Maura Raffensperger, Author at Your Chief Simplicity Officer

Do You Have Entrepreneurial Grit?

What would you do if you needed several new clients right now? That’s the dilemma a business owner I know faced last week. Two of her best long-term clients unexpectedly needed to cut back, and she was suddenly facing a cash-flow crisis. Luckily, she’s resourceful … and her solution is something you can replicate.

It can be tough being an entrepreneur/small business owner/solopreneur. But what sets us apart is our entrepreneurial grit. That’s why the solopreneur mentioned above set a goal of calling everyone she has exchanged business cards with in the last 3 months. She’s not begging them for business, but she is listening when the person she calls tells her what they do, making connections when she can, and explaining what she does. And, very importantly, asking if they know someone she should contact who could use her services.

Picking up the phone and asking for business does not come easily to her. And she sometimes forgets that crucial last step: asking for business or a referral. But I’m betting she finds the new clients she needs. Last night, I stumbled on a Forbes article that reinforces the point:

…salespeople who make more calls will almost always outperform salespeople who make fewer calls. That’s no surprise, but here’s the key point: This doesn’t happen just because the act of making more calls mathematically raises the chances of success. There’s much more to it. By facing up to the task of making a call, frequent callers put themselves on a faster learning curve. They discover more rapidly what works and what doesn’t. They’re quicker to learn techniques that overcome rejection. Thus, their success yield will improve–i.e., double the calls, triple the sales. [Smarts in Business Is Not About IQ]

The concluding sentence of the article says it all:

In the real world it’s grit that makes us smart.

Let’s end with an entrepreneurial call to action:

Create a plan for the next time you need new clients right now.

Filed Under: business management, entrepreneurial mindset, Getting Stuff Done

Giveaway Tools to Grow Your Business

By Maura Raffensperger 2 Comments

Rafflecopter has crunched the data from 50,000,000 giveaway entires to answer the question “When do giveaways receive the most entries?” If you have considered a raffle giveaway as a way to promote your business, their infographic below is a great resource.

One of my goals this year is to increase the size of my mailing list. I’m experimenting with different ways to do this. Running an online raffle is what I’ll be trying this month. A search for giveaway tools gave me a few options; Rafflecopter is the giveaway tool I chose.

It’s important to choose a giveaway that will appeal to your target market, yet not be so generally appealing that people enter the raffle (and your mailing list) with no interest in your product or service. If you have written a book, offering a copy of it as your raffle prize is ideal , because the people who enter the raffle are obviously interested in your subject.

One of the features I like most about Rafflecopter is that you can have multiple ways for someone to enter, and you can assign points for each entry. My plan is to give points for blog comments and liking my Facebook page, for instance. But what I really want to test is the ‘viral sharing’ feature, which allows me to offer points if someone shares the raffle link on their social media profiles. This is where I see a potential for list growth.

The Rafflecopter blog suggests that running a giveaway for a month seems to work best. I’ll write a review of how well Rafflecopter worked as a giveaway tool when the month is up.

Courtesy of: Rafflecopter

Filed Under: small business marketing Tagged With: Rafflecopter

Just Won $7000 on a Scratchy

By Maura Raffensperger 3 Comments

‘Just won $7000 on a scratchy’ got 38 likes and 27 comments when I posted it on Facebook. When my father died, I got 13 comments.

It was an unexpected lesson in marketing.

It started when a Facebook friend posted she was pregnant. I commented. Here’s the response I got:

I’m really not pregnant… You should not have liked or commented! Now you have to pick one of the 14 below and post to your status. This is the 2014 breast cancer awareness game. Don’t be a spoil sport; choose your poison, and change your status. Post with no explanations. Sorry, I fell for it too!

#13 on the list was ‘Just won $7000 on a scratchy’. It seemed the least obnoxious of the choices.

In retrospect, I should have ignored the instructions. I manage to do this with internet chain letters. I didn’t stop to think, as another blogger did, how does this ‘game’ actually help breast cancer awareness? But I like and respect this Facebook friend, and support breast cancer awareness. My friend would see my post, know I had followed through, and that would be the end of it; I would not ask commenters to post on their profiles. And, after all, how many people would even see it? More than three comments on a post is a rare event for me.

The Marketing Lesson

Money sells. A title doesn’t even have to promise the reader money, the mere mention of money piques interest.

It was gratifying how many of the commenters were genuinely happy for my good fortune. But good news by itself does not generate this many comments; another post mentioning that I was honored to receive the Volunteer of the Year Award from Women’s Economic Ventures did not get nearly as many likes and comments.

The sheer number of responses to the simple phrase ‘Just won $7000 on a scratchy’ proves that mentioning money is much more compelling than mentioning good news.

How can you use a reference to money in your marketing messages? Try it. Even better, do a split test, and see which message gets a better response.

Filed Under: small business marketing Tagged With: Just won $7000 on a scratchy

Make a Difference

By Maura Raffensperger 2 Comments

If you had to pick one quote that best reflected who you are, or what you represent, what would it be?

This was my challenge last week. I’ve been honored with an award*, and was asked to provide a bio and short quote for a poster the organization is preparing for the ceremony.

I recommend that everyone have a pre-written bio [see why in my blog post Four Ways to Use Your Qualifying Conversation], but it never occurred to me to have a quote ready.

It’s a handy exercise. In the end it came down to four choices.

This one gives me great solace and hope:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
-Margaret Mead

This is the one that tells you the most about me:

The mountains are calling and I must go.
-John Muir

I like this one for its pragmatism:

You can have it all, just not all at the same time.
―Betty Friedan

Because it needed to be short, and I wanted something more hopeful than the previous quote, this is the one I chose:

There is more to life than increasing its speed.
-Mahatma Gandhi

I like it because it helps reinforce my message that one of the benefits of managing your time is having time for yourself, your family, friends, and hobbies.

Do you have a favorite quote? Share it below in a comment. What do you think it says about you?

*I am honored to receive the 2014 Ventura County Volunteer of the Year Award from Women’s Economic Ventures [WEV] . WEV helps Santa Barbara and Ventura County residents start and grow small businesses through training, loans and consulting. It has been a joy to provide guest lectures on Time Management to WEV’s Self-Employment Training classes beginning in 2000, and consulting to their ‘Thrive in 5’ clients.

Filed Under: KEEP, time management Tagged With: Ventura County Volunteer of the Year Award, WEV, Women's Economic Ventures

Simple Time Management Ideas from Great Teachers

By Maura Raffensperger 3 Comments

It’s common for clients to tell me “It doesn’t take long” when we are discussing time management. If you ever wonder how much difference streamlining a few seconds from a process can make, here’s an example from the book Teach Like a Champion:

I often start my workshops with a great video of a teacher named Doug McCurry, teaching his students to pass out papers. And he has them pass them back and forth, and when they pass them out in 10 seconds, he says: Pretty good – back in in eight. And one of the interesting things about this is the kids are so happy. They’re really enjoying this. They love the challenge.

But people often respond to that video negatively at first, and they say, well, shouldn’t he why is he doing that in the classroom? Shouldn’t he be teaching the causes of the Civil War or adding fractions with unlike denominators?

And then you do the math on it. I ask them: How long does it take, in a typical classroom, for a group of kids to pass out, pass in or receive papers passed out from a teacher? And ordinarily, a group of teachers will say a minute, a minute and a half. Sometimes the numbers are higher.

So if Doug can do that in 20 seconds or 30 seconds and save a minute every time, and you pass out and collect papers 10 times a day in a typical student’s life, for 190 school days, 1,900 minutes, you know, divided by, let’s say, a seven-hour school day, it’s something like four-and-a-half days of additional instruction with which Doug can use to address the causes of a Civil War or adding fractions with unlike denominators.

Read the full transcript (or listen to a recording) of the interview with the author, Doug Lemov.

Filed Under: System Development, time management

Small Business Hiring Tips: Employee, Contractor, or VA?

By Maura Raffensperger 4 Comments

When you start to think about hiring help for your small business, you may ask ‘What is the difference between an employee, independent contractor and a virtual assistant (VA)?’. There are websites that give you a legal and IRS definition, but I want to give you a different perspective: What would help you the most?

First, let’s define the terms.

An employee takes direction from you. You tell them what hours to work , and may even train them. You pay them either hourly or a salary, and are also responsible for payroll taxes and worker’s compensation insurance. If you require them to work from your office, they are most likely an employee.

An independent contractor does work you request, but set their own hours, and use their own tools. You can give them a deadline and work specs, but they decide how to get the work done. They set their own rates and bill you.

A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an independent contractor who does their work for you remotely. I differentiate VA’s because I think of independent contractors as often being hired per project, whereas a VA is usually hired to work on an ongoing basis, typically in increments of 5 hours a month.

Many solopreneurs start by hiring independent contractors on a project basis, like an accountant or graphic designer. As the business owner’s workload grows, they often hire a VA to take care of repetitive tasks.

Hiring a VA can be more cost-effective than hiring an employee. I remember considering hiring a part-time employee for office help, then finding out that, even though I only wanted someone 2-4 hours/week, the worker’s comp insurance had a hefty minimum and it was non-refundable; even if my one employee quit, I had to pay a year’s premium. It would have been fine if I needed someone for 20 hours a week or more, and knew I would replace that person if they left, but I was ‘testing the waters’, so a VA was a much better choice for me.

The downside is that I had to let go of some tasks I would like done by someone else. I would love for someone else to enter and update my contacts. Easy to direct an onsite employee to do this, but not worth the time it would take for me to scan cards or put them in an envelope and mail them to a VA, with directions. At that point, it is the same effort as me just doing it myself. Luckily social media & automation tools (see my post Keep Your Contacts Up-to-Date Without Ever Entering a Business Card Again) make keeping track of contacts much easier now. And sharing information and files already on your computer is a breeze.

What frustrations have you faced in outsourcing work? I’m working on an e-book to help solopreneurs hire smart, and would love your comments.

Filed Under: business management, Delegation, Getting Stuff Done, time management, working with a virtual assistant Tagged With: small business hiring tips

E Myth Book Review [Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work]

By Maura Raffensperger 4 Comments

Here’s the premise: most entrepreneurs work more and more as their business grows, and end up burnt out and out of love with their business. If you can relate (or want to make sure that doesn’t happen to you), this is the book for you.

The E-Myth Revisited is my favorite business book, and the one I recommend over and over. The subtitle promises “Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It”, and the book delivers answers.

Gerber starts by recognizing the three roles every entrepreneur plays:

The technician, who provides the product or service
The manager, who supplies the order and systems (like scheduling and invoicing)
The entrepreneur, who supplies the vision for the company

You may recognize the problem most entrepreneurs face: staying stuck in the technician role, where you end up working to burnout.

Gerber’s solution: treat your business like a franchise – even if you have no plans to eventually sell or franchise your business. What this does is force you to think about creating a ‘turn-key’ business, i.e. systemizing your business so anyone can follow your processes. That allows you to hire other people to do at least some of your work, freeing you to work in the higher level entrepreneur role your company needs.

Unlike Tim Ferriss in The 4-hour Workweek, Gerber does not give his readers an unrealistic promise that they can do this in 4 hours a week. Gerber also expects that you love what you do (or you did before you hit burnout, and you can again). Gerber does promise, if you follow his advice, that you can reduce the hours you work in your business; avoid burnout; spend less time in the technician and manager roles, and more in the Entrepreneur role. (Or, as I would put it, be the CEO, rather than the secretary, of your business.)

This book gives you a sound foundation to begin this process.

What may be the best part for a busy entrepreneur is that you can read The E-Myth Revisited in a night. Implementation will take longer, of course. If breaking down your processes to figure out what can be systemized does not come naturally to you, it does to me. If you need more help, call me to discuss how I can help support you with telephone or Skype coaching.

Filed Under: business management, Delegation, System Development, time management Tagged With: The E Myth Revisited, The E-Myth

Think and Grow Rich Book Review

By Maura Raffensperger 6 Comments

Think and Grow Rich is one of those books you read because everyone says you should. It has been enormously influential. Originally published in 1937, it has never been out of print. In 2007, BusinessWeek Magazine’s Best-Seller List ranked it the sixth best-selling paperback business book 70 years after it was published.

What I find most interesting about the book are the chapters dealing with affirmations (his term is autosuggestion), the importance of planning & persistence, and the 28 question personal inventory in Chapter 7. I also appreciated that women were not ignored, which I was not expecting in a book written in 1937.

The 13 “steps” listed in the book are: 1. Desire 2. Faith 3. Autosuggestion 4. Specialized Knowledge 5. Imagination 6. Organized Planning 7. Decision 8. Persistence 9. Power of the Master Mind 10. The Mystery of Sex Transmutation 11. The Subconscious Mind 12. The Brain 13. The Sixth Sense.

Notice that step 9 is the Power of the Master Mind. Napoleon Hill is often credited with popularizing the concept of being part of a master mind group to foster success.

Do I recommend reading this book? Not necessarily. If you are motivated by personal success books, then you will probably enjoy it. If you have heard people you admire rave about the difference it made in their lives, it is worth at least a quick scan. If you need a boost in confidence, the affirmations could be useful.

Unlike many recent popular business books, it is not a quick read, so if you are not up for reading the entire book, I think the most useful chapters are 1-4; 6-9, and 15.

If you have read the book, I would love to read your comments! Would you recommend this book to others? Has it been useful to you? Do you agree or disagree with my review?

Want to win this book? Enter the free raffle!

Filed Under: Getting Stuff Done Tagged With: mastermind groups, Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

The 4-Hour Workweek Book Review

By Maura Raffensperger 6 Comments

Who isn’t enticed with the promise of the 4-hour workweek? The book has sold more than 1,350,000 copies worldwide [Wikipedia], and has remained on the Amazon Best Seller’s list from the year it was first published. Just for the marketing savvy of the title alone, this book deserves a read.*

And the book does have good points entrepreneurs can implement about outsourcing and automating, making it worth a read. The problem comes from Ferriss’s definition of ‘work’. It’s obvious from any article written about him that he works almost non-stop. As this The New York Times article noted, Ferriss spends far more than 4 hours per week in blogging, speaking and self-promotion, which Ferriss describes as “evangelizing.”

‘Work’, to Ferriss, is doing something you don’t like to do, solely for the purpose of making money. While it is perfectly reasonable that you would want to minimize the time you spend on disagreeable tasks (and certainly something I train my clients to do), the entrepreneurs I work with like their business, in much the same way Ferriss must like the blogging, speaking and self-promotion he refuses to call ‘work’.

And those regular “mini retirements,” ideally a month off for every two months of work, that Ferriss touts in The 4-Hour Workweek are alluring. But evidently more of a goal than a reality; a 2013 Inc. article reports that Ferriss hadn’t had ‘a proper mini retirement in more than a year now.’ [Inc. April 2013]

What you can take away from The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich is the basic idea of creating some form of passive income to serve as a base for the things you enjoy doing in your business and life, and outsourcing the things you don’t like to do.

On a personal note: His policy on outsourcing felt a bit ‘icky’ to me. Not because there is anything wrong with outsourcing to someone in another country, but because his motivation seemed to be to take advantage of their financial insecurity and pay them a pittance. Reminded me of a WalMart mentality – and that’s not how I want to run my business. I have outsourced work occasionally (through ODesk, now called Upwork) to other countries, but I paid what I felt was a competitive rate. The majority of my outsourced work now is to a Virtual Assistant in the United States.

Bottom line: Read The 4-Hour Workweek, use it as an inspiration for what you can outsource, and consider what you can do to create passive income as an income base.

* Ferriss used Facebook polls to test title ideas

Filed Under: business management, Delegation, Getting Stuff Done, personal organization, System Development, time management, working with a virtual assistant Tagged With: the 4 hour work week, The 4-hour workweek

Using Google Alerts to Make Prospects Love You

By Maura Raffensperger Leave a Comment

My MileIQ review has been by far the most popular post on my blog this month – people really want what this app promises to do. And evidently the people at MileIQ are using Google alerts, because I got a very nice email from them less than 12 hours after I posted my [unsolicited] blog review of their app. What a great way to use automation (a google alert set to your company or product name) to provide a ‘high touch’ customer experience.

‘High touch’ because the email I received was obviously personalized. It didn’t just use my name, it also referenced my blog, the review I had written, and even included a link to a help article on a problem I had mentioned. Here’s the email:

Hi Maura,
Thank you very much for writing a review of MileIQ. Your blog seems like it would have a perfect audience for our service.
We noticed that you might have had some trouble with a few of your drives and wanted to share this support article with you that will ensure all your drive data is captured.
If you’re not getting drives…
http://support.mileiq.com/knowledgebase/articles/288109-if-you-re-not-getting-drives
The answer to your question about turning Wifi on is yes, it helps a lot. iOS relies on this to provide significantly better location information for the iPhone. This method is also much less battery intensive than asking the phone to use the GPS chip.
Of course if this doesn’t resolve the issue we’d be happy to help you troubleshoot further.
Regards,
Nat Robinson | MileIQ

Are you using Google alerts in your business? Please share what you are doing with Google alerts in the comment section, so we can all benefit from sharing best practices (or learning what did not work out so well). And, if you have yet to start using Google alerts, click the link in the first paragraph to learn how easy it is to set one up.

Filed Under: business management, small business marketing, System Development Tagged With: mileIQ review