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Ask SmallBizLady How Can I Take My Small Business to the Next Level

By Melinda Emerson on February 25, 2011 in Ask Smallbizlady, Business Inspiration

Every Friday, I answer questions on my blog in a segment called Ask Small Biz Lady and will post video answers to frequent small business questions. This week, we are taking on the question How Can I Take My Small Business to the Next Level?

Check out this video for the answer

Develop a specialty niche: Look at your business and see if there’s a niche market that you can specialize in; i.e. if you are a graphic designer how about specializing in developing educational materials?

Develop signature content: Blogs, special reports, a niche website for your specialty niche market. Demonstrate your expertise and knowledge to your target customer.

Build a team: It’s hard to sell your skills as an army of one. That’s too much risk for a large or corporate customer. Build strategic alliances and develop partnerships with competitors to secure larger pieces of business. 50% is better than waiting for your phone to ring.

If you have a question for Melinda Emerson, Small Biz Lady, I’m always here as a resource.

Leave a comment on this article, send a message using the contact us page, tweet me – @smallbizlady, on Facebook or you can hit me up on LinkedIn.

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Book Interview: How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America

By Melinda Emerson on February 23, 2011 in Business Inspiration, Your Small Business

This is a Q&A from my interview with Robert Jordan author of How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America (RedFlash Press, www.HowTheyDidItBook.com). Robert has been launching and growing companies and helping other entrepreneurs do the same for the past 20 years. His book is a collection of interviews from 45 leading founders who created $41 billion from scratch. His newest endeavors are RedFlash project implementation team, a worldwide network of interim, contract, and project executives.

Smallbizlady: What gave you the idea for this book?

Robert Jordan: I was waiting in the SeaTac airport in Seattle for a flight, reading a book of quotes I found in a bookstore (it’s a great airport). I had a thought – wouldn’t it be great to read a book of quotes from entrepreneurs who had hit home runs – and learn how they did it. The generic quote book I was reading was ok, but not specific for what would have really inspired me as an entrepreneur. So when I came home I approached some VC investor friends with the idea (not asking them for money, just wanted their opinion because they knew lots of entrepreneurs), and the added idea that I’d like to invite these champion company founders to an event where we would multi-author the book in 90 minutes. It didn’t work out quite that neatly in the end, but the event did occur, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago, and 21 of the 45 founders were there.

SmallBizlady: How did you pick the company founders you spoke to and was there criteria you used for the companies you included?

Robert Jordan: I set criteria that a founder had to launch/grow/sell for $100mm or more or go public for $300mm or more. I did this with the help of an informal committee of these VC friends. I went to Goldman Sachs, William Blair and Dow Jones to ask them to help screen companies, and from their databases I then hired a bunch of Northwestern University undergrads to help me screen founders. After a year of that we had a list of folks to invite to the Four Seasons event. This was not a rigorous/academic approach – I broke my own rules. For example, Viresh Bhatia from Installshield sold for $78mm. And we decided to not include a number of founders who were, frankly, not inspiring. The emphasis was on technology and innovation; we did not consider real estate, hedge funds, that sort of thing. Nothing against those home run hitters – we just wanted to focus on very hard stuff not expected outside of Silicon Valley.

Smallbizlady: Many of the interviewees aren’t well-known and, you point out yourself, some are actually reclusive. Is there any insight in that about people who really score success?

Robert Jordan: I think so. There seems to be a pattern of quietly going about your work, be great at execution, don’t focus on self and ego. Mahendra Vora said of course you have to have ego to do these great things, but not to the point that you cannot see and act on your mistakes, or recognize other people for their own great work. Also: one of my biggest conclusions is that none of these founders did it alone. Success is never a solo act. Even for solitary founders, the only way they hit it big was by developing partners and/or incredibly capable management teams.

Smallbizlady: Why did you choose to focus on technology businesses?

Robert Jordan: Because there could be a perception in the world that the only valuable tech development has to or must occur in Silicon Valley. And that just is not true. And it becomes more interesting to learn from quiet, unsung heroes than the usual subjects. And because most aspiring entrepreneurs in the world are not in SV and never will be – it becomes another facet on inspiration. You can see other people in obscure places who didn’t give up, didn’t blame their surroundings (Mary Engelbreit’s line from her greeting cards – bloom where you are planted). The number one billionaire in the book, Dane Miller (Biomet, $12 billion company value when taken private in 2007) started Biomet in Warsaw, Indiana, and he’s still there, and he’s still unknown. On USA Today’s 25^th anniversary they ranked the 25 best performing companies over the past 25 years. Dane is #7: 30,000% growth. Warren Buffet is #20: 19,600%. Dane almost doubled Berkshire Hathaway’s performance. Not on a whim…but over the course of 25 years.

My guess is that most people consider Google and Facebook the 2 most important tech companies in the world at the moment. The next 2 could be Twitter and Groupon, and Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo is in the book, as is Groupon’s co-founder Eric Lefkofsky. (Costolo was not the founder of Twitter but even the quiet guys can score home runs.)

Smallbizlady: Is there one core value you feel is the strongest and most important factor in your personal achievements.

Robert Jordan: Integrity.

Smallbizlady: Do you believe there are some unique qualities that are inherent in all of those individuals who built a great fortune for themselves?

Robert Jordan: My biggest conclusion from this is that for massive success you have to take a leap. You have to take risk. This sounds obvious, but in reality, what most of us do is avoid failure. We think we’re taking risk when we do small things, and act incrementally. These folks did not get to multi-million and billion dollar valuations by failure avoidance. It just doesn’t work. They each have one or more points when there was a distinct decision to make a leap, and the results were not known upfront. Actually I think overall these founders struck out far more than most business people. They just did something very different from most people with those failures. A related quality: they are all very passionate about what they do.

Smallbizlady: What advice did you glean from your interviews about how to best go about funding a business?

Robert Jordan: To be more patient (Joe Mansueto’s advice).

- To stop thinking that anyone could become a success overnight, because that is completely a false notion, and in fact all self-made founders hit the wall one or more times.

- To not take money at any price, because once you are diluted down by selling equity too cheap, you can’t get it back (Michael Polsky).

- To think about more options for funding, to never rely on one source alone (Vince Pettinelli; and Jim Dolan talking about always doing one more thing; always have a “hot standby”).

Smallbizlady: Another key issue is hiring. What was some of the best advice you heard about that?

Robert Jordan: Joe Piscopo (Pansophic) said if he could have hired better he could have been 10x bigger, and that 75% of failures relate to poor hiring.

- Mahendra Vora (Intelliseek) said you first train your core team of 5 managers, and when you do that well, they train the next 25, and when they do that well they train the next 125, and that’s how success occurs.

- Raj Soin (MTC) said he trained his managers to not think first of their customers but to primarily think of the employees, because the employees would create success with the customers – not the managers.

- David Becker (First Internet Bank) said it was hard because sometimes early employees could not stay at fast growth companies – just no longer a fit. But when he developed a core team that was outstanding, he took them from one startup to the next. Becker’s line reminded me of Andrew Carnegie’s quote about taking away all his steel mills, it wouldn’t matter, just give him his team and he could reproduce the same success in any other industry.

Smallbizlady: What are the most common mistakes start-ups make, and how can we avoid them?

Robert Jordan: 1) Trying to avoid failing is a mistake. Instead: look at each failure and see if that could be the source of the real home run. Another big revelation: most home runs were because of Plan B, not the original plan! Bill Merchantz’s software company had a spectacular failure, software that crashed on a big client. They worked feverishly to restore functionality and invent disaster recovery software. In the end the client left. But the big win? The disaster recovery software was, not the original product.

2) Hiring the wrong people is a mistake. One piece of advice from Howard Tullman: founders should never do the hiring, because we entrepreneurs are in love with our products and can’t stop talking. Smart candidates sit there, nod, don’t say a word, entrepreneur falls in love with them, they get hired. Big mistake. Delegate hiring. Joe Piscopo said first order of business for a CEO: take up to date courses on hiring.

3) Not being willing to give up control is a mistake. This is NOT the same thing as giving up equity. Big success is never a solo act. Great founders develop partners and/or great management teams without fail.

4) Complacency is a mistake. Champions always do one more thing; have one more backup, one more Plan B. How many times have you heard about a company that, gee, they came so close! But they just missed because of the Internet bubble bursting, or the recession, or… The experience of these founders is not that they didn’t hit obstacles – they did. They just kept moving.

5) Designing the “perfect” product is a mistake. Especially in technology, things move too fast, and the attempt for perfection can mean completely missing the market. Only by being in the market can you improve, learn, and eventually make something great.

Smallbizlady: What practical advice do your founders offer for the average person to do well in life?

Robert Jordan: Be passionate about what you are doing! I realize that may sound idealistic, but I noticed throughout the interviews a near-total lack of cynicism. And my own experience with a lot of startups is that passion is the first determining characteristic of founders who get funded. Being passionate is contagious.

You can grab this book today on Amazon. For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine recently named her one of the Top 20 women for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)

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Ask SmallBizLady: What’s a Good Way to Handle Invoicing?

By Melinda Emerson on February 11, 2011 in Ask Smallbizlady, Your Small Business

Every Friday, I answer your small business questions in a video blog segment called Ask SmallBizLady.

This week, we are taking on the question: How to handle invoicing as a start-up?

Click here for the answer.

There are a few options you can use for invoicing

Try paypal.com

Use your accounting software QuickBooks Pro or Peachtree

You can create a paper invoice

Do invoicing electronically! Do not create duplicate work for yourself or your accountant.

Like I suggest in my book Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months, you need to have an accountant set up your accounting software the first time. He or she will show you how to handle invoicing electronically.

If you have a question for Melinda Emerson, Small Biz Lady, I’m always here as a resource. Leave a comment on this article, send a message using the contact us page, tweet me – @smallbizlady, on Facebook or you can hit me up on LinkedIn.

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How to Write a Business Plan Part III

By Melinda Emerson on January 31, 2011 in Become Your Own Boss Tips, Business Inspiration, My Recommendations

How to write a business plan

In Part I and Part II of this blog series on how to write a business plan, I have walked you through clarifying the business idea, marketing analysis, defining the business opportunity and customer profile, finding your niche and developing a sales plan and marketing budget.

Now, I want you to define how you are going to run your business, and develop a budget and sales projections. This is where you go from dreamer to business owner folks! It’s about dollars and cents. If your business is not designed to make money, you have an expensive hobby.

The Operations Plan This section explains how you plan to operate the business. Managing your enterprise is serious work. As the boss, you need to orchestrate how the business will run while keeping costs down and maximizing profits. You need to have a clear process for delivery, handling customer complaints, determining how many employees you need, taking mark downs and so much more. If you are manufacturing a product, it is even more important to track all the raw materials, processes, finished goods, and shipped goods and how to work your way through the many emergencies, large and small. Your business plan should include as much detail as you can so anyone can see how you expect things to work.

Running your business can be as simple as going to a big box retailer and stocking up on more hot dogs, rolls, condiments, napkins, soda, etc. for that week’s business or as complicated as having shirts made by a foreign manufacturer, getting them through customs, price-tagged for sale, stocked in the store, scheduling help, and so much more. Other issues include location, business permits, inventory management, power and communications needs, insurance requirements, additional construction needs, and zoning requirements. Any of these areas can stop you from opening your doors and should be addressed as a detailed part of your plan. Personnel issues like pay, skills set needed, training, and total headcount should also be touched on, as they have a direct impact on your operations plan and your financial projections.

If you have the time, I strongly recommend creating a process flow worksheet that outlines every activity from receipt of raw materials to final customer sale.

Operations, as you can see, is all about the details some of which could keep you from opening your business. A page on your business operation will get you thinking about what it will take to get your business up and running

What are going to be your top priorities?
How will you measure the results of your processes?
What is your plan for sources and uses of cash?
How will you manage growth proactively?

Your Management Team One of the essential ingredients for a successful small business is the experience the business owner brings to the table. Highlighting your expertise and background is critical to giving your business credibility, particularly in the early years. My first business was a multimedia production company, my background as a television producer was a key element to my clients trusting me with their marketing projects. Your knowledge of your industry and your relationships with potential strategic alliances and customers will be an important asset to your business. You will probably start out as a management team of one. As your business grows, however, any new employees should bring with them skill sets that might include diverse business experiences, significant business contacts, demonstrated leadership and/or technical savvy.

Revenue Models/Cash Flow Projections The financial plan lays out your operational budget and sales expectations for your business. Typically, the first thing any investor or bank will want to know is at how much money your business will generate and how soon will it be profitable (you might have a need to know as well). You will need to create a tight, well thought out, realistic financial plan that includes the amount of personal financial risk you are putting on the table.

If you are not comfortable with accounting, you should engage an accountant or a seasoned bookkeeper to help you pull together your initial financial projections.

It is also a good idea to work along side your accountant for a while once you start doing business. That’s the best way to get a grasp on the financial inner workings of your company. When it comes to developing sales projections, it is important to be conservative and realistic. I like to focus sales projections around 30-day goals.

Know your numbers, and be able to defend them. The worst thing you can do is develop financial projections that don’t make sense, particularly if you plan to pursue funding. The plan should also include a cash-flow projection and a break-even analysis. The process of developing your financial plan will help you understand how many sales must be generated to cover your expenses and eventually make you a few pennies.

Your financial plan is your best estimate of your company’s financial future. It is an estimate because you really have no idea how your company will perform financially until you operate the business for six-months to a year. Your plan should include a one-year operating budget and up to a three years of company sales projections.

The Executive Summary After the sales projections, it’s time to write your executive summary. You should think of these two-pages as your sales document for the entire business plan. The executive summary should contain enough information for the reader to get interested in reading the plan, writing a check in support of the business or coming to work for your business. Here’s a recent post on how to write and executive summary. http://succeedasyourownboss.com/01/2011/how-to-write-an-executive-summary/

Once again, I strongly suggest that you purchase business plan software. I recommend Business Plan Pro.

Then, sign up for a business plan course to finish your business plan. They are offered at a local community colleges, Small Business Development Center, 1-800-8-ASK-SBA or use this link http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/sbdc/sbdclocator/SBDC_LOCATOR.html, or a local nonprofit serving small business, to finish your business plan.

A business plan is the small business owner’s hypothesis of what they think will happen in once they open for business. The plan will change once the business is exposed to the marketplace, which means the plan must change regularly. In fact, in the first few years of running a small business, the business owner should review and update their business plan every two-to-three months to make sure the business is on the right track.

No more excuses, now you have everything you need to finally get your business plan done. Please let m know if this post was helpful, I love to hear from you.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. She has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal and Black Enterprise Magazine. She hosts #SmallBizChat weekly on Twitter for emerging entrepreneurs and publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)

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Is That Newest Opportunity a Distraction?

By Melinda Emerson on January 25, 2011 in Guest Articles

Is That Newest Opportunity a Distraction?, by Karen L. Jett, CMA

I just received an invitation to a free Covey conference call about extending trust while increasing accountability. For someone who is passionate about ethics and helping people and companies to grow, my first reaction was: This is awesome – will I be available?

My second reaction was to take a step back and look at this opportunity with a strategic eye. Each year I complete my strategic plan. Each quarter I update it with my quarterly priorities. To keep myself on track, I finish the process by writing my three clarifying questions. So, I ran this great opportunity through my three questions.

Will it add to my expertise or aid in the research and development of my new strategic planning workshop? No.
Does it help me market my existing or pending offerings? Not really.
Will it help me to become more focused on my goals for the quarter? Nope.

Sadly, since I am not ahead of schedule with free time, it appears that this opportunity is more of a distraction.

We are all given a myriad of opportunities for how to spend our time and money on a regular basis. Many of them are interesting, intriguing, or just plain fun and we want to participate. But, if we give in each time we are attracted, we find ourselves with not enough time to accomplish the things that are truly important to us. Thus these wonderful opportunities may be distractions in disguise.

Have you ever looked back and wished that you had foregone seeming opportunities?

A simple way to identify these distractions packaged as opportunities is to adopt the habit of creating three clarifying questions. These are yes or no questions that relate to the priorities you have set for you and your company. They should directly relate to the strategic direction that you have set.

For example, if your strategic imperative is to increase sales you may have the following questions:

Will I learn something that will improve my ability to sell my services or products?

Will I meet people who are my ideal customers?

Will it drive customers to my store front (virtual or real)?

The next step is simply to use the questions. When faced with an apparent opportunity, run it through the three questions. If you answer yes to one of them, then it truly is an opportunity. If you answer no to all three, strategically your best decision is to just say no.

I challenge you to write your 3 clarifying questions now and then use them to evaluate today’s opportunities. How many of them are in alignment with your goals? How many of them will help you to accomplish what’s important to you? And how many are distractions that will hold you back from reaching what you really desire?

Karen L. Jett, CMA is the Founder of Jett Excellence and works with small business owners who want a strategic advantage to grow their business or practice. She is the creator of Strategic Plan-ting Workshops where small business owners create their own detailed strategic plans (including 3 clarifying questions) in just one day. Karen is also the author of Grow Your People, Grow Your Business.

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How to Write a Business Plan Part II

By Melinda Emerson on January 24, 2011 in My Recommendations, Starting A Small Business, Your Small Business

Once you know what business you are in, it’s time to figure out who’s going to buy from you and why. You are just someone with an idea until you develop a business plan. In other words, if you haven’t written your plan yet, your business is still in the fantasy stages.

In Part II, of how to write a business plan, we get to the heart of the matter about your business your marketing analysis and your marketing plan. You will now need to define your target customer, niche, competitive analysis, the secret sauce or differentiator and how you are going to tell the world you are open for business. Most importantly, you will need to know how much money you’ll need to do that.

Your Marketing Plan should answer the following questions:

What is/are your product(s) or service(s)?
Who is the target market customer?
What is your placement strategy?
How will your product or service be distributed?
How will you price your product or service?
How will you promote your product or service?
What are your budgetary needs to execute your marketing plan?

This information is a key part of your business plan. In fact, it is the foundation upon which you build your business. Anyone who reads this part of your plan will not only understand who’s buying and why, but also your plan to get sales, your pricing strategy, profitability and projected growth.

Market Analysis The market analysis starts with a market summary outlining the business opportunity, then drills down what share of the market you believe you can capture. Then determine how much each customer segment is worth to your business in terms of revenue. It should also include a trend analysis which is about your industry and where the market is going. Is it growing or shrinking? The reasoning is that if you are not in a growth industry you need to understand how long you can pursue your business strategy before the market moves or is saturated. Then you need to identify and explain your target customer and the market segments you plan to reach. When identifying your target market, you should make sure you have three things:

a) Meaningful – you need to know the problem you will solve, and be a real solution.

b) Sizable – you need to make sure the piece of the market you want is large enough to turn a profit.

c) Reachable – you must make sure that you have the resources to reach your target audience. Remember, your network is your net worth when starting a business.

Who’s the Competition? Your customer’s need is already being met somehow. Describe your top three competitors and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. Then explain why their customer will buy your product or service over theirs.

The Customer Profile Identify your customer is in painful detail. Your description should enable anyone to see the face of your customer. Based on this information, you can now create a strategy on how you plan to market to each customer segment. Your sales plan should also be a part of this section of the business plan.

The Niche Webster’s Business Dictionary defines a niche as a “particular market or specialty area where a company finds it profitable to concentrate its selling efforts. Niche marketing offers a concentration of clients in an area of limited competition. You have limited time and resources as a start-up small business, so you need to pick a lane and be disciplined enough to stay in your lane.

So in other words, there are thousands of graphic design firms out there… what specific market will you serve exclusively? Will it be small business, nonprofits, educational institutions, etc?

What Is Your Signature Move? Michael Jackson was famous before he became a solo artist, but once he did the moonwalk on stage during Motown 25, he became the King of Pop. What is your moonwalk? Defining your secret sauce or signature move will enable you to stand out in the market place. A signature move could be uniforms, an extra free service, how you say thank you, a discount coupon for the next time. Here’s a great example, a funeral home sending a gift clock to a bereaved family with the inscription “Always remember the good times.” People will always remember how you made them feel while doing business with you.

Marketing Budget Now that you know who you are selling to, your niche, and signature move, you need develop a budget to execute your marketing plan. Once you have a 30-day revenue goal, you need to determine how many sales leads you need to generate to hit that number each month. Then you need to figure out how many resources you need to put those leads in your pipeline (website, sales people, call center, tradeshow, facebook ads etc.) That’s the easiest way to develop your marketing budget.

If you are someone who would like to read further about writing a business plan here’s two books I suggest: Plan As You Go Business Plan by Tim Berry and The Successful Business Plan by Rhonda Abrams are quite good.

Next week in Part III, we’ll deal with the operations, budget and financials projections.

How is this series on How to write a business plan working for you? Need a Part I refresher?

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Could Your Self Confidence Be Holding Back Your Small Business?

By Melinda Emerson on January 12, 2011 in Guest Articles

Could Your Self Confidence Be Holding Back Your Small Business? by Kelly Morrison

Have a business plan. Know your target market. Research your competition. Have funds set aside for rainy days. These are all things I heard when, at the age of 22, I decided that I wanted to start my own business as a virtual assistant. I began doing research on training to become a virtual assistant, which led me to AssistU. I received the best training possible for VAs, wrote a business plan, registered my business with my city and state governments, built my website, and opened my virtual business doors in June 2008 and waited for my clients to find me. And waited. And waited. And six months later . . . I was still waiting! Why wasn’t anyone asking me about my business? Why wasn’t there anyone knocking down my door to work with me? I knew why – it was because people thought I was too young to be in business. And by people I mean me.

That’s right – I was a 22 year old business owner who thought I was too young to be a business owner, and because I had zero confidence in myself as a business owner. I was telling NO ONE about my business. Did I have the skills to assist someone as their VA? Yes – but I was only 22. Did I have my business set up legally, equipped to fully handle any tasks that came my way? Yes – but again, I was only 22. I was shy about telling people I was in business for myself. I didn’t think people would take me seriously as a business owner because, well, I was 22. And because I didn’t take myself seriously, it made it hard for other people to do the same. I found myself not telling anyone about my business and therefore not getting any clients as a result of my non-existent marketing.

In early January 2009, after a lot of self-doubting and pity parties, I decided enough was enough – I was either going to fully commit myself to my business or I was going to quit it altogether and go find employment elsewhere. So, I started talking about my work as a virtual assistant (VA). A lot. And to more than just my mom and close friends. I facebooked about it. I showed off my website. I passed out my business cards. I began to really market myself and my business. The more I took myself seriously as a business owner, the more confidence I began to have in myself and that confidence began to have a positive impact on my virtual assistance business. At the end of January, I began working with my first client, and I haven’t looked back since! I know what really made the difference in my virtual assistance business, aside from marketing my company actively, was my ability to believe in myself as a business owner.

What I’d tell anyone in business for themselves, who may be having self-doubt or a lack of confidence in themselves as a business owner for whatever reason, is to believe in yourself. Remember why you went into business in the first place – because you knew you had a great service or product or idea that the world needed to know about. Keep that same enthusiasm going in your business year-round. Have a great support system in place – mom, friends, spouse, dog, cat – whoever will support you in your dreams to be a successful entrepreneur! Most importantly, never let anyone, even yourself, keep you from believing in your ability to be a successful small business owner!

About Kelly Morrison

Kelly Morrison is a Virtual Assistant and owner of The Virtual Peacock. She works with clients from across the world providing them with top-notch virtual administrative support and assists with tasks such as social media and email marketing, scheduling, customer service support, writing, editing and much more! For more information on Kelly’s work as a VA, visit www.TheVirtualPeacock.com.

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There’s No Better Time to Start a Small Business

By Melinda Emerson on January 4, 2011 in Become Your Own Boss Tips, Starting A Small Business, Your Small Business

January is my favorite time of year. The start of a new year is always exciting. There are new year’s resolutions to lose weight, save more money, get more sleep and to make it your best year yet—and I am for all of that. Well, this year you should work toward accomplishing your financial resolutions. I feel that the best way to do that is to start your own business. What I want everyone to focus on is finally getting a side hustle or full-time business going in 2011. The world is still waiting on a better mousetrap and in the absence of that, even silly ideas with great marketing will sell (Think “Keeping up with the Kardashians”). Despite the economy, now is the perfect time to start a business if you have three important things.

a)     a solid business idea

b)     a niche target customer

c)     a plan to tell the world you are open for business

In my book, Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months, I outline the Emerson Planning System, which was developed to help transition from having a job to starting a business. It’s a month-by-month guide to start a profitable and sustainable small business. It concerns me that most often, when someone declares they want to start a business, the first thing most experts will say is that you need a business plan. Here’s what I say: Yes you need a business plan, but there are a few more things you need before that. Here are my six steps to starting a small business.

Develop a Life Plan – You should not just start a business because you need money; becoming an entrepreneur should be a part of your big picture plan for your life. Take the time to figure out what you want out of life, and then build a business around that. Make sure your passion has a profit center.
Analyze Your Financial Plan – You must be in a position financially to support your lifestyle and have the personal resources to start your business. Keep in mind it typically takes 18-36 months for a small business to break even. Can you go that long without a paycheck?
Validate Your Business Concept – Once you have a business idea, the next thing you need do is to evaluate what skills you have and need to run your particular business. This will help you learn if you need to attract a partner or how to hire your initial team.
Marketing Plan — You really need to know who’s going to buy from you and why — before you write a business plan. There’s a difference between “need”, “want” and “willing to pay for” in business. There’s must be a market for your product or service; you must know your opportunity landscape and understand the competition.
Business Plan—The easiest way to write a business plan is to purchase business plan software. You can grab a copy of Business Plan Pro software, one of the best on the market, from my affiliate link, and I would also suggest taking a business plan course from a local college, SCORE, or a Small Business Development Center so that you can complete your business plan.
Launch Your Business —The best way to launch a business is to do it while you are still working a job, if you can. Join the 5-9 club, which is when people work evenings and weekends on a side business. Since it takes two-to-three years to get a business off the ground, it’s the best option. Now, if you are starting a business with the goal of quitting a job—keep those paychecks rolling as long as you can. Give your business the best possible shot of being successful.

Do your own due diligence and find a small business that you can succeed in today!

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. She has been featured on NBC Nightly News, in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and Black Enterprise Magazine. Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)

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Best of How To Succeed As Your Own Boss 2010

By Melinda Emerson on December 27, 2010 in Business Inspiration, Grow Your Business, My Recommendations, Your Small Business

Many of you who follow this blog are aware that I believe that the best thing you can do for your small business is pray over it every day. The most popular post on my blog this year was this one I wrote last January on the top 10 Bible verses that I thought could strengthen and encourage small business owners along this rough road we call entrepreneurship. 10 Bible Verses Every Small Business Owner Needs http://bit.ly/8XSFBf

Do you want to know if you have what it takes to be a small business owner? It takes enthusiasm and energy for starters. Then you have to grow your business into a profitable and sustainable enterprise. If you think you work hard now in corporate America, you are in for a real awakening once you launch your small business. Your paid support staff will no longer exist. Do you think you can hack it? This is a Two Part series on what it takes to be an entrepreneur. The Entrepreneur’s Job Description — PART I http://bit.ly/i7WLCk, PART II http://bit.ly/gXcBma

Regardless of the entrepreneurial idea, it all starts with a dream of the kind of life you want to have as a small business owner. In order to be successful, you must have a big picture vision for your life. You need a life plan first, then build your business around that. You need to know how much money you need to make to be happy, and how many employees you want your business to have. Do you just want one great pizza shop or a chain of bakeries with wholesale and retail operations? Regardless of your business goals, you need to understand what kind of resources you would need to start a business like that. Be careful that your dreams do not convince you that you will be an overnight success; there are not many of those. The formula for small business success is dream + plan + pray + hard work = success, 4 Keys to Small Business Success: Dream, Plan, Pray and Hard Work http://bit.ly/cYuK3X

Are you afraid of the financial side of your small business? It’s great to have a nice blog, an email marketing list, a sales process and glossy business cards to drive sales in your business. You must look credible in order to do business with anyone especially a corporation. Having key relationships is essential to generating business, but how are you tracking your profits? Are you using up-to-date financial information to manage your business? It’s not about revenue, it’s about profits. How Do You Make Business Decisions? http://bit.ly/9aov1P

As this year winds down, it is my hope that you go into the New Year with an updated business plan. Successful businesses are run based on a budget and sales projections. In order to make your business plan turn into a document that you can actually use to run your business, there are 5 common mistakes to avoid when writing a business plan. Top 5 Business Plan Mistakes http://bit.ly/buMEqi

This blog post was ripped right from my client work. I have a set of clients who have been in business for a while — 7 years +, and all this change going on in the marketplace has them significantly losing business. The recession has changed everything, and some business models are obsolete. Everyone these days wants to hire specialists. And, competing on price in the computer age is a bad idea, for competition is world-wide. If you are ready to reinvent yourself and your business, now is the time. Start with these 7 steps and get your business back on track. 7-Steps to Course Correction in Your Small Business http://bit.ly/cGhY2b

The goal of this blog is to end small business failure. If you think there’s another blog post from the year that should be on this list let me know.

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. She has been featured on NBC Nightly News, in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and Black Enterprise Magazine. Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)

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Big Things to Come From SmallBizLady in 2011

By Melinda Emerson on December 24, 2010 in Business Inspiration, Grow Your Business, How to Start, Starting A Small Business

I am so excited to announce Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months has won a Reader’s Choice Award in 2010 Small Business Book Awards by Smallbiztrends.com. If you still haven’t grabbed a copy click to order an autographed edition.

I am writing a new book in 2011 which focuses on the “cardinal sins” of small business and how to avoid them. Look for sneak peeks on this blog.

More Resources from Author Melinda Emerson

Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months now has a companion workbook. Click to order the Are You Ready to Become Your Own Boss Workbook

Are you unsure of what type of business you want to start? Try Smallbizady’s Life Planning Journal. This download is 76-page dynamic PDF that allows you to type right into the document, then save and print it for your records. This comprehensive journal will help you get clear about what you want out of life. Whether you’re getting started or ready to reinvent, this life planning journal could be just what you need. Click now to order the life planning journal.

Starting Jan 20th, Become Your Own Boss 8-week Mastermind Group returns. It you would like Smallbizlady to help you start or reinvent your small business, this is your chance. Only 20 people will be able to sign up to be personally coached by me. Click for details.

Are You Ready to Become Your Own Boss, 9-week College Course will roll out in the summer. If you are small business trainer interested in adding a prerequisite course to your Continuing Education, Credit or Small Business Development Center training program, we’re excited to provide training, an instructor manual and student materials. Send an email to Melinda at melindaemerson dot com for more information.

Smallbizlady hits the road with a six city Build Your Own Business national tour in March. BYOB 2011 will come to Philadelphia, PA, DC, Atlanta, GA, Los Angeles, CA, Chicago, IL, and Houston, TX.

We’re also hosting a series of #Smallbizchat tweet-ups in cities across the country. I am looking forward to meeting more people and sharing tools to help start and grow successful small businesses. Look for me to do more TV appearances this coming year.

Succeedasyourownboss.com will add new features

Succeedasyourownboss.com is going 5 days a week in 2011. We’re featuring a new video segment called ASKSmallBizLady, answering your small business questions.

We’ll also feature 2-3 guest bloggers per week with how-to topics like small business technology, young entrepreneurs, productivity, small business finance, your faith and your business.

As always, I am your resource for small business. Connect with me on

Happy Holidays everyone.

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SmallBizLady’s Business Checklist: 10 Important Tasks To Do Before 2011

By Melinda Emerson on December 6, 2010 in 10 Things Lists, Business Inspiration, My Recommendations, Your Small Business

At this time of year, we all have a lot of pressures. We have our families, the holidays, parties, shopping, and our travel plans. Then there’s how we make our living. We are small business owners, we do not get lots of time off. It is important for us to stay organized to manage all that we juggle.

In order to get things started off right in the New Year; it’s time to make sure you’ve got everything squared away. I hate to do it, but I need to add a few more things to the to do list. Here are 10 Important Tasks To Do Before 2011:

1. Update Your Business Plan: It much easier to go some place when you know where you are going. Take the time to finish, update or write a business plan so that you can start out the new-year not wondering what’s going to happen – you’ll be able to make it happen!

2. Create 2011 Folders: Do this for all your key files in your computer that you use on a regular basis ex: contracts 2011, schedules 2011, meeting notes 2011, etc.

3. Unsubscribe Yourself: If you haven’t opened an e-newsletter in the last 60 days, you no longer need to get the information in your inbox. Free yourself.

4. Export Your 2010 Contacts: Make sure you have three ways to contact everyone. Export your contacts into email, LinkedIn, Facebook and your CRM system.

5. Develop an Editorial Calendar: If you use an e-newsletter or blog, lay out a monthly content plan for yourself for 2011. If you can, write all your e-newsletters now for the year, so you won’t be slammed once the New Year starts rolling.

6. Give Your Blog a Facelift: Think about a new feature you can add to your blog next year. Even adding a new header graphic can make a big difference to your blog. People like to see things evolve and change over time. Here’s a link to a great interview with @cathywebsavvypr on how to reinvent your small business blog. http://bit.ly/haBhYZH

7. Empty Your Email Inbox: Start the year fresh with no old emails. It will be like going away on vacation and coming home to a clean house. Ahhh… priceless. And if you subscribe to anything you haven’t read yet, file it or delete, delete, delete.

8. Collect W-4 Forms and W-9 Forms: Make sure you get up-to-date W-9 forms and/or W-4 on all freelance and full-time employees so that you can mail the W-2 and 1099 forms by Jan 31, 2011 to all workers paid over $600 this calendar year. People need those to get their personal income taxes done.

9. Develop a target customer list: Every year I make a list of the top conferences where I want to speak, and corporate clients I want to have. Monthly, I check my list against my sales activities. Challenge yourself by putting some big fish on the list. It’s a great way to keep your sales processes going.

10. Get yourself a new personal theme song: It’s important to have way to keep motivated as an entrepreneur. Music is always a good option. Pick a theme song that makes you feel good whenever you hear it. Make the song’s video one of your favorites on YouTube. Make sure you have a copy on your MP3 Player, and have a version for the car too. Just have it handy so you can rock your theme music whenever you need to remind yourself why you started your business.

Do you have any other tips to add to the 2011 small business to do list?

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. She has been featured on NBC Nightly News, in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and Black Enterprise Magazine. Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)

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Confessions of a Small Business Coach

By Melinda Emerson on November 29, 2010 in Become Your Own Boss Tips, How to Start, Starting A Small Business, Your Small Business

As a business consultant, I believe our biggest concern is to get our clients to understand that the planning before starting the business is more important than how they actually run the businesses. Everyone has good ideas, but the business of running a business is what gets most entrepreneurs in trouble. Making the leap from doing three jobs in corporate America, to doing 10 or so jobs as a small business owner, is overwhelming for even the most organized project manager. So what should we do to help small business owners?

I believe that our role is to make sure that would-be entrepreneurs think through what it’s going to be like to run their business every day. Too often, they understand running a business in theory, but we need to help them to visualize and chart out a typical 14 hour day—because that’s often where there is a disconnect. We must also help them understand where the money is actually coming from to start their business. I’m often asked about the likelihood of getting a grant to start a small business. It is frightening that people really believe someone will give them money (that they do not need to pay back) to become a millionaire. Not to mention that they haven’t accounted for needing funds to live – along with money to launch the business.

Then, they want to sell to anyone and everyone or tell you about the five verticals they’re going to target for business. Sometimes, I want to give a homework assignment to write 300 times single spaced, “Niche to get rich!” I want them all to be killer sales people, even though most of them do not want to sell — or think they can. If I could only get them to see that selling is just networking; if you can make friends, you can sell. But I also want them to understand that they are selling themselves as much as their product or service. Then the most important thing I try to share with them is to always focus on their profit margin. Revenues are great, but how much do you get to keep after expenses, overhead, general and administrative costs? I get concerned about how many expensive hobbies pretend to be small businesses. I also want business owners to understand when their businesses are not making money and know why or in advance that it was part of a plan.

After more than a decade in business, I wrote the book Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months, to lay out the Emerson Planning System to help entrepreneurs make a successful transition from having a job to starting a business. It’s a logical system to help startup business owners see planning as building blocks necessary for success in business.

Step 1: The Life Plan—Entrepreneurs need to know what they want out of life and build a business around that. They should make sure the business concept is a good business for them and their families.

Step 2: The Financial Plan—It’s all about the money. They must make sure their credit is stellar and that they have three pots of money: 1) emergency savings; 2) one to two years of household budget; 3) one year operating expenses to launch the business.

Step 3: The Business Concept—Entrepreneurs need to get clear about their business concept and evaluate what skills they have and need to run that kind of business.

Step 4: The Marketing Plan—They must validate the market opportunity and know who is buying and why that customer will buy from them—before going any further with their planning.

Step 5: The Business Plan—Good businesses are run with a business plan that has a budget and realistic sales projections. In the early years of a business, the plan should be updated every 2-3 months to make sure the business is on the right track.

Step 6: Start The Business While Still Working – Entrepreneurs should work two jobs as long as they can to continue to save money. Once the paycheck is gone, that is it!

My mission is to end small business failure. I just want to save would-be entrepreneurs heartache and financial ruin. With a proper plan that they actually use to run their business, there is no doubt their odds of success are greatly increased for small business owners.

Do you have another tip for a start-up business owner?

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. She has been featured on NBC Nightly News, the Tavis Smiley Radio Show, in the Wall Street Journal and Black Enterprise Magazine. She hosts #SmallBizChat weekly on Twitter for emerging entrepreneurs and publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)

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Now Read This: Raising Eyebrows by Dal LaMagna

By Melinda Emerson on November 24, 2010 in Business Inspiration, How to Start, Q & A Interview, Your Small Business

It is Thanksgiving week, which is my favorite holiday of the year. Every Wednesday as @Smallbizlady I host #Smallbizchat on Twitter from 8-9pm. In honor of the holiday, I’m off this week, but I wanted to share some information about a great new book that just crossed my desk Raising Eyebrows: A Failed Entrepreneur Finally Gets It Right by Dal LaMagna (John Wiley & Sons, www.RaisingEyebrows.com). I thought it would bring a lot of value to you as small business owners to share this great interview. I am thankful to Dal, for sharing his successes and failures to help the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Dal LaMagna, author of the new book Raising Eyebrows: A Failed Entrepreneur Finally Gets It Right started his global beauty tools company, Tweezerman, with $500 in cash—and walked away with millions years later when he sold the company. In addition to being a supremely fun and entertaining read, the book offers essential advice and insights to entrepreneurs on financing a business idea, finding trustworthy partners, hiring and retaining talent, avoiding costly start-up mistakes, and building a socially responsible business that benefits everyone. Dal is also a major funder and active trustee of the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, which awards MBAs in sustainable business and a partner in HuffingtonPost.com as well as a popular blogger at the site.

Smallbizlady: Why, in the middle of the Great Recession, do you say there’s never been a better time for people with good ideas to get entrepreneurial?

Dal LaMagna: The American people are feeling it is time to take back our economy from the large corporations—particularly those who: (1) operate out of a mailbox in the Cayman Islands so they can avoid paying US taxes; (2) vacuum money out of their community; or (3) have CEOs who earn 400 times the average worker in the company. Americans now prefer to do business with their neighbors, and in some cases will pay a premium to do it. This is a great time to start a business selling a product or service in your community.

Smallbizlady: before you became a successful businessman, you claim you were a “serial failure.” Can you explain what you mean by that?

Dal LaMagna: Despite my experience and high-class education—I earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School—I could not seem to make any of my start-up businesses work. My friend Larry Jackson observed that I must have some kind of tragic flaw in my business disposition. I could argue that I was always underfinanced or a victim of bad luck. For example, a snowstorm dumped two feet of snow on Taunton, Massachusetts, the night I ran my dance called Christmas College Capers; it rained four weekends in a row the first month I launched my business of converting drive-in movie theatres into weekend drive-in discotheques the summer of 1969. Yet no sooner would it be obvious that my current venture wasn’t going to pan out than I’d get another “great” idea for a business venture.

Smallbizlady: What are some of the valuable lessons you learned from failing?

Dal LaMagna: I learned to be patient, and not overreach. I learned to do projects I could do with the money I had or could easily get. I was always a very organized person but didn’t focus. I learned to not get distracted by the numerous ideas I had to start other business. Most importantly and the reason why I made a fortune out of Tweezerman rather than just a good living, I learned how to empower my employees.

Some of the important lessons I learned the hard way are:

If you are the first with a product, also be second. Ted Levitt, a famous marketing expert who was a professor at the Harvard Business School, said, “It’s best to be second first.” He explained that the first to introduce a new product or service spends all their time, money, and energy building a market for the new product. Another person comes along with fresh money and energy and an existing market to exploit. In my case with Tweezerman I was first AND second. I didn’t wait for someone else to come along and copy my product and sell it in another market. I did it myself. I made a different version of my very successful Slant Tweezers and sold it to the chain drug stores after the original Slant Tweezers was established in the professional beauty market.
Have multiple sources. When you have a successful product, make sure you have more than one supplier. Even when my partners Mario and Rao built a factory in India to make our tweezers, I had other factories continue to produce it. Anything can go wrong with a supplier—they can close their business, there could be a flood, workers could close the ports stopping shipments from flowing…all these things happened to me at one time or another. Because I had alternative suppliers for my successful tweezers, I always could get them.
Tell the truth and be humble. The best assets an entrepreneur can have is a reputation for honesty and humility. The reasons why should be obvious. Everyone I dealt with knew where I stood and why. I never lorded over anyone—especially vendors or my employees.
Bail when necessary. Some new ventures can’t be saved. It’s essential to understand when that moment has arrived—before you get so far into debt that you can’t recover. Failure, as my mother always told me, is just a perception. Learn from your mistakes and move on.

Smallbizlady: How do you suggest someone go about deciding on the right business to go into?

Dal LaMagna: Tailor it to you. Make sure you want that life. I took over a restaurant and the more successful it became, the harder I had to work. I realized the life of a restaurateur is not for me. Are you passionate about antiquing? Fishing? Cars? Cooking? That’s a start. Now, think about what pursuing this passion might mean for your lifestyle. Think how you want to spend your day; where you want to live; whether you want to work with people or alone; in the morning or at night; on the phone or in the field, and so on. Going through this exercise helps you eliminate any aspect of your business that doesn’t create your preferred lifestyle and that could work against you.

Smallbizlady: You say it’s a myth that you need large loans or angel investors to get a business going. In fact, you recommend against these. Why?

Dal LaMagna: I prefer to get right into the task at hand and not have to go around begging people to invest in my product or idea because I don’t have the funds to do it myself. Find something to do with the resources you have or can easily get. The less money you have to start with, the less likely you are to make common new-business mistakes, or as my mother use to say, “pissing your money away because you have it.” You won’t buy things you don’t need or pay full price for them. Or set up infrastructure than can wait until the business starts to grow.

I spent 8 years trying to raise a million dollars to make the movie Keepers of the Night. After 8 years I had nothing. I started Tweezerman, the global beauty tools company, with $500 in cash. Eight years later I had a company supporting a nice lifestyle grossing 5 million dollars.

Smallbizlady: What financial advice would you give to people starting a business?

Dal LaMagna: Be frugal. Don’t spend money unless you absolutely have to. Don’t invest in anything you don’t need. If this means baking cupcakes in the local church basement and delivering your signature pastries by bicycle to local stores—two dozen at a time—do it. Then take the money you make and put it right back into the business. When you need money, borrow it. You don’t want to sell stock at first because you will be giving away too much for an idea you know will work but your investors doubt. I used credit cards with Tweezerman, accumulating 45 of them and $180,000 of credit card debt before I finally convinced the bank to lend me money to pay them off. I didn’t start selling stock in the company until people saw how good my product was and how successful we were with the business.

Smallbizlady: When setting up a business, what are some ways to cut expenses?

Dal LaMagna: I am a big believer in finding free stuff. Many items needed to start and run your small business are available for free or next to nothing. Be creative. Use freecycle.com; ask friends if they have an old computer or printer; or visit a thrift shop for office furniture or office supplies. A hair accessories crafter I know gets all her leather for free from a backpack manufacturer that throws their leather scraps away. Don’t hire people until you a forced to. The first person you hire is the most difficult—remember, you need to keep him or her busy all week.

Smallbizlady: Once the business is up and running, what other financial tips do you have?

Dal LaMagna: Here are a few:

Spend only 90 percent of what you earn, not 110%.
Price wisely, so that if you have a product to sell, you will be able to charge the end user quadruple the amount it costs you to make it.
Keep track of and write down every single dollar of your expenses.
Produce a monthly profit and loss statement. Buy and learn how to use QuickBooks and this will be as easy as selecting a report.
Implement a universal pricing policy upfront to avoid problems when you start expanding into chains and different user markets.

Smallbizlady: How about some “don’ts”?

Dal LaMagna: Here’s my cautionary advice for small business people:

Don’t wait to close a deal. When you arrive at an agreement, close the deal as quickly as possible.
Don’t overdesign your product. If you do, you’ll spend unnecessary amounts of money that could be used in more important areas.
Don’t spend money unless you absolutely have to.
Don’t hire people whom you don’t have a good “gut” feeling about.
Don’t lie, no matter how bad things could be by telling the truth.

Smallbizlady: What are your policies for working with other people in business?

Dal LaMagna: Here is what I would advise:

If you want a partner get two. Three people will always be able to get decisions made.
Make your business work for everyone—your shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers, and the community in which you operate.
Be 100% transparent with your workers about all company expenditures.
Involve your employees in success—share in the profit, and make them part owners.
Don’t blame others when things go wrong; seek solutions instead.
Share company problems with employees—and solicit their help.

Smallbizlady: If you had to sum up your advice to prospective entrepreneurs, what would you recommend?

Dal LaMagna: Read my book, Raising Eyebrows: A Failed Entrepreneur Finally Gets It Right. I had made every mistake possible in business and the book covers them. Keep it simple. When I first started Tweezerman, I did nothing but focus on tweezers and selling them to cosmetic counters, one store at a time. Along the way, I got an offer to branch out and sell industrial tweezers to electronics manufacturers. Instead, I kept the focus on what I was already doing—and doing very well. If you can do one thing well, don’t dilute your efforts until you have been turning a large profit over a consistent stretch of time.

Smallbizlady: Is it true you were once a U.S. Presidential candidate?

Dal LaMagna: I ran for the US Congress twice on Long Island, once in 1996 and again in 2000. From 2001 to 2008 I worked as a citizen diplomat trying to end the violence in Iraq. Frustrated by my inability to get the truth about the Iraq War to the American people through our members of Congress, I decided to take my message directly to the American people by running for President. I spent the summer of 2007 in the Presidential primary in New Hampshire.

If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9pm ET follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter.

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com

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Ready To Become Your Own Boss in 2011? (Part 2)

By Melinda Emerson on November 22, 2010 in Become Your Own Boss Tips, How to Start, Starting A Small Business

In Part 1 of this article, I ask the question: Have you had it with the daily grind? When I realized being a small business owner would be my next career, I set out on a path to ditch the job that gave me headaches on the way to work every day. I knew I was capable of doing so something more that would allow me to make a difference and where I would also make money. So, I used my spare time to start planning to become my own boss.

The skills needed to be successful in the midst of the new economy puts tremendous pressure on today’s entrepreneurs. But now is still a great time to start a small business. Your skills, network, discipline, niche focus, optimism and ability to be coachable will determine whether your new business is a success or failure. I have developed the Emerson Planning System with 6 things to consider when you are ready to become your own boss. Parts 1-3 were discussed in Part 1 of this article, here are parts 4 through 6 of the Emerson Planning System:

4. Are You Ready to Work From Home? To keep your startup expenses low you should consider working from home. Your spare bedroom, basement or kitchen table will do just fine as an office until you can afford professional office space. One of the key considerations in working from home is – can you handle it? It takes real discipline to work from home. Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post: Are You Fit to Work From Home? http://smallbiztrends.com/2010/03/are-you-fit-to-work-from-home.html It has a few tips for evaluating whether working from home could be for you.

5. Who’s Buying and Why? The most important questions about your business are: Who are your customers, and why will they buy from you? The new economy is all about niche marketing. You must niche to get rich. I suggest you develop a marketing plan before the business plan to make sure there is a viable market for your product or service. If you can’t answer these questions then you need to go back to the drawing board and come up with another business idea.

6. Your Business Plan is Your Roadmap for Success You must plan for success; it will not just happen to you. You need to write a business plan to run your business. It is very helpful to think through how you are going to get sales, what happens when a sale is made and how many sales you will generate each quarter and year. Don’t be one of those business owners who spends more time working on your logo than you spend working on your business plan. I suggest starting out with business plan software. Then, you should enroll in a business plan class at a SBDC Small Business Development Center or community college to finish the business plan. Typically, you need to interact with a human so you can ask questions to finish your business plan. You can also check out http://www.bplans.com for hundreds of sample business plans that you can review for free. You should use your business plan to run your business, in fact it should be reviewed and updated every 2-3 months to make sure your business is on the right track.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine recently named her one of the Top 20 women for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)