What is the one thing that small businesses never have enough of? Money? Partially True. According to Andy Paul, author of Zero-Time Selling, 10 Essential Steps to Accelerate Every Company’s Sales, “If you don’t have enough money, then the one thing you wish you had more of is TIME.” When analyzing your company’s needs versus your resource constraints, business owners are often left in a difficult position. They need a team to support them, but cannot yet afford one.
To solve the underlying problem of overwhelming amounts of work and no (or little) support, business owners begin to take on more and more hats. Some hats may fit them well, generally those directly related to their product or service. Other hats, may not fit well at all. So how can owners of the new “lean start-up” find time to focus on the areas of business that will generate money? One way is by outsourcing your “front desk” functions.
In our last blog we spoke about the benefits of selecting a quality “reception service.” When an owner is handling the front desk, many calls are going to voicemail or to an automated system instead of your customers being greeted by a knowledgeable, welcoming, person who is able to immediately address product or service related questions and route their call to the proper associate. This can be catastrophic to sales conversion and customer support. In this blog, I want to address the opportunity cost of two other hats: scheduling and the use of (or lack of use) of customer relationship management (CRM) software.
By engaging with an outsourced executive assistant (as opposed to just a “reception service”), that service can enable shared scheduling on-line to enhance your customers’ experience, increase your conversion rate, and to free up time for the owner. The business’ calendar can be shared online and appointments can be booked directly for anything from a consultation, to an estimate or a service without the business’ owner or its employees being involved. Better yet, clients’ expectations are exceeded by the prompt service. The business owner can then use that time to build their business, see more clients, work on your business instead of in it (as the esteemed Michael Gerber advocates) and yes – make more money!
Now you may be thinking, there is nothing else that my outsourced executive assistant can take care of for me. There is no more time that can be created. Not true! Every company must have and fully utilize a CRM system…but in reality less than 20% of small business clients even own a CRM system and less than half actually use the one they have. Again, by engaging with an outsourced executive assistant all incoming leads are input timely, customer interactions are recorded, and emails are attached into the CRM system leaving a complete record for each prospect and/or customer. Follow ups and reminders related to each prospect and customer are assigned and scheduled in the CRM system and 100% lead follow up and customer satisfaction can be targeted and ultimately attained. Having a comprehensive file on communications with each relationship is PRICELESS. Should your business experience any turnover – or your memory fails you – you have a comprehensive history to refer back to. Your ability to exceed your customers’ expectations will again gain you both new clients and referrals from existing clients.
The ultimate benefit is, as I always say, that by engaging in professional behaviors your company instantly gains trust and credibility within its marketplace. That trust and credibility can ultimately be the difference between someone buying from you, or buying from your competition.

“Not Just a Receptionist – an Executive Assistant”
Zero-Time Selling by Andy Paul suggests that prompt follow up – that is, the first business to get its prospective clients (even leads), the information they need, has the highest likelihood of winning the client even with the same functions or service and yes – even at a higher price!
Key, according to Mr. Paul is to “Provide the Human Touch:” meaning that every time the phone rings it is answered by a person, not a voicemail greeting, and not an auto-attendant. It means you must have a receptionist or administrative assistant who assigned to answer the phones. Each call must be answered promptly, competently, and personably, even when the business owner, the sales representative or the customer support representatives are at lunch or in meetings: networking, with clients or with their families.
Zero-Time Selling also endorses in the “Practice [of] Unconditional [Customer] Support”: meaning a live person must always answer the support line. Why? Because all customer-support inquiries have to be responded to in less than 30 minutes. Why 30 minutes? Because a response in 30 minutes or less will feel like instantaneous responsiveness to a customer. It is that “instantaneous responsiveness” that will, as Mr. Paul dubs it – allow your business to “hunt with the sharp end of the stick.”
This means that if a competent person, thoroughly knowledgeable about your product or service answers your phones and is authentically engaging with your clients and prospective clients you increase your responsiveness and hence your rate of CONVERSION. By routing each call to the correct employee, a good front line receptionist is not a “gate keeper” they are a salesperson. They can expedite calls such than important calls are even received during other meetings and ensure that an opportunity is never lost.
The moral of the story is, if you do not have a dedicated person answering your phone – get one. One who is trained in your product and acts as an extension of your business. Not any phone assistance service will do. Interview services, ask for recommendations, and look for ways that they can further integrate with your business like scheduling appointments with your clients using a shared calendar and facilitating your CRM (customer relationship management software) by entering leads, conversations, and follow up prompts. For a very small monthly investment, you will find that it is not leads that you lack, but follow through to conversion.

So you’re an Orange County Entrepreneur and you’ve got the next Pet Rock! When do you starting talking about it such that you don’t interfere with any potential intellectual property (IP) protection that you’re going to need? When you’re ready, where do you go to get the ball rolling – after all, there are hundreds of networking events happening in your area every day: morning, noon and night?

First, I’m not an intellectual property (IP) attorney and you should seek a referral to an expert in your product type and in your local area if that’s not the OC. Don’t look for the biggest name – ask a trusted partner (like your general business attorney, CPA, or a trusted business advisor) who they would recommend. Get a couple of names and meet with one or more until you find a good fit. Then, don’t give out any details that they suggest against until you have your protections in place. I know common sense sometimes may be uncommon.

Then, where to network?  For Orange County Entrepreneurs, we have great options. There are the local incubators: WIN Business Acceleration, The Digital Media Center (DMC), and University of California Irvine’s (UCI) Innovation Center. There are also groups that cater to those that will ultimately need funding: Tech Coast Venture Network (TCVN), South Coast Venture Network (SCVN), Tech Coast Angels (TCA), Social Media Marketing Orange County (SMMOC), Chambers of Commerce (who have entrepreneurs groups), et al.  Here is my recommendation – go and date the groups. Find out where you have chemistry and where your personality and your product are a fit. Don’t expect to be a fit everywhere (plus who has that much time to network) and build a networking plan.

If you are an entrepreneur, please share your experiences with others by commenting on this blog. Let’s help others learn from our experiences and pay it forward.

This was presented at Rainmaker BNI on Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 by Wendi D. Coley, CPA of Coley Accountancy. I felt that this was extremely relevant to my audience and I wanted to pass it on. Please check out Wendi’s web site at www.ColeyAccountancy.com.

As an entrepreneur, do you know how most businesses get funded (we’re talking >90% here!)? It is NOT the SBA (small business association) that only guarantees loans for small businesses if you have significant collateral; It is NOT VC (venture capital); It is individuals. Now, you may ask, “Are these Accredited Investors.”
According to Wikipedia an Accredited Investor is defined by various securities laws that delineates investors permitted to invest in certain types of higher risk investments including seed money [that’s start-ups!], limited partnerships, hedge funds, and angel investor networks. The term generally includes wealthy individuals and organizations such as a corporation, endowment, or retirement plans.
In the United States, for an individual to be considered an accredited investor, they must have a net worth of at least one million US dollars not including the value of one’s residence or have made at least $200,000 each year for the last two years ($300,000 with his or her spouse if married) and have the expectation to make the same amount this year.”[1] This rule came into effect in 1933 by way of the Securities Act of 1933.
Realistically, having a million dollars in assets isn’t terribly challenging in many states, including California (of course, tied up in real estate). Many become Qualified Investors, but aren’t really in a position to invest. The AC (Angel Capital) market is made up in part by these ‘marginal’ qualifiers and the remainder are truly (HNWI) high net worth individuals.
But let’s look at scale. To get to the point where HNWI or AC will invest in your company, you will need some cash flow to get there! Check out these sites to raise seed money from those slightly less affluent (not ‘qualified’), but more likely to get you what you need – cashflow!
Go Directly to Seed Funding Sites (many more examples can be found online):
http://www.startupaddict.com/

or build a FUNdraising campaign;
1. Create a fundraising page…
Fundable (http://www.fundable.org/) provides a simple way to create a fundraising page in support of your project. In 15 minutes or less, you can customize a page with an appeal letter, your fundraising goal, and a supporting image.
2. Use pledges to build support…
PledgeBank (http://www.pledgebank.com/) is a tool for building support around certain actions through individual pledges. As part of your effort to solicit donations, you can post pledges on PledgeBank and encourage others to follow your lead.
3. Build your campaign around a fundraising widget…
Like Fundable, ChipIn (http://www.chipin.com/) can be used to receive donations toward a specific fundraising goal. Instead of providing a single fundraising page, ChipIn offers a fundraising “widget” that can be used to display a “donate now” button on several webpages at the same time, as well as the latest statistics on the success of your fundraising campaign.
4. Raise money for your project on Facebook…
Change.org (http://www.change.org/) is a social networking site that offers a fundraising application that integrates with Facebook. As a member of Change.org’s fundraising application, you can post a “change” that corresponds with your project. Use the space that Change.org provides to describe your project and upload related links, images, and videos.
5. Launch an online store in support of your project…
CafePress (http://www.cafepress.com/) offers a simple tool for raising money by selling merchandise that relates to your project. Without much work, you can start selling T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, and other items that bear the message or logo of your project.

All of the items on CafePress are assigned a base price. To earn money, you determine a markup price. Once an order is processed, the base price goes to CafePress and you receive the markup. CafePress will send you a check by mail within 45 days of any merchandise purchase.

The CafePress solution is an ideal way to reach people who won’t donate unless they receive something in return.

Happy Funding!

Last Night I went to TechBizConnections “Real Life Social Media Success Stories” here in Orange County, California. There were four talented panelists and a superb moderator (Sven Johnston of Giga Savvy). Each of the experts discussed their strategies which included some superb tips. Here are my top 10 from the evening:
1. Remember “social media is SOCIAL” and requires your personal interaction.
2. It is critical to ingratiate yourself in the social media communities you join by being the helpful expert, not just asking or taking.
3. Utilize twitter searches for common interest & begin a dialog with folks with common business and personal interests. (www.onefourty.com lists all twitter applications available to filter data)
4. Tweets & Facebook updates can be scheduled for most read times.
5. Be a consistent presence: Panelists recommended 1-2 Facebook day and 3-4 Tweets/day (max)
6. Use Google alerts on your clients, your business and yourself to be the first “in the know.”
7. If you blog, post your blog on your social media sites.
8. Always make your posts interactive: ask questions, elicit feedback.
9. Use key words (with the #sign in front) in Twitter to be most searchable.
10. Explore Facebook’s Insights tool.
All that being said, the one topic no one broached was – How do we monetize the time and money we spend on social media? As a CPA, I believe like all networking, it needs to pay for itself. It would seem though, that social media does more to generate “goodwill,” create brand awareness and keep in contact with an existing client base. The question I ask is; Does social media generate new business?
For my business, I am going to begin tracking my efforts and returns. Look forward to future updates!

In this lingering down economy, the standard “business incubation model” is no longer proving to be effective. I was startled to see that recent statistics in an article entitled “Boon or Boondoggle” by Amezcua at the Syracuse University show the following:

Graduation rate from incubator was only about 4%; among the 18,426 incubated firms in the study, 7,543 of them closed while in incubation, 193 of them closed after incubation, 464 of the graduates remain in operations, and the remainder, 10,226, continue operating in the incubator.

Some of the author’s conclusions:

• Incubation does not reduce chance of going out of business sooner than a non-incubated firm
•  Incubated firms fail 10% sooner after leaving incubator
•  Incubated firms increase employment, but only by 3.5% compared to non-incubated firm
•  Incubated firms increase employment growth rate by 6.7%
•  Sales growth rate increase by 2.15% when entering incubator, 5.1% when leaving incubator
•  Based on employment and sales performance, incubation generally has a positive economic effect but it does not contribute to net economic gains since overall there are net losses in employment and sales for the incubated group
•  Claims that incubators are highly successful and serve a significant number of businesses are overstated; also, incubated firms outperform non-incubated firms in terms of employment and sales growth but fail sooner

Small businesses need more in today’s incredibly challenging business market. They need flexibility and guidance. A center that offers the infrastructure and benefits once only available to large businesses, at a price those small businesses can afford. Moreover, the flexibility to grow with those businesses only as those businesses need to grow into additional services (absolutely a-la-carte, never – “You want fries with that.”) No hidden fees. No long term contracts. Where each of the companies works cooperatively. Does this seem unthinkable?

 WIN is a business accelerator with a proprietary model that offers those benefits. WIN is leveraging many small businesses together to gain economies of scale and to allow start ups to appear instantly larger than they are. I would be interested to hear if others have come across other business accelerators that have a legal structure that (in the United States) allow companies to join together to obtain liability, workman’s compensation, errors & omissions coverages; a lawyer on call, HR administration, CPA ownership with payroll discounts, business connectivity and advisory services, and low cost bookkeeping and administrative assistance.

We, as business men and women; C-level executives, business owners, and providers know that we must continue to build our networks. Each day I receive dozens of invitations for opportunities to expand my network. Many offer “valuable” content, others are just opportunities to “mix and mingle” (albeit often awkwardly). Each month at my corporate offices in Irvine, California, WIN hosts a mixer as well, covering a topic relevant to us – harried and overworked professionals.
Then I realized something…even I am tired of the same old networking. I have hit NETWORKING OVERLOAD! Yes we are adults and sometimes have to do things that we would rather not for business, but does networking need to be one of them? Well, here at WIN, we have decided that the answer to that question is NO.
So, beginning Wednesday, April 20th we will have our first event designed to build those new relationships in a different way. Our first event will be Strategic Gaming. Playing games is proven to reduce stress, improve memory, and problem solving abilities. It also hones those all too important critical thinking skills: multi-tasking, planning, estimation, strategic and quick thinking! Most importantly, we can build new business connections and make new brain connections while having fun!
Future events will involve PLAY! Perhaps geo-caching (similar to treasure hunting for those of you who are unfamiliar), building contests (with Legos?), line or salsa dancing lessons – the sky is the limit. Please let me know what your thoughts are, we certainly hope to see you at our next fun raiser!

According to the Small Business Association, “7 out of 10 small businesses will succeed for 2 years, about half of which will survive for more than 5 years” (that means 15% survive greater than 5 years). Conversely, according to Wikipedia, “historically, 87% of business incubator graduates stay in business.” 

 Meanwhile, Answers.com provides some of the advantages of joining a business incubtor including:

• Shared operating costs.
• Consulting and administrative services.
• Access to capital.
• Legitimacy in the community.
• Universality of the incubator concept.
• Comradeship of fellow entrepreneurs.

But, is incubation the only co-operative entrepreneurial concept on the market in 2011? The answer is NO! At WINopp.com, we offer professional service and high tech firms the ability to conglomerate with other highly talented firms under our Business Accelerator allowing for the following additional benefits:

• Corporate legal counsel.
• Liability coverages.
• CPA and volume discounts.
• Corporate perks.
• Access to large group health insurance.
• CFO services including analysis of:  corporate financial package, business plan, cash flow (or burn), forecasting.
• Support of strong management team.

This conglomeration allows a business with several employees, to enjoy all of the benefits of being a business with more than 100 employees. At the same time, it enables the business owner to focus on their product or service and not the business’ overwhelming daily infrastructure needs that detract from the owners primary focus; selling and serving clients. The savings in both dollars and time spent (opportunity costs) are priceless.

Acceptance to the WIN Business Acceleration program is by interview and invitation only. For more information, contact us at info@WINopp.com.

Virginia Lorimor, CPA*

Chief Excellence Officer

The WIN Companies

entrepreneurship, starting a business, business incubation

Many new business owners who provide professional services and have children, dogs, get door to door salesmen and/or have busy households (or just prefer to have a separate place to work) opt for Executive Suites. They sound as though they are reasonable priced. When I started WIN Opportunities in an executive suite, my rent, I was told, would be just $800 a month. My first bill was well over $2k. I was charged for use of the Internet, conference rooms, kitchen service fees, cleaning fees (4 of them actually - because even though I was the only one occupying  my office, I was told that it had the capacity to seat 4, I later learned); The only line item I couldn’t find  on the invoice was toilet paper (which I’m sure was part of the administrative fee).

Executive suites are designed to nickel and dime (or should I say hundred and thousand dollar) businesses out of business! That is why 95% of small businesses FAIL. That is not acceptable! Today’s businesses are bootstrapping. They are self funded and struggling to make ever penny count. They need a better option and WIN Opportunities (WINopp.com) has that. No long term contracts, flat fees w/no hidden costs. Reimburse only your direct costs (long distance and copies). Work together with other smart professionals cooperatively. Turn your rent cost into a revenue center whether you are looking for an executive office, a virtual office, conference center, or day use offices – WIN is the solution. Give us a call at 949.502.4200 to find out how.

Virginia Lorimor, CPA*

Chief Excellence Officer

The WIN Companies

Business Cost Savings, Small Business Best Practices, Business Start-Up, Executive Suites, Commercial Lease