive. If you want to be exponentially better: Be cooperative. - Unknown. Perhaps it’s due to the upheaval triggered by the global economic uncertainty or maybe the seeds were planted in the 1990?s but there is more talk about collaboration. This could be an underestimated strategy to growing your business. Read more

What You Need To Know Before You Export to the US Growth stages are growth stages, no matter whether you’re aiming to attract a more sophisticated customer, grow within or beyond your region or meet a need in a new market. However, if your SME is poised to export to the US, planning can help prevent some painful lessons.

Are you considering growing your business by exporting your products to the US marketplace? There are  opportunities to grow beyond your local borders for small businesses. Thorough planning will highlight what you need to know before it becomes a problem. Read more

I hope you will find these posts useful, add your comments and share them.

This past Monday, I went with my daughter to cheer on her teacher who was running the Boston Marathon. Every year, I am in awe of the thousands of people who run the 26.2 miles that snakes its way from Hopkinton to Boston. This year, it seemed more personal because I know one of the runners. It was a hot day and the Boston Athletic Association warned runners that the heat could be potentially dangerous.

Preparation is crucial

Even without the unusually high heat, preparing for a marathon is something that people think out and practice running often each week. Their diets and how they hydrate become key pieces of the plan.Their bodies and personality would combine to make it possible to finish or not finish this long race. They make a plan and follow it.

This became apparent as I was watching the marathoners pass by. Some were walking. Some were running very slowly and looked like they were in pain. Others were running by like it was nothing. As I reflected on all of this, it reminded me how running a small to mid-size enterprise (SME)  is analogous to running marathons.

“Failure to plan is planning to fail”

This quote is often attributed to Alan Lakein and may be a cliche at this point. However, that doesn’t diminish its truth. Consider this for a moment…do you have a written business plan? It’s astonishing how many business owners who have been in business for 5+ years will tell me they don’t. Sure, your instincts can be excellent and you can create a successful business. That’s all fine and dandy until you reach the point when you are ready to expand your markets, go after a more sophisticated customer or hire new employees.

Are you hitting the wall now?

For marathoners, the wall is the moment when they have used up the glycogen in their system and it feels as if they can’t run another step. For small business owners, it’s the time when the business is ready to go to a more sophisticated level and there are increased feelings of stress, overwhelm and a lack of focus.

How are you preparing for the long run?

It always starts with writing down your plan. Involve your team or your top staff members. Their input may remove some of what may seem so daunting about the plan.

Here are  some questions to get you started:

1. What do you imagine happening between now and the end of the year?  What is your intent?

2. What is your specific revenue goal?

3. Who is your target customer and why?

4. What are your goals for the next 3 months (specific, measurable, time-specific)?

5. Who is your accountability partner? Are you talking with a mentor, trusted peer, mastermind group, advisory board or executive/business coach?

This is just the beginning of your long run. How do you want to prepare for your business to go all the way?

Growth = Change.

And  yet, so many forget that when you lead your business through a growth stage, you’re really leading a process of change. Most owners/leaders of small to mid-sized organizations generally know what they want to accomplish when they decide to grow. There is a tendency to trust their instincts and fly by the seat of their pants. This is misguided when you are aiming for a new class of customers, a new organizational model or expanding outside of your home region.

See, there are two things going on in your head. The growth plan is one and your emotions are the other. This is some serious multitasking. Now, add your responsibilities as leader, manager and worker. Now,  if that’s not enough..there are other things like social media, marketing advice and possible opportunities mentioned over coffee or lunch.

Is your head spinning yet?

Managing change takes thought and care. Make it easier on you, your staff and your business with these recommendations:

~Make a plan and write it down. First, write down a clear description of your vision for this growth stage. When you can articulate it more effectively, it is more understandable for your staff and possible investors. After that, you and your team will have greater clarity to write goals that are specific, measurable, time-limited and assigned to specific person.

~Explain in everyday language. Forget all that business jargon. When I was in graduate school, I had a professor who insisted that we write our assessments in “plain English”. His point was that if you can’t explain it in everyday words, you have no idea what you’re talking about. Your staff needs to know what you have in mind and how they fit into the overall plan.

~Listen to your staff so you know their hopes, dreams, concerns and fears Think you don’t have time for that emotional stuff? Avoiding anxiety, anger, reluctance and other emotions will affect productivity. Create opportunities for them to tell you their thoughts and feelings about the upcoming changes. Some of your listening may be simply taking the time to notice the words they use or how they do their work.

~Know what you don’t know This can be hard for established business owners to admit. I’ve had clients tell me how they built up the business to the point where they could hire someone or expand their markets so they serve more customers. These are real accomplishments but it can be an ego trip to believe you always know the best choice of action or understand everything there is to know about business. Take the time to learn new material so you can use your skills better.

~Get someone to be YOUR sounding board I’ve written about this before here and in other blog posts. Perhaps you think that you sound foolish expressing doubts or apprehension about your leadership during this time of change. However, those doubts, fears and limiting beliefs can take on a life of their own and interfere with your performance. Get out of your head by joining a mastermind group, speak with a trusted business friend, meet with a mentor or hire a coach.

~Identify who is responsible for each task This makes your job a lot easier as you will know who to hold accountable. Since you do your share of the work, writing specific people into the plan will streamline the accountability process.

~Celebrate milestones A staff lunch, monetary reward or some other reinforcement highlights how progress is being made. Celebrating milestones keeps motivation high and momentum moving forward.

~Remember you’ve done this before It’s okay to feel daunted by your plans. This is expected. Remember when you first started leading your business? Talk about a growth stage! Recognize that you feel some trepidation about changing the status quo of your business and you have a history of managing changes in the business.

~Outside circumstances can speed up or slow down progress Your plan is not going to happen just as you wish. Some things are going to bog down progress while others are going to turbo boost your efforts. Neither are a judgement of your skills. Know where you have influence and pay attention to that.

Lots of things derail change projects

 This is common knowledge in change management circles. Your awareness that you are managing change creates an environment where you and your staff will be more adept at responding to the unexpected, manage emotions better and see the growth stage through to its completion.

What would you add that helps small business owners/executives lead a plan for growth and change?

If you are like most small business owners (or executives), you have a pretty active to-do list and not nearly enough time to do it all. Besides keeping an eye on the overall business, it is likely that you are involved with some of the day-to-day work with customers. For some business owners, they stay in the Pre-Leader stage and try to do everything themselves. And they wonder why they feel overwhelmed and overworked. I don’t think anyone ever founds a business saying, “I want to create something that will make me miserable.”

Share the work

Unlike bigger organizations, the business owner is an integral piece to how the whole organization works. Like that saying, “if Momma ain’t happy, nobody’s happy”, if the business owner isn’t happy, chances are very good morale and productivity are suffering. But, if you are spending your time trying to do everything then 1) nothing is getting done well and 2) you could be spending your time on the wrong things.

1. Know what you are delegating. When you’re assigning a task to someone, give them the details, resources and expectations so they can get the job done. You might know what you want in your head. The person doesn’t.The key thing here is to fully communicate so the job gets done in a reasonable amount of time. It may be helpful to write down some notes so nothing is forgotten.

2.  Be sure this is work you should delegate. If the work is an integral piece of the long-term success of your business (leadership, strategic or key customer responsibilities), this is in your purview.

3. Identify if you have a staff member or a resource outside of the organization who has the necessary skills. It is often surprising how often management in small business overlooks in-house talent. You did hire this person for some reason (hopefully other than it’s a family member) and maybe it’s time for them to take on additional responsibilities. One of my clients has freed up quite a bit of time by appointing others to be team leaders on projects. Now he uses this time to focus more on an impending product launch.

There are plenty of outside resources who have the necessary skills to take on tasks you don’t need to do yourself. Bookkeeping, information technology (like backing up your website and other data), marketing and other tasks may be things you like to do but they may not be the best use of your time.

4. Set up an accountability system. To make delegating most effective, set up times to meet so progress can be discussed. Even if the task isn’t completed, you will be able to ask “what happened?” without drama and foster positive resolution for any problems.

5. Monitor yourself. It may be tough at first to give up that sense of control over every detail in your business. That’s part of learning how to delegate. And yet, micro-managing basically means you’re still doing the task but you’ve added the additional work of minutely watching someone else complete your assignment. Your way of working is one of many. Avoid interfering and show the person you believe and trust in their abilities.

Bonus tip: Thank the person for their hard work. This helps to build a stronger relationship, confidence and motivation. The only way you will develop a dream team from your staff is to acknowledge and encourage them.

Know which role you must play

Knowing when it’s time to put  on the Worker Bee hat and when to put on the “CEO” hat is a key piece of delegating. It’s understood that you have certain expertise that makes your products and/or services sing. However, there is just some work that is a time-waster.

What tips would you add to make it easier for a small business owner (or executive) to delegate?

*If you would like to learn more about delegation, strategic planning or if you’re taking on a new role in your new small business, check out The Small Business Emerging Leaders Program. It uses systems to keep you focused on the big picture, acknowledges that your business is its own “person” and facilitates the connection between your values and your business practices. Want to take a test drive first? Join the complimentary webinar on Tuesday, March 27th. Register here to reserve your spot in this interactive presentation.

We’re into the third month of 2012 and it’s a good time to see how your strategic plan is unfolding. IBM’s Lou Gerstner once said that having a strategy was better than having none at all. See, you can tweak a plan since real life often has some challenge that makes you stop and reassess. A strategic plan is a reflection of your thinking and choices about how you (and your team) shape actions that are taken over the year.

Your plan could reflect:

1. New offerings of products and/or services

2. Back to basics

With the economy remaining turbulent, there comes a point when you have to choose what is best for your business and yourself. Waiting for things to settle is certainly an option but you might be waiting a long time. So, it’s time to back up and remind yourself, why does your business exist? What is its purpose?

How do you make sure your strategic plan is aligned with the purpose of your business?

There is always a lot to do when you run your own business and usually not enough time. However, not having some kind of roadmap to guide you makes it far too easy to chase a shiny new idea or to being busy without your busy-ness producing anything.

Questions for your roadmap:

1. Why is this business still important?

2. What will be celebrated on December 31, 2012?

3. Are these overarching goals written down on paper or in an easy-to-find computer file?

4. What realistic steps or objectives need to be taken to accomplish the year-long goals?

5. Who will be responsible for each goal to make sure the objectives are met?

6. Have you (and your team) identified actual and potential obstacles?

7. How will progress be assessed between now and December 31, 2012?

Does your roadmap reflects how the strategic plan is aligned with the purpose of the business?

What would you add to make sure strategic planning is bringing the purpose into every day existence?

*If you would like to learn more strategic planning or if you’re taking on a new role in your new small business, check out The Small Business Emerging Leaders Program. It uses systems to keep you focused on the big picture, acknowledges that your business is its own “person” and facilitates the connection between your values and your business practices. Want to take a test drive first? Join the complimentary webinar on Tuesday, March 27th. Register here to reserve your spot in this interactive presentation.

Okay, I may have taken some liberties with the English language and with Mr. Dickens’ fine book title.

Background story

There are these two grocery stores that I shop at each week. One is your basic store. There are very few gourmet type foods, no electronic scanners to use at your cart and the prices are lower. The other grocery store I shop in has more variety in produce, ready-to-eat foods, exotic foods and some technological stuff for customers to use while shopping. Since I have family members with food restrictions, I have to go where the food is.

These stores are completely different. But the most outstanding feature is how the managers and employees interact. In the first store, I’ve seen managers walking around the store and chatting with people stocking the shelves. The employees are welcoming, helpful and move quickly to serve their customers. In the second store, I’ve seen managers avoid speaking to employees and be critical of their performance. The employees barely make eye contact with customers and move so slowly that you just know they are paid hourly. Plus, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to correct an food order when they’ve give me the wrong amount or the wrong item.

You can learn a lot about management while shopping

The  next time you’re waiting for deli meats, fresh fish, the butcher or cheese, watch the way the people behind the counter move and interact with you. It gives you a window into how management treats its employees. Retail may be one of the few places where you can witness management interacting with employees in a very public way. Sure, you might see glimpses if you visit an office but when your office is packed with customers along with employees, it can get very interesting.

Maybe you can’t determine the whole culture based on 1 store

But you can determine how much management values the people who do the work. There is a lot of talk about servant leadership or transformational leadership and these are styles to definitely aspire to. However, you don’t need a fancy leadership theory to be effective. The idea of  treating your people as, well, people seems to be missing in most places. The first store I told you about is simple and somehow pleasant despite being busy. It looks as if the management encourages positive behavior and they model this from what I’ve observed. The management in the second store sends out a message that their workers are not important and are replaceable.

What are you telling your employees?

How is this being expressed in your customer service?

This is such an exciting time for #kaizenblog. We’ve changed our name and added a website. We’re now KaizenBiz and you can find us at www.kaizenbiz.com.

Our guest, Deb Carducci of Villa Lusso has our inaugural framing post, “Color, Environment and Your Workspace“  Please read the post on our new site and join us for our conversation on Friday, February 24th at 5pm GMT/12pm ET/9am PT.

 This post is by guest blogger, Eve Blossom who leads Lulan Artisans  and author of Material Change is our guest on this week’s Twitter chat, #kaizenblog. She is passionate about creating a collaborative business model that sets the stage for the artisans to have economic and social sustainability. Please join us to explore “Love, Design and Business” this Friday at 12pm ET/5pm GMT/9am PT on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog.

Business: What Moves You, Grabs You, Won’t Let You Go

I started my career in Architecture and in 1995 was fortunate enough to live and work in Hanoi, renovating old French villas. During my first few months in Hanoi, I witnessed first-hand a transaction where a young girl was sold by her father to a European man for sex.  She was 6 years old. I tried to intervene. I was threatened at knifepoint.  I was unsuccessful in changing the outcome for that little girl.

 That night, I had a striking realization.  I began to see Human Trafficking as a marketplace— where unfortunately the commodity is a person. I could see clearly that Human Trafficking is an economic market that needs to be addressed at an economic level.

As I researched Human Trafficking, I learned that prevention is key — because the traumatizing effects are devastating.

I learned that urban migration trends are also important because people are vulnerable when moving into unfamiliar cities.

I learned that artisans are one of the groups at-risk for falling into Human Trafficking because their incomes are often below poverty level.

As a business-woman, I know that utilizing untapped resources-talent that is already trained, skilled and organized- is one the most successful ways to start a business.  Artisans are already trained in centuries old methods, skilled with unique talents & organized into cooperatives.

Design: Of Product and of Business Model

Innovation is seeing problems in a new way and using new models to solve them. Innovation is coming out of the context of our times, the cultural consciousness of us all.At these extraordinary times, this is what is required of us.

As a trained architect and designer, the best way for me to leverage my expertise and address these issues is by building a business to give artisans stable jobs.

So, in 2004, I started Lulan Artisans-a social venture to generate livelihoods for artisans to prevent Human Trafficking.

We design & produce hand-woven fabrics. We currently work with over 650 weavers, dyers & spinners from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and India. These are some of the countries with the highest rates of trafficking.

We connect the artisans with multiple markets by using contemporary design aesthetics to create strong economic opportunities. This type of model is here to stay.

The future of business and design is changing dramatically. The new ways of thinking are revolutionizing the business of design and the design of business at the core.

This is social entrepreneurship and it is a movement. There are already millions of us- individuals and organizations- inside this movement throughout the world, occurring in every corner of the globe and in every business sector, focusing on systemic social change.

Love: Containers of Collaboration and Core Vision

Most people believe they are building a company. I would argue that you’re not.  I would argue that what you are really creating is a container for collaboration — a place where deep relationships and partnerships flourish. Something that is even stronger…that ends up having a life of its own.The very nature of this structure creates an invitation.

People show up. They validate the work. They spark new ideas.

People’s contributions are palpable. They remind us that there is energy in the interconnection of our activities beyond the original source, the company itself. It’s not about the founder or about the products or the service. It is about the collaboration of all that is possible that we can do together around important social issues.

We say all the time how passionate entrepreneurs are about their ideas. We are comfortable speaking about passion within business. But we also need to be comfortable speaking about love and compassion within business.

Love and business can be combined with successful models that are profitable and honor our humanity. I saw up close human traffickers’ efficient, savvy, profitable business that lacks any compassion or love at all. We can only win this struggle if we are as determined, as savvy through businesses that, in addition, have love & compassion on our side.

*Consider yourself invited to discuss this topic of  “Love, Design and Business” on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog on Friday, February 17th at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT so I hope you can join us. If not, please add your thoughts below.

When I  joined the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog as co-host with Valeria Maltoni (@ConversationAge), I knew I was in for something that would stretch and engage me. Valeria and I share a passion for exploring ideas and wanting to discuss them with others to see what else we could discover. Another person, Caroline Di Diego (@CASUDI), was (and is) a key supporter as I accepted the role of chat host. Caroline is also passionate about engaging with people and ideas and urged me to step up. When Valeria passed the baton to me, it was the right time to make the chat my own.

But the chat isn’t just mine

It’s really stone soup. You know that folk tale? To be fair, the #kaizenblog community is a much easier and more generous crowd. I find interesting topics, intriguing guest hosts, craft discussion questions and then it all comes together during the discussion when people add their expertise and insights.

The underlying foundation

When I took over as the full time host in October, 2010, I wanted the chat to continue examining ideas but within the context of a welcoming community. Since I coach business owners who are leading growth phases to think critically and deepen their self-understanding, it was a given that these qualities would be embedded. Besides, I’m into testing ideas in real life. It is important that people leave wanting to use what they have learned. Simply put, the chat is focused on developing people and ideas.

To communicate this philosophy to everyone, I tweet these statements every week:

• This chat uses the concept of kaizen to examine various aspects of business, enhance our skills and deepen our self-understanding
• Kaizen is a Japanese concept of continuous improvement; mainly used to improve processes in business, education & other organizations

• In this chat, you are highly encouraged to interact with each other

• Sometimes we tease apart ideas tweeted here. We keep it respectful even if moves into debate

This sets the stage for how the conversation is framed. But there is one more thing that sets the stage-simply saying hello and goodbye to individuals who are on the chat.

Creating a community

The practice of saying hello and/or goodbye reminds us that there are people on the chat. This supports connecting both on and offline as well as keeping the conversation civil, particularly when there are disagreements. And when you have a group of very smart and confident people, there are moments when we don’t see eye to eye. That just supports how we use kaizen to make ourselves better at what we do and who we are.

It’s time for the chat to prepare for its next stage

After almost 2 years of hosting this dynamic chat, it is time to see how it can be augmented and improved. There are things I would like to see happen…expand the chat so we include more people from all over the world (we’ve gotten up to 3 continents), have even more guest hosts of excellent calibre and make this chat a “can’t miss” chat that people leave feeling they gained something extraordinary that can be applied to their work

What is Kaizenblog today?

 Who is Kaizenblog today (size of organization, industries, job title, etc.)?

Why do you come back to the chat?

How could this chat become a more sophisticated and potent place to develop people and ideas?