Karrie's comments

Yes, deeper relationships are better than many empty ones. So true in business and in life.

Great article and wonderful points. Congrats on your newly earned "expert status"!

Nice article.

A trick to proofreading: read backwards from the end to the beginning. It's so easy to overlook double words, extra spaces, correctly spelled but incorrect words that don't get caught by spell-check.

I'd also add: infuse your writing with your personality, take risks, have fun and use language to play and connect, not just get information across.

Loved how you pulled different people into this article in a true spirit of community. Thanks!

Karrie

John,

I too am not into hiring a financial planner who is advising based on where s/he gets the biggest commission. It's something many people don't realize, but this is most often the case. Most people who say they are financial advisors are basically representatives or agents of big corporations that offer incentives for placing client investments into certain funds.

I've met with John Goddard who charges hourly and is not affiliated with any company or brokerage or fund. He will advise you after meeting and looking at your complete financial situation, goals, etc. He will tell you how to set yourself up with a discount brokerage (like Vanguard) instead of having someone else take control of your finances and make money off of your transactions or amount invested.

Most people have no idea how much it costs to manage their funds or how much their "planner" (really "representative") gets from their investments over time. If you are willing to learn, you can be so much more empowered and keep more of your own money.

To be clear, I am not talking about day trading! I am talking about managing your own assets with professional insight.

Here's John's info:

John Goddard Goddard Financial Planning, Inc. Dollars and Sense for Everyday Life 1100 Dexter Ave North Suite 100 Seattle,WA 98109

phone 206.273.7976 email John@GoddardFinancialPlanning.com
internet www.GoddardFinancialPlanning.com

Tell him hello!

Karrie

I am looking as well...

Mikelann told me about this one a while back and she sounds happy with it: Practice Pay Solutions. Used by lots of coach/consultant types.

I'd love to hear from any of you who have used it.

Anita, it looks like moneybookers.com is only offered for EU transactions. ?

ikobo touts a flat $5 fee to transfer between banks/debit, and costs more for credit card. Could work for those who don't rely on credit cards and who get larger payments each time. (Another reason to package your services!)

obopay claims they offer only 25cents per transaction and you can "send money" via your phone.

It really does depend on how much money you are moving around monthly, how often and how much you tend to move on average per transaction, from what I understand. Is this a sometimes thing or are credit card/debit transactions a mainstay of your business? In some businesses it will increase your revenue dramatically to have cc offered.

Art, what do you think about these services I've mentioned above? Practice Pay Solutions, obopay, ikobo? Great to have you aboard here to answer questions.

Judy, yes the look-a-like thing. Was late, was tired, didn't proofread. Now Colleen and I will forever be dobblegangers.

Maybe that's good because after I posted here, I read online that seeing your doppleganger is an "omen of death"--ahh! Colleen and I met last night in person so let's stick with dobbleganger to be safe.

Colleen is a delight and clever conversationalist--so glad we got some face time. I highly recommend meeting her at this event Suzanne Griscom is hosting..

Hey Dobbleganger,

Glad you pointed out that the bio is about them, not you! Some businesses are great at making their website about their audience and then you get to their "about me" page and bam, you are hit with the ego-fest. So true.

Also like that you mentioned personal flavor. With the number one reason people hire a service professional being personality, you don't want to water down your website by leaving yours out. Nice article.

Great to see you while you are in Seattle. Check out that doppleganger link. Maybe we should have him photograph us?

Hey Crackerjack!

You are so right about becoming a line of credit. I have talked with clients about this and most often people don't realize they are in this position!

Whomever has the money is earning the interest and can utilize that money for further growth. It's one reason why the IRS loves us sending in our estimated tax payments throughout the year--they get the interest and capital to use all year.

I loved reading your encouragement to see what has been or could be problematic with accounts receivable and to build a solution into your policies and agreements. I call this anticipatory thinking. Sounds like Rick has given this one a lot of good thought too!

Taking payment up front for projects or packaging your services in a way that requires clients to pay in advance are both ways to make sure you don't become a bank inadvertently. It also reduces much frustration and resentment!

Great to see your article, Kelly. An important and specific issue you tackled. I like seeing articles that are this targeted. Looking forward to reading more from you!

#7 is crucial. I sometimes hear clients say that they "already tried" hosting events or spoke to groups and it "didn't work" but then when I ask what their call to action was, well, they have no idea. So how could their audience know?

And practicing! Yes! We build and strengthen actual neural pathways in our brain when we repeat anything. "Practice makes perfect" isn't just a cliché; It's a physiological/neurological phenomena.

I have another trick to add: Arrive at the event early so you have a chance to talk to those first few people who enter and connect with them. I notice that speakers seem much more uptight and disconnected from their audience when they arrive to a full room of eyes. I suggest asking 1-2 people to show up early as "helpers" so that you have that built-in connection time and remove some of that audience-speaker barrier.

Thanks for the article and advice! I'll keep it in mind for future talks and workshops.

Loved Stacy's additional comments as well.

I like your attitude Drew. Not sure I agree with you on the "just do something" bit about marketing. There are some marketing moves that can hurt your business reputation and eat your wallet with very little return on investment. Poorly messaged marketing materials / ads and poorly placed ads can simply waste your money and deflate your bubble. Direct mailings and telemarketing can be viewed by recipients as wasteful or invasive tactics that can actually work against you. Not to say these things are always bad, but small biz owners really want to consider how to get the most bang out of their marketing dollars.

That said, I like the encouragement to stay visible to your target market and not hide in a cave and wonder why no one is calling. And, well, I could tell you were actually smiling while writing this. That's rare. You sound like a great guy and I hope you'll come down for some live biznik events in Seattle so we can all meet you in person.

Stefani, I love that you included massage as an example of a keeper, even in rough times. So often self care is viewed as unnecessary and drops out first from our lives when money gets tight--reminds me of how the arts are the first thing to be cut in schools. Sure, you can get by without them (massage, the arts) but then what quality of life is left?

Wonderful encouragement to talk with someone who is older and who survived economic downturns in the past. I had a beautiful conversation with my parents this week. They are in their 70's and are so clear headed and experienced in this sort of thing. Okay, so maybe I disagree with them about what caused this fiasco, but they were still wonderful to talk with and it offered a different perspective to listen to them.

I see this as a great opportunity to take stock in what really matters to us as individuals, as businesses, families, and communities.

Definitely not a time to cave! Geesh! My business has done better each consecutive quarter this year and I plan on that continuing--not through wishful thinking (to your new age comment) but I do know that how we think and speak affects our interactions with prospective clients, our mood, how fast we act on opportunities, etc.

Thanks for taking the time to write! I just read your other article on divorce which looks like a good resource for people who need that type of information. Hope you'll keep writing!

This is so true for changing any type of behavior--from losing weight to exercising to building a business, making more money and working less. Creating awareness will cause a shift in how you behave, no question about it.

I want to add that there are specific things a small business should consider tracking. Here is a sample of those:

1. How many hours you are working.
2. Of those, which hours are billable.
3. How much time you spend giving away your knowledge, insight, product for free. (If you start tracking this you will either get more effective at turning freebies into customers or you will decrease your freebies.)
4. How many clients or customers you have.
5. How many sales you make.
6. Where your referrals come from.
7. How many customers or clients you lose (they inquired but did not buy or commit).
8. How much money you are making (unbelievable to me how many business owners do not know this!).

9. How much you are spending in each expense area (The type of thing that could easily be tracked on any basic accounting software. For instance: how much on equipment, how much on hiring help, how much on utilities, etc. Depends on your business what these categories will be. This is not about budgeting: amazingly your spending habits will automatically change once you know this information on a regular basis.)

10. Other things specific to your business, such as how much inventory you have, how many calls you make, how much travel time, how much time you spend online, anything that would impact either the growth of your business or the quality of your experience running it.

At any given point, you should be able to quickly pull up your numbers and see how they relate to one another. It's quite motivating to look at the changes in numbers over the past 12 months. People I work with don't believe how much this will help them but when we set this up they find themselves A. empowered, B. very clear on where and how to take action to change their numbers, and C. surprised at how well they are actually doing.

Great reminder, Dennis. I will consider writing a follow up article that gets into more detail about how to do this.

Thanks Dennis! Keep on writing!

Karrie

Just posted a comment on biztalk and noticed that the italics showed up on the actual thread but did not show up on the biznik homepage where you show recently posted comments--instead it reads as asterisks. A minor issue, but maybe a symptom of something else. I know how detailed you guys are.

White font on a black background is very hard on the eyes. Tia alluded to this but i would go further and say change it asap because you are alienating the eyes of your visitors. Specifically because your business is one of aesthetics, you don't want your own business aesthetics to turn people off.

Beautiful floral images. I'll introduce you to one of my clients who does amazing wedding photography so you two can collaborate and send business to one another.

Good luck Amoreena! I hope you'll take some of these generous folks up on their offers to help you!

Amanda,

Seems you are narrowing this to people who have actually gone into business together. Is that correct?

I have dozens of stories about great biznik connections and many that have affected bottom lines but not a lot of actual business partners meeting via biznik. I wonder if this is the reason you are not getting many replies.

Let us know if you are casting a wider net.

I may not be able to make it tonight as I haven't been feeling well. If I am up to it I'll make the drive to Tacoma, otherwise have a great night and I'll catch you all another time.

I love sending and receiving personal cards or letters. There is something so wonderful about opening a real, physical mailbox and finding an object or card inside, especially if it's beautiful and written by the sender.

When I find an article or some little something out in the world that reminds me of a client I will often send it to them with a personal note.

Growing up, I had a mom who encouraged us to write thank you notes and send treats to friends and family via the mail. It just feels good and it connects people. And these days with everyone on email, it's so nice to get something in the "real mail" that you can touch and feel. Sending something useful, beautiful or funny is the key to having it be meaningful to the recipient.

That said, I do not encourage clients to send out mass mailings as they typically are wasteful and most of us have come to distrust them and their senders. My position on this is that it's less a numbers game and more about the quality of the connection you make.

Thanks for the article, Jennifer!

Looking forward to meeting you all and helping to light the biznik fire in Tacoma and the South Side of Seattle. Glad to see this event is filling up.

If you are not RSVP'd and you are curious, I say jump. Biznik is an amazing community--by far the best small business resource I've found. Come check it out.

See you there!