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Synergy in Business – what it is and why you need it

SuperWAHM — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:54:07 +0000

Today’s post (Day 15) in the Blogging Workshop is about finding a blog buddy, and in that post I wrote about synergy in business. I liked the idea of Synergy so much that I’ve expanded it here for all SuperWAHM readers.

Firstly, what is Synergy in Business?

Synergy in business according to Wikipedia – Synergy, in general, may be defined as two or more agents working together to produce a result not obtainable by any of the agents independently.

When two people work together with the intention of helping each other then it’s not just 1 + 1 = 2. It becomes 1 + 1 = 5 (this is Mel’s Maths by the way; do not try this at school). Synergy is the combination of two or more minds that work together to be more creative, stronger, more motivated, more focussed, than each of those minds working individually in isolation.

There are a couple of ways that you can utilise the power of Synergy in business:

Blog Buddy

Remember in primary school, when the teacher would tell us all to find a buddy when the class was going somewhere? And you’d hold your buddy’s hand, so you both always had support, someone to help you and keep you going in the right direction? It’s the same here.

A Blog Buddy is someone you can talk to about your blog, bounce ideas off each other, promote each others blogs, discuss issues that you’re facing, all with someone who understands where you’re coming from.

Blogging Alliance

If you’re interested in taking the Blog Buddy relationship further, here’s an interesting article from Problogger on a Blogging Alliance. A group of entrepreneurs in complementary markets – not directly competing with each other – who formalised an agreement to support, assist and promote each other.

It’s not a publicised alliance, just a group who work together in the background, promoting each other and contributing to the success of the group as a whole.

Mastermind Group

A Mastermind Group is similar to an Alliance in that there’s a formal agreement, not necessarily written but a clear understanding that all members contribute. However Masterminds members are normally from very different fields, unlike an alliance.

For example, I’m a member of an online Mastermind Group. In that group we have a Realtor, Film Director, Music Teacher, Physiotherapist, Coach, Programmer and a Wed Designer.

The benefit of such a diverse group is that their thinking and perspectives are so different. When you’re in a Complementary Alliance you tend to have the same experiences and knowledge. With the Mastermind group every member has a radically different approach.

Informal Synergy in Business

And then there’s the Synergy in Business you get informally. From having a cup of coffee with a friend that turns into a brainstorming session. Asking questions on a forum. Meeting new people at networking events. IM’ing a friend and chatting about your top business ideas.

Today’s Question: How do you utilise Synergy in business? Rather than working in isolation, do you formal ways to harness synergy for your business? What about informal methods? How do these work for you?

Two Fantastic Tools

SuperWAHM — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:21:28 +0000

Well, it’s been school holidays here. We spent a week at the in-laws down in Victoria and the rest of the holidays staying at home. The kidlet and I spent a lot of our time doing ‘girl stuff’, cooking, sewing and really enjoying each others company.

In the middle of our visit to the in-laws I spoke at the Business Mums Network Pampering day. It was a really great day and kudos to Melissa for organising it. The talks will be available soon in downloadable and/or CD format, along with the notes.

Recently I discovered two fantastic tools that I’m loving using.

Timedriver

For quite a while now I’ve been looking for an online appointment maker that could work with different time zones and I finally found Timedriver – it does everything I wanted and at a lower price than I expected. How awesome is that?

The way it works is this: I enter in days and times that I’m available to take appointments, in my own local time. Each ‘appointment book’ is for a different type of appointment – I currently have set up appointment books for 45 minute coaching sessions, 15 minute Laser coaching sessions and 15 minutes quick consult timings.

When a client needs to book an appointment with me I send them the link to the appropriate appointment book. When they open the link, Timedriver detects their default time zone from their computer and so they see the available appointments based on their own local time zone.

Timedriver sends both the client and myself an email when an appointment has been booked and also syncs with my Outlook calendar to book them in. You have no idea how excited I was to find Timedriver. And the best part is that after the free 90 day trial it costs less than US$30 per year!

Dropbox

Dropbox was shown to me by Sean of Psychotactics when I took on managing a project for him. It’s a way to share files with other people without having to email them.

You download the Dropbox application and install it on your desktop. Anything you want to share you save to a folder inside dropbox.

To share a folder with someone you got to the online application and send the person an email invitation to the folder. That person can only see folders that they’ve been invited to – they can’t see anything else in your dropbox.

The other person can then add files to the folder, change and save files, all from their desktop. The first two Gb are free. Great for storing small backups, sharing files, photo’s and audio/video, working with your VA etc.

Business Systems – How and Where to Start

SuperWAHM — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:31:34 +0000

Last week we looked at Why we Need Systems in our business, even in our micro business where there’s only one person doing everything. Today we’re going to look at How and Where to start building those systems.

It starts with you. You’re the boss. Your job is to plan for expansion, and this is the first step (after your business plan). McDonalds systems enable 16 year old kids to run a busy restaurant. Your systems will enable you to work more efficiently, to identify hiccups and roadblocks in your business and to get people to help you when you need it.

So where do you start?

The easiest way to start is to write down every hat you wear within your business – Receptionist, Bookkeeper, Manufacturer, Copywriter, Supplies, Order Fulfilment, etc.

Under each heading then write a list of the tasks that position is responsible for – yes, even when it’s just you doing it all. Note that here you’re writing each task, not each step of the task.

Eg: Receptionist – answers the telephone, makes bookings, filing, taking orders.

Once you have each task, draw a flowchart for that task detailing each step from start to finish. This is where some shortcuts come in – skip the basic tasks. When it’s just you, then you don’t need a manual to answer the phone.

You do need a written down system for anything that you can envision yourself delegating at any time in the future. Usually, this will include tasks such as packing and posting orders, bookkeeping and emails (we’ll cover emails in a future post).

Write down your systems in a way that is so simple and basic that you could pull a teenager in off the street and ask them to follow it. That’s a really good test of a system by the way, if you can hand it to a person who’s never done the task before and they can follow it then it works. If they get hung up on any part of it and begin asking questions then you need to add in more detail.

When you’re satisfied that it’s written in detail and is easily understandable save an electronic copy in a special folder labelled “Systems” on your computer and then print out a copy. File the hard copy somewhere easily accessible – you’ll be using it regularly.

Keep working through each task until you’ve done them all, or at least the one’s with more than five steps.

The hardest part here is the actual doing. Finding the time to work through a task and write down every step, everything you do in the process. One good way to do it is to have someone observing and writing down what you do. Swap with a friend, you observe her and she can observe you.

Business Systems – Bringing Order Out of Chaos

SuperWAHM — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:45:51 +0000

What are Systems and why do you need them?

A system is a written down process for a particular task within your business. When collected together, the systems form the Operations Manual for your business.

Now, I can hear you saying, “Why would I need one? I work for myself/at home/sole trader.” Why? Because having up to date and easy to follow Systems keep work flowing smoothly, prevents overwhelm because you know what you’re doing and where you’re up to. They allow you bring in staff members and train them, they add value to the business when/if you ever decide to sell it and they allow you to hand over tasks to other people – such as family members – so they can help you. Systems save you time and money.

You already have systems for most tasks within your business; you just haven’t vocalised or written them down. Often the systems don’t actually work that well, because they’ve evolved over time, rather than been designed for maximum efficiency and ease of use.

- When you answer the phone, do you have a particular way of answering and a set of words that you use to answer? That’s a system.

- Do you have a procedure for registering new clients and recording their information? That’s a system.

- Do you have a routine for packing orders, checking them and posting them out? That’s a system.

- Do you have a process for receiving, distributing and answering emails? That’s a system.

Heck, we have systems for our housework, for our kids, for gardening. We just don’t recognise them and label them as such.

How often have you looked at some work for a client and had to figure out where you were up to with it? What had already been done and what still needed to be done? What if you had a written down checklist that began with the new client and followed their work through to completion and was then filed? How much time would you save, how much more work could you take on? How much more profit could you make?

How often has someone offered to come in and help you with some aspect of your business when you were overbooked and stressed beyond belief, and you said no because it was easier to do it yourself than to teach them how to do it? What if you could hand them a folder, walk them through it once, show them where everything is that they need and then leave them to it?

Are you one of those business people who talks of getting a VA one day “but just has to catch up with my emails/bookkeeping/orders first”. Imagine how much easier it would be if you could email your VA a document that tells them exactly how you want the work handled, complete with examples and text templates.

When are you planning to bring order and structure to your business systems?

Coming up in Part 2 – How and Where to start building your business systems.

Time Can't Be Managed

SuperWAHM — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:43:33 +0000

Following on from Friday’s post on dealing with overwhelm, today we’re going to look at how you use your time. You see, Time cannot be managed, it can only be used.

Time is not alive, it does not act or react, feel emotions or breathe. Time simply is. It continues at the same rate for every person in the world, day after day. Although it can feel as though it does, time never speeds up or slows down. Time cannot be managed, it can only be used.

When we make the best use of our time, that’s when we say we are managing time well; however, the truth is that we’re actually managing ourselves.

So, you’re a mum. A wife. A business owner. You serve on committees, go to night school, worship at church, take time with friends, have hobbies and passions to follow, kids to look after, a house to keep presentable, friends and family to keep up with. How do you do everything and still run a business?

Remember the four D’s from last week? Do, Delay, Delegate or Drop? Before you can get to the 4D’s you need to take a good hard look at how much time you have.

I recently answered a question on a forum, where Christie, from Childhood 101, asked “I am just wondering how much time other blogging Mums put into managing their own blogs, reading and commenting on other blogs and social networking each day? I struggle to get maybe an hour during rest time and everything else is at night, so then poor DH misses out on us time and I have less time to read, knit, etc.”

Paraphrased, this was my answer:

“You need to look at how much time you have available and plan around that. All those activities I mentioned that I do {Facebook, Twitter, Forums, Blog commenting} are marketing or marketing related. You don’t have to do them all the time. While blogging is marketing, it’s generally not what gets you clients – believe it or not.

You’ll need to be very organised, and know exactly what you need to do. When your time is limited then business planning becomes even more important. Don’t waste any time on “Gee, I have 15 minutes, what should I do?” because you’ll do what’s fun and not what’s important.”

The first thing you need to look at is how much time you have available. Christie says she has around an hour during rest time. That’s only about five to seven hours a week, plus what she can find when her baby is in bed of an evening. My daughter is in school, so I have a lot more time available during the day, however because I’m at school two evenings a week I don’t get a lot of night time work done. Realistically, how much time do you have available on a regular basis?

Filling that time. When you’re starting out, a good rule of thumb, no matter how much time you have available, is to spend 80% of your time Marketing and 20% of your time on other work. Marketing is more important than blogging, than tweaking your website (unless that is the marketing), than anything else. Marketing will get you sales.

Plan your work so you’re working on the most important tasks first. I like to list my tasks under three headings;

i) Essential – these are the things that directly make me money. Marketing and product development mainly.

ii) Very Useful – tasks such as blogging. The things that help spread the word about your business, indirectly related to sales, readers and subscribers.

iii) Nice to Have – If I get time I’ll do with these tasks. Facebook comes under here (for me, because I don’t really use FB as a marketing tool right now). Checking the website for spelling errors. Looking for new forums to post on.

All your tasks should be planned out, so you know exactly what you need to be doing when. As I said to Christie on the forum, don’t waste your time wondering what to do. You should know what’s next. What is important today. What do I need to be working on now.

The other point I want to make here is tied in with prioritising and dropping tasks. Christie mentioned that she likes to read and knit in the evenings. The time is likely to come, as she transitions into becoming a work at home mom, that she’ll need to drop these. Her business will need to be a higher priority temporarily. There are always going to be times where your business requires every bit of time you can find and almost everything else has to take a backseat.

There’s nothing wrong with this on a temporary basis. (If it continues permanently then you need to look at what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. Contact me, I can help you!) However many business owners, particularly work at home moms, are unprepared for their business to take over their lives like this. It’s actually a fairly normal part of business, particularly in the early stages. The majority of work at home moms go through this. It can last for a week, or a month or two.

Be organised. Plan well in the beginning and you will get through it. Know what you need to do, know what your highest priority is. Use your time well.

Time Can’t Be Managed

SuperWAHM — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:43:33 +0000

Following on from Friday’s post on dealing with overwhelm, today we’re going to look at how you use your time. You see, Time cannot be managed, it can only be used.

When we make the best use of our time, that’s when we say we are managing time well; however, the truth is that we’re actually managing ourselves.

Remember the four D’s from last week? Do, Delay, Delegate or Drop? Before you can get to the 4D’s you need to take a good hard look at how much time you have.

Paraphrased, this was my answer:

Plan your work so you’re working on the most important tasks first. I like to list my tasks under three headings;

i) Essential – these are the things that directly make me money. Marketing and product development mainly.

ii) Very Useful – tasks such as blogging. The things that help spread the word about your business, indirectly related to sales, readers and subscribers.

Be organised. Plan well in the beginning and you will get through it. Know what you need to do, know what your highest priority is. Use your time well.

Getting Out from Overwhelm

SuperWAHM — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:42:59 +0000

The hardest part of dealing with overwhelm is realising we’re in it and being able to get out before everything collapses into total disaster around us. Often we know we’re feeling overwhelmed – and for most of us it’s something small that is the final straw – however we’re also overwhelmed with trying to work out how to get out of it. Which adds to the overwhelmed feeling, makes us feel worse, makes it harder to try and work out how to get out of it… and we can all see the downward spiral from there.

There’s two issues involved here. Either you have way too much to do, or you don’t have enough time. Normally it’s a mixture of both. You need to work out how much time you have available, and what needs doing the most in that time frame. Then you have to decide what is to be done, delayed, delegated or dropped. The four D’s.

Here’s what you need to do the next time you feel that familiar feeling creeping up:

(don’t skip any of these steps, even if you think they’re unimportant. They’re not. Every step here has been tried and tested and this is what the majority of people have found works best)

Stop what you’re doing, close your eyes and take a couple of deep breaths.

Go for a short walk, just five to ten minutes, to get a mental break and a little physical distance. Try to make it a brisk walk and get your blood moving and your heart beating a bit faster. (Truly, try it.)

Have a drink of water and then grab a pen and paper.

Write down everything you need to do. Forget about any order or logic, just get everything out of your head and onto paper. Name it and Tame it. Writing things down captures them and frees up space in your mind that can be used to work out how to do it all.

Is it a huge list of things that need to be done? Don’t panic. Take a few more deep breaths and go for another walk if you need to. It’s only a five to ten minute walk. Relax, if you’re still feeling overwhelmed then it’s likely you wouldn’t be using this time anyway. Take the time to calm yourself and get organised and you can use your time better.

Have a look at the list and work out what needs to be done first. “Everything” I hear you cry. Well, I have bad news for you. ‘Everything’ can’t be done at once. Not possible. Have another look. What needs to be done the most? What will have the biggest effect? What affects most people?

Take another four sheets of paper and title them respectively Do, Delay, Delegate, Drop. Then go through your list and put each item on your list on one of the sheets of paper. Resist the temptation to put everything on the Do and Delay lists. SOME THINGS ARE GOING TO HAVE TO BE DELEGATED OR DROPPED! You only have 24 hours in one day, something has to give and it’s better to be a few tasks rather than your sanity or your family.

With the delay list, put a rough time of when you expect to get to that task. And no, they can’t all be labelled ‘Tomorrow’. Be realistic. If you only have six working hours in a day then you can’t fill them with ten hours of work.

The second to last step is to begin working on your most important task on your Do list, and keep going until you have everything done. Hand over everything on your delegate list. Tear up and throw away your Drop list – you don’t need it because those tasks aren’t going to be done.

The very last step, once you’ve recovered sufficiently to have some form of balance back in your workload, is to look at WHY you became so overwhelmed. Are you taking on too much? Are you trying to do everything yourself? Is your middle name Superwoman? Was it a one-off because of outside influences? Is your business growing to the point you need to hire staff? Are your processes working or do they need to be looked at and changed? Do you need to automate some processes for your business?

Whatever the reason is, you need to work out how to prevent it happening again. Living permanently in a state of overwhelm and stress is not healthy for you, your business or your family.

How Big Do You Want To Be?

SuperWAHM — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:12:37 +0000

How big do you want your business to grow? This is a really important question that most work at home moms never ask themselves. It’s usually one of the first questions I ask new clients as it affects all our discussions from there on.

Recently I was working with a client and she was stuck on one particular issue that was integral to running the business. No matter what we discussed, there wasn’t a solution that worked for her, until finally I asked “Is this problem worth giving up the business for and running it as a hobby?” and she instantly said “Yes”. She didn’t want a business and the associated stresses – she wanted a hobby that she could keep small, easily manageable and be able to pick up and put down as she chose.

However when she had first thought up the idea she had automatically defaulted to thinking of it as a business idea and working towards that. As soon as she realised that she really only wanted it as a hobby, and that having it as a hobby was ok, I could hear the burden being lifted. The relief was evident in her voice and manner immediately.

Having a hobby-business is fine. There is nothing wrong with having a hobby which pays for itself. If that’s what you truly want and intend. You don’t have to have a ‘real’ business, you don’t need to make huge profits. If you want a business that brings in only enough for your family to have a weeks holiday every year that’s great. If you want a business that can support your whole family in luxury, that’s great too. You’re the owner, the choice is yours.

Many work at home mum businesses begin as a hobby and progress to being a business. If that’s you, then at some point you need to stop and look at what you’re doing and decide if this is what you truly want. Do you want this growth? Do you want the stresses – and joys – associated with running your own business? If you do, then go for it! If not, you need to look at how to turn it around and stay small, or look at other options such as selling it as a business, or licensing.

How big you plan to grow your hobby or business is something that needs to be considered very early on. It’s all too easy to be caught up in the whirlwind of day to day activities and never think about whether this is what you intended in the first place. One of the major sources of stress in a home business is the feeling that it’s out of control and taking over your life, and that you have no choice but to continue to try and cope with it as best you can. I know, I’ve been there and it’s sure not fun. But! You do have the choice, you just have to consciously think about what you want and intend first.

Think about it. Is your business the way you intended? Is it what you want? How big do you really want your business go grow? (Hint – the very first answer that comes to mind is usually the correct one!)

Note: check your countries tax laws with regard to the difference between a hobby and a business: In Australia (paraphrased by me and very simplified), if you intend to make a profit then you are considered a business whether you make a profit or not. If you sell items at cost in order to simply buy more materials then it can be considered a hobby – however you still have to keep the paperwork to prove that you’re not making a profit. Don’t be caught on the wrong side of the tax laws through ignorance.

Recently I was working with a client and she seemed stuck on one particular issue that was integral to running a business. No matter what we discussed, there wasn’t a solution that worked for her, until finally I asked “Is this problem worth giving up the business for and running it as a hobby?” and she instantly said “Yes”. She didn’t want a business and the associated stresses – she wanted a hobby that she could keep small, easily manageable and be able to pick up and put down as she chose.

Making Your To-Do List a Habit

SuperWAHM — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:51:41 +0000

Last week we talked about your To-do list, Coffee and Rocks – fitting in the truly important items so they get done before the less significant items.

Getting things done is a habit, and so is prioritising what is the most important thing to work on first. When our to-do list is too long, it unintentionally becomes a habit not to finish the list, and then not to finish all the way through something on the list that we’ve started.

There’s also the small matter of what do we work on first. This one is actually fairly easily answered: What’s most important? What will have the biggest effect? or, What will bring in money the fastest? Answer these three questions and you should have a good idea of what you need to be working on first.

Firstly you need to realistically work out how much time you have available that day. Then grab a blank sheet of paper, and look at your long, overwhelming to-do list. Ask yourself those three questions until you have enough tasks to fill the time available – preferably with a bit of time left over because projects have an inherent tendency to expand and take more time than we thought.

Then simply start working on the first priority on your list and cross it off when it’s totally completed. Take a short break and then move onto the next item on your list. If you’ve estimated your time and tasks realistically, you should have enough time to complete everything on your list.

When everything on your list is fully done, look at your list and allow yourself to feel pride that you completed everything you set out to do. This is important. You’re building a habit of getting tasks completed and you need to acknowledge yourself for achieving that.

This is the time that someone generally asks “What about everything else on the list, that’s important too!” Yes, I agree that it’s important. Ask yourself this “If you hadn’t set priorities before working, would you have done everything on your list anyway?” The answer is invariably no, because we never actually complete our list – because it’s too long, doesn’t take into account the time available or what is most important.

By prioritising what is most important, you’re choosing to work on those tasks simply because they are the most important. When our to-do list is pages long we feel overwhelmed and tend to start work on the most fun items, the easiest items or the fastest items. These are not necessarily the most important or the one’s that will bring in money the fastest.

Getting back to the habit. If you follow this process each day – or the night before ready for the next day – then you are setting yourself up to succeed. Every day that you complete your list and allow yourself to feel that pride in achievement you reinforce the habit, you make it stronger and you increase the chances that you’ll do the same the next day and the next day and the next.

Habits generally take about twenty eight days to become ingrained, and that’s when you’re reinforcing them seven days a week. Since I don’t recommend working every day, you need to set up some kind of daily reminder to write your day’s priority to-do list. I use the calendar on my Outlook to throw up a reminder first thing in the morning. Whatever works for you is good. A post-it note on your bathroom mirror is fine as long as you see it!

Are you working on what’s most important for you right now?