Archive for the ‘Business Ownership’ Category

Years ago, at an IVAA conference, Beth Quick Andrews gave a talk that she opened with “What would you do if you were brave?”. It was a powerful question for me at the time. I chewed my lip a bit and wrote down “Grow OffAssist beyond just myself.” It had been something I was considering, but was like my ‘pie in the sky’ and I was terrified – more terrified than standing at the top of 50 story building, but she asked so I answered. Man, who knew what would become of that? Wow.

I ask myself that question each year when I’m reviewing my own business plans. Largely, though, I decide that I’m not that brave yet and just pretend that question doesn’t exist. BUT it always does make me think. I mean, what’s next? If you don’t take a leap, personally or professionally, then nothing happens, right?

Today, I attended an eWomen event with Mark Fox speaking to us about Word of Mouth marketing. I’ll give you three guesses (and the first two don’t count) what he put up on the projector? Yeah. “What would you do if you were brave?” I saw that and literally heard “well crap” in my head. Why do people keep asking me that every 5 years or so? *laughing*

The thing is, I know exactly what I would if I were brave, but I’m also the main (and currently) sole breadwinner in the family. It’s a bit too big of a risk for me to bite off right this very moment. BUT, I’m already doing things that make me feel brave. Just going to any networking event is a big step for me. I, generally, feel uncomfortable at those things and never know what to say or do. I also am attending toastmasters (which, um… I promised to do nearly two years ago!). Those are smaller steps to the bigger thing I would do if I’m brave.

Mark did, however, make me think… what crazy thing can I do to continue the fabulous (no really, my clients really are my best piece of advertising) word of mouth I already have? In a service business, that’s a little more difficult to do and being in bookkeeping makes it a little weirder. It was good food for thought.

So, the big brave thing? Not quite ready to share that. No, it’s not becoming a coach or speaker or anything like that. Who knows, maybe I’ll share it eventually, maybe that can be brave in and of itself?

What would YOU do if you were brave? You don’t have to answer, but really think about it. And be honest because it can be a fabulous business tool. That one question can change your life. Trust me. Be brave and jump when you’re ready. It’s so worth it.

Today (a Saturday) my husband had a bunch of stuff to catch up on, so I took the kids and went to the grocery store and then to Target to spend their allowance. They were terrible at the grocery store and to make a long story short, I ended up telling them in the car on the way home that they could play with the Legos they bought when they felt that they understood why I was upset with their behavior and when they felt they had earned the right. My son, of course, immediately said he understood and was happy to play when we got home. My daughter… she’s a different story. She wears her heart and conscience on her sleeve. She hemmed and hawwed and absolutely hated that I put this decision on her shoulders. We had tears. A lot of tears.

When we got home, they came in and she reluctantly followed big brother and they played with their Legos. About 30 minutes later, I was laying down reading when I hear her walk in and sniffle over to me, “Momma, I’m really sorry we were so terrible in the grocery store.”

There’s that ah-ha moment again… she’s more like me than I want to admit. The poor kid had probably been beating herself up the whole time she was playing because she didn’t feel right about it. I gave her a hug and told her it was okay and we’d do better next time.

But it also reminded me that I’m really hard on myself too. I always have been. My parents never had to put me on restriction for getting a bad grade. If I didn’t make at least a B on every test, I’d lock myself in my room and study the material and basically would put myself on restriction until the next test. I think it secretly drove my mother crazy.

Not much has changed, except now that I’m a business owner, I really have a problem when I make a mistake. Oh, my team makes mistakes and it’s no big deal, they are, after all, only human. But I am not allowed to make mistakes – I am, in my own mind, supposed to be perfect at all times. I goofed up this weekend (actually woke up at 2am panicked because I realized I forgot to file a payroll form for a client and we’d missed the deadline). I’ve already filed the form and mailed it for the client. I’ve emailed the client letting them know and telling them that whatever fee they incur, I will pay. I didn’t charge them for the time to do it. I will probably never forget to file that form again because I’ve mentally berated myself for being so silly – first for forgetting the form – later for beating myself up about it. *laugh*

But you know… the thing is that you have to make it right. No matter if you are seven or uh… twenty-nine. The point is that you own the mistake and you fix it. It really is that simple.

For my part, I will attempt to let go of that ‘D’ I made in Chemistry in 11th grade one day…

Perhaps.

If you have hired someone recently, you could be eligible for a tax credit as well as not having to pay the employer’s portion of the social security tax… first, this is just my own understanding, you should check with your tax adviser of course.

If you hired them after Feb 3, 2010 and before January 1, 2011 and they had not worked for more than 40 hours the previous 60 days, you may qualify for a tax break (this includes laid off employees) through the newly passed HIRE Act. Basically, you do not have to pay the 6.2% social security tax for the first 52 weeks they are employed by you and you could be eligible for a $1000 tax break on your federal tax return.

For more information about the HIRE Act, please follow the links below:
IRS Site – http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=220326,00.html
Intuit Site – http://payroll.intuit.com/federal_hire_act/index.jsp?cid=social_payroll_prpay_landing_hire

If you have an employee that qualifies for this, they will need to complete a W11. A copy of the W-11 form can be obtained at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw11.pdf

It’s important to note that you cannot hire a relative and take the credit. I found a great write up from Taxgirl’s blog (always full of good info if you’re a business/accounting geek).

I was talking to a long-time client on the phone earlier today who is shifting things and wants me to start printing checks for him. It’s a fairly easy thing to do. About half my clients still use checks on a regular basis. For them, it’s fairly easy, we just set up their check for use on our check stock and MiCR printer, get a scan of their signature to use (unless they want us to mail to them to sign and mail – most just give us their signature though), and off-we-go. Other clients use online banking (well, we do it for them most of the time), but most do a mixture of both.

Anyway, it was interesting because this is a big step for him. Giving access to his checking account like that. For me, I know there’s nothing I’m going to do with it, would do with it – or, really, could do with it. Writing myself a big check would be, well… stupid.

It also kind of made me laugh because I have such a wide variety of clients and how they look at their banking information. We are, of course, fully insured, but some hand me the keys to the kingdom with a big sigh of relief while others protect it with their lives. I do have some in-between, others that are handling like this particular client – doling it out slowly, but it’s true that they run the gamut.

It’s just interesting because there are things in my personal and business life myself that I an open with (Google me and you’ll find my personal family page and we’re pretty open on there) and other things that I keep very private. I think because we work virtually, it makes everything a little different. I know that when I tell people that I’ve never met over half of my clients they are shocked, but it’s true. I have clients from all over the United States.

I’ll be honest and say that those who hand me the keys to their kingdom make my life easier. We’re able to keep their books up-to-date in a more timely fashion, we don’t have to wait for a statement to get emailed to us, etc. We can log into their account, update their file, pay their bills and send them an update every 7-14 days or so.

But… I also recognize that not all clients are comfortable with that. Some would prefer to work off of statements only and want to review it themselves. I have some that send me every scrap of paper they get. I have some that make notes. I think the most important part is flexibility. Clients are flexible with us. Almost all of our team will be spending next week out of touch and they are all cool with it, it is our annual conference and we’re going to have fun (and learn, of course). We are also flexible with them. If they want to hand us the keys and run away screaming, we take the keys and redecorate. If they don’t, we just suggest moving a knick-knack now and then.

I’m a huge fan of our local newspaper here in Austin, The Austin American Statesman. However, I couldn’t tell you the last time I actually touched a newspaper. I’m skeeved out by newsprint. It comes off on your fingers and smudges and well, I’m a diva deep down, I suppose. Aside from that, I prefer to grab my news online, in smaller bites or through my Kindle (yes, I subscribe).

Oh, I could get it from any number of news outlets here in Central Texas, but I’ve stayed pretty true to the Statesman. Why? Simply because they care. It shows in their reporting, and it has for many years. BUT, there’s also a secret reason I adore my local paper. Twitter. No, I’m not kidding. Take a look at their Twitter stream and you’ll see why. There’s no RSS flood of news stories every hour (like some of the news stations – oy!), there’s no starched little headlines. There’s some guy there with his computer or phone or whatever and he’s talking WITH us. He’s telling us what’s going on – and this, my friends, is the part that most other news outlets don’t get – they are replying. If you type in @statesman blah blah blah into Twitter, you can bet they will reply to you. Even if it’s “Oh great, glad you liked that photo” or “yeah, yeah, we’ve had the weather wrong for 3 days now”. I like that they are human on there. The guy running it has a sense of humor. Shocking, I know.

I attended the Statesman’s social media awards over the weekend while I was out at SXSWi where they did tell us that they aren’t struggling like most of the other newspapers out there (and if you read anything about publishing, you know it’s pretty scary out there). I was a little surprised, but in some ways I wasn’t really all that surprised. They get it. They do it right. Not just online, but in the paper itself. I always feel the human element, the fact that they’re listening to their readers.

Anyway… I took away that we all need to do that. To listen to our customers, our readers, our clients, our partners, whomever it is out there that we are trying to reach. I will admit that I’m guilty of getting bogged down in numbers and reports that I sometimes forget that there’s a real human being behind all that mess. Not a bad take away for a simple little ceremony.

As with most of what I read these days, someone (Denise over at Aday VA actually) posted (tweeted) a link to this article “Social Media Privacy? Get Over It.”

It’s interesting and a conversation I’ve had over and over with colleagues and friends. How much is too much information? I’m pretty open, I don’t lock or require authorization to read anything I do on social media. I talk about my kids, my reading habits, links to free Kindle books, review restaurants, complain about a client or two, rave about more than a few clients, retweet articles, I’ve probably even dropped the F-word a time or two.

I figure that at this stage in my life and career, I am who I am. I have a few people I follow that are all business all the time. Those are the ones that I tend to ignore, to be honest. It’s not all that interesting to know that yes, you are looking for clients. Get in line, honey.

So, today, if someone is following me on Twitter or Facebook, they know that my kid is sick (and has made me sick), I’m reading Under The Dome by Stephen King, my other kid had clarinet lessons last night, I have a new client I’m having a hard time getting to let go, and I just celebrated my birthday and 17 years of marriage to my husband.

Do I think you can over-share? You betcha. I’m sure if you look hard enough you’ll find things I’ve said that were inappropriate and maybe not very politically correct. But that’s also kind of how I am in real life. I can throw appropriateness out the door and be very unPC. I’m okay with that. I don’t drunkenly post or post about my late night exploits, but it’s okay to commiserate with a colleague about how her kid won’t sleep or with a client who absolutely loved the most recent movie they watched. I’m not going to hide who I am.

I mentioned above that all business is kinda boring. But I also think that your followers/friends/whatever should know what you do. Every now and then, I think it’s important to remind people “Oh yeah, hey, I’m a real estate agent” – or whatever – by saying you closed a sale or you did this or that. I follow people that forget to do that and I have absolutely no idea what they do unless I follow through to their profile information (which admittedly people don’t do all that often after the initial add). I aim to keep my stuff 80-90% personal. Seems high, but how interesting is bookkeeping – I mean really?

My point? I think it’s okay to be yourself and open about it. Others don’t, but I have yet to find a good defining reason as to why not. People cite crazies finding out where you live or where you are at. Well, frankly, that’s easy enough with public records or just dumb luck. There are so many things to be worried about – social media just isn’t one of them for me.

What is your thoughts on social media? Are we all too open? Too reserved? How do you handle your own privacy issues surrounding social media?

Don’t get me wrong, I love all of my clients, but this is my 12th year living here in Austin (yes, I realize I never get to be “from” here, always a transplant) and I’ve come to absolutely love this town, the people, the businesses… just everything.

Oh, I never would have believed I’d become one of those people until I actually lived here. There’s something about walking into a local business in Austin. It’s like nothing you can explain. San Francisco has it’s own vibe (I’ve been there and I think I’d totally live there if not here) – BUT – Austin definitely has it’s own drummer, folks This was driven home for me lately when I went to find a used clarinet for my son to start to learn to play on. We were referred to a little local shop, Play It Again Music, and the lady in there spent over an hour with us, showing my son what he needed to know. All for a little $200 used clarinet. If you’ve never been to a funky little Austin shop before, you must find one immediately *laughing*

So, when I see things like this video over at CNN, it makes me smile and it makes me pretty darn proud to be from this crazy little big city.  Many thanks to my long-time local client, Robert Grunnah over at Castle Hill Investments, for sending this link to me – check out their blog too.

For those of that live here, the fact that Austin is leading in this economic recovery is no big surprise. Oh, we felt it here, don’t get me wrong, but I think we didn’t feel it quite as bad as some other parts of the country.

Go, Austin, Go! And keep being weird… that’s why I stick around (even if I do tend to stick to my far far Northwest suburban area)

PS – I just saw an article from The Austin-American Statesman that Facebook is opening an Austin office. WooHoo!

Warning: Sarcasm ahead

I had 2 networking groups yesterday with two very different experiences. The first was “great” group that a client has asked me several times to go to. It was not too far from me (about 30 minutes I figured) and she endorsed how wonderful it was. Good enough for me – and she wouldn’t be there so I’d be her replacement. Great. Right?

Oy. It actually took me an hour to get there. I’ve been spoiled by working at home and traffic is horrendous going that direction from my house – then I hit this horrible fog and it just wasn’t a good trip. I picked up a friend on the way. We arrived about 10 minutes late and they had just started introductions. So far, seemed like a friendly enough group. All smiles, not put out by having to stop for a few minutes while we apologize for being late and introduced ourselves. Awesome, right?

The first guy introduced himself and the question on the floor was basically “what ties, if any, do you have to a veteran” since it was Vet’s Day on Wednesday. No problem, I thought – whew! I hate talking at these things and my husband was in the Navy, so score! I have something to say! (big sigh of relief). Right?

The 2nd guy… he goes on a small political rant about the ceremony at Fort Hood and how different politically-sided presidents were allowed to be greeted by the soldiers (apparently, there is are different rules for sitting Presidents than past). Whatever. Another person pointed it out to him and he kept going on. At that point, I didn’t care, they all needed to move on – I just really thought it wasn’t the venue for this discussion. Whatever it was, it was so beyond inappropriate, in my opinion. He was obviously very young and very conservative. I’m mid-age and very liberal. Whatever, I don’t care. Some of my best friends and team members are opposite of my views. It doesn’t matter and we don’t talk about it because it just doesn’t matter and no one is going to change their minds and well – it’s business.

The rest of the intros went fine. Again, that guy I really didn’t see as a representation of the group. He’s young and probably all hyped up about political stuff. He’ll figure it out as he gets older. At least I hope.

But then the presentation started. The presenter was there to talk about adoption. She runs an adoption agency. I thought it wasn’t really my bag or something I would expect to see at a business networking group, but I figured I would learn something new and well, that usually makes it worth it. But she lost me pretty quickly when she started out by telling us to keep our hearts open to god for these children. And then several times mentioned that they were looking for good “Christian homes” for these children and mentioned a few churches. Had it not been my first meeting I would have asked if Buddhist, Jewish and other religion homes were excluded. Had I really wanted to show what a smart ass I can be, I would have proclaimed myself Muslim and watched Christian Home lady and Obama Basher’s heads explode together. *laugh*

My point is this… is it me or was both of those probably not appropriate for a networking event? I can see the adoption thing, I mean, it’s her business and she was looking for ideas from the group. But do you feel that God and politics have a place in networking? (For the record, it was held at a cafe, not a church). Is it just me?

Bottom line for me is that while I don’t think it’s the group – I think we just hit it on a very odd day (surely that is not normal!) – I don’t think I’ll be going back. The hour drive to get there once per week really is just too much. It did, however, motivate me to find another networking group besides my usual monthly one. Just a little closer to home.

————-

Speaking of which, my next networking group of the day was my usual Austin Virtual Assistants one. (If you are a VA in Austin, you really should join us – we’ve been together for over FIVE YEARS now!). No, we aren’t always exactly politically correct and we make jokes and we give each other honest (and sometimes brutal – for instance, one lady’s logo – it totally looked like a bug – poor thing had to change it) feedback. But we have that kind of closeness and trust that I think is very important to me in networking. And, yes, we leave our bibles and bumper stickers at home.

.

She posted to the listserv at IVAA that she was kind of new and had someone contact her wanting bookkeeping services and needed a contract. I replied and said I would send her one off-list. When the email went out to her address, I looked up as it was going out and noticed her email address ended in “austin.rr.com” – which meant… out of all the people that are members of IVAA, she was LOCAL!

… and I had just quoted someone that sounded really familiar to who she was talking about so I quickly emailed her again saying I had used that contract for someone that same morning and his name was Elmo (I’m not making this up) so if it was the same person, she might want to alter it quite a bit.

I feel so lucky to know this person and be a partner with her at the meetings. We’ve worked together and celebrated both personal and business related triumphs as well as a few setbacks.

To my fellow VAs, If you have the opportunity to meet a Virtual Assistant in your area, DO IT. Meeting Lana truly changed not only my business, but parts of my life as well. She has become a great colleague, but an even better friend.

Here’s to 50 more years, Lana!

Thanks to Nina Feldman for showing this to me. This is awesome. I should make all new prospects watch it

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY]