We’ve all read books and articles that tout the benefits of leadership. We’ve all heard that you lead people and manage things. I think at some level, we all agree with these ideas. I know I thought I was pretty passionate about the difference between management and leadership.
But the real absolute necessity for leadership did not hit home for me personally until about a year ago. I was working with my team and Susan, our coach from E-Myth. As part of the program, we were hearing and reading the same old thing about the difference between leadership and management. We were nodding our heads, half in agreement and half in drowsiness. (We were on a non-video conference call so Susan could not see us.) Then we were given an assignment that changed my life.
We each told to accept the label of “leader”. For the next month, we were banned from referring to ourselves as managers, CEO’s, CFO’s, bosses, etc. Instead, we were, pure and simple, Leaders. When we looked in the mirror, we were supposed to say “Now there’s a Leader”. Regardless of our other tasks, duties or titles, at our cores, we were told to think of ourselves as Leaders.
Now I don’t know if any of the shock of doing this exercise can be conveyed in these few sentences. I think the experience was probably different for each member on our team. So I can only describe what was happening in my head. Here are a few of the personal components that were swirling around like primordial gasses waiting to coalesce into the first spark of life.
I am one of 12 (count em’ twelve) children. My coping strategy growing up as a kid was to keep a low profile. When I thought of business “leaders” like Lee Iacocca or Jack Welch (both of whom have published biographies), I instinctively rejected this “style” of leadership as ego-centric. It was probably unfair, but I really had to work hard to get past the self-promotion to find the very real value in the things these guys did (as opposed to the less real value in what they said). The personality testing we do here at Grow pegged me as a 2 on a 1-10 “sociability” scale. Hopefully, you get the picture.
When I read Jim Collins book, Good to Great, I was really excited about the new type of Leader they discovered. The called it a “Level 5 Leader”, because no one had ever put these people in a spotlight and labeled them as “charismatic”, “forceful”, “inspiring” or some of the other terms usually associated with Leaders. Instead, these people were described as “humble”, “self-effacing”, “give credit to their teams rather than basking in the limelight”. I remember thinking “Now that’s the kind of Leader I can get behind.”
But I never thought of myself as that Leader. The E-myth exercise forced me to address the question, “If I am running my business, who else can be the Leader?” There was no place to hide! I am a Leader.
O.K. A few wrap-up thoughts. I’m still not comfortable with the title “Leader”. No one promised me it would be easy. (Get over it!). And there can be many Leaders in an organization. In fact, I can’t see why a business can’t be populated from top to bottom with Leaders! Also notice that I have not made the slightest attempt to define the term “Leadership”. That’s the beauty of holding yourself to the higher standard of “Leadership”. You don’t wait around for someone to give you all the answers. Try it! I’m not saying you will “like” it, but I am saying your organization will benefit every minute of every day that you and your key people show up for work as Leaders. I think the secret power here is that simply by accepting the label of “Leader” you are halfway home. The rest is just fake it ‘till you make it!

My position on using social media in sales is simple: It’s a fantastic tool for building relationships and an absolutely awful environment to deliver your pitch!

Think about it…You wouldn’t walk up to someone at a ‘real-life’ networking event and pitch them so what makes you think this works online.

As I often say: relationships are a function of the number of interactions over time multiplied by the value of those interactions to the receiver. So…

Make it your intention to add value in every interaction. Hint: conversations about YOU or YOUR product or YOUR company do not add value to the other person.

Every sales person worth 2 bits knows that LinkedIn is an invaluable tool for identifying and contacting potential buyers. The most basic (and overused) use of LinkedIn is the ’get introduced’ feature but. I fear this has become less effective than a traditional cold call.

Here are some other gems you might not have thought of. Please use the comments section or email me to add tips and tricks that have worked for you.

1) Join industry-relevant/vertical groups that your customers and prospects belong to. Other than Wikipedia, there is no faster way to increase your fluency with the language of your customer. I once worked for a client that sold to building engineers. Try a search for groups associated with building engineers…you’ll be amazed at what you find

2) Identify and join groups that your prospects belong to. People participate in social media for recognition right? Responding to content your prospects have posted as well as comments they make are great ice breakers.

3) Find every prospects ‘public profile’ and keep this handy. Ideally, get your company to create a custom field in Salesforce.com or whatever tool you are using (this is easy!) Check their profile before every call. Recent status updates, Twitter feeds, and recommendations are all great excuses to reach out. ‘I see you are knee deep in a major SAP upgrade’ is far superior to ‘I’m calling to touch base…’ – doesn’t it?

4) Send every prospect a request to connect. Why wouldn’t you? Be sure to include a personal note (rather than the pre-populated one) Be honest about your relationship and intent – Let them know you are a sales professional hoping to eventually present yourself and your company to them. Tell them you are hoping to connect in order to connect to learn more about them and what might be relevant to their world.

5) Connect with each and every existing customer your company has done business with. This sounds obvious but I am amazed at the number of sales professionals that fail to do this. It’s an easy way to expand your network and you have a ready made excuse to invite them. Again, be honest about your relationship and intent and be sure to include a personal note. I suggest asking them to connect in order to understand why they purchased ABC product from your company and to better understand the XYZ industry.

6) Get a recommendation from EVERY customer you have ever worked with. Rather than using the standard request, be sure to include a personal note telling them exactly what you hope the recommendation will contain. Better yet, draft it for them! Rather than taking offense’ most people will be grateful to edit and refine rather than create from scratch.

7) Ask your customers if it is ok for you to write a recommendation for THEM. It s a great way to ‘get back in’ and who is going to say no? It is more comfortable (and far more polite) to ask for a recommendation once you have provided one of your own.

8) Get a recommendation for every PROSPECT you have every worked with as well. ‘But they didn’t buy from me’ you say? Who cares? Ask them to reference your professionalism and industry/technical knowledge. The vast majority of opportunities you work will result in a ‘no decision.’ After you have put in all that effort your prospect probably feels bad they ‘lost budget’ or ‘priorities shifted’ – This is the perfect time to ask for a recommendation! If you are providing a draft for them (you are aren’t you?) then words like: Professional, knowledgable, experienced, responsive, and doesn’t waste my time should be in there.

9) Make sure that recommendations talk about you not your company or product or service. People by from people based on relationships and trust. Make your LinkedIn profile a source of the ‘social proof‘ for prospects to know that you are someone they want to do business with.

10) Proactively market your recommendations to prospects! The best way to build a relationship with prospective buyers is to share what others like them have to say about you. Make your LinkedIn profile part of your email signature. Send links to your recommendations. Cut and paste quotes into communications with the headline ‘Here is what others have to say about working with Your Name.’

Lately, I’ve been thinking about…One Thing.

And that “One Thing” is the thing that is holding your business back from achieving its goal. There is a theory (which we at Grow think is just about to the “law” status) that says that at any point in time, there is One Thing, and only One Thing, whose improvement will have the biggest impact on your ability to achieve your goal.

The theory is called the “Theory of Constraints” (TOC). As far as I know, it was first postulated by Eliyahu Goldratt in his 1984 book, “The Goal.” Goldratt started out as a physicist, and then made the gifted mistake of also getting a doctorate in Philosophy. After that, he could never look at the world without seeing that everything has cause and effect relationships and that in any process, there is always a “rate determining step” (the proverbial weak link). The Goal is a monster of a book (1,000+ pages), and although I highly recommend it, I’ve also condensed it to a level that seems to work for me.
Let’s start with my tennis game (such as it is)…

Now please understand: I am a pretty lousy tennis player. But I do have a goal. In general, my tennis goal involves beating the guy across the net from me. Several years ago, in pursuit of my goal, I went to a tennis camp run by a very famous tennis coach. He and his staff found at least a dozen “things” that needed improvement. These included better footwork, bending my knees, better racket preparation, keeping my eye on the ball, tossing the ball on my serve etc. I was excited and happy that there were so many areas for improvement. We spent three days working on all aspects of my game. I had visions of trophies and tennis courts littered with the bodies of my victims!

When I returned to the real world, what happened was my mind was so full of clutter that it took me at least a month to get my game (such as it was) back to its previous mediocre level.
Then came the other tennis camp! On day one, the coaching staff watched me play for a while, and then we huddled over the question “What One Thing would I like to improve by the end of the week?” With their input, we picked adding pace to my forehand. We worked on that One Thing, and when I returned to the “mean streets” of social tennis, I actually showed noticeable improvement (I could now beat the 9 year old sons of my friends, where I previously could only smoke the 8 year olds!)

O.K. We both know this is not about tennis (or even me). You guessed it: it’s about your business. I firmly believe a business team can only really focus on One Thing at a time. Sure, you may need to improve your website, hire a new production manager, change your employee incentive program and a million other things. But this is not about “What needs improving?” It is about “What area of improvement will have the greatest impact on achieving my business goal?”

I won’t dive much deeper here. However, let me point out a few critical aspects of the One Thing discussion:

1. You must know your business goal. (After spending about 400 pages in his book, The Goal, Goldratt’s fictional characters decided their goal was to make money. I think that’s pretty close to the bull’s eye. What you do with your money is a whole different topic.)
2. There is a very systematic approach to finding your “constraint”. This can be learned from any number of articles and consultants which have sprung up to elaborate on the TOC. However, my experience with small businesses is that a vigorous, targeted team meeting can often hit the nail on the head.
3. When you are successful in improving the One Thing, a new One Thing will emerge. This is just common sense. If you replace the weakest link in a chain with a new titanium link, it means some other link will be the new weakest link. You had better embrace continual improvement as a core value, because that’s what this is really all about.
4. “How long should a business remain focused on its One Thing?” Or put another way, “When will a new One Thing deserve to be management’s focal point?” The two big variables are (1) how quickly your focus brings about change, and (2) any external factors that may be changing in the environment in which your business operates. As a practical matter, my experience suggests that the minimum time to remain focused on One Thing is a business quarter. One year may be a practical upper limit, but in the early stage of implementing TOC, your One Thing may be so big and challenging that it needs even more time.

I’m sorry this took so many words to articulate. An avalanche of words can obscure truth. The truth here is its about focus…turbo-charged.

1. Capture your thoughts as they occur (journal, voice recording device, etc.) Evernote is a great app for this.
2. Organize around a framework. Start with the big stuff -like your “5-year vision” to create a framework. This allows you to organize thoughts & ideas into components of the bigger picture (marketing, product/service improvement, hiring and retaining great people, etc.)
3. Select your goals. Capturing your thoughts creates a “menu” from which you can select the appropriate goals for execution.
4. Limit your focus. By focusing on only a very few “creations” over a specific time period (annual, quarterly, monthly) you improve your chances of success.
5. WRITE IT DOWN, or it does not exist. Your mental plan for creating anything should be turned into a written plan from which your execution can spring.

You probably have a lot of your own ideas about how to achieve your “second creation.” Whatever techniques you use, remember, you don’t get credit for thinking; you get credit for doing.

When you tell someone what to do, they are likely to have low buy-in. This means if there are any problems, they are more likely to second-guess the decision and lay blame on outside influencers. If an idea is theirs, buy-in will be higher and they will work to prove themselves right.

(That’s the concept. If you get it, stop reading. If you would like to see the concept illustrated, read on.)

Let’s take a look at the example of a consultant helping a small business owner choose between two accounting systems.

Business Owner: I am looking at two accounting systems for my business. I am looking at AcctNow and Accounting Time software. I think I like AcctNow better because of its….

Consultant: (Interrupting) Definitively go with Accounting Time. I have used it many times and it is just better software for what you need.

Business Owner: But I am worried that Accounting Time doesn’t have as good of training as AcctNow does and I am worried about getting people comfortable with the new software.

Consultant: Trust me! Go with Accounting Time! It is easy and your people won’t have any problems.

Two months and untold dollars later you can imagine what the business owner is saying when their people are having trouble learning how to use the new software.

Accountant Joe: This software sucks. It is really hard to use. What I used to do in 30 seconds now takes me 30 minutes.

Business Owner: (thinking to himself) “I knew this was going to be a problem. I should have gone with my gut. That damned consultant probably got a cut and I hate this stupid software. I should have gone with AcctNow!

This reaction has nothing to do with the merits of the software as a solution for the business owner. It is simply the validation of a perceived issue that was not properly addressed. And unfortunately, because the consultant did not spend a little extra time to address the customers concern, he has likely lost a future client and a potential referral source.

Lets take a look at this same situation if the consultant had led the business owner to make the same decision on his own.

Business Owner: I am looking at two accounting systems for my business. I am looking at AcctNow and Accounting Time software. I think I like AcctNow better because of its training. I really want the new software to be easy to use so my people don’t have big learning curves.

Consultant: I agree, that is important and can reduce downtime and inefficiency. AcctNow does have better support and their training videos are great, but lets make sure we are making the right decision for the company as a whole. Tell me about what your company will look like in 3 years.

Business Owner: Well, we just received funding from a local investment company which will be used to take us international and to add 15 locations to the 2 that we have now.

Consultant: That is great news! So what are some of the reporting requirements that you will have going forward?

Business Owner: They told us that we will need to provide them quarterly consolidated financial statements, we will have an annual audit and we can’t extend our tax returns?

Consultant: Ok, now lets think about these three questions. How long does it take you to close and consolidate your books now? How did your last audit go? When did you actually file your tax returns?

Business Owner: I see where you are going. It takes us 6 weeks to close and consolidate our books with 2 locations. With 17 it will take forever. Our audit was a disaster because noting tied and it cost us a ton. We filed our tax return on October 13th this year – 2 days before we did last year (I was pretty proud).

Consultant: So – how are you going to solve these problems?

Business Owner: It seems I need something that can do my consolidations automatically. I also need something that can quickly give me the reports that I need for my taxes that doesn’t take a bunch of manual work.

Consultant: You also mentioned that you were going international.

Business Owner: That’s right, so we need multi-currency and multi language capabilities.

Consultant: It sounds like you have some big changes on the horizon. So lets talk about this accounting package question. You said that you want to go with AcctNow because of its training. But you also mentioned that in order to be able to meet your new accounting deadlines you need to have consolidations, multi-currency and multi-language capabilities in your accounting software.

Business Owner: I hadn’t looked at it that way but that sounds right.

Consultant: What if I was to tell you that AcctNow doesn’t have multi-currency capabilities and their consolidation process is very time consuming and is very error prone? Accounting Time, on the other hand, is known for its consolidation package, has multi-currency and multi-language support. Although it takes a little more time to learn and doesn’t have the pretty videos, it may make sense and could save you lots of time down the road.

Business Owner: Wow, I didn’t realize that. It sounds like I really need to do some thinking about what is important. I think I will take another look at Accounting Time.

Now, when accountant Joe comes and says; “This software sucks. It is really hard to use. What I used to do in 30 seconds now takes me 30 minutes.”

The business owner is almost certainly going to defend the decision. They will defend it because the decision is a personal reflection of them and they don’t want to be wrong.

“Joe, we knew this was going to be a challenge at first, but I also know that we made the right decision for the long run. When we start to have to do consolidations & have multiple currencies, I promise you are going to love it. Stick with it and you will see that this is for the best.

This consultant has just made an advocate for life and is likely to get more work and more referrals from this client.

Perhaps the biggest trap new small business owners fall into is the idea that they have to do everything by themselves. It’s not that they don’t trust their employees or others, it’s just that they tend to have a hands-on approach and feel a need to be involved in every aspect of their business. This isn’t a bad thing, a good owner SHOULD be involved as much as possible, but, as we’ve shown in this blog before, an owners time is valuable and if it’s spent on details that don’t generate revenue, then the owners’ time is being wasted.

Have a Plan:

One of the easiest ways to limit time wasting is to set goals. Of course, most small business owners have goals, but we’re talking about setting realistic, long term and short term goals that are specific to generating sales, leads and profit. Setting a goal is more than just saying, “This month we need to increase sales by 50%”. That sounds great, but without specifics, those are just words. In order to make goals achievable, small business owners need to also lay out specifics on HOW those goals will be reached. In other words, don’t just say you’ll increase sales, tell your team HOW they can increase sales, and then jump in alongside them to help execute the plan.

Here’s a quick look at effective goal-setting and how it can help your business grow:

1. Make your goals realistic
2. Have both long and short-term goals
3. Be specific as to HOW you and your team can reach the established goals
4. Work with the team/employees to understand the goals, the processes needed to reach the goals and get feedback
5. Work just as hard as the rest of the team to help the business achieve the established goals.

Setting goals and creating a plan as to how to reach those goals does a few things for the small business owner. First, it helps with buy-in as the employees now have a clear understanding of how to go about reaching the goals. Second, it gives the owner a sense of direction that may have been lost amid the pile of paperwork. That sense of direction can also revive the joy the business owner felt when they first started their business. Suddenly it’s not just a blur of tax records, financial reports and paperwork, it’s about their passion again.

It’s also important to keep in mind that the successful business owner doesn’t just set goals for his employees and then walks away. The successful business owner sets goals for the entire company and rolls up his or her sleeves and pitches in to help reach the established goals. The successful business owner also listens to his or her employees, works with them closely, rewards them when they perform well and is transparent when it comes to business issues. The more the employees fell as if they are part of the growth of the company and the goals that have been set, the more they will work towards the success of the business.

Finding the Time:

Obviously, this means the small business owner needs time. They need time to work on the revenue generating processes. They need time to talk with the employees and customers to get feedback on the business. They need time to set the goals, figure out a plan and direction and then do the work required to meet those goals. But if the business owner is swamped with paperwork every day, they won’t have the time they need to do all of that.

This is where delegation comes in. Delegating some of the processes to the employees is a good start, but other items such as finances and taxes need to be handled by professionals familiar with accounting and finances. Grow, LLC can help a small business owner by stepping in and handling much of the back-office paperwork that takes up so much of the owner’s time. Once that pile of work is taken off the owner’s plate, they are suddenly free to actually focus on the things that really matter to the success of a small business.

Goals work. Goals are effective. Goals are good. But goals only work when the business owner is involved and focused and not distracted by everything else that goes with running a business. Let Grow, LLC help you remove those distractions and help you create goals that will help your business be successful. We’re here to help YOU…and that’s OUR #1 goal!

Let’s be honest for a moment here. As we reach the end of February, many small businesses have already completed at least a portion of their taxes knowing that W2′s for employees have to be mailed out by the end of January. This aspect of tax season alone is enough to send some small business owners over the edge. Depending on the number of employees, sending out Tax documents, can eat up a significant amount of time.

We haven’t even discussed the issue of filing the taxes for the business, which can also take hours upon hours depending on the number of deductions. Searching for receipts, making sure your books are balanced and meticulously entering all of the information with accompanying documentation isn’t something you just do one evening over a bowl of soup while watching “American Idol”. It takes time, a lot of time, to do it right and avoid any potential audits.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. You could spend the tax season focusing on those aspects of your business that will actually improve your bottom line instead of buried up to your neck in paperwork. Certainly, many small businesses already have a tax consultant or accountant on hand this time of year to help with the process, but what about the rest of the year? If you’re like most small business owners, you start the year paying close attention to your books and receipts and working the system you have in place. But as the year goes on and business picks up, things tend to fall through the cracks. This means time spent searching for receipts and other documents you need this time of year. And if those receipts or documents can’t be found, you might miss out on potential deductions that could save your business money.

Now consider if you outsourced your book-keeping and financial department. Not only would you not have to worry about missing receipts or balanced books at the end of the year, your deductions would be complete. Think of it as one of those signs you pass by on the road for apartment complexes; only this time the sign would say, “If you outsourced your book-keeping, your taxes would be done by now.”

Now consider the savings to your bottom line. As we’ve mentioned before, your time as the owner of the small business is very valuable. And paying one or two individuals to devote their time to keeping your books, filing your paperwork and doing your taxes can be very expensive, even if these individuals are only working part time. Let’s face it, the business of running a business is often a full time job. Most small business owners attempt to handle that business on a part time basis, splitting their time between the revenue-generating tasks, and the operations tasks. Hiring a full time person to handle the bookkeeping and other financial tasks could run you $2,000 to $3,000 a month, minimum. However, a company like Grow, LLC can handle these tasks for less than half of that. Plus, with Grow, LLC, you don’t have to deal with sick days, vacations or time lost to other unforseen factors. You get an individual representative who will work with your company, help you establish systems to help your business run smoothly and when you have a question or problem, you get to speak to an actual human being, not a computer.

And in the end, you save money. Instead of paying for a full time employee, you get a full team at half or one-third the cost. Of course this isn’t even mentioning the peace of mind during tax season, the full schedule of deductions on your tax returns, plus the time you’ll spend on helping your business grow, rather than worrying about paperwork, tax documents, receipts or other paperwork.

Just something to think about.

Some Tips:

Of course, Grow, LLC is here for you, the small business owner. So as always we are here with some tips to help you get through this most difficult and frustrating of seasons. Hopefully this will help make your tax filing more of a pleasure than a pain:

1. Get organized! In the hectic life as a small business owner, taxes can seem foreign and daunting. Take steps now to get ahead, organizing your receipts, records and tax documents. Be sure to save all information you receive in the mail – such as 1099 forms, W-2s and other documents of interest. Organization can be key when asking a tax professional to help file your tax return, as he or she will be better able to define relevant deductions.

THIS is what you always want to see!

Instead, this is about providing good customer service at all times and pleasing the majority of your customers with time, determination and desire. Determination and desire is a given when it comes to providing quality customer service. As a small business owner you have to really want to make sure your customers receive the best service possible. You also have to be willing to bend over backwards sometimes to ensure their satisfaction. But when it comes to time, small business owners often fall short, focusing instead on all of the other aspects of their business rather than the needs of the customer.

This.Is.Vital!

As we’ve discussed in this forum before, small business owner really have two areas of work; revenue-generating and NON-revenue-generating. Spending time on paperwork, scheduling, taxes, finances, book-keeping and all the other administrative tasks is non-revenue-generating work. Customer service, THAT is a revenue-generating activity.

One of the biggest customer service complaints heard by most small business owners isn’t about lack of product quality or even rude behavior. It’s about a lack of communication. In many cases complaints and concerns can be quelled with a simple phone call or email. When concerns aren’t addressed, a small thing can quickly turn into a major problem and cause rifts between the business owner and customer.

The problem arises when a small business owner is so overworked or overwhelmed by the various tasks he or she is doing, that the simple phone call or email is either dismissed, put off until later or forgotten completely. Sometimes these can simple mistakes, but even simple mistakes have solutions and the first step to providing quality customer service is to make time to deal with any and all problems or complaints.

This means spending less time than you might normally spend on your administrative tasks. Once again, the small business owner is faced with a decision between handling the important tasks of running a business or focusing on tasks that can actually help your company grow. Both are important. Both matter. Both are necessary to keep your business afloat. But there is one major difference. You.

Personal Service:

Think about those times when you’ve had poor customer service. Each time it’s likely that you ended up dealing with a manager or, in special cases, the business owner. Now remember how satisfying it was to be able to relay your complaint or concerns to the person at the top. Chances are, your complaint was handled and you left feeling as if you’d been heard by someone who matters. You weren’t just yelling into the darkness. And chances are, after that experience, you were more likely to go back to that business BECAUSE of the treatment and attention you were given by the business owner.

What if that business owner had felt his book-keeping was more important than your complaint? Would you have left feeling the same way? Even if the result was the same, there is something very positive about dealing with a business owner directly. It shows they care, it shows they are willing to take the time and do what it takes to ensure the happiness of their customers. When you take the time, even if it’s just five minutes, to personally respond to a complaint, it makes a difference. You can’t do that if you are fully engulfed with the day to day tasks of shuffling paperwork or dealing with finances.

This is another area where delegating your administrative tasks can produce truly positive results. One of the many areas where Grow, LLC has been so successful is allowing small business owners the time to focus on those areas that will ultimately help their business grow and flourish. Our clients no longer have to be distracted by the little details that keep them from doing what they do best. Because Grow, LLC steps in and handles the administrative tasks, our clients have more time to spend on dealing with customers and making sure they are happy and well taken care of.

Instead of sitting behind a desk, frustratedly pouring over numbers and schedules, our clients have time to spend on returning phone calls and emails, and spending actual face time with customers. These activities have helped our clients grow not only in revenue, but in reputation as well. And as important as money is, nothing is more important than a business’ reputation, for it’s that reputation that will carry a company further than any product or service ever could. Reputation helps define a business image and brand, influences potential customers, retains current customers and adds weight to the all-important word-of-mouth that so many small business depend on to survive. It’s that important, and it’s why small business owners NEED that time to devote to the revenue-generating tasks of their company.

Five Tips:

As always, we at Grow, LLC have some tips for all small business when it comes to providing quality customer service. We’ve already listed determination and desire, and of course the importance of devoting time to this issue. But here are five more tips you can use to make sure your customers always leave with a smile on their face.

1. Never take it personal – This can also be rephrased as “always be courteous”. When dealing with angry customers, it’s easy to get defensive and take their comments or complaints personally. The customer is attacking your business, something you built from the ground up. It can often feel as if they are attacking you. Remember the customer is frustrated and most likely just venting. Let them vent, then calmly respond and let them know you understand and that you will personally take care of the problem. Getting angry yourself will only escalate a bad situation.

2. Be honest – This may seem like a no-brainer, but never lie to a customer.

3. Don’t make promises you can’t keep – You’re the business owner. Don’t tell the customer you will do something if you can’t, or won’t, do it. If you say you’ll replace their broken piece, or that you can provide a service, then do it. Otherwise, you’re starting off on the wrong foot to begin with.

4. Listen – Don’t just hear the words and nod your head, really LISTEN to what the customer needs. Good customer service doesn’t begin when there’s a complaint, it starts from day one and hopefully alleviates any future complaints. If you listen to what your client or customer needs to begin with, you’ll understand how best to take care of them. A family lawyer would never take on a criminal case, a realtor wouldn’t sell a mansion to someone just looking for a two-bedroom ranch. You can avoid major issues, problems and complaints down the road if you simply listen to your customer’s needs from the get-go.

5. Communicate – In nearly every instance of poor customer service, miscommunication is at its heart. It doesn’t matter if it’s a missed phone call, bad wording on a flier, or a misspoken phrase, poor communication almost always leads to poor customer service. Communicate clearly what you promise to do for your customers in the beginning so there is no misunderstanding later. Follow up on promises made and on phone calls and emails. If you have a staff, make sure you communicate to them, clearly, what your goals and rules are. If they misunderstand, they will pass that along to the customer and then you have an issue to deal with.

Communication is so very important to good customer service it can’t be overstated. From the minute you say hello to the customer to the minute you say goodbye, you have to communicate clearly and with good-intention every step of the way. While all five of these tips are basic common sense, many small business owners don’t think about customer service until there is a problem. Good customer service is ongoing and if done correctly, you will have fewer complaints to deal with. The trick is, taking the time to devote to good customer service at all times.

Something you can’t do if you’re stuck behind your desk dealing with paperwork.

This is something you NEVER want to see on your site!

We tell you this not to elicit sympathy, but to illustrate a point. Your website is one of the most important tools your small business has when it comes to promotion and getting your information out to the public. But your website is vulnerable. No matter how secure you think your passwords are, no matter how many precautions you take, chances are that at some point, your site will be hacked. Again, this isn’t meant to scare anyone, it’s meant to help you prepare for that day when you log onto your site and you find that Google has issued a warning about your website.

What To Do:

Chances are, you’re not a webmaster. You probably don’t even play one on TV. Just the mere mention of HTML code and SQL Links is enough to make most small business owners go pale in the face and curl up into a fetal position. Most servers and host sites such has GoDaddy or Register.com provide easy templates and click-and-drag processes for creating easy to read and navigate websites. They’ve made website design accessible to even the most novice small business owner. But hidden behind the curtain of plug-n-play design is a ton of code that impacts your website and when it comes time to fix any problems that arise, it’s that code you’re going to have to dive into.

Fortunately, most host sites also provide technical support to help you wind your way through the miles of HTML required to delete any malware that may have been added to your pages. The problem is, even with the quality help of a tech support desk, the time required to go through the code, isolate the problem and get rid of it can be excessive. Let’s take a look at how much time you’ll likely spend on fixing an attack on your websie.

If you catch the problem before Google slaps a warning label on your page, you’re already ahead of the game. In this case, you may only lose a day trying to fix the problem. Assuming you have a virus scanner on your site that warns you of any problems, you can get into the code before Google takes action. The first thing you’ll need to do is contact your host server, let them know what the problem is and then walk through the HTML with the tech-support person. In our case, this took two separate phone calls and hours of time on the phone attempting to find the issues and delete them. Generally, there are a couple of solutions to these website issues, the trick is finding the one that fully eliminates the problem.

Once you’ve gone through the code and believe you have deleted the malware, you’ll then need to go through your website and change your passwords, all of them, to make them more secure. This may sound easy, but there are passwords within your website that will need to be changed, and you’ll likely need the desk help to find them.

Estimate 3-6 hours at a minimum to solve any kind of malware hack to your site if you catch it before Google does. If (which is usually the case) you don’t catch it before Google and they slap a warning on your site, you can estimate at least 48 hours before your site will be active again. You first need to go through the steps to clean up your site and remove the offending code. Once that is done, you’ll then need to go into Google’s Webmster Tools site, verify your site and then send a request into Google to have them review your site. Once the site has been verified and a request has been sent, it’s out of your hands.  You’re at the mercy of Google to scan your site. In a best case scenario, it takes 24 hours. Typically, it takes longer. And until that warning is removed, your site is essentially dead in the water. In other words, your site could inaccessible for a week and there’s nothing you can do about it. This is taking away opportunities to reach new customers, communicate with current customers and enhance your online presence. This isn’t even mentioning the hit your reputation will take as people believe your site is infected.

The Impact:

As a small business owner you have to ask yourself if you have the time to spend 3 hours, 6 hours or more to deal with a website problem. Not only would you be losing the time your website is inactive, but you’ll be spending your time on an issue that, albeit is important, is pulling you away from tasks such as working with customers or generating sales. We’re not saying you aren’t able to solve your website problems, just that the time you’ll take doing it will be time you could better spend growing your business.

Even if you do take the hours it takes to go through your code, fix the problem, verify your site through Google Webmaster tools, make a request for a new Google scan, there’s no guarantee you won’t fall victim to another attack. That could mean more hours spent fixing future problems. Plus there’s always the chance that you missed some of the offending code, meaning Google wouldn’t remove the warning tag right away. On top of all of that, we haven’t even mentioned the time you spend updating your site in order to provide value to your visitors.

Dealing with a website when it’s NOT hacked can take up time you could be spending on generating sales.  When you add fixing problems on top of that necessary maintenance, you could end up devoting hours of valuable time to your site.

This is where a company like Grow, LLC can help. When it comes to your accounting, bookkeeping, website and other adminstrative aspects that help your business run smoothly, it just makes sense to outsource some of that work to an individual or group that not only has the expertise to help you get the job done right, but has the time to do it without interfering with your ability to generate sales. It’s not that you can’t do the job, but imagine how much more you can accomplish if you don’t have to worry about making sure your taxes are done right, your books are in order or your website is up and doing what it’s supposed to do? All those hours spent on administrative tasks can suddenly be spent on more productive aspects of your business, helping it grow the way you want it to.

Some Tips:

Of course, we wouldn’t be doing our job for you if we didn’t pass along a few tips to help you make sure your website is safe and secure from the kind of hack that impacted us. Here are a few things you can do (or have someone do for you) that should help you avoid major problems in the future:

1.) Make sure your login passwords are secure – This may sound like a no-brainer, but most small business owners keep their passwords simple so they don’t forget them later. This is great, but it also means your site is vulnerable. Make your passwords complicated, write them down and save them in case you forget.

2.) Remember the internal passwords – Your website has passwords that will give you access to internal HTML code and other important management pages. Make sure these passwords are also secure. Like login passwords, most host sites have a strength indicator to tell you whether or not your password is strong.

3.) Avoid external links – Your website may seem fully self-contained with no links to other pages that you know of, but that doesn’t mean the links aren’t there. Whenever you insert a plug-in, a photo from another page, a link to a payment system, map or website, that’s a link that could be used by a hacker to enter your site. Keep these links to a minimum when possible.

4.) Avoid too many plug-ins – As you build your site, you’ll be tempted by the many bells and whistles of the plug-ins available to your pages. Some of these may make your site more visually enticing, but they also can make your site more vulnerable. In the case of GoDaddy, many of their plug-ins are designed by third-party developers and could have bugs in them that may negatively impact your site. Try to limit your plug-in or widget use to those designed specifically by the host server.

5.) Have a security scan – Most server sites offer security scans that run regularly to catch any issues before they become serious problems. These scans often warn you of potential problems so you can put in firewalls or code that will prevent anyone from exploiting these weaknesses.  These fixes generally are easy and the host servers can walk you through the solutions.

Ultimately, your website is just as important to the success of your business as your accounting or customer service is. It’s how you reach out to customers and build an online presence which is so vital to every small business. But website only are effective when they’re working. Make sure you’re taking the time to keep your site clean of malware and updated for customer convenience. Just remember that it takes time to do it right, so whether you do it yourself, or work with a person or group to do it for you, it’s worth it to make sure your website is safe and secure. Trust us…been there, done that.

The fact is, most small businesses fail not because the idea is bad or because the owner didn’t work hard. They fail because many small business owners become overwhelmed by the massive amount of work involved in running a small business that doesn’t involve sales. Let’s face it, sales is one of the most important aspects of a successful small business. But when your time is taken up by administrative issues and paperwork, you have less time to actually help your business grow.

Grow, LLC can help you manage all the tasks that don’t directly generate revenue for your business. Just give drop us a line and let us help your business grow. You can find us on Facebook here, on Twitter at @growllc and of course on our website, www.growllc.com. Or you can just call us at 303.407.8200. We look forward to hearing from you soon!