Tag Archives: management

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2Q Pep Talk and Organizing Primer

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Hello there, Freelancer and welcome to second quarter 2015. As a precaution against slowly sliding off-course, let’s take a look at some Freelance consultant basics that will keep stress at bay and you in the mood to work hard and smart to achieve your goals of business success, as you define it. Free or low-cost technology can help.

Budget your income

Poor financial management = sleepless nights and stress.  Your paychecks are irregular and taxes are not withheld.  Check stubs and business expense receipts can be misplaced, making it difficult to track accounts receivable and payable.  How you keep track of your revenue/ income is your choice, but keep track of it you must,  along with deductible business expenses. An Excel spreadsheet is your level one financial management tool.  Whenever you receive a revenue check, get into the habit of recording the payer, amount and date.  Save the check stub as well and keep them all together in a place that you’ll remember. Record also your accounts payable business expenses and save the receipts alongside the revenue checks.

If you are in the mood to pay, Intuit has two choices for you.  QuickBooks is the gold standard of bookkeeping and basic financial management for business ventures large and small. QuickBooks will produce income statements and balance sheets monthly, quarterly and annually and make sure that you know where you stand financially.  For about $10/month,  through a basic QuickBooks app on your smart phone or tablet, you’ll be able to download transactions from your bank account and credit cards; separate your business and personal spending; track all of your IRS Schedule C Profit & Loss From a Business variable expenses; calculate and pay estimated quarterly taxes; do it all with the same security encryption as your bank.

Intuit’s Mint will pull together all of your financial transactions and arrange in colorful and easy-to-decipher graphics that depict your financial picture. Get started for free and add your accounts. Mint will analyze all of your financial transactions: checking and savings account activity, credit and debit card activity, investments like brokerage and retirement accounts, and IRA rollover offers and will make recommendations as to how you can pay less, save more and earn more.

Mint will essentially do your budgeting for you, by calculating your average spending by category so that you can create a budget based on an accurate assessment of your spending patterns.  This is the way to create and achieve your savings goals, whether for retirement, for a home, or vacation.

Manage your time

Recognize and respect priorities and refuse to allow the time-suckers to take over your life.  Time is totally money for Freelance consultants and we bill by the hour, or on a project basis. Do whatever you can to devise and approach your to-do list with good time management in mind. At the very least, keep a written calendar in which you can see a monthly view of your appointments (it is superior to a weekly view). Record your obligations and the due dates, so that deadlines will be met. On your smart phone, make use of the Notes app, so you can easily jot down important dates or deliverables.

Evernote is a very handy technology tool that works on your desktop or laptop, tablet or smart phone and costs between zero and $10/month. When you’re working on a project, your notes can even be transformed into a screen-friendly graphic lay-out that works for a client meeting. Access attachments, including PDFs, all your notes and images, too. The details of your project will be easily available and readily organized. You will look so professional and in-charge!

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Staying Alive: Business Management Technology That Works

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Business ventures new and old can fail for many reasons and small businesses are especially vulnerable to all manner of threats.  Even outrageous good fortune can kill a business,  when customer demand far outpaces the ability to effectively fulfill the demand. Fortunately, some challenges can be overcome through sound business practices that are aided by technology hardware or software that are not terribly costly.  Here are areas where technology can help Freelancers and small business owners get arms around common business stumbling blocks. There are also sales forecasting and business analysis tools available, typically by contract through a business services company. Are you ready to trade-up from your Excel spreadsheet?

1.  Operational efficiencies Efforts to deliver core products or services can fall short in under-staffed, under-capitalized organizations, especially when the CEO is inexperienced and overwhelmed.  Orders can be incomplete, late or lost altogether.  Payments to suppliers or sub-contractors could be late.  Invoices may not be sent at the agreed-upon time and as a result cash flow will be diminished,  which leads to all manner of problems, including the inability to make payroll, purchase inventory and other vital supplies, or meet work space rent or utilities payments.  There can be quality control issues with the products and services.  Customer service can be tone-deaf or unresponsive.  Employee skills and time may be inappropriately utilized, resulting in burn-out or wasted time.  Fear not, for there are readily available and typically affordable solutions.  Billing software can generate professional looking invoices quickly and accurately as well as manage common bookkeeping functions easily. Other business management tools can help the CEO to analyze key performance indicators that identify seasonal peaks and valleys that can be used to plan staffing needs, inventory and supplies purchases, or other necessities to meet increased or decreased demand.

2.  Mobile workforce Mobility is a must in today’s business world.  Not having access to client information while you’re on the road, perhaps while meeting with the client, is inexcusable and makes it impossible to uphold the quality of your brand. Invest in a tablet computer or  notebook computer that along with your smart phone will be loaded with apps and software that allow you to demonstrate that you are able to service client needs and answer questions wherever and whenever.  Mobile friendly business management tools allow you and your team to be equally effective in or out of the office.  Also, make sure that your website is converted to a responsive design format, so that it can be easily viewed from a smart phone or tablet.

3.  Manage growth Growth is always the goal, but it’s sometimes like drinking from the fire hose for a Freelancer or small business owner.  Serendipitous growth sounds like the answer to our prayers,  when the orders just fall into our laps,  but the concomitant follow-through can trip us up and burn us out as it rolls through like a tsunami.  Resource utilization— time, talent, staffing, money— all change as the business grows. The best growth is planned, which allows for budgeting and incorporation of the right technological tools, staffing, product or service delivery systems, quality control measures and customer service procedures that make us look like a pro and live up to the brand promise.

If you choose a business management platform that will allow you to perform forecasting and analysis,  be careful of the organization that you choose to work with.  Avoid long-term contracts and look for flexibility that allows you to get into and out of management platforms relatively quickly and inexpensively.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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The ABCs of Time Management

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Setting priorities and establishing boundaries are the heart of time management.  These behaviors are closely linked to productivity and the achievement of important goals and objectives.  There are inevitably instances when conflicting responsibilities and demands threaten to overwhelm us.  Deadlines loom.  Manipulative people scheme to insinuate themselves into our lives because they enjoy the attention and control.

Procrastination ushers in avoidance behavior that sabotages the fulfillment of obligations and may prevent us from reaching our full potential.  We may disappoint those who deserve our support.  The cold fact is that certain responsibilities and people are more important than others and we must be mindful of that reality when allocating the most precious resource we possess,  next to our health.

Julian Birkinshaw,   Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School and Jordan Cohen,   Productivity Specialist at the global firm PA Consulting Group,  have  spent the past three years studying how knowledge workers can become more productive.  The two found that knowledge workers spend 41%  of their time on discretionary activities that don’t necessarily bring much value.   To make the most our time,  it is not enough to merely draw up a to-do list and throw oneself into as many items as hours and energy allow.   It is necessary to give some thought to the implications and potential impact of what must be done,  as well as the consequences of failing to do it.

In his 1973 time management classic How to Get Control of your Time and Your Life,  Alan Lakein recommended that we evaluate each task by establishing SMART — specific, measurable, achievable,  realistic and timely- — goals when deciding where to devote our time and what to do first.

SMART goals are used to rank and label what we must do as an A,  B,  or C task.   A-level tasks /goals are the most important.  Lakein says A-level tasks are where one devotes 80%  of available time.   The remaining 20%  of available time will be divided between the B-level and C-level tasks,  with C-level tasks receiving the smallest percentage of time.

To achieve important goals and objectives and in general accomplish whatever it is you intend to do,  make a to-do list and start with A-level tasks.  Lakein emphasizes that in order to get beyond mere efficiency,  in which a laundry list of essentially unimportant tasks are completed,  and on to productivity,   we must understand and do what is most important.   He urges us to work smarter,  by doing what brings value-added and not harder,  by frittering our time on busy-work that could either be ignored or out-sourced.

Birkinshaw and Cohen suggest that we sort the C-level tasks into three groups:  quick kills,  meaning it’s possible to discontinue these tasks with little or no negative consequences;  off-loads,  meaning what can be delegated or out-sourced;   and long-term redesign,  meaning projects that need to be restructured or re-thought before they can be assessed for value-added potential.   The idea is to make more time available for A-level tasks or leisure activities that allow us to re-charge our energy stores,  relax and enjoy ourselves.   Work – life balance is an important component of quality of life,  preventing burn-out and enabling us to operate at our productive and creative peak.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Find the Time to Do What You Must Do

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It is not easy to stay focused and manage one’s time effectively,  especially when Freelancing.   Working from home presents so many opportunities for distraction,  from the laundry,  to the vacuuming,  to the suddenly gross- looking bathroom sink.  How can you avoid letting the household chores fester and still successfully complete an in-house project,  keep an eye open for potential new assignments,  create additional revenue streams that sustain financially during the inevitable gaps in contracts or client slow-pay situations and somehow find time for professional development and networking?  Fear not,  Freelancer friend,  there is a way to keep those plates in the air.

The secret is to prioritize and be resolute about it.  Learn to value yourself and your time.   Allow yourself  to acknowledge and honor those things that you Must Do and things that you Want To Do.  Equally important,   allow yourself to recognize low-priority tasks and have the courage to let them fall to the wayside. 

We all have obligations and preferred activities and we have about 16 waking hours each day in which to act upon them.   To manage time effectively,  become more productive and refrain from burning yourself out,  priorities must be made and adhered to.   Be brave.  Climb into the driver’s seat and decide which activities and people mean the most to you and let those choices guide how you allocate your time.

Where to begin? Start with work,  because that is how you earn money.   Make a time line for important projects and/or goals and create a what you Must Do manifesto.  Draw up an action plan to ensure that all deliverables are in hand by the desired date.  Identify important milestones along the way and reward yourself when they are reached.  This will help you to establish the right things to do and when to do them and that is the essence of prioritizing.

Next,  think about your personal life and what you Want To Do.   Are you married,  maybe with children,  or do you have someone special in your life with whom you want to spend quality time?  Refer back to your project/goal time line and brainstorm approaches to Must Do priorities that can increase the amount of Want To Do time.  You still may not show up at all of your son’s football games,  but you’ll be more likely to be at the important ones. 

 When on a serious deadline you’ll probably be basically unavailable while the pressure’s on,  but with careful planning you’ll meet most obligations  (buy take-out food and consider hiring a cleaning service to get you and the family over the hump during a crazy-busy period).   You might even be able to have the occasional quiet dinner with the family or that special someone,  which will give you some much-needed relaxation and battery-charging.  You might be able to accept an invitation to a good party,  too.

Other aspects of your personal life involve only you and those needs should likewise be honored,  because they are what you Want To Do.   One way to get more things done  is to get out of bed earlier,  so consider going to the gym at 6:00 AM or 7:00 AM.   If you’re really busy,  exercise will help you to stay strong,  focused,  creative and in reasonably good humor.  If necessary,  limit work-outs to 30 – 45 minutes,  so that you’ll stay on your time line,  checking off the boxes of what you Must Do.

Along the way,   it will be necessary to recognize which activities and unfortunately,  people,  are time-wasters and limit or eliminate your exposure.  Toxic and/or time-wasting people should be diplomatically ushered to the door.  You have no time available to indulge  nonsense. 

Social media is yet another potential time-waster.  Limit social media activity  to 30 minutes two to four times a week.  Even if your custom has been to spend  lots of time on Twitter because it could be good for business,   ask yourself if you need to post every day? If the verdict is that you must,  then limit tweet  time to 15 minutes/day.

Finally,  learn to forgive yourself if a few things don’t get done.  Do what is necessary to achieve what you Must Do and Want To Do and maybe let the vacuuming wait a few days.  Celebrate your progress and remember to find time to relax and enjoy time with yourself,  family,  friends and special someone.  Give yourself the gift of work – life balance.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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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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Now is the Time to Take Control of Your Time

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The secret sauce of effective time management is discipline.  The cruel truth,  my child, is that if you want to get more things done,  you must have the discipline to get your ass out of bed,  often before the sun comes up.  This is a habit best established when the days are getting longer.

According to new research by Christoph Randler,  professor of biology at Heidelberg University in Germany,  morning people are more proactive and therefore more successful in their professional lives.  Morning people anticipate problems and try to minimize their impact;  spend time identifying long-range goals;  and feel in charge of making things happen.  So rise and shine, cupcake.

Another time management essential that you must have the discipline to incorporate into your schedule is transition time.  Whether moving from one task to another or traveling from one meeting to the next,  the only way to ensure that you will be efficient,  productive and get where you are going on time is to take into account each time consuming step of the process.

In other words,  be realistic about how long it takes to go places and do things and give yourself adequate preparation and execution time.  Avoid over-scheduling.  Build in little cushions of time where possible,  to better manage annoying,  schedule-destroying delays like lines at the post office.

The idea is to successfully roll through tasks and appointments and preserve your sanity,  if not your sense of humor, along the way.  Besides,  if there are fires to put out and you’re too tightly scheduled,  things will fall apart and you’ll be back where you started.

Oh , and manage your emails,  rather than letting them manage you.  Do not let them seize control of your day.  Particularly if you receive a huge volume,  assign 2-3 blocks of time each day for email read and respond.  Institute email triage.

If something time sensitive and high priority is on,  you may prefer to check for incoming messages throughout the day and decide what requires a faster response. While doing that,  delete the nonsense emails and lighten your load.  When answering emails,  respond first to the “short answer” messages and then tackle the “long answers”.

Some form of social media participation is now on every Freelancer’s schedule,  like it or not.  No one is sure what any of it does for business,  but very few feel confident enough to ignore it.  Keeping up with this stuff can siphon off much valuable time if you’re not careful.

Limit time spent on social media and while you’re at it,  think about the extent of your involvement and the ROI.  Do you really need FaceBook and Twitter?  Must you go through the LinkedIn Answers Forum every day?

Yet another source of time theft are manipulative,  controlling people.  You have no doubt encountered your share of those who feel entitled to dictate how you spend your time,  quickly  resorting to whining,  badgering and other forms of verbal arm wrestling to force you into doing their bidding.  They may be neighbors,  family members,  so-called friends  or clients.   Set good boundaries and be prepared for uncomfortable moments as you put a few people in their place.  Have the discipline to say “no” and stick to it.

Have the discipline to bring time management into your life.  Missed deadlines,  lost opportunities,  exhaustion and burn-out are not what we want.  Applying our skill set to work that we enjoy and generating an income that we deem satisfactory is what the Freelance life is all about.  Effective time management,  along with SMART goals and objectives—Specific,  Measurable,  Attainable,  Realistic, Timely— will help us get there.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

 

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The Time of Your Life

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Welcome back to reality!  Labor Day Weekend has come and gone and Summer has officially (although not technically) ended.  Like it or not,  we are in full business mode again.  Yet despite what the calendar indicates,  Summer’s slower pace may still cling to you like sand on your ankles and you might be having trouble getting up to speed.  Maybe some good time management tips will help you find your groove?

Freelancers are busy people.  Effective time management is important not only for our P & L bottom line,  but also for our spiritual and psychological health.  In addition to drumming up and working on billable hours,  it is equally important that we make time for our personal pursuits.

We owe it to ourselves to go to the gym or out for a bike ride,  participate in our children’s lives,  nurture our relationship with a special someone,  or recharge our batteries by maybe taking a nice walk.  Therefore,  it is imperative that we utilize our time efficiently,  so that important things get taken care of and we avoid running in circles,  which wastes precious time,  creates aggravation and eventually leads to burn-out.

But there is so much to do and it is easy to get overwhelmed.  On top of  billable hours,  we must network to remain visible,  attend certain conferences that help us build skills or prospect for new clients,  maybe prep for a speaking engagement,  keep up with social media and there are perhaps also board responsibilities that were taken on to demonstrate commitment to one’s community and expand one’s  skill set (and bring in a referral along the way,  we hope).

Then there are the administrative functions like invoicing,  paying bills,  calls and emails,  updating the website,  de-constructing the new health insurance options and planning and budgeting for next year’s marketing initiatives. 

Oh, and dare I mention housework,  laundry, cooking and grocery shopping?  Yikes! It’s enough to make you want to hide in the closet.  How can any one human being face this down? 

I suggest that Step One in getting your arms around all that you must do is to make a list and document major tasks and responsibilities,  so that you can visualize and make sense of your obligations.  Once your list is created,  separate business obligations from personal.  Red star all tasks that have a deadline  e.g.,  September 15 for filing third quarter taxes.

On the business side,  make separate categories for client billable time,  marketing/self promotion and administrative tasks.  On the personal side,  create categories for fitness,  household,  children, etc.  Next,  prioritize according to what must be done first and what brings (or can potentially bring) the best ROI to you.  Break responsibilities down into what must be done daily (emails),  weekly (children’s lessons/ sports),  monthly (networking/ board meetings) and quarterly (taxes). 

Block out corresponding time periods,  make calendar entries and build a daily to-do list schedule.  Examine your schedule and look for ways to be more efficient.  You may have always gone to the gym after work,  but might a time change be advantageous? Is there a Zumba class at 7:00 AM or Pilates at lunchtime? That change will free up time in the evening for other activities and will also ensure that you maintain your fitness regimen.  Or maybe now you’ll see that you can start one!

PDA electronic calendars and smart phone apps are now standard,  but I’ve found that posting on an office white board or old-fashioned desk calendar is especially helpful for remembering monthly and quarterly tasks.  It’s good to have it all there in your face,  a constant reminder of what you must do and when you must do it.

I’ll be back with more time management next week.  Thanks for reading.

Kim

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Bringing You Down: The Procrastination Blues

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We just hate to do certain things.  Some things are a headache to even think about,  let alone actually do.  So we conspire to ignore the irksome thing and pretend it will go away.  We promise ourselves,  our spouses,  our children and our friends that we will get to it…only not now.  We are busy now…

Admit it.  Those crafty avoidance schemes make us feel guilty.  We go into denial.  We are prone to get defensive and there might be an argument,  yet we continue to stonewall.  Oh, but we cannot hide forever.  Eventually,  we’ve gotta man up and do the deed. ç

Why do we do this?  Don’t we realize that allowing loose ends and evil-but-necessary tasks to pile up only makes it worse for us when we are finally forced to take them on?

Yes!  But everyone procrastinates once in a while.  It’s part of the human condition.  In fact, under certain circumstances,  what appears to be procrastination can serve us well.  Sometimes a problem or task needs to be pondered,  with more information about the cause,  implications and possible resolutions sought.  It may not be wise to quickly jump in with both feet.  Due diligence is not a sign of procrastination.

Other times,  it is best to wait for more favorable conditions before making a move and attempting resolution.  Timing is always important.  Or maybe this item really does deserve to be put off,  because there are more important issues pending that deserve your immediate attention.  Prioritization is not a sign of procrastination,  it is good time management.

So what makes us procrastinate?  Psychologists say that chronic  procrastination results from a fear of failure or success.  Either way,  it’s self-sabotage.  Fear prevents us from taking action and moving forward.  The experts have a few more theories:

1.  The Perfectionist.  If you cannot perform in a flawless fashion,  then you will do nothing at all.

2.  Poor Decision Maker.  You are trapped in analysis-paralysis quicksand and unable to settle on a course of action.

3.  The Overwhelmed.   You consider the task to be beyond your capabilities,  or you just hate doing the thing.

4.  The Disorganized.   You cannot get your act together.  You don’t know or have what is needed to complete the task and cannot focus on it.

You can tame the procrastination beast.  The easiest way,  if you’ve been persistently unable to make yourself tackle a certain job,  is to take the hint and outsource it.  Maybe you avoid doing this thing because doing it makes you miserable and you’re lousy at it anyway?  If you’re holding the cash,  call in a professional and stop the drama.

If you are not holding sufficient cash,  then you need an attack strategy.  You must bite the bullet and face down this demon,  because continuing to avoid your responsibilities kills your momentum and adds stress to your life.  Procrastination is bad for business and you cannot afford to wallow in it.

Break the beast down into manageable blocks and chip away a little at a time.  Devote 30-60 minutes each day to the job until it is completed.   Self-discipline builds  self-confidence and will keep you motivated to stay on track.  Reward yourself  handsomely once you’ve crossed the finish line.

Keep the procrastination beast at bay by setting reasonable goals for yourself.  Reaching for the stars is admirable,  but be realistic (and not pessimistic or self-limiting) in recognizing what you can achieve.

Finally,  always prioritize.  Time sensitive and other important tasks go to the top of your list and are preferably done early in the day,  to promote the likelihood of successful completion.  Lower priority tasks are done later.  If a project lands on your to-do list,  then it should be done within a reasonable time frame,  so don’t ignore it for six months.

Thanks for reading,

Kim