Category Archives: Business Strategy

Long range, big picture, macro

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Face Your Financials

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Although you may have both an accountant and a bookkeeper on your payroll you, the business owner,  still bear the ultimate responsibility for maintaining the financial health of your enterprise.  Every business owner should be able to understand and make good use of business financial data.  Each financial statement has a story to tell and you the business owner must be able to decode the language and comprehend the information that the numbers relay.

There are three financial documents that are generated monthly  (and also compiled quarterly and annually): the Balance Sheet, the Cash Flow Statement and the Profit & Loss  (or Income)  Statement.

  • The Balance Sheet resembles your checking account monthly statement.  This document details business assets and liabilities,  showing the monetary value of all the business owns and what it owes.
  • The Cash Flow Statement is the business budget and shows what sales revenue will flow into the business and what expenses will flow out.  This document helps you stay on top of how much money is available to cover expenses,  like payroll and rent.  Accounts payable  (the bills)  and accounts receivable  (sales revenues)  are listed on this statement.  If you’ve ever managed a household budget,  then you can master the Cash Flow Statement.
  • The Profit & Loss  (or Income)  Statement is similar to the Cash Flow Statement.  It contains many items that are also found on the IRS tax form Schedule C,  Profit or Loss From a Business.  Sales revenues and expenses are listed on this statement,  including labor,  taxes,  inventory  and the wholesale costs of products sold.  Net Profit (also known as the bottom line)  is  the last line of this statement and this figure represents the ultimate story of business financial health.

One does not need a degree in accounting or an MBA in finance to identify which numbers on financial statements are most critical to your business and understand the story that each one tells.  Keeping track of five or six key values,  including values called ratios,  will do wonders for your comfort level with financial analysis and in the process,  guide your business decisions in many ways.

  • Gross Profit  in the P & L tells how much money remains after selling and product production costs,  or the wholesale cost of products sold,  have been tallied.  Freelancers calculate this figure as time: how many hours were spent on your contract project,  networking to create new business,  developing a new workshop? Make a reasonable estimate of the wholesale cost of your labor.  This figure gives insight into how much money/time  it takes to make a sale.  Can you work smarter and faster,  or buy materials for products manufactured more cheaply? That’s how to increase gross profit.
  • Net Profit,  or the bottom line of the P & L,  tells the ultimate story.  Every line item that precedes it impacts it.  If you want that number to be larger (and don’t we all?),  look at all expenses to see what can be trimmed and also consider ways to generate new business through strategic partnerships,  referral relationships,  networking for client development,  PR,  etc.
  • Gross sales revenues  in the P & L may be tracked in two ways,  looking back over what occurred in previous months or years  (historical comparison)  and going forward  (projections, or forecasting)  to what you reasonably expect and want to sell in a given period,  guided by sales history and current demand for your product/service.  Are you achieving,  exceeding or failing your personal sales goals?

Finally,  see your Balance Sheet and calculate these ratios,  to expand your grasp of the financial data:

  • Quick Ratio = Accounts Receivable + Cash – Inventory divided by Accounts Payable    This figure indicates how much money is available to pay bills.  A 2:1 ratio represents a business in good shape.  However,  a big receivables number can mask clients who take longer than 30 days to pay,  thus signaling the owner to step up collection efforts.
  • Current Ratio = Assets divided by Liabilities   This figure measures resources available to pay debts over the next 12 months.  A value > 1.0 shows a business in good shape,  > 2.0 is a business in excellent shape.
  • Working Capital = Current Assets – Current Liabilities   This figure also demonstrates the ability to pay off short-term debts.  Obviously,  a positive number is what you want.
  • Debt to Equity Ratio = Total Assets divided by Total Liabilities   This figure indicates how much debt the business carries relative to its assets.  A value <0.5 is excellent and values > 0.5 mean the business is carrying rather heavy debt and is considered highly leveraged.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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The Data Driven Payoff

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Because the February-March session sold out,  I have been invited to reprise my three-part workshop  “Become Your Own Boss: Effective Business Plan Writing”  at Boston Center for Adult Education 122 Arlington Street Boston MA on three Mondays,  May 9, 16 & 23 from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM.  For more information or to register please visit http://bit.ly/becomeyourown59  or call 617.267.4430.

As Freelance consultants,  we know that information is nearly as valuable to us as our skill set.  Information leads us to make smart decisions about all aspects of business: what services to offer,  identifying target client groups,  determining a profitable business model,  understanding how to market our services,  gaining a competitive edge.  That good information is integral to all that we do comes as no surprise,  but until now there was no scientific evidence to support that belief.

New research done by Erik Brynjolfsson,  economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Business,  Heekyung Kim,  graduate student in economics at MIT Sloan School and Lorin Hitt,  economist at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business proves that good information really does put money in your pocket.

The three studied 179 large businesses and found that when decisions enacted were based on reliable data,  companies achieved a 5+ % higher productivity level than businesses that relied more on “experience and intuition” for decision making.  The higher productivity could not be attributed to other factors,  such as the use of more sophisticated technology.

In the study,  data driven decision making was not primarily based on merely collecting data,  but was closely linked to how the data was utilized.  In the April 24, 2011 New York Times,  Mr. Brynolfsson stated that business decisions based on data and analysis “have huge implications for competitiveness and growth”.

Thomas Davenport,  professor of information technology and management at Babson College in Massachusetts supported the conclusions reached regarding data driven business decisions in a book written with Jeanne Harris and Robert Morison, “Analytics at Work: Smarter Results” (2010),  concluding that companies that rely heavily on data analysis are likely to outperform those that do not.

The big question is,  which data do we choose to collect and analyze and how do we best apply it?  Curating data is big business.  “The biggest change facing corporations is the explosion of data”,  said David Grossman,  technology analyst at Stifel Nicolaus in the April 24 NY Times.  “The best business is in helping customers analyze and manage all that data”.

How does a Freelancer decide what to do with data available to us?  I propose that data presented here would guide readers with excellent proficiency in mathematics and possessed of an advanced degree in the subject to become data analysts!  All others might take a look at our P & L statements and examine gross revenue and fixed and variable expenses and analyze how much it costs to generate income and what can be trimmed to make the bottom line better.

Speaking of revenue,  do some research on the services that your target clients are contracting for these days.  Are you retaining clients and signing new ones, too?  How does your 2Q 2011 active client roster compare to 2Q 2010?  Do you need to tweak your business model to maintain your competitive edge,  or might it be wiser to seek a strategic partnership?

To help figure things out,  do a free online search of Google’s Key Word Tool or Wonder Wheel and type in a descriptive phrase of your core service.  How many prospects in your locale are searching for what you sell?  Next,  type in a phrase that describes the service you think might interest clients and see how many local searches it gets.  There you have it,  data driven analysis to guide your business decisions.

Use Google Analytics to track hits to your website and report which pages receive the most attention.  You can correlate that data to the number of follow-up requests you receive and  the conversion of that follow-up to new business.  Make further use of that data to evaluate the efficacy of your website and learn how you can enhance this important marketing tool.  Will adding multimedia to your website be useful?  Or will adding pages to give more information do the trick?  Or maybe you should just simplify the text and clarify and strengthen your message?  Listen to the data and find your answers.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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What’s Up With Your Strategy?

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“The most serious mistakes are not made as a result of wrong answers.  The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong questions”.

–Peter Drucker

Freelancer Friend,  if you are not familiar with Peter Drucker (1909-2005),  please allow me to introduce you to but a small serving of his genius.  Peter Drucker was considered the father of modern management.  In 1971,  he launched one of the nation’s first executive MBA programs for working professionals,  located at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA.  From the 1940s until about 2002,  Drucker produced groundbreaking work on business practice and strategy.  He was the Big Kahuna and he wrote several Holy Grails. 

Drucker was also known to be a serious skeptic of macroeconomic theory,  believing that economists of all stripes failed to explain significant aspects of modern economies (housing bubble, anyone?).  In other words,  if the folks at the Federal Reserve had followed Drucker’s wisdom and reined in the Wall Street masters of the universe,  the world’s economy would be in much better shape today.

Recently,  I found the above quotation plus a list of reality-checking questions that every Freelancer and business owner is advised to ponder and answer at least once a year.  The questions are quite simple and would appear to be no-brainers,  yet they are surprisingly effective at revealing the business strategies that your management team would be wise to develop and implement.

The first two questions require your team to set priorities and the last two require that you assess the organization’s ability to focus on those priorities by choosing meaningful performance measurements.

1.   Who is your primary customer?

It always comes around to identifying the customer,  does it not?  Identifying the natural customers for your products and services is the ultimate make-or-break realization for all business entities,  whether one makes a few hundred dollars during winter by shoveling snow from front stairs and driveways,  or a few million dollars from running a multinational corporation.  Only when the ideal customers have been identified is it possible to develop a marketing strategy that is a guide for resource allocation (e.g., equipment or PR campaigns),  sales distribution channels,  product positioning and branding strategies,  pricing,  creation of a sales pitch,  the networking strategy,  and so on.

2.   What business performance variables are you tracking?

Whatever yardsticks you select to measure business performance,  make sure they provide an accurate assessment of what is happening.  A sharp bookkeeper or accountant,  one with a background in financial analysis,  can tell you which numbers on your profit & loss statement and balance sheet make sense for you to watch and why that is so.  Freelancers probably want to pay attention to net revenue generated,  new business,  repeat business and the number of projects contracted.

3.   What strategic boundaries have you set?

Implementing a strategy involves risk.  Any strategy could lead the business to a place where you’d rather not go.  Know your core values,  priorities and preferences.  Think about what your customers expect and will accept from your organization.  It may be that you decide to take a pass on a golden opportunity because you just don’t want to offer that service or work that hard.  As the late,  great fashion arbiter Diana Vreeland said,  elegance is refusal.

4.   What strategic uncertainties are keeping you awake at night?

The game is all about whether your strategies work and for how many quarters will they work.  Unfortunately,  there is no silver bullet that can zero in on the weaknesses of your business strategies.  At some point,  customer needs and preferences change,  technology marches forward,  or some other event compels you and your management team to reboot dearly held business assumptions and approaches.  In order to adapt successfully,  it is necessary to constantly monitor the yardsticks established in Question 2.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Seven Resolutions for 2011 Part 2 of 2

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Here are the remaining four resolutions that should help you construct the framework for a prosperous year.  Nothing especially novel or profound is being suggested.  To the contrary,  I’ve presented nothing that you don’t already know.  Consider these resolutions to be  a gentle reminder.  You decide which deserve follow-up. 

4.   Revisit your networking  strategy

Get the most out of networking by following a basic agenda,  one that keeps you focused on the real purpose for being there and takes the experience beyond just a random meet & greet.  This agenda works best face to face,  but it can also be used when engaging in online social networking.  The recipe is:  Get a client.  Get a referral.  Get educated.  In other words,  when you’re out there networking,  do your best to get something tangible.  At the very least,  get some information that might help you land a client or receive a referral.  Sweeten the pot for those whom you’d like to know better by offering them something of similar value,  to make helping you worth their while.  Networking flows best on a two-way street.  With this criteria  as a guide,  consider which social networking platforms you use and why you use them.  Is the ROI worth the time spent to keep up?  Next,  consider if you are participating in the right amount of face to face networking and assess the quality of your usual haunts.  How much time and money have you spent at these events and how has being in those rooms impacted your billable hours?

5.   Review your client list

Which clients pay you the most money?  Can you make that happen again this year?  From which clients might you be able to get more money?  Can you dare to raise your hourly rate or project fee for any of them?  Conversely,  which clients are more trouble than they are worth,  high maintenance headaches who do not pay enough to make up for the misery incurred?  Are there clients you should fire?

6.   Develop a prospect list

Who is your dream client?  It’s time to devise a strategy to reel in that big fish.  Identify your decision maker,  or key influencers who might get you in the door.  Maybe you know a colleague who can either make an introduction to the right person or tell you at which networking activities you could meet whom you need to meet?  Make a plan.

7.   Review professional development needs

Will enrolling in graduate school,  taking a seminar or earning a certification increase your credibility and make your services more marketable?  Is there a professional organization that would benefit you,  one that offers good peer networking and useful skills updates? Ask around.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Seven Resolutions for 2011 Part 1 of 2

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Happy New Year!  You had to see this coming,  so here we go with the resolutions.  We’re at the top of the year and it’s a time-honored tradition to look forward and plan to succeed.  I hope the list that I’ve pulled together inspires you to get busy.

1.   Set financial goals  

Whether you’re 35 or 55,  financial goals are a must.  Establishing these goals as a Freelancer presents a  unique challenge,  because our incomes are often neither predictable nor secure.  A fickle revenue stream makes adequate planning even more of an imperative.  We must get our arms around the money thing and take as much control as possible.  Our ability to live a comfortable life throughout our lives depends on it.  The idea is to avoid going broke,  especially in the elder years.  Those with a  steadily employed spouse have a huge financial advantage,  while those who are single or married to a fellow Freelancer have more variables and hence  a more challenging mountain to climb.  Consider what you want your balance sheet to look like in five years and make an appointment to discuss your financial wish list with your accountant.

2.   Develop a budget  

You may be expert at monitoring and tracking expenses,  but developing a budget encourages one to anticipate the year’s fixed and variable financial obligations,  as well as revenue that is likely to be generated.  One budgeting objective can be to prepare for the inevitable peaks and valleys in a Freelancer’s revenue stream.  When do you typically bill the most hours and when the least?  Which annual conferences do you like to attend,  when and where are they held and what is the cost?  Where and when is it (or might it be) advantageous to advertise?  Have you been mulling over the idea of making upgrades in certain of your marketing materials?  What about your credit needs—do you need to apply for another card to help float strategic expenses,  or can you cancel one?  When can you make contributions to your retirement fund and what should that amount be?  Can you take a vacation this year,  when can you take it and how much can you spend?  The idea is to figure out how to pay for what you must do and also cover a couple of items from your wish list,  to reward yourself.

3.   Review business priorities  

Should you form a strategic partnership,  to give your business entrée to a new segment of your market?  Should you aim to sign more new clients,  or focus on obtaining repeat business from previous clients?  Or would it be wiser to try wringing more billable hours out of your current roster?  Which clients might be most amenable to which strategy?  Also,  should you do more teaching and/or speaking this year? Which institutions will benefit your reputation and client list the most?

I’ll be back to complete the list of resolutions next week. 

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Go to the Front of the Pack

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I’m a little bit of an egghead and every once in a while I like to read a good study,  to keep myself current,  or even ahead of the curve,  on matters of health,  business or anything else that catches my eye.  Recently,  I read an interesting study on strategic competitive positioning,  a survey study done this year at Babson College’s Babson Executive Education.

Lead author H. James Wilson competes in triathlons and he used those competitions and their participants as the study framework.  Triathletes assess competitors in a clean and simple fashion:  who is Front of the Pack,  Middle of the Pack or Back of the Pack?  The first two groups are ranked as actual competitors and the latter is seen primarily as new to the triathlon scene and nothing to worry about.  MOPs and BOPs have one goal and that is to improve their time in every event they enter and move up to the FOP.

Wilson applied the FOP,  MOP and BOP classifications to 300+  global companies that had recently reported facing intense competition within their respective industries.  He segmented the companies as follows

  • FOP if they achieved greater than 15%  annual revenue growth in FY09  (5%,  16 companies)
  • MOP if they achieved 1-15%  annual revenue growth in FY09 (48%,  145 companies)
  • BOP if they showed flat or declining revenues in FY09 (47%,  144 companies)

The essential question of strategy is,  are you heading in the right direction?  Wilson knew that the FOPs were doing more than a few things right and to get to the heart of it,  he analyzed the FOPs and identified three ways in which they outpace the also-rans.  He then developed the following survey questions based on those strengths.

Wilson’s data indicate that if you can answer yes to each of the survey questions,  you’re on your way to the FOP.  How do you stack up?  Something to think about.

1.  Are you/is your company becoming more effective at meeting the needs of clients/customers?

Despite the economic downturn that spawned the planet-wide recession (depression?),  FOPs have maintained the trust,  confidence,  loyalty and dollars of their customers.  FOPs understand what customers want and they are better at anticipating future needs and trends.  They put resources into keeping a finger on the pulse of the customer and they know what resonates.  FOPs are proactive in market research and customer outreach.

2.  Have you/has your company recently implemented a significant innovation campaign or launched numerous small-scale innovation pilots?

Brainstorming ideas for new services,  fresh approaches,  an innovative marketing campaign or self-development plans is an important beginning.  It is always necessary to think things through,  examine the big picture and weigh the possible outcomes of your actions.  Just remember that  “implement”  and  “launch”  are the key words.  How many good plans have you left to languish on the drawing board?  FOPs understand that results come from deeds,  not words.

3.  Are you/is your company becoming more collaborative with other Freelancer colleagues/other organizations?

High levels of cross-company interactions distinguish FOPs more than any other factor studied.  FOPs are also more likely to inform those in their network about business opportunities.  As a result,  FOPs receive the benefits of reciprocity more than most,  when referrals come their way.  Think of  how you might include selected non-competing colleagues in business opportunities that would be mutually beneficial.  Perhaps this is the smartest way to scoop bigger contracts for both?  Plus,  you’ll gain exposure to another’s business methods and perspectives and that information will make you even more savvy and competitive.

Thanks for reading and Happy Thanksgiving,

Kim

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Man Up and Lead! Part II

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Now on to the opportunities.  Finding these lovely gems is often random.  We must train ourselves to recognize them,  for they are not necessarily sitting beneath a neon sign. Usually they are more like truffles,  hiding under certain trees and available only under certain conditions.

Once we figure out how to recognize opportunities,  the next step (very important!) is to learn how to maximize them.  This step will  involve both courage and creativity. You may have to take a calculated risk.  So many people mishandle or outright squander golden opportunities because they lack the vision,  the foresight and the guts to play a good hand for all it’s worth.

While you’re hanging out and doing business as usual,  it is vital to always be on the lookout for the gems.  It is likewise vital to prepare your organization to receive them, because fortune favors the prepared.   So what might that entail?

As we all know,  it usually takes money to make money.  So ideally, have at least a modest cash or credit reserve on hand that will allow you to pay an expense related to serendipitous good fortune.  As always,  network to cultivate and maintain good relationships,  since who you know (and who knows you) is essential to the process.

The arts organization of which I spoke last week will hold a big splashy event in September 2010.  They will repeat the template of an event that was done in 2005, with great success.  Despite the weakened economy, I feel confident that the September event is a good opportunity that will both make new friends for the organization and bring in $10,000 + in revenue.

Then there is the other opportunity,  one that was brought to us by our board chairwoman.  She told us of a charming documentary film made in 2008 that tells the story of a NYC postal worker and his librarian wife who built a world class art collection on their very limited budget. The board chair proposed that we show the film in Spring 2010 to act as a lead-in to our September event.  The event would be free,  to reward current supporters and attract new prospects.  The board loved it and I took the lead on finding a venue,  preferably free or cheap.

On a whim,  I emailed an acquaintance who is a former trustee at a local museum.  Would they donate space to a small nonprofit?  She agreed to make a call on my behalf and give me a contact name.  To my great delight,  I obtained donated screening space and, the sweetest gift of all,  a museum curator to both introduce the film and do a Q & A session at the end.  Hot damn,  I hit the jackpot!!

Alas,  there was a little catch.  We must pony up for a few related costs:  projectionist fee, ushers,  security,  clean-up crew, etc.  To accept this offer,  the organization must pay about $1400.

I emailed the board chair and gave her the good news / bad news scenario.  What to do,  I lamented? Perhaps I should keep looking.   She agreed.  But when the sun rose again,  I caught myself.  I emailed the board chair and told her that we must accept this game changing offer.  It was much too good to refuse.

However,  all this transpired before news of the $60,000 hole in the bankbook was revealed.   Our chairwoman went from being cautiously positive to near total opposition. I understood her fear,  but knew that we could not succumb to it.  The ED (who I feel concealed our money woes and exacerbated our problem) was totally negative—but he is always a wet blanket!

Especially in light of the cash crunch,  the organization needs to quickly raise its profile to both energize current donors and attract new and bigger check writers.  To show the film in a venue that is merely serviceable adds no value.  Our golden opportunity would be squandered due to shortsightedness and fear.

Halleluia, I am thrilled to report that the board gave the museum proposal a ringing endorsement.  One person even recommended that we go farther out on a limb, as he phrased it, and host a small pre-film reception. The board voted to spend $5000 on the event.  The board chair gave her blessing and the ED came around.  Hurrah!!

The lesson of this tale is no doubt obvious to you, dear Reader.  Practicality and caution are useful traits;  but one must not allow them to morh into fear and paralysis.  As steward of the business,  one must develop both the acumen to  recognize opportunities  worth pursuing and the courage to utilize same.  We must understand not only what we can afford to do,  but also what we cannot afford to NOT do.  We’ve got to man up and lead!

Thanks for reading,
Kim

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Man Up and Lead! Part I

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I’ve been on the board of a small arts organization since 2006.  I love the organization and its unique mission; I really like the founder, who is a painter and 88 years young;  I appreciate that I’ve been able to lend energy and creativity to a wonderful organization;  I like my fellow board members.

The downside is, we’ve got money problems.  We’ve also got a couple of marvelous opportunities, at least one of which will be realized.  The other faces an uncertain fate.

At a committee meeting last Wednesday,  our executive director announced that the organization has a $60,000 budget shortfall.   With some creative cost-cutting,  he feels that the deficit can be reduced to $40,000.  How did that happen? In September,  his financial report was cautiously optimistic.  In November he said little about money, except to note that he expected a certain level of donations to be received.  Now,  as of January 1, we’re rather deep in the hole.  Ouch!

In truth,  the signs were there.  Examination of past balance sheets reveal distressing losses in our investments and income.  For reasons I do not understand, the full board does not view monthly P & L statements;  we receive only 6 month “condensed” statements.   There is insufficient documentation of expenses, e.g.  a couple of lump sum categories called “personnel” and “outside fees and services”.

Why the finance committee (and the executive committee) has allowed the ED to be so cavalier with the financial records, I will never know.  Why the full board sat in meetings for years with eyes glazed over while he droned on about budget projections,  expenses and donations received and expected—well,  I should have questioned it,  but I was hesitant to rock the boat.

However,  in November ’09 I questioned the “outside fees and services” listed on the P & L and I was given a flip,  off-hand answer that went something like oh that’s for accounting, insurance…and then he drifted off.  I was not pleased with the answer.  No other board member pushed the matter.  But once again my intuition was on target because here we are,  running out of money.

The ED has not spent wisely,  his budgets are a fairy tale and the board (including myself) allowed him to get away with it. The organization’s founder enabled the ED’s bad behavior by writing checks to cover previous shortfalls.  She claims that habit is over,  but I don’t know.  There is a board meeting scheduled this month and I plan to ask a few pointed questions.  I hope that others will join me.  The meeting will be very interesting.

So what is the lesson for business people?  Do not delude yourself about money.  The picture may not be pretty, but going into denial will only hurt you in the end.  Keep accurate financial records and take the time to examine and interpret them.  Use your financials to guide your business decisions.  Cash flow is the level one warning system.  Are the bills paid on time? Is making payroll a struggle? If your business has been cash strapped of late (especially with credit so tight and costly), then look to trim expenses where practical and  renegotiate payments wherever possible.  Next week,  we’ll talk about opportunities.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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May I Have This Dance? Partnering Possibilities Part II

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How might one brainstorm and evaluate  expanded services that may or may not involve taking on a partner to a greater or lesser extent? One might start by asking the clients.  As I’ve mentioned many times before,  establishing  relationships that  make communication comfortable for both parties  is so very important.

Speaking with those who are not clients,  but who work  in or are familiar with your target industries,  can also yield some bright  ideas.  In my January CEO forum,  Carole gave me a great tip on how I can expand my strategic plan facilitating services.  Carole’s  husband works in the NFP sector and has been through more than one strategic planning process that has not delivered the desired results.

Carole clued me in on helpful extras that should increase the likelihood that decisions agreed upon in the planning process will actually be implemented.  Demonstrating to clients that I am available to offer follow-up that will keep them on track with their plan could be an excellent selling point.  I won’t need a partner,  but I will make referrals  for required services that are outside of my domain.  I will surely incorporate Carole’s suggestions  into subsequent client meetings and proposals.

Before introducing a new feature to a client,  imagine yourself working in that client’s business.  What  need does your company fulfill?   Envision the big picture and place your services within it,  to get a good idea of where your contribution fits.  Will additional services allow the client to achieve objectives in a more effective,  less expensive, timely or streamlined way?

Although decision makers are timid about spending money these days,  a decent percentage will open the checkbook if perceived value is there.  Moreover, one stop shopping is in vogue and you may be able to work that to your advantage.  Do you have the resources and expertise necessary to deliver those services on your own,  or must you link with another Freelancer or small business?

Be careful about the sphere of influence that each partner will have,  particularly when those involved have the potential for overlap.  No one wants to confuse clients with a power struggle.   Be clear about who takes the lead and who makes the decisions in each aspect of the project.

It is also imperative to really know the business practices of a potential partner.  I recently had an unfortunate incident when I was invited to be a last minute replacement in an unpaid speaker’s program.  This was not a partnership in the classic sense,  but a collaborative venture nonetheless.

After the organizer successfully separated me from $200 to help cover program expenses for what was sold to me as a quarterly program featuring the four speakers on board,  she proceeded to recruit new speakers for the series, without consulting the original roster.  I eventually deduced that the new recruits were not required to pay $200 to join the roadshow,  as had the original crew.  If that was not enough of a slap,  the organizer decided that I would not speak at the second program!

I was not pleased with the bait & switch, to say nothing of the unilateral decision making and I requested that my investment be returned.   After some patronizing and stonewalling,  the organizer eventually mailed a check for $100.

No,  nothing was in writing.  I naively thought that a contract was unnecessary for a $200 transaction with someone I thought I knew!  Moral of story:  protect yourself and leave nothing to chance.

To sum up,  collaborations,   joint ventures and partnerships can be long term or ad hoc. Specifics of duties, authority and expectations should be in writing (an email may suffice).   If a formal partnership (or merger) is formed,  obviously the attorneys and accountants get involved.   Again, know who you are planning to dance with!

Thanks for reading,
Kim

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May I Have This Dance? Partnering Possibilities Part I

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At our January meeting,  a member of my CEO forum told the group that partnering is high on her list for 2010.  She’s decided that the right partnership vehicle will propel her to this year’s  financial goal.

Pam is a market research specialist,  with solid clients in the life sciences industry.  She’d like to have more presence in high tech,  but needs a way to get there.   Pam is acquainted with another marketing specialist who has a good roster of high tech clients.  The two are now in early stage partnership exploration talks.  Maybe they can figure out a  way to team up and increase traction in both industries?

As luck would have it,  Pam has learned of an upcoming conference that will address partnership,  joint venture and collaboration options,  strategies and methods to make the arrangement beneficial to all parties,  including clients.   She plans to attend.

Very soon,  I plan to approach Pam about the possibility of adding early stage product and market development for life sciences products to her array of services.  Could this give her yet another useful competitive advantage?  I will first visit her website and confirm that she does not already have that base covered.  Then I will ask if she feels that addressing the prospects for early stage products might be a good fit for her business and interest level.

If Pam gives the go-ahead,  I will introduce her to Regina, who guides biotech, medical device and pharmaceutical companies as they sort through which of their exciting newly patented  products has the best potential for success.

So you see,  a form of mergers (and even acquisitions) can apply to Freelancers and small business owners. This dance is not only for the Fortune 1000.  In fact,   many of us have done this for years.  General contractors often form partnerships or joint ventures with real estate developers and structural engineers when they come together to work on one building project or several.

Event planners (my first business venture, BTW) must collaborate with caterers,  florists, limo companies,  photographers, etc.  in order to pull together a project.   Over time,  one develops a list of preferred vendors for these services.   Sometimes,   the parties will join forces and form a legal partnership.  Wedding event specialists and bridal shops are known for this practice.

Teaming up with someone who has complementary business skills can open many doors and can be an excellent way to gain market share and opportunities to work within industries where one has not gone before.   It is possible to greatly enhance your company’s appeal to current and potential clients.

More on partnerships next week,
Kim