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Freelancers Do the Side Hustle

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When a local small business owner and acquaintance of mine opened her second venture, a tiny breakfast and lunch place with a retro cool vibe that I love, she soon started “moonlighting” as a dinner service waitress three nights a week at a small artisanal pizza restaurant nearby. She burned the candle at both ends, finishing the waitress shift at midnight and crawling into bed at 1:00 AM, only to wake up at 4:00 AM to make the 45 minute journey to the wholesale restaurant market six days a week, to help her contain food costs and offer menu prices that customers would accept. It was exhausting, but Nicky was determined to pay her share of the debts from the failed first business venture in which she was a partner and also maintain adequate cash-flow in the new one, where she is the principal owner.

About three miles away from Nicky’s restaurant is Anthony’s, another tiny breakfast and lunch place that I love. A few years ago, Anthony told me that his venture’s cash-flow foundation is real estate. Some years ago, Anthony was able to buy the building where his restaurant is housed; upstairs over the restaurant are four apartments that command premium rents for his harbor-facing location.

Cathy, a former client of mine (who, sadly, passed away about three years ago), worked for three or four years as a Lyft driver, to build cash-flow that safeguarded her ability to make the weekly payroll and cover other expenses in her medical billing business (which her children sold). My friend Jackie, a fitness instructor and trainer, launched a boutique gym 20+ years ago, yet she continues to teach classes at a large, prestigious gym where she receives training and certifications in new exercise techniques that she passes along to her gym’s fitness staff so that her team has updated skills. Jackie is also able to now and again observe smart business practices used by her mega-gym employer that she can apply at her operation to improve her performance as fitness center owner and manager. Then there’s my friend Paul who once co-owned four outlets of a popular skin care franchise. To provide health insurance for himself, his wife and their four children, for many years Paul worked 20 hours/week as a FedEx delivery driver.

I also created a side hustle strategy to protect my business cash-flow. Until about three years ago, I periodically taught noncredit skills development workshops to aspiring entrepreneurs—business plan writing, sales skills training, marketing and networking skills—at a local school and at a business incubator that serves aspiring female entreprenurs. Unfortunately, pandemic related shake-ups torpedoed my access to both teaching positions but if an invitation is made, I’ll gladly return—and money is not my only motivation—I enjoy teaching! On the plus side, since 2016, I’ve been a contributing writer at Lioness Magazine, a globally distributed publication that’s targeted to female entrepreneurs.

So where are we going with this? You noticed that the recurring theme of these stories is how Freelancers and small business owners take action to strengthen their business cash-flow. Freelancers and small business owners can be dangerously vulnerable when it comes to financial security. Keeping an entity healthy throughout the inevitable ups and downs of the local or national economy or, in the B2B sector, protecting yourself from cash-flow crunches that can result if a client is late paying your invoice or worse, doesn’t pay at all, is an essential function of your risk management strategy.

The phenomenon once known as “moonlighting,” that is, working in a second (or third, or even fourth) job, and now called a side hustle, burst into the public discourse during the pandemic, when the economy as we knew it suddenly turned upside down and most jobs tumbled into a confusing transition. The shutdown resulted in the swift closure of numerous restaurants and fitness centers and was soon followed by waves of lay-offs and bankruptcies that are ongoing, especially in the tech and retail industries.

Life gradually returned to what’s called “the new normal” and markets rebounded and stabilized, on paper anyway. Contrary to the many glowing reports of a low unemployment rate, subsiding inflation and millions of jobs that are unfilled (and, allegedly, looking to hire qualified candidates), many Americans are experiencing a different reality and the desirability of earning extra income has taken hold. The popularity of the side hustle economy has continued to grow, publicized by rideshare giants Lyft and Uber and fueled by financial pressures felt by both independently and traditionally employed workers.

Recent data confirms that side hustles are on the rise and here to stay, with CBS News reporting that nearly half of America’s workforce has a secondary source of income or their own side hustles. Surprisingly, according to Side Hustle Nation, side hustles aren’t exclusively for the financially challenged—the 2024 Side Hustle nation survey found that more than 40% of participants have household incomes that exceed $100,000 and 78.4% stated that they aren’t struggling to make ends meet.

The changing societal zeitgeist gives today’s Freelancers and SMBs the greenlight to radically reframe their feelings and expectations toward “moonlighting,” with its former connotations of operating in secrecy in order to rustle up money needed to supplement an insufficient income, to a potentially impactful revenue stream that could surpass mere cash-flow support and extend into financing new business ventures or other investment. For today’s Freelance professionals and SMB owners, a side hustle can translate into a unique growth opportunity but to make the strategy work, the side hustle must be managed with intention. Proper structure, planning and assessment are required. If you are Freelance professional or SMB owner considering the enhanced security that can be provided by a good side hustle, here are six steps to take to help make your side hustle worth your time and effort.

  1. What’s in it for you? As you’ve seen, the side hustle economy gets lots of publicity and the noise may get you thinking—is there an opportunity for you? Life continues to get more expensive and also, extra money is an essential resource when one has financial or entrepreneurial goals. You might see a side hustle as a vehicle to pay off debt, finance your retirement, or build capital to launch a start-up. Then again, you could be motivated by a basic need or desire to supplement your Freelance or other business revenue or your W-2 paycheck. There are also those who harbor the goal of building out a promising side hustle that will become a full-time business venture and replace their current employment. Before you focus on what might be your most promising side hustle, however, you would be wise to clearly define your motivation.

2. What are your marketable skills and are they expert-level? Once you’ve made an uncensored examination of your interest in launching a side hustle, make an accounting of your potentially marketable skills and evaluate what customers might be inclined to pay you to do. For example, might your knack for graphic design open doors to projects such as designing wedding invitations, or perhaps creating marketing and sales materials? Talented writers might parlay that competence into a Freelance editing side hustle. If you were born with a green thumb and can keep blooms popping, from crocuses in early spring to chrysanthemums in late autumn, then window box and garden management may be the side hustle for you. Be aware as well that it’s a valuable competitive advantage to invest in your side hustle skill with training that upgrades your expertise. Certifications, degrees and experience (communicated by customer reviews) can be posted on your website and social media accounts to increase the confidence that prospects have for you. Skills training helps you stand out against competitors and can increase customer demand, grow your client list, justify premium pricing for your services and ultimately, position your side hustle to earn more money, faster.

3. What will success look like? It’s important to align your side hustle’s driving purpose with your marketable skills that a critical mass of customers will pay to receive and also fit your definition of financial success. This is about managing expectations—will the side hustle you have the skill set to get paid for earn you enough money to make it worthwhile doing? For example, you may want to become a piano teacher but research of the most respected teaching qualifications, or your access to potential students, may not support either the price you’d like to charge for lessons or the billable hours you’re likely to get. You may be able to tap a new market and improve access to students—maybe retired adults who want to revisit their childhood piano lessons?—but since you can’t charge your preferred price for lessons because you lack a certain qualification, so you’ll have to work harder and give more lessons. Basically, you must be honest about how much time and focus you care to devote to your side hustle venture and define your picture of success.

4. How disciplined are you? The side hustle will not get off the ground and fulfill expectations if you can’t make yourself put in the time and effort to make it successful. This seems obvious, but for some it may not be as easy as it seems. Before you invest significant money into developing your side hustle consider likely the time commitment, along with the necessary tools, equipment, relationships, training and administrative duties (marketing and bookkeeping, for example) it will take to launch and operate your venture and guide it toward your definition of success. Estimate the number of hours per week, with a realistic hourly service rate, it will take to make the thing worthwhile. Be brutally honest about the number of hours per week or month you can (or will) allocate to working a side hustle. BTW, as you calculate your estimated time commitment, do not even think about infringing on the time and focus needed to effectively do your day job.

5. Create milestones with timeline and success metrics. Operating a side hustle means lengthening your to-do list and spreading yourself thin, making it essential to be organized. Keep yourself on track and also alert yourself to what is or isn’t working by creating a simple and revealing tool—a timeline. At periodic intervals—monthly or quarterly will be good—over a 12 month period, it will be very helpful to track and assess Key Performance Indicators that demonstrate side hustle growth, or lack thereof. Look at billable hours worked, number of customers seen, revenue generated and business expenses to get the story of side hustle performance. Pay attention to prospects who don’t work with you to learn of some element you may want to adjust. It’s important to use a timeline to project what you think is achievable so that, as an entrepreneur, you are setting yourself up for success.

6. Course correct when necessary. You’ll quickly know if something is not performing as you’d hoped (like revenue generated), but the above-mentioned timeline will confirm the diagnosis with metrics. Along with defining your KPI timeline is to recognize what’s working and what’s not, so you can make corrections where necessary. The big-picture view is a revealing perspective. Take the time to consider why those who tell you no are declining to work with you—are you falling short somewhere? On the plus side, are existing customers referring new customers and/or writing good online reviews? Once a month or so, hunt for time in your very busy schedule to think about your side hustle for a couple of hours, just as you think about your Freelance consultancy or SMB. Know that it’s okay to periodically reevaluate and change course if necessary.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Shutterstock. Working as a fitness instructor or trainer has been a popular side hustle since the 1980s.

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Rip Off the Band-Aid: Why Prospects Refuse to Be Customers

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You’ll never preside over a thriving business enterprise, be it large, small, or somewhere in-between, unless you consistently recruit new customers—as you simultaneously encourage repeat business, that is! Maintaining a healthy customer list is a balancing act that requires constant attention. When creating marketing strategies and campaigns for your entity, I think it’s safe to say you create content expected to interest current and prospective customers who have at least a back-burner need for your service or product categories.

But as you brainstorm potential marketing messages to fuel your next inbound or outbound marketing campaign, your thoughts could eventually land on a cohort of elusive and reluctant prospects—- noncustomers, who buy little or nothing from either you or your competitors. Who are those outliers lurking at the fringes of your marketplace, you may wonder? Admittedly, Freelancers and owners of small or medium size businesses will (correctly) assume that it’s a smarter bet to direct your time and money to prospects who’ve shown a need for products and services offered in your marketplace. Nevertheless, you may not be able to ignore the silent awareness of noncustomers who may have a latent, unacknowledged need for what you sell. Could they exist in sufficient numbers and hold revenue potential to constitute a niche market for you? Maybe.

The answers you seek can most efficiently be revealed with comprehensive market research, data-driven and available in software like Qualtrics and other SaaS companies to get trustworthy customer intel that helps you make informed decisions. Once you’ve discovered the identities of your noncustomers, guided by the industries they occupy, you can then verify the business case for how your services and/or products could be worthwhile for them.

As you research your noncustomers, you may quickly see that they’re not all alike and that each subgroup has idiosyncratic biases, doubts, concerns, even misperceptions that explain why they’re noncustomers. Research may reveal that for some of them, the decision to decline to buy from either you or your competitors could make sense. That said, your noncustomers, while perhaps operating in different industries and maintaining different perspectives, might share certain similarities—goals, challenges, or concerns, for example, that could give them something to talk about if they all show up at the same holiday party. Subject to an analysis of relevant data that’s interpreted well, you may be able to build on what your noncustomers have in common and discover a potential niche market that you might convert into a few good customers.

Noncustomers categories

The challenge of noncustomers was researched by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, who sought to help companies more effectively understand and, where possible, convert the untapped demand of these inaccessible prospects and in so doing create the genuine demand for a company’s products and services that they named blue ocean. Kim and Mauborgne are professors of business strategy at INSEAD (Institut Europeen d’Administration des Affaires) and coauthors of Blue Ocean Strategy (2005), the book and the marketing theory. The developed an analytic framework used to study the phenomenon of noncustomers and they sorted the cohort into three tiers.

  • First Tier: Soon-to-be

First Tier noncustomers are on the fringe of your market and waiting for an opportunity to leave your industry. They’re not precisely noncustomers; when they must, they’ll buy certain products or services offered by companies in your category but know that they have no love for any company operating in your industry.

What drives First Tier noncustomers? They may be dissatisfied with the available products or services in your industry and hoping for a solution that better satisfies their needs.

  • Second Tier: Refuseniks

Second Tier noncustomers make a conscious choice against your market and deliberately decline to buy your industry’s product or service offerings. These noncustomers have seen the available solutions that might fulfill their needs but have decided against them.

What drives Second Tier Noncustomers? They may find the available products or services unaffordable or somehow inappropriate for their needs.

  • Third Tier: Unexplored

Third Tier noncustomers are psychologically farthest away from your marketplace. These noncustomers have never considered products or services sold in your industry to be an option and so they’ve made no purchases. It’s assumed that the needs of third tier noncustomers are addressed by another industry.

What drives Third Tier Noncustomers? They never viewed your industry’s products or services as a viable option and therefore never considered exploring what you sell.

Marketing messages for noncustomers

Prospects who erect barriers and refuse to be considered are not easy to overcome, as you know. Kim and Mauburgne recommend that those looking to appeal to noncustomers to first, search for similarities that link your various noncustomer subgroups and second, focus on low hanging fruit. In other words, figure out which noncustomer groups you can expect to most easily, quickly and inexpensively communicate with and then create strategies and campaigns to win them over, if that is possible. Spotlighting benefits they stand to receive when using your products or services may be persuasive.

Identifying those similarities shared by your different noncustomers will be a good job for your data analytics software. Once you’ve figured out the landscape, you can then decide which problem or priority to address. After that, you create a marketing message you expect will resonate with your chosen cohort and distribute through channels they can be expected to trust and follow.

  • Neuromarketing: emotional appeal

Some behavioral experts believe that 95% of customers’ buying decisions are made subconsciously and this strategy seems to me like a potentially successful one for reeling in noncustomers. It’s entirely possible that even your toughest B2B customers aren’t using as much logic as they’d like you to believe when they evaluate (or ignore) the possibility of buying your product or service. Moreover, the biggest urge that’s attached to unconscious decision making is emotion. What all this means is if you effectively appeal to your noncustomers’ feelings, you’ll have a better chance of influencing their buying decisions.

Research also shows that marketing campaigns that have purely emotional content perform twice as well when compared to content that only uses logic. Furthermore, for some unexplainable reason, content that includes both emotion and logic doesn’t connect as well as exclusively emotional marketing content, whether the content features positive or negative emotions. Emphasize emotions in your marketing content when reaching out to customers or noncustomers by including storytelling, humor, music, or other behaviors that resonate with their emotions. Instead of focusing solely on product features or benefits, create emotional content that strives to encourage a personal connection with your viewers.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Getty Images/Ingram Publishing (2014)

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Use Customer Service to Grow Your Business

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The quality of customer service that your organization delivers reveals more than you may suspect about your organization— the quality of the products and services offered, your commitment to quality control, your respect for those who buy from you, your appreciation of the value of building and maintaining good customer relationships, your brand and your management skills.

Of the many tasks that a business owner must examine and address, few are more representative of your business acumen than customer service. You owe it to customers, prospective customers (you want to convert them, yes?) and yourself to analyze your company’s buyer’s journey and after- sale service and ensure that every customer touch point reflects your commitment to providing a solution to the needs of those who might become your customers and your goal to promote confidence and trust in your company.

Encourage customer feedback—-distribute a survey when you send an invoice, initiate conversations about what might make doing business with you even better. Read on and remind yourself of why customer service matters.

It’s good business

While there are many factors that contribute to the success or failure of a business, good customer service is always a positive. When customers are pleased to do business with your establishment, they’re likely to say good things about you, your team and your products or services. Remember to ask your happy customers to write online reviews, make referrals and also contribute testimonials or participate in a case study.

Prospects, too

The buyer’s journey requires the engagement of you or your team once prospects move from stage 1 Top of Funnel to stage 2 Middle of Funnel. As prospects become more serious about doing business, personal interaction begins. Prospects may want to have a 30 minute (free) consultation, or they may have a question or two. You and your team must respond to inquiries from prospective customers promptly, professionally and pleasantly.

Prospects who’ve maintained an interest in your product or service and entered stage 3 Bottom of Funnel are especially deserving of superior customer service. It can help you win the sale, or cause you to lose it, if you don’t perform to expectations. Converting someone from consideration to commitment is a careful balancing act that’s eased along with good customer service.

They remember

The customer may forget what they bought and when they bought it, but memories of the interactions between you, or your staff, and the customer will have a long life. It is therefore in your interest to take all possible steps to leave customers and also prospective customers, with pleasant memories of your establishment. I’m sorry to say that memories of poor customer service have the longest life. Many marketing experts estimate that 12 positive experiences are necessary to make up for just one unsatisfactory customer service experience.

They matter

Providing good customer service is the ultimate demonstration of courtesy and respect. Part of the value that you deliver to customers (and prospects) is communicating that you value their business and their interest in doing business with you, even if you ultimately cannot fulfill their need at this time. Treat customers and prospects well and you’ll leave them with a good feeling. They will trust you and will be more likely to refer you to others who may become your customers.

They return

Depending on which study you believe, and what industry you’re in, acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one. Research done by Frederick Reichheld of Bain and Company in Boston, MA concluded that increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%.

Good customer service is an important ingredient of your customer development strategy. It encourages good customer relationships, good online reviews, good word of mouth, repeat business and referrals. In other words, good customer service is worth money. I believe making money is why you went into business?

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Nick Briggs, Carnival Film & Television Ltd. Members of the Downton Abbey household staff

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8 Great Business Reads for Summer 2021

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This summer seems tailor-made for staying close to home. International travel remains a difficult proposition as COVID-19 rages on, causing the Tokyo Summer Olympics to ban the presence of a live audience. Weather across the U.S. has been a problem, with the East Coast repeatedly doused with heavy rain while western states suffer through dangerously dry conditions and temperatures ranging from the 90s to beyond 100F.

We cannot control the weather, but we can control our response to it. Whether summer finds you in your back yard or a park in the city, vacationing in the mountains or near the water, why not crack open a business book or two and pick up some pointers on how to grow your business skills? Please take a look at the recommendations below.

Rise and Grind (Daymond John with Daniel Paisner, 2018)

Shark Tank investor Daymond John reminds readers that anything worth having is worth working for. He tells the outrageous truth—if you want to create real success in business, then be prepared to out-think, out-hustle and out-perform the competition. In 1992, John and three friends in his hometown of Queens, NY founded FUBU, a casual apparel line that become must-have street style fashion.

In this New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling book, John shares behind-the-scenes stories of how he overcame adversity and went on to co-found and become CEO of a company that now generates nearly $6 billion in annual sales worldwide. https://www.goodreads.com/pl/book/show/35083562-rise-and-grind

The Art of the Start 2.0 (Guy Kawasaki, 2015)

Kawasaki made a name for himself in the 1980s, when he helped launch the Apple Macintosh computer. He’s an entertaining writer and presenter and his book is filled with practical advice, particularly for those who’ll need venture capital. Whether you’re leading an existing business or planning to launch a new venture, you’ll find Kawasaki’s cut-to-the-chase business building blueprint useful and inspiring.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-art-of-the-start-20-guy-kawasaki/1120058655

Marketing Made Simple (Donald Miller, with Dr. J.J. Peterson, 2021)

New York Times best-selling author Donald Miller details how to create and implement a marketing plan that will bring qualified prospects to your door. Readers learn the fundamentals of lead generation, how to build a sales funnel, how to recognize and optimize key customer touch points and how to develop and communicate an authentic brand story that builds trust and loyalty.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/marketing-made-simple-donald-miller/1132751806

Uplevel Your Business, Uplevel Your Life (Kristen S. David, 2020)

Discover the four pillars of successful business management. Ms. David gives Freelancers and small business owners a roadmap for scaling or growing your venture. Learn to recognize growth opportunities and push them forward with smart action plans. Learn to accurately monitor progress with relevant quarterly goals. Understand the types of operational support systems and processes that will enable you and your team to build and sustain a thriving, profitable venture.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50390493-uplevel-your-business-uplevel-your-life

Eat What You Kill (Donald Williams, 2020)

In 2005, Williams launched the eponymous Williams Accounting and Consulting in New Orleans, LA and in 2006, he opened a second location in Atlanta, GA. Small business owners are the principal customer group served. Guiding clients as they grow their ventures is Williams’ mission and he provides for readers valuable money-saving and money-making strategies that will enhance your financial management and future.

Donald Williams’s “Eat What You Kill” Promotes Financial Empowerment

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work (Michael E. Gerber, 2004)

The author is credited with revealing the distinct differences between working in and working on your business. Gerber has more revealing insights to share in this influential book, including the common fantasy that just because you enjoy and may even excel at doing something—cooking, for instance—does not mean you are prepared to operate even a modestly successful restaurant. Just because you are good at something doesn’t make you qualified to turn your hobby into a business.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/81948.The_E_Myth_Revisited

Your Next 5 Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy (Patrick Bet-David, 2020)

At age 10, Bet-David and his parents escaped war in Iran. The family traveled to the U.S., earned citizenship and Bet-David eventually joined the Army and served in the 101st Airborne Division. After his tour of duty, he worked in the financial services industry. Before his 30th birthday, Bet-David successfully launched PHP Agency, Inc., an insurance sales, marketing and distribution company, which has become one of the fastest-growing ventures in the financial services sector.

But when Bet-David created the video The Life of an Entrepreneur in 90 Seconds, it went viral. The 30 million viewers his educational video received inspired Bet-David to found Valuetainment, which quickly became the #1 YouTube channel for entrepreneurs.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50542735-your-next-five-moves

The Lean Startup (Eric Ries, 2011) Ries has a long history with start-up ventures, variously serving as a start-up employee, adviser and founder and this book is a long-time best seller. While a college student, he founded Catalyst Recruiting, a platform on which students could create and share their professional profiles that could bring them to the obtaining a job after graduation. The venture failed, because he didn’t understand the needs of his customers. Ries eventually learned that in order to build a great company, one must begin with addressing the needs of target customers.

Over time, Ries connected the dots on what he’d learned about launching a new company. The lean start-up methodology favors experimentation over writing the traditional, elaborate business plan, direct customer feedback and iterative design over traditional “big design up-front” development. Although the lean startup strategy is just a few years old, its concepts—such as “minimum viable product” and “pivoting”—have quickly taken root in the start-up world, and business schools have already begun adapting their courses to teach them.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lean-startup-eric-ries/1100642052

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Books that beckon at The Last Bookstore, the largest independent bookstore in Los Angeles, CA https://www.lastbookstorela.com/about

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5 Smart Sales Questions

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“To get the right answers, you have to ask the right questions,” said business strategy and management expert Peter F. Drucker (1909-2005), author of pioneering management insights and founder of the Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont College in California. When your goal is to sell a product or service to a prospective client, knowing which questions to ask and when to ask them can make a big difference in your ability to make sales and generate revenue that keeps your company alive. Actionable information is worth money, even when you learn that who you hoped would be a prospect is not. Knowing when to cut bait and pursue other avenues is a good thing.

Ask a handful of questions that first, confirm that your prospect is ready to do business and next, guides the prospect through the sales (buying) journey is a pillar of the thriving company you want to build.

“How long have you been in business? Who are/ what kind of customers do you serve? What big plans are in the works now?”

Set the stage for your sales conversation by obtaining background info that gives context to why there is a need for your product or service and the role it would play in achieving company objectives, or solving/ avoiding a problem.

“You appear to have steered your company successfully through the pandemic troubles. Was there a big change, or two, that you decided had to be made to adjust to the new business reality?”

The coronavirus pandemic left no business unscathed, not even those that saw a big increase in profits, like liquor stores and delivery services. That you’ve thought to ask this question and the preceding demonstrates to the prospect that you’re interested in the business and that it’s success means something to you. Successful sales professionals, including business owners and Freelance consultants, usually aim to become a collaborative partner, a reliable and trusted resource, for the client.

“Did anything fall through the cracks as you shifted gears during the pandemic? Is there anything that was not previously a worry now emerging as a challenge?”

Here is the question where the pain is revealed. Now you’ll learn what’s keeping your prospect awake at night and what your solution must address. You continue to earn your prospect’s trust, which is invaluable. You are closing in on the sale because you’ve shown that you care enough to want to understand company leaders are grappling with and are trying to do.

“So, what will success look like?”

This question helps the prospect to define the desired outcomes and deliverables of the project, something that, surprisingly, the prospective client and his/ her team may be a little fuzzy on, Maybe the decision to ask for a meeting with you was to find out what you, and perhaps a competitor or two, can offer in terms of helping the company achieve necessary outcomes?

“What’s new? What’s next? What help might you need to make it happen?”

A question designed to do more business with clients you’ve worked before, that is, repeat business. It really is easier in terms of time and money spent to do more business with clients who know you than to bring in new clients (but a business needs both types of clients).

“What’s new?” lets the client update you on what’s been happening with the business since the last time you’ve worked together. “What’s next?” opens the door to the future—- what initiatives are on the drawing board? “What help might you need to make it happen?” is, you guessed it, a way to help the client envision a role for you as plans for a sustainably profitable future are made.

Whether you’ll speak with your prospect on line or face2face, the questions presented here will politely and unambiguously get the sales process flowing in the right direction. Your prospect will be called upon to reveal his/ her intentions about doing business. In an always-appreciated show of empathy, your questions will invite the prospect to acknowledge the impact of the pandemic on his/ her organization.

Describing the pain point that (could be) a factor driving the necessity of the project you’re there to discuss and clarifying the expected outcomes (success) and the deliverables of the project will be confirmed. If you’re trying to get back in the door and get repeat business, the final 3-part question will help you and the client to segue into that possibility. You can continue on with question two and address the impact of the pandemic or question three and get an understanding of pain points that may be driving factors. You’ll have a good chance of making a sale!

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Spices and rice bring women to the market.

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Trending: Remote Work

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A recent survey of 500 + venture capital backed tech company founders conducted by the Kung Group, a San Francisco Bay Area organizational development consulting firm, revealed that the most prominent response employers have had to the coronavirus pandemic has been the launch of the work from home culture.

70% of Kung Group survey responders said they planned to allow some or all of their employees to continue to work from home when their office reopens.

76% of responders reported that their employees had either maintained or increased business productivity while working from home.

66% of responders plan to reassess their company’s future use of and need for office space, as a result of their company’s success with the work from home strategy.

The predictive value of the survey results has been confirmed by prominent technology companies, including Google, Facebook, Square and Twitter, indicating that a significant portion of employees will continue to work from home when the shutdown ends. Facebook projects that in 5 – 10 years, 50% of its employees will work from home.

Remote work is poised to become a defining feature of the early 21st century work place—-work from home, work from anywhere. The new normal for millions of Americans will not include returning to the office. Some employees are already considering a change in their living arrangements, as they contemplate trading cramped and expensive city apartments for houses in the suburbs, or even rural locales, where a home office (single or his & hers) can easily coexist with their personal lives.

Amid the enthusiasm for the shrinking of the corporate office, business owners and leaders would be wise to give serious thought to the practical functionality of the company. In particular, how to build cohesive and productive teams that theoretically might stretch from Ghana to Georgia to Goa?

Needless to say, exceptional communication and collaboration proficiency will be needed. For certain projects, companies may learn that face2face interaction produces the best results.

In support of that approach Apple has decided to continue the company culture of in-house collaboration and is in the process of moving 12,000 employees back into the Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino, CA. Even Facebook is hedging its bets on remote work; it’s been reported that the company plans to create hub offices in the (moderately priced) cites of Atlanta, Dallas and Denver.

But the question for readers of this column is, what will happen to Freelancers in the office space shake-up? It remains to be seen, of course, but there may be reasons for cautious optimism.

If so many team members are working remotely, we Freelancers may have a better chance of inspiring the trust and confidence of decision-makers because to a certain extent, a significant percentage of the workforce will operate in a similar fashion to Freelancers, with the exception of submitting a monthly invoice. Freelancers can much more easily position ourselves as another remote team member.

Furthermore, the shutdown encouraged businesses to re-evaluate many jobs and discover that an unexpectedly wide range of tasks can be performed remotely. The consensus is that most tasks relegated to employees working remotely have yielded satisfactory results. The expectations of their customers have been met.

So the outcomes of remote work have been demonstrated and it bodes well for Freelancers. As businesses recover from the shutdown and need more hands on deck to get things done, decision-makers will feel more comfortable about bringing us on board. Ka-ching.

Harshvendra Soin, Chief People Officer at Tech Mahindra, a multinational technology company headquartered in Pune, India, recently said, “We hire gig workers for niche or scarce legacy skills which are not immediately available internally.” Tech Mahindra has an AI based talent marketplace called Talex that identifies gig workers internally. Soin elaborated, “ We have built an external marketplace called Flex.ai, that allows employers to seamlessly tap into the Freelance workplace.”

Top Freelance skills in demand include business planning, brand strategy, cloud computing, data analytics, digital marketing and SAP implementation. Now you’re smiling.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Photograph: A traveler passing through South Station in Boston, MA gets some work done remotely.

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COVID-19 Cash-Flow Update

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The nationwide economic shutdown that went into effect in mid-March has done the vast majority of U.S. businesses no favors. In fact, the shutdown has been devastating for business owners and Freelance consultants alike.

According to an April 18, 2020 survey of 16, 620 business owners conducted by Alignable, an online referral and business development organization for business owners and self-employed individuals that claims 4 million members, 43% of businesses in America have had to temporarily close. Of those that remain open, 28% report that business is down by 75%; 15% said that business is down by 50%; 11% found that business is down by 25%; and a lucky 2% report that the shutdown has been good for business (maybe grocery and liquor stores?). The enormous impact of COVID-19 on the economy has compelled the federal and state governments to offer financial assistance to U.S. citizens.

The Payroll Protection Program, which is designed to help businesses that employ fewer than 500 workers to retain those workers on the company payroll in the face of often drastic revenue reductions brought on by the coronavirus business shutdown, ran through the original $349 billion appropriation approved by Congress in less than two weeks. Happily, Congress has just pushed through another bill that will not only add $320+ billion to PPP but also earmark $60 billion of the funding for small banks, credit unions and community based lenders.

Furthermore, business owners and Freelance consultants can apply for a loan that’s up to 2.5 times the average monthly payroll of the business, not to exceed $10 million per entity.

Remember, the PPP loan can flip to a grant if the recipient Freelancer or business owner applies 75% of funds received to payroll expenses (I including the owner’s draw) and 25% of the funds to business operating expenses. Otherwise the loan, which must be repaid within 2 years, is payable at 1% interest.

The Small Business Administration has also played its customary role in assisting business organizations large and small through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. EIDL provides loans and also a maximum $10,000 immediate cash advance to businesses financially harmed by the shutdown. The SBA reported that as of April 20, nearly $3.3 billion in EIDL grants and $5.5 billion in EIDL loans had been awarded. Congress is expected to approve an additional $60 billion in EIDL funding, bundled with the $320+ billion initiative to replenish PPP.

Still more help will be made available to Freelancers by way of the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program , a variation of Unemployment Benefits and therefore administered by the states, is set to provide up to 39 weeks (maximum) of unemployment benefits to those who have historically been excluded , i.e., us—- independent contractors, the self-employed Professionals, or gig workers.

To be eligible, applicants must provide self-certification to demonstrate that they are available to work but are prevented from doing so as a result of COVID-19 or actions related to it, including one’s own illness due to the virus or a close family member who contracts the virus. Even workers who are collecting sick pay or other benefits that amount to less than one’s weekly pay, or those who are working fewer hours, resulting in diminished income, might nevertheless be eligible to collect PUA benefits. For more information, search Pandemic Unemployment Assistance in your state.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Photograph: Kim Clark 4/23/2020. The Doc Martens store on Newbury Street in the Back Bay.

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COVID-19 Crisis Management

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How are you holding up? I assume that you are taking steps to manage the impact of our coronavirus crisis and that you’re feeling somewhere between frightened and overwhelmed? This thing has hit like a tidal wave that has upended all business and taken nearly every Freelancer under, at least in the short term.

The shelter in place orders that panicked public officials have instituted have the ability to do particular harm to self-employed professionals and small business owners. We are concerned about public health and we understand more than most about the need for decisive action because our livelihoods depend upon it and our money and our brand are always on the line. We wish that along with epidemiologists, economists and even ethicists would also be invited to the decision-making tables.

The strategy that’s seen as quick fix crisis management by ventures large and small is to shed all or most Freelance workers and review all supplier and vendor contracts, with the purpose to renegotiate and trim fees.

I agree that cost-cutting measures are prudent and if I presided over a larger entity I would recommend such actions to my leadership team. Yesterday, I read that Exxon Mobil will follow exactly the same strategy.

Yet being perceived as expendable does nothing to improve one’s ability to sleep nights, to say nothing about one’s ability to pay living and business expenses. If a survival strategy ever was needed, the time is now! So what can we do? The short answer is to get practical, be resourceful and use online tools wherever possible because the practice of social distancing will be with us for a number of months.

TECH ENABLED TOOLS

I teach business courses and present workshops and that means I have an audience. Or maybe I should say I had an audience. For the time being, public speaking and gatherings as we have known them are over. I’ve already been in contact with two clients to discuss how educational programs will proceed.

One client has been doing online workshops for a number of years and they’re conducted over Skype and so my ID for that platform has been sent to them. Unfortunately, what was scheduled in the near term was cancelled, but since they have clients to satisfy and need me to achieve that imperative, I know that by late April I’ll be presenting on Skype.

To another client I recently sent an email and suggested that we postpone by a couple of weeks the workshop that I was scheduled to present and repackage it as a webinar. I offered to come to their place of business to use their equipment (and also guarantee a quiet studio, something that a home broadcaster can seldom provide what with the sirens of emergency vehicles passing by, however occasional).

A third client has for a number of years hosted social events that regularly attract 500 – 1000 visitors. I will soon reach out to my contacts there and suggest that they experiment with an online format. The logistics, format and flow will have to be carefully considered, but for several years many people have attended meetings virtually and the concept is no longer novel.

While on a recent (audio only)conference call meeting of 18 participants, three or four spoke up about using online platforms to conduct social events that have been successful. One caller spoke of online dinner parties that she and her husband share with their adult children who now live in other parts of the U.S. Another caller spoke of attending and enjoying a virtual cocktail party, where participants dressed up, poured themselves a cocktail or glass of wine, nibbled hors d’oeuvres and engaged in conversation with other guests all from their kitchen or dining room tables. Apparently, they had a blast.

Finally, to the writers among you, this crisis is the perfect time for clients —and Freelancers ourselves—-to review marketing strategies and update our messages and materials where needed. Stay the course and be brave.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Photograph: Kim Clark. Star Market, Prudential Center Boston MA March 23, 2020

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Summer Reading List 2019

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It’s been a few years since I’ve compiled a suggested list of business books to read over the summer (and beyond). Professional development need not always require enrolling in a semester-long course or workshop. Reading is a gateway to so many positive experiences, from learning to pleasure. If you don’t want to buy books, visit your local library and check one out, at no charge. A library card is a good investment.

  1. How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big (Scott Adams)

For Scott Adams, creator of the world-famous Dilbert cartoons, life’s path wound through many jobs, failed startups, useless patents he applied for and countless other indignities. In his memoir, Adams shares lessons learned about keeping himself motivated, healthy and happy while racking up all the failures that ultimately led to his success. Dilbert, a clever gallows humor cartoon that allowed him to share his failures and frustrations with the world, has been in circulation for nearly 30 years. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17859574-how-to-fail-at-almost-everything-and-still-win-big?ac=1&from_search=true

  1. Million Dollar Consulting: The Professional’s Guide to Building a Practice (Alan Weiss)

Having now written 49 books on the subject, it is reasonable to regard Alan Weiss, Ph.D. as a consulting guru. If you are consulting, or thinking about packaging yourself as such and searching for clients, Weiss is recommended reading. His insights and recommendations are based on lived experiences of starting and operating an international management and organizational development firm.

As the book’s title implies, Weiss claims that he has consistently produced over $1 million/year in revenues. Although his background is in management consulting, his practical advice applies to all types of consulting. The book contains an abundance of ideas. The focus is on helping existing consultants take their practice to the next level, but he includes advice for beginners as well. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27289607-million-dollar-consulting

 3. Dare to Lead (Brene Brown)

Brown is an Oprah-endorsed author who gets invited to participate on the global mega-speaker circuit, TED Talks included. In the book, she dispels common myths about modern-day workplace culture and shows us that true leadership requires vulnerability, values, trust and resilience.

Brown asks the reader to think back to the most important leadership role one has had. Were you the captain of your high school football team or cheer leading squad? Or did you take on a leadership role only as an adult, such as overseeing a business unit with dozens, or maybe hundreds of employees? Whatever it may have been, there’s a high probability that you fell into one of the many leadership traps laid out in modern culture.

You may have thought you had to look strong and could never admit to a failure. You may have avoided telling the truth because you didn’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. These things often happen, especially in the office, because that’s how leadership is portrayed in our society. However, we usually figure out later, when it’s too late to make amends, that the exact opposite behavior would have yielded the best result. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40109367-dare-to-lead

  1. The Breakthrough Speaker: How to Build a Public Speaking Career(Smiley Poswolski)

“If you want to get paid to speak, you have to speak about something that matters and something that other people are passionate about. You need to speak about something that other people (specifically people that are in a position to book you to speak) are obsessed with. This is the single most important lesson to keep in mind when building a paid speaking business.”  —Smiley Poswolski https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42039637-the-breakthrough-speaker?from_search=true

  1. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (Simon Sinek)

“The limbic brain is responsible for all our feelings, such as trust and loyalty. It is responsible for all human behavior and all of our decision-making. It has no capacity for language.”  —Simon Sinek

When we communicate starting with the why, we speak directly to the section of the brain that controls decision-making and we use our limbic brain. In contrast the language center of the brain, the neocortex, allows one to rationalize those decisions. The limbic brain has no capacity for language and that is why it is so often difficult to explain one’s true feelings. When we make a decision that feels right, we frequently have a difficult time explaining why we did what we did. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7108725-start-with-why

  1. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What To Do About It (Michael E. Gerber)

The book explains why 80% of small businesses fail and details how to ensure that your venture doesn’t wind up in that group. Gerber says that building a company based on systems and not just on the skill set and labor of a single individual is the secret because having great technical skills does not mean you know how to run a business. Gerber points to this misconception as the entrepreneurial original sin. Being a great baker, graphic artist, or writer does not necessarily make you an expert at running a business in that industry.

Once you start a business, you’re not just the person doing the technical work; you’re also the CEO, CFO, CTO, CMO and a whole bunch of other things. You must bring in customers, track and manage finances, create advertising material, answer customer requests, set a strategy and, and, and… https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/81948.The_E_Myth_Revisited

  1. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant (W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne)

Are you tired of competing head-to-head with other companies? Do you feel like your strategy differs little from the competition surrounding you? You may need to redefine the rules of competition by defining a new strategy. The book describes two types of playing fields:

  • Red oceans, where competition is fierce in bloody waters, strategy centers around beating rivals, and wins are often zero-sum.
  • Blue oceans, where a market space is new and uncontested, and strategy centers around value innovation.Blue ocean strategy pushes company leaders to create new industries (well…!) and break away from the competition. In short, you create a blue ocean by focusing on the factors that customers really care about and discarding factors they don’t appreciate. This often attracts a new type of customer the industry hadn’t previously encountered and so the market grows.
  • The hard part is actually finding a reasonable strategy and executing it successfully. This book contains plenty of examples of successful blue ocean strategies, and it teaches you how to discover and execute them. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4898.Blue_Ocean_Strategy
  1. The Non-Obvious Guide to Emotional Intelligence (Kerry Goyette)

Being in touch with the emotions of those around you is key to developing strong, reliable relationships. Kerry Goyette’s guide to upping your EQ is a powerful tool for understanding how you can trnslate emotional skills into valuable business practices. The techniques included show you how to navigate change, find the root causes of problems and make better decisions.  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46681827-the-non-obvious-guide-to-emotional-intelligence?ac=1&from_search=true

9. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen Covey)

Increasingly, people look for quick fixes. They see a successful person, team, or organization and ask, “How do you do it? Teach me your techniques!” But these “shortcuts” that we look for, hoping to save time and effort and still achieve the desired result, are simply band-aids that will yield short-term solutions. They don’t address the underlying condition.

Covey advises us to allow ourselves to undergo paradigm shifts, to change ourselves fundamentally and not just alter our attitudes and behaviors on the surface level so that we can achieve true change. Start with a clear destination in mind. Covey says we can use our imagination to develop a vision of what we want to become and use our conscience to decide what values will guide us. More than 15 million copies of this classic have been sold.  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35895321-the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people?from_search=true

  1. How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)

Since it first appeared in 1936, this beloved book has sold more than 15 million copies. Dale Carnegie developed courses that became famous in the disciplines of sales, corporate training, public speaking and interpersonal skills, from networking to business best practices to Emotional Intelligence. Carnegie will teach you actionable skills such as six ways to make people like you, twelve ways to win people over to your way of thinking, nine ways to change people without arousing resentment and much more. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4865.How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People?ac=1&from_search=true

 

Thanks for reading (and read a book very soon, please!),

Kim

Image: The Bibliophiles, 1879 Luis Jimenez y Aranda (Spain, 1845 – 1928), Private collection

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Challenges That Impact the Solopreneur Enterprise

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There are always challenges associated with operating one’s own business venture. Some challenges are formidable while others are merely annoying.  Many are common and probably inevitable.  Anticipation and preparation are the best defenses and can mostly be addressed in your business plan and its subsequent updates.

TIME CONSTRAINTS

Employees can, on occasion, walk into their office, close the door, and choose to be non-productive for most of the day.  Solopreneurs do not have that luxury.  We must meet or exceed the expectations of clients and prospects every time and hit a home run whenever we walk up to the plate.

Solopreneurs are often faced with a lengthy daily to-do list— client work to perform, a meeting to attend, a workshop to develop, a class to teach, an event with probable networking potential to attend.  Furthermore, there are business operations to maintain, such as financial management, marketing, prospecting and customer service. Every item is mandatory.

Over time, fatigue and a sense of being overwhelmed can develop.  Even depression can manifest. The successful Solopreneur must learn to manage and prioritize routine tasks and in fact consider removing some from the plate through outsourcing.  The judicious use of technological tools that save both time and money is smart management, as they help business processes and customer service operate seamlessly.

Click  here  and  here  to assess no-cost and low-cost apps that not only record the time you spend on project work, but also invoice clients and in some instances, accept accounts receivable payments online.

FOUNDER’S SYNDROME

The reality of a single-person shop is that services that generate billable hours cannot be delivered unless the founder is on the job and able to produce them. That means, if you’d like to attend a multi-day skills training session or take a one or two week vacation, be certain to allow adequate time to make key preparations that will help you to discreetly step away from center stage for a few days.

Tasks that you’ve outsourced, e.g. invoicing or bookkeeping, can continue as pre-arranged, but the production and delivery of the services that are the business must be put on hold until you return.  Learn how to prepare your business for your absence (in this case, a vacation) when you click here.

HOW TO GROW

You work alone and that is why you are called Solopreneur.  To promote the expression of your creativity and ingenuity, it will be wise to remove certain routine tasks from your plate, as noted above.  Grow your organization by giving yourself adequate time to concentrate on the money making functions of a business owner: client acquisition and retention, recognizing potential new revenue streams, including niche markets you might enter, effective and timely business strategies to implement, collaborations, beneficial partnerships and networking.

If you elect to continue to perform all administrative tasks as you work to grow and sustain the business, quality control might become an issue.  Spreading oneself too thin is inadvisable and may result in sub par work, diminished customer service, poor decision-making and fatigue. It is far more preferable to spend the money on outsourced help so that you can maintain or enhance the expectations of your brand.

In closing, I reiterate that when you write a business plan, you will be encouraged to acknowledge and prepare in advance for most of the business challenges mentioned.  The initial marketing plan, financial plan and business model will keep you from falling prey to client list, money management and growth challenges.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Mosaic depicting the Amazon queen Melanippe, courtesy of the Haleplibahce Museum in Urfa, Turkey.