In the last blog we talked about how businesses can hit a wall and how business owners need to figure out what they want to accomplish in their business before they move forward. And one of the solutions to moving past that "wall" is to hire someone.

The hiring possibilities are wide open, thanks to our highly connected world. This gives business owners a huge advantage because they no longer have to hire whoever is fits the equation: local + skilled + broadly capable + has potential to grow with the business. Instead, they can find people on the web who are tightly skilled in just one area.

In our earlier post we gave the example of Mary who runs a web-based store selling hand-painted decorations. She can hire a virtual assistant to do a variety of administrative and customer-facing tasks. She can also find someone who can do some of the hand painting.

Depending on what your business needs are, you can probably find someone online to do the jobs you need, no matter how specialized they are. In fact, the more specialized the jobs are, the easier time you’ll have finding someone to do it.

Aside from an assistant, you might consider hiring a marketing guru, a sales associate, a bookkeeper, a webmaster, and a telephone receptionist. Going from a "small business" mentality to a "big business" mentality doesn’t mean that you have to hire all of these staff for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Using sites like Elance.com and Guru.com, or finding part-time contract staff through Monster.com, allows you to put experts into all of these roles while building slowly.  You can even utilize a Virtual Assistant Firm that has individuals focusing on their areas of specialty.

So here is how to do that effectively:

1. Figure out what roles you want to fill. Start with non-revenue-generating activities that you perform right now and make those among the first things you delegate out. Also, consider things that you might not enjoy or might not be good at. Mary, from our example above, might be great at hand-painting decorations but might not be good at sales so she might want to hire a commissioned sales person.

2. Get onto Elance or Guru (or find a site that provides some of those services, like Contemporary VA for a virtual assistant) and look for service providers in the areas where you need to focus. Don’t make the all-too-common mistake of hiring the lowest priced professional. There’s a reason that they are the lowest priced! You may not need a "gold-plated" professional who charges an arm and a leg but you should find someone in the upper-to-middle price range who will likely deliver the best service for you.

3. Set out your parameters. Describe what you want to accomplish. Most importantly (and often overlooked) describe your vision for your business and how their service or deliverable fits in with what you do. That way, they’ll have a clearer understanding of what they’re contributing to and maybe they can draw from their own expertise to give you some ideas that you didn’t consider yourself.

4. Set up goals and a deliverable calendar for each role based on the types of things they need to get to you. In the case of a marketer, this might be easier; in the case of a sales person, this might be more difficult. (The marketer will need to deliver marketing materials to you within a certain date but it might be unrealistic to expect the salesperson to deliver customers to you within a certain date; instead, expect them to report back to you on how many they contacted or how many presentations they made).

5. Review the project with your professionals from time to time. If things aren’t working the way you envisioned, solicit feedback from them to make it work or find a new professional.

By hiring this way, you can move your business past that wall in a way that makes sense without over-committing yourself to an employee who shows up each day at your office expecting to get an assignment from you.

Contemporary VA

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Every business has some kind of supplier or vendor. It could be a supplier of raw materials; it could be a supplier of ideas or training. For the purposes of this blog, a supplier or vendor is any company that you buy from in order to do business – home builders need lumber and construction equipment while transcriptionists need a telephone line and email address.

So here’s the conundrum: Do you use one supplier or many? There are advantages and disadvantages to both decisions. In the last blog we talked about using just one supplier. Today, let’s explore the idea of having more than one supplier.

With more than one supplier, you reduce the likelihood that the loss of one will keep you from getting the job done. And, it might be possible that each will provide a higher level of service or a lower price in order to win more of your business.

This is good news for you if the raw materials you buy from your suppliers do not need to be absolutely identical or flawless each time, and if they are simple to build or use. A home builder, mentioned earlier in the blog, might consider getting 2×4’s from more than one supplier because they’ll be generally the same and a little minor variation is okay. And, if they use just one supplier and that supplier suddenly runs out of 2×4’s, it could be extremely costly for the builder to put everything else on hold.

There are disadvantages, too. Using more than one supplier might not earn you a bulk discount, and could even earn you a bad reputation if you try to play one off of the other. And there’s another issue, too, as illustrated by this example: If you get your domain name from one provider and your web host from another, you’ll need to figure out how to connect them and get them to talk to each other. That might be a small thing but it can be time consuming and illustrates the larger issue that you might play more of a liaison or management role between suppliers than if you had just one supplier.

If you have more than one supplier, and you need supplies that can handle a little variance, here is how you can mitigate the risks above: Don’t play one against the other for price. Offer to work with a handful of suppliers and specify what is important to you about the relationship. Determine if maintaining a multiple-supplier relationship is going to be more time-consuming and costly than a single supplier relationship. If necessary (and if possible) get your suppliers together in a room and describe your expectations and how you need them to work together to help you deliver your product or service.

Contemporary VA

@ContemporaryVA on Twitter.  Follow us to stay updated with our many resources that include business, accounting and bookkeeping, social media, and much more!

Every business has some kind of supplier or vendor. It could be a supplier of raw materials; it could be a supplier of ideas or training. For the purposes of this post, a supplier or vendor is any company that you buy from in order to do business – auto manufacturers will have parts suppliers while coaches might have a "supplier" from whom they bought their domain name and web hosting.

So here’s the conundrum: Do you use one supplier or many? There are advantages and disadvantages to both decisions, and in today’s post (and the one that will follow later this week) we’ll explore this question.

Today, let’s explore the idea of having just one supplier.

With just one supplier, you can generally build a fairly solid relationship. Since you give them 100% of your business, they won’t be hounding you for more of your business and instead you can focus on maintaining and improving the relationship. As well, your supplier will probably be open to working with you to improve the production and delivery of the product you’re buying from them. In many cases, you might also have enough buying power by putting all of your eggs in one basket to get lower prices.

Having one supplier is particularly advantageous when you require products or services that are exacting in some way. With multiple providers, you might get some variance but with one provider you are able to minimize the variance. I’ve seen this in graphic designers, writers, painters, shinglers, and numerous manufacturing scenarios. Whenever you have a situation where variance (in quality, style, or design, for example) will become noticeable, you will probably want just one provider.

There is a disadvantage, too: The supplier could go away and then you’d have to start at zero. Sometimes the supplier might disappear simply because they’ve gone out of business, or sometimes they might decide to stop working with you because it’s no longer profitable (which can happen if you work less on improving the relationship and more on negotiating discounts!).

If you have one supplier, and you only need one supplier, here is how you can mitigate the risk: If appropriate, keep a small stockpile on hand just in case the supplier can’t deliver on time for whatever reason. And, work with your supplier and view that relationship as a mutually beneficial, collaborative relationship. In a way, they are not that different than your employees and they require just as much investment in training and "care" that you would give to an employee.

Contemporary VA

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Starting up a business can be a thrilling experience. There is nothing like the feeling of brainstorming ways to serve customers, dream up shockingly innovative products and services, and clever ways to deliver that offering to the marketplace. It’s no wonder that we’ve coined a word for the entrepreneurs who do this kind of thing over and over and over and over: "Serial entrepreneurs".

Your start-up might be something you operate from the dining room table in the evenings and on weekends when you’re not at your day-job or it might be a high-concept, high tech effort that has venture capitalists drooling all over themselves to get to you. Regardless of what it looks like, there is one truth about your business that you need to keep in mind:

You may THINK you have a business, but until your first sale is made, you do not.

As soon as you make that sale, you’re officially in business and you need to figure out whatever you did right to close deal #1 and repeat that process. But until that sale is made, you have a non-profit organization!

The problem is, lots of people have great ideas about business – innovative offerings or new ways of delivering a product. Great. But even if they set up all the infrastructure and legal documentation and advertising, they still have a non-profit. Only a skilled few can get that business idea (+ infrastructure and legal documentation and advertising) and turn it into a real business. And that is the reason why so many businesses fail in the first years.

Ask any seasoned business owner and they will tell you that "build it and they will come" is always the dream of every entrepreneur but it is rarely the reality. Instead, it’s more like "build it and then chase after them". Even advertising is not as effective as sales. Advertising just creates awareness and rarely brings people all the way to closing of the deal.

What business success really takes is good old fashioned sales: Generating leads, knocking on doors, cold calling, networking.

Case in point: A colleague of mine is a freelance writer. He says that every 3 to 6 months he’s asked by friends or family "can you show me how to make a living as a writer so I can do it too?". And of those people, very very few actually follow through. They’re always shocked to discover that it takes SALES to do the job.

Now, after having written all that, some of you will point to me that sites like Twitter do just fine without any revenue. That is an excellent question and almost deserving of its own post. However, I will link to this site – http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2008/01/twitters-busine.html – which helps to explain how many websites (especially web 2.0 and social media companies) start free but do eventually close the deal.

Contemporary VA

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The sales funnel or sales pipeline is a short-hand way of referring to the steps you take to generate leads, qualify prospects, and turn them into customers. You need to generate so many leads to find so many qualified prospects to convert them into so many customers. The numbers are different for every industry, of course, but those are the basic steps.

Do you know what your ratios are? I would venture to say that most businesses do not. If you want to transform your business, to take it to the next step, to knock it out of the park, to step on the gas (or whatever other metaphor you want to use), start with knowing your pipeline.

First: Know the specific steps you take. Chances are, they are similar to the "leads – prospects – customers" steps mentioned above, but they will be more specific. Perhaps you generate leads from a lead generation site, you qualify prospects with positioning material, and you convert them into customers with a proposal and follow-up call. (That’s the sales pipeline of a consultant I know). Or maybe you generate leads from people who call a 1-800 number for more information, you qualify them by sending them an information kit, and you convert them into customers with a face-to-face call. (That’s the sales pipeline of several insurance companies).

Second: Know the numbers at each step. Do you need to generate 100 leads to get 10 quality prospects to sell to 1 customer? Those numbers won’t be far off for a lot of people and I’m willing to wager that yours will be higher than you were expecting.

Third: Improve backwards. Using the ratio mentioned above – 100:10:1 – your first thought might be that doubling your customers requires you to get 200 leads and turn them into 20 prospects to get 2 customers. But there is another way. Instead of trying to generate more leads (which is working "forwards" through your pipeline) try making adjustments to your customer conversion process, testing various methods to turn 10 prospects into 2 customers instead of 1. If you hit upon the right method, then you’ll have a much more dramatic impact on your business than if you simply tried to generate more leads. See it in action: The less effective way of getting more clients would be by doubling your lead generation: 200:20:2. The more effective way is to improve your efforts further down the pipeline: 100:10:2. Then, if you do decide to double your lead generation, it will have a greater impact on business: 200:20:4!

Fourth: Use it in decision-making. It can be tempting to jump into new marketing methods because they are popular (can anyone say "Twitter"?), but they are not always the right decision for right now. New marketing methods can be good, but only if they can contribute to your business effectively. When you’re tempted to devote resources (time, effort, or money) to a new marketing method, think about what role it will play in your sales pipeline and how you will use it to nudge people along your pipeline towards conversion. You might find that the latest and greatest craze – whether Twitter, Facebook, Guerilla Marketing, BuzzMarketing, or the zillion other trends, fads, and marketing temptations out there – just isn’t right for your business.

Contemporary VA

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Focus on WHAT IS WORKING and FORGET about WHAT ISN’T

One of the most valuable tips I’ve ever learned is to focus on what works rather than what doesn’t.  This little nugget of gold can be applied to any aspect of your life or business.

Success is fostered by positivity and by allocating your time to what works rather than wasting valuable time and energy trying to find the needle-in-a-haystack problem. 

Why do you think certain businesses are so successful?  Because they figure out what is working for them, what is getting them the desired results and they focus on the growth of that.  What’s NOT working eventually weeds itself out on its own because there is no focus, thought, or time put into it.  Out of sight, out of mind.

Worrying about a problem puts a weight on your mind.  Your mind starts running in circles and it goes to a negative, frustrated, place rather than a positive, productive place.

Sure, you have to fix problems but there’s a productive way to handle them. 

Instead of fretting over ‘why isn’t this working’, ‘what is the problem’, etc., figure out what IS working.  Then ask yourself these questions:

• Why does it work?  What makes it work?
• What can I do to make it work even better?
• What can I do to expand on this and grow it?

And if there’s just a glaring ‘problem’ that you must focus on, instead of giving it the ‘ol negative thought process, ask yourself:

• What would I like it to be?
• What is right about it at this point and what isn’t exactly right?
• What tweaking would make it work?

Instead of becoming frustrated and overwhelmed about the negativity, focus on the positivity.  Positive energy fosters more positivity; likewise, negative energy fosters more negativity. 

Oftentimes, worrying about the negatives can take too much time and drain energy, and sometimes even cause you to abandon the project for an extended period of time or even altogether. 

When you feed yourself positive energy from the "what IS working" factor, you find yourself more motivated to move forward and you do it with a clear mind rather than a cluttered one.

So,

• Create a positive atmosphere within your mind.
• Get excited about what IS working for you and focus on how to expand on it.  It’s much more fun!
• Forget about what’s NOT working, it will weed itself right out of the game because it doesn’t have your focus.  The positivity will fertilize your business while simultaneously producing its own weed remover.

Einstein didn’t create the lightbulb by frustrating himself over what was wrong, he focused on what was right about it and what would make it work.

What are one of the key things that EVERY business and solopreneur needs? 

Exposure.  

We’re all after it, right?

Whether you’re a real estate agent, a VA, a musician, a designer, a salesperson, etc., you need exposure.  If no one can find you, or you’re so far buried under your competition’s exposure, how can your talent be utilized?  You have to put yourself in front of them, and the Internet has paved endless roads to the success of your exposure.

We recently talked about Word of Mouth Advertising and a few ways you can guide your WOM campaign but it’s a must that you utilize the Internet’s many avenues.  There are many tried-and-true, oldies-but-goodies, Internet marketing tactics and Web 2.0 has opened up many new interstates for your travel to Destination Exposure.  

As social media marketing has developed, there have been many skeptics but a lot of those skeptics have been jumping on the train in recent months.  And there are many businesses who are still becoming familiar with Internet marketing and social media marketing; and, many others who still don’t even know it exists much less realize the impact it can have on their business – no matter what they’re business is.

We’re in a day and age where people turn to the Internet more and more, rather than traditional phone books.  I’m not even sure why they still deliver me one.  I can’t tell you the last time I used an actual, paper, phone book.  First, I have to flip through it.  Second, the listings don’t tell me much about a business except for their phone number and address.  Third, I can’t see what others are saying about the business.  I know, some of it might seem lazy but the Internet is much faster and I can gather so much more information on the business/service I’m seeking. 

You know the saying, "Google it"…and that’s exactly what people are doing.  If I can’t find you on the Internet, I’ll end up using another business/service that I can find on the Internet. 

And there are many social avenues that peak my interest in something I wasn’t even thinking about.  I frequently veer off of whatever I was originally doing online because something catches my eye.  It might be a service, some goods, information or something else but because it was exposed online, it attracted my interest and I followed the link to see where it led.  if it didn’t have any exposure I may have never found it, whether I was looking for it or not. 

There are two main components to online exposure.

1) Build links to your site, which will increase your rankings in the search engines, and

2) Drive organic traffic

Tying in these components will expose you!

And what’s fabulous is that most of it, if not all of it, can technically be done for free.  It takes a lot of time so you can always pay someone to do it for you, or you can do it yourself without spending much money at all.  All it takes is the knowledge of what to do, how to do it, where to do it and a bit of dedication.

Visit Online Marketing Wizards and have a look around.  OMW discusses online marketing tips, information, resources and strategies.  You’ll find information on finding the proper keywords, utilizing your anchor text, submitting your site to directories, using social networking and social media to gain exposure and links, utilizing articles and much more.

What are your thoughts on businesses benefiting from online marketing? 

Karen J. for BestBusinessExpert.com

Today, we wanted to share some interesting, insightful, business-related posts that any business can benefit from:

 6 CEOs Share Their Biggest Regrets – you can reduce your own regrets by finding out what others would do differently.

11 Businesses You Can Start In Your Pajamas in 2009 – great, thriving, business ideas…and working in your pajamas isn’t so bad!

Cutting Start-Up Costs – start up costs can be scary!

Minimize Your Exposure to Fraud – we’re all exposed to fraud, as individuals and businesses, but there are ways to minimize the risk.

Top 5 Ways for Small Businesses to Succeed in a Down Economy – It can be done!

We’re in the business of helping other businesses thrive, and it can, with the proper resources.  So check these out and share your thoughts.  Do you have anything to add? We’d love to hear it, and so would others searching for business resources!

Karen J. for BestBusinessExpert.com