Excuse the profanity, but this is really worth watching.
2011/03 Mike Monteiro | F*** You. Pay Me. from San Francisco Creative Mornings on Vimeo.
Mike talks specific to the design industry but it applies really to any professional services or consulting business (tech, security, financial, business, etc…). The upshot of it is that you need to think about the potential fails BEFORE you start work and protect yourself from them with a well-written services contract.
I’ve decided to start sharing some of my experiences with outsourcing. It’s amazing what can be done, and hopefully what I share will give you some ideas.
A friend of mine contacted me with a problem – They had over 3000 contacts in their Outlook Email program that they’d accumulated over 10 years or more. The contacts were synchronized to their iPhone, and it was all a bit of a mess. They were after some way of cleaning up the data without doing it manually, like a program or tool.
I suggested outsourcing the data cleaning to the Philipines using oDesk… The response was the same as I normally get… “You can do that…?”
I put the following job description up on oDesk:
Hello. I have a large list of contacts exported from Outlook. There are some duplicates, misspelt duplicates, and others. In total I believe there to be about 3000 contacts in this list. I need a hard-working, self-starting and proactive data entry/analysis person to go through and “clean”; this list i.e.: Merge all duplicates into single contacts. If duplicate data exists for any contacts, use your ingenuity to make sure all the data is available.
Within 2 hours I had over 150 responses. I picked a lovely woman from the Philippines who had good feedback, had a history of work on oDesk (2,985 hours), and most importantly who’s personalized message to me about the job indicated they had a) understood the question and b) good speak very good English (which is important for communication).
Once I hired her using the oDesk process, I sent thought the following email with a CSV dump of my friends contacts attached:
Hi <Outsourcer’s Name>
Here you go…
I have compressed it into a CSV file. Please maintain the header row structure, as it has been taken directly from Outlook where it will be reimported.
The main thing is to merge duplicates. There are several entries that are duplicates with typos, etc… I trust you to use your discernment as to whether they are duplicates or not.
Remove any unusual characters like #, @, ! etc… from the titles.
Note that there are several entries for Companies, Services, etc… without a person attached to them. Please DO NOT merge these into other contacts. Please deduplicate these where necessary.
As a low priority please standardize the capitalization in the words.If you have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to ask. However, I trust that with your skills and proactive approach you’ll be able to complete this task well without needing too much input from me.
Thanks!
Casey
That’s where we are up to so far… I’ll keep you posted with the progress.
NOTE: Yes, my friend did agree to let his contacts list sent to a 3rd party, yes, I made them sign an NDA, and yes, there is a slight risk involved in doing stuff like this. You have to evaluate if it is worthwhile on a case by case basis.
You should check out oDesk, it’s free to sign up and post jobs.
Here is the working list of goals for 2011…
As is my custom there are only 5 goals, and they are more “set of the sail” type goals then your classic S.M.A.R.T goals.
It’s a work in progress (which I hope to have finalized by tomorrow night… I want to add a 6th but tradition prohibits it… We’ll see how we go.
What are your goals for 2011?
OK, I admit it, I wrote the title like that just to suck you in…
The truth is that 99% of entrepreneurs hate business plans. Unfortunately for us it’s also true that 99% of ANYONE who would ever even THINK to give or lend us money will expect to see one.
Here’s a few good things about business plans…
Here’s a few tips on how to make it an easier and more valuable exercise… (I will expand on this in a later post… Please remind me)
The overarching principal is K.I.S.S – Keep It Simple Stupid. The more complicated you make it the more difficult and disheartening it’s likely to be. And have FUN! This is an adventure we’re on here… The fact that you’re sitting down to do something that resemble ACTUAL WORK isn’t the end of the world…! Just do it.
Here is the ANZ Business Plan (Business Guess) template. Here is a ANZ Guide to Writing A Business Plan. (note: I don’t endorse or get anything back from ANZ for this. I just think these are great documents.)
Do you have any tips to share, or questions to ask about writing business plans?
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Being able to succinctly define and communicate what your business does is important for two reasons…
How succinctly can you communicate your business to a potential customer? There is an expression in sales called the “elevator pitch” – You would use your elevator pitch if you found yourself in an elevator with a prospect (i.e. potential customer) with 60 seconds to pitch (i.e. present your value proposition and call them to action).
Here’s my elevator pitch for the Tall Poppy Group:
We consult with our clients to help take their business or product to its full market potential by leveraging the Internet, technology and outsourcing. We also provide a range of services like web development, Internet marketing using social media and SEO, mobile app development, and more. If you like I can come and meet you when we have more time for a free consultation.
Nice right? See the formula?
Unfortunately, nowadays we don’t have 60 seconds to play with. We have 140 characters… So what does the pitch look like then?
Here’s a few variations I just came up with
“Get the WEB working for YOU. Websites, Internet marketing, Social media, SEO, etc. Free consult! Click to book > http://su.pr/2VIoVw”
“Put the WEB to work for YOU. Websites, Internet marketing, Social media, SEO, etc. Free consult! Click to book > http://su.pr/2VIoVw”
“We can make the Internet fetch you a latte, bake you muffins, and file your BAS. Book a free consult TODAY! http://su.pr/2VIoVw”
“We make the Internet your biatch. Get in touch. http://su.pr/2VIoVw” << My favorite… It’d go great on a T-shirt at a conference. Not sure if it’s the image I want to project though.
Similar formula, just a LOT shorter and a LOT more compelling. Remember – the goal is to define it, be succinct, and STAND OUT!
What’s your Twitter pitch? Share it with us!
It’s a little known but very real fact that it’s not all that hard to get kicked off Facebook.
Facebook is quite happy for you to promote your business or cause. The little known (or thought about) fact is that Facebook is NOT HAPPY about people using personal profiles to promote businesses. Facebook’s Terms and Conditions are very clear that creating a profile in a business name or any other name than your real name WILL GET YOU PERMANENTLY BANNED.
What does this mean for businesses? Imagine if your hard fought Facebook profile, all of the information, all of the connection, all of the feedback, vanished irrecoverably overnight. No way to get it back (other than the appeals process – good luck with that) and no way recreate it. That’s a bad day.
Already gone ahead and set up a profile as a business? My advice would be to
There’s no real arguing that Facebook can be a brilliant tool for business – I’ve been known to describe it as “word of mouth marketing on crack”.
As businesses capitalize more and more of Facebook’s extraordinary reach here is something to keep in mind… Facebook is a business, not a democracy. They can, and do, do whatever they like whenever they like (profile change anyone…?). It’ll help to keep this in mind as you go forward.
Got questions? Need help with a splash page? Every been kicked of Facebook? Share it in the comments below!
One of the most difficult things any business owner faces is that murky and usually somewhat awkward period between invoicing and payment. I hear it all the time, particularly from solo service-type businesses like consultants, coaches and speakers – “I have a bunch of invoices out there, I’m just waiting for them all to come back in.”
Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity… Cashflow is reality.
Unfortunately, it’s more of a rule than an exception that clients delay payment for as long as they can get away with it as a matter of “good business practice”. This is the flip-side of the same coin – Getting money IN QUICKLY has the same net effect on cash-flow as making sure it goes OUT SLOWLY. It’s in their best interest to hang on to cash for as long as possible.
So how do you win at this game? Here are a few things I do to make sure I get paid on time…
Hopefully you find this helpful… It’s a journey getting this particular area right, so I’m sure I’ll be adding to this post in time!
Anyone who knows me, or has read more than a few posts on this blog, will know that I love Timothy Ferriss‘ book “The 4 Hour Work Week“. The strategies are awesome, and the book is inspiring on many levels – The D.E.A.L. strategy is a fantastic model.
But it’s not the full story. Here’s a few myths that I’ve heard other interpret from 4 Hour Work Week that I’d like to address. I post this because I know many people who are reading it at the moment, and some of the expectations the book can set are almost certainly setting many up for disappointment if you don’t go in with your eyes open.
(CAVEAT: Yes, I made all of these mistakes I am about to write about and learned the hard way. Hopefully you won’t have to.)
Note: Most of these points aren’t explicitly stated in the book. It’s more the unsaid that creates the impression…. That which is implicitly communicated to the reader.
Implied Myth Number 1: Everyone has the same natural skill set as Timothy Ferriss: If you read the book carefully, a lot of the advice is predicated on the idea that the reader thinks, acts, and has the same skills as the author. Most don’t. Timothy Ferriss is a genius at marketing, gifted at business systems, and carries a level of natural charisma that certainly supports what he has managed to do. Granted, there is a fair amount of practical info in the book about things one can do to market test, to systemize their business, and to increase there natural leadership skills. But many people I speak to who’ve just finished reading the book assume it will be as easy for them as Tim makes it sound in the book. Don’t forget, before he went through the process of systemizing and outsourcing Brainquicken LLC he was working 80 hours per week. As I said at the start, I love this book – It was one of the key drivers that got me started in business – But I wonder about the expectations it can set in the readers mind about how simple and easy the process is going to be.
Implied Myth Number 2: Setting up a business is easy: The reality is that it isn’t always easy. One of the things the book doesn’t mention is that following the heady and adrenaline filled startup and idea phase of a business, there usually comes the hard yards. These is the period where stuff goes wrong, exception handling gets worked out, and it generally represents some pretty hard work. It’s all worthwhile mind you – it’s what I want to do my my life…! But if you go into this thing expecting it to be a cakewalk you’re more often than not going to be sorely disappointed.
Implied Myth Number 3: Act now, think later: I’ve heard it said by many successful entrepreneurs that “1 hour of planning is worth 10 hours of unplanned doing”. Look at what you are thinking of doing, count the cost, and work out the best strategy. Ready, fire, aim is a business plan that is bound for failure, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. (That said, the opposite – paralysis by analysis – is just as counterproductive and probably more common… I like the idea of setting time limits to your planning, then acting regardless of where you up to.)
Implied Myth Number 4: Outsourcing is easy: It’s not. It’s definitely worthwhile, but teaching someone how to understand what you want is difficult enough without a cross cultural barrier, not to mention a language barrier. Again, it’s not impossible, but I’ve heard enough people say “I’ve read 4HWW and I’m going to get a VA and that’ll make everything easy” to want to address this.
Implied Myth Number 5: The cashflow source you set up will set you free for your whole life: This isn’t so much said in the book and it is assumed by the reader. Things change. Businesses that are viable one moment fall victim to market shifts and competitive pressure. Even property, touted as the be all and end all for setting yourself up for life, needs to be maintained and managed to stay viable as a cash source. The proof here is in the pudding: The vitamin supplement business Tim Ferriss set up (the main source of the income for him that facilitated the stories in the 4 Hour Work Week) was sold to a private equity firm in 2009. Most of the money he now makes (I would assume) would be from the book. Brilliant strategy, but do you see what I am getting at here? Nothing last forever in business. There attrition, obsolescence, competitive pressure, margin erosion… on and on and on. It’s safe to assume that if you are first to market with a good idea that someone will devote their life to knocking you off your pedestal (a la Myspace… The same thing WILL eventually happen to Facebook given enough time.) It’s not a reason not to do it, it IS a reason to plan an exit.
I hope this helps at least someone. I am NOT discouraging anyone from taking the advice of the book and going on the journey it spruiks. I am. It’s important though, to manage your expectations as you head into something so as not to be dissappointed when you find that they were set too high. In all of this, if you haven’t read the 4 Hour Work Week yet, go out and get it. It’s a great read.
Did you find this helpful? Do you have anything to add? Comment below!
For my money, a good business idea needs the following:
Anything else that I might have missed?
One of the challenges us “part-time” entrepreneurs face is the creep of our “5 to 9″ (i.e. the side-projects) into our “9 to 5″ (our employment). We are duty bound to our employer to work for them while they are paying us, and it has become a core ethic of mine to have at least some sort of integrity in this area. I know very well the difficulties of having a lightbulb moment whilst working for the man, and trying to keep going with what I should be doing.
The other challenge is keeping the “9 to 5″ and the “5 to 9″ separate from our home/family/personal lives, ESPECIALLY when you work from home on both your job and your own stuff like I do.
Here’s the approach I am taking to try and keep things seperate…
The separation needs to happen in your mind first. All the things I’ve mentioned above are there to facilitate me mentally shifting gears into the next thing that I am doing, and then to protect me from accidentally downshifting into the wrong gear while I’m doing something else.
There you go. This is in progress at the moment. Evidence of this is the fact that I am blogging this during my 9 to 5… My “job” profile on my computer is syncing up email which I need before I can do anything.
How do you managed these boundaries? Feel free to add your thoughts below!
