2008 will be here before you know it, are you ready with what the market will throw at you in a couple of months. With 2008 just around the corner, now is a good time to start the discussion of what needs to be the focus areas in 2008 for the small business IT professional and small business specialist.In 2007 we experienced a tremendous amount of innovation in the small business technology world. Innovation included releases of a new desktop operating system, new productivity suites of applications and enhanced methods to share information and communicate with each other. 2008 will be no different! The excitement around new versions of the Windows Server operating system that will scale from the smallest of business requirements right through to the largest of enterprises offerings. Plus we will see new innovation with how business manage, share and secure corporate data and how applications are written that deliver solutions to today’s global economy.However, I personally do not feel that our focus be totally on the ones and zeros around all of this new technology. Small business owners, managers and users today do not care about what the technology specifications are, they have business needs that must be addressed and they need to be running all the time. Downtime, breakdowns and complicated solutions are not an option in today’s one world market.Where will today’s IT professional or small business specialist be focusing their efforts for the upcoming year in order to grow their business sustainably in 2008? Here are some ideas to kick start the planning processes for 2008:Focus on people – Small Business does business with those who they trust and can establish a relationship with. It is not about the speeds and feeds any longer, small business owners don’t care about how fast something runs or how much memory is in a laptop. Meeting business needs is no longer expectable by throwing technology at a problem, it is now about exceed expectations and having their technology investments work. The systems or software most of the time is transparent to the end user.The importance of data – Having their data accessible and secured is very important to small business. Data has to be managed and controlled and combined with ease of access. Complicated file shares and network systems are no longer acceptable to the end users. Data must be accessible to enhance collaboration and sharing throughout any organization. Small Business IT firms that understand and promote the importance of data, who can offer their clients services like the SharePoint Starter Site and Exchange mail services through their mail clients, mobile telephones and web access will win in the end.Securing Small Business – As the world shrinks in size when it comes to business, emerging threats continue to show their ugly face and threaten commerce. Securing small business will continue a challenge for the small business specialist. It must be a main focus for many of us in the IT community. Luckily, we haven’t seen a major virus outbreak for a while; however, the threats are still out there. Educating small business against the threats from social engineering, corporate espionage and also the “threat from within” must be a major focal point in 2008. As social networking gains momentum, small business needs to understand the importance of ensuring information flow is secure without jeopardizing productivity. Small Business IT Professionals that offer their clients a managed firewall service that controls SPAM, virus, spyware and other threats will have a competitive advantage of those who offer transactional firewalling solutions.Business Process – How small business does business will be an important trend for the small business IT professional to understand in 2008. If a small business consulting firm can master how small business does business and how information flows within their clients will end up ahead in 2008. Business Intelligence services that once purely an enterprise play will start to move into the small business space. Those who master this will come out of 2008 with a definite advantage.IT as a Service – Managed Services is all the buzz in the SMB community it has been for a number of years, however, in 2008 the focus on “as a service” will grow, firms that can offer software or hardware as a service will have a competitive advantage over those who do not, and those that can bundle their complete IT solutions as a service will win in the end. It will no longer matter how it is structured from a billing perspective, (annual, monthly, weekly or hourly) the service component is the important key and this is what small business is after.The Complete Solution – SMB consultants that can deliver the complete solution will win in 2008. This is nothing new, small business wants a solutions partner that can offer the complete end to end offering. From systems, software, solutions and service, today’s small business client needs to be “under” one umbrella. Partnering will continue to be an advantage in the marketplace. Partnering to extend geographic service, specialty services and complete services must be on the top of your list to achieve in the early part of 2008. Those firms that can extend their service offering to other partners will have a strong advantage over those who just stick to their own small silo.Marketing – The small business consulting firm that can market all of this effectively will hold the trump card over those that do not see the importance of marketing. There has been a lack of focus on the importance of marketing with small business partners over the past few years, while those that continued to actively market have grown faster and have separated themselves from the masses. Small Business partners must have a resource dedicated to marketing in 2008. This can be outsourced or hired in-house. One word of advice to the owners of small business firms, you are responsible for the strategic marketing direction, never outsource that component. If you are not comfortable with marketing, seek the advice of someone who can help you. There are a number of great marketing coaches and consultants that can assist you.Strength in Peers – Teaming up with peers will continue its strong momentum in 2008. Once again, no IT firm can know everything nor do everything. This is where having a strong peer group relationship is vital to the success of your business. Information and idea sharing, technical specialties, and relationships are keys to success in the IT business. TechSelect and Heartland Technology Groups offer peer group services to firms that specialize in small business and are open to sharing information, best practices and resources with each other. Our involvement in the Heartland Peer Groups has been a key to the success of my business and offers us a competitive advantage over firms that have not engaged in this business practice.”I think the marketing continues to present great opportunities for partners who execute, deliver great service, and provide true solutions to clients…and that’s where we’re focusing for 2008,” states Erik Thorsell, President of Minneapolis’ Success Computer Consulting. “Managed services support for network infrastructure is important, but that doesn’t get our business owner-clients excited…solutions do! If we can provide technology that solves business problems, makes work better, faster or cheaper, then we all win!”2008 will be an exciting year in the small business space across the globe, boundaries will continue to disappear in our global economy, peer relations will strengthen, and collaboration will continue to become more and more important to small business, however, it needs to happen in a secure fashion so that small business can maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace that they service.
A Problem With Your Home Based Business Systems: Application of Time Management
By now, everyone has been talking about or has talked about the importance of time management for any small business. It’s one of the integral components of successful home based business systems. But what most home based business systems lack is how to efficiently implement time management when applied to result-producing activities. You know that it’s important to organize your time, organize your activities, and try to minimize the time spent on activities to increase output. However, what I find lacking is that most people are not talking about how to apply those techniques in reference to home based business systems where you have several categories of tasks that need to be accomplished every day. Those categories are prospecting, business execution, and support.In order to create a time management action plan, you must first decide how much time you set out to devote to your home based business systems.Prospecting:When we consider prospecting in home based business systems, we need to understand that prospecting needs to be worked in two pools: customer base and distribution. Now, most people start freaking out when it comes to bringing people in to their businesses, or are up in arms on how to do it right. But isn’t that one of the basic precepts of any business? Think about it: what is the best way for you to increase your reach?Consider the basic retail business in this regard. Companies like Walmart, Target, Macy’s, or franchises like McDonald’s or Burger King all have exponentially increased their revenues by expanding their number of distribution points. The more stores in strategic geographic areas, the more customer base. When it comes to your home based business systems, the same principle applies. If you identify people that want to achieve their dreams through owning their own business, you can expand your customer base and increase sales revenues through increased distribution.Anyhow, back to the main focus. 1/2 of your day should be focused on prospecting customers and potential business owners. Business doesn’t grow if you just focus on administration and maintenance. This is especially true of home based business systems because of the fact that you don’t have the large financial budget compared to retail outlets and corporate companies, so you need to create clout and business organically. These methods can be done online and offline, in-person or utilizing social media. However, you must set out specific times in which you go and promote your business to get exposure.Some examples of how I prospect are that I join local community groups through Meetup and Chamber of Commerce. I keep a schedule of events that are posted and make time to get out and network. You can even prospect through your daily errands. If you are a stay-at-home mom, there are tons of ways to prospect. Whether it’s at the park, grocery store, picking up your kids, PTA meetings, every day that you are out in the world is another opportunity to prospect customers and potential business partners. Study up on how to start and maintain conversations and figure out approaches that will land you names to add to your list. I will write an article on this at a later time.Executing Business:A 1/4 of your remaining time should be devoted to administration and business maintenance tasks. Home based business systems all have administrative tasks that need to be completed on a timely basis. Failure to do so can result in penalties and setbacks in your business. It’s no different than the same penalties that traditional businesses suffer when failing to comply with certain regulations. For example, if a restaurant fails to renew their alcohol license or they fail a health inspection, fines are implemented. In your business, tasks can include filling out forms to maintain sales reports for safe taxable reporting, organizing your names list, and answering emails, tweets, comments, and posting new content on your funnels. The list goes on and on, so it’s key to write all your tasks down per week and organize them in to daily lists to organize your time to complete them.Supporting Your Business:This is something that I think most home based business systems lack in terms of having their business owners spend time thanking and maintaining customer loyalty. I’ve found that offering to provide your current customers with incentives to refer other customers to you is one of the primary and most effective marketing methods there is. Identify your top 5 customers and personally thank them by sending a note. Also useful is to provide a special promo incentive for them, like a tiered discount structure for the number of customers they refer to you. Just be sure that you don’t harass your customers by sending too much communication. Be smart with your business. Give them incentives to provide reviews and testimonials for the products they love that they purchase from you, so you solidify your sales materials for other potential customers.Not only do you want to support your customers, but support your team as well. Take time out to call your teammates and make sure you are providing them the support they need. Stabilize your organization and you stabilize your own income as well. Utilize contests to promote friendly competition with your team to boost sales, and set goals with your team and follow-up with them to keep them accountable.Don’t forget to keep track of your business volume and make sure that you are being rewarded for the result-producing activities you and your team are conducting.
Hiring An Auction Company
Estimating your assets value:
Typically, one of the first questions a business owner will ask me is, “how much will the assets bring at an auction”. After taking the time to review the assets, the auctioneer should give the client a conservative estimate of the sale based upon his experience and the current market trends. It is important that the company give realistic expectations so the seller can make informed decisions based on their best interest.
Compensation and Expenses:
Is the company you are considering working for you or against you? The agreement you decide may determine this.
A business owner should carefully consider how the auction company is compensated. The most common commission structures include: straight commission, outright purchase of assets, guaranteed base with a split above to both auctioneer and seller, guaranteed base with anything above going to auctioneer or a flat fee structure.
In a straight commission structure, the company is paid an agreed upon percentage of the total sale.
In an outright purchase agreement, the auctioneer simply becomes your end buyer. The company purchases your assets and relocates them. While this can be an option in some unique situations, keep in mind that they will want to purchase your assets at a very reduced price to make a profit at a later date.
In a minimum base guarantee, the auction company guarantees the seller that the auction will generate a minimum amount of sales. Anything above that amount either goes to the auction company or split with the seller. While a seller might feel more comfortable doing an auction knowing that he is guaranteed a minimum amount for his sale, keep in mind that it is the best interest of the auction company to secure a minimum base price as low as possible in order reduce their financial liability to the seller and secure higher compensation for the sale.
In a flat fee structure, the auctioneer agrees to show up for the sale and call the auction. There is no incentive for the auctioneer to get the best prices for your assets. The auction company is compensated regardless of the outcome of your sale.
What is the best option for business owners? In my experience, an agreed upon straight commission structure. This puts the responsibility on the auction company to offer the best outcome for everyone involved. There is an incentive for the auction company to work hard for both parties, set up and run a professional sale, get the highest bid and sell every item on the inventory. Successful auctions translate to a higher bottom line for both the seller and the auction company.
Auction Expenses:
In most auction agreements the expenses to conduct an auction are passed to the seller. If the auction company pays for the expenses, it is simply absorbed in higher commission rates.
All expenses should be agreed upon in advance in a written contract. Typical expenses will include the costs of advertising, labor, legal fees, travel, equipment rentals, security, postage and printing. A reputable auction company will be able to estimate all expenses based upon their experience in previous auctions. An agreement should be actual costs charged as expenses, not an estimated amount.
Advertising is typically the highest cost in conducting an auction. The auction company needs to set up an advertising campaign that will promote the sale to its best advantage and not overspend to simply advertise the auction company.
Once the auction is complete, the auction company should provide a complete breakdown of all expenses to the seller, including copies of receipts within the auction summary report.
Buyer’s Premium:
What is a buyer’s premium? If you attend auctions regularly, you are very familiar with this term. The auction company charges a fee to the buyer when they buy an item at auction.
The buyer’s premium has been around since the 1980′s and is standard auction practice. It was first used by auction houses to help offset costs of running brick and mortar permanent auction facilities. Since then, it has spread to all aspects of the auction industry. It is prominent in online auctions and allows auction companies to cover added expenses incurred from online sales.
It is the responsibility of the auction company to provide clear disclosure of the buyer’s premium to both the buyers and the sellers. Those not familiar with auctions are often taken back by the buyer’s premium. They looked upon it as an under handed way for the auction company to make more money. Reputable auction companies will provide full disclosure within the auction contract, advertisement and bidder registration.
Typically, an auction company will charge online buyers a higher buyer’s premium percentage than those attending an auction in person. Extra fees are incurred with online bidding and are charged accordingly to online buyers. This provides the seller a level playing field for both online buyers and those attending the auction in person. Without the buyer’s premium, there is no way to do this.
Pre-Sales:
We’ve all been there. We’re looking forward to attending an auction only to find that some items were sold prior to the auction date.
As an auctioneer with over thirty-six years of experience, I can honestly state that pre-sales will hurt an auction. When a company decides to liquidate their assets, it is easy to sell off high-end pieces of equipment through online sources, equipment vendors or to other businesses. The seller receives instant cash and avoids paying a commission to an auction company.
Auctioneer’s find themselves appearing to acting in a self-serving capacity when potential clients say they are planning to sell off parts of their inventory prior to an auction. It’s hard not to consider the auctioneer’s commission when they warn you not to pre-sell anything. Yes, the auctioneer wants to earn a commission on those sales but it is more important that the auctioneer protect the sale from potential negative backlash that comes from pre-selling. The buying public knows when an auction has been “cherry picked” prior to the sale and it reflects in their bidding. It becomes a sale of “leftovers” and that impacts prices.
A buyer who purchases prior to the auction usually does not attend the sale. They already bought equipment at a good price with no competition. If they do attend the auction, they tend to let others know of their great pre-sale purchases which again, impacts prices and the overall excitement of the sale.
It is important to understand that auctions work best with a complete inventory. You want competition on your higher end equipment. The easy to sell items make it possible to gain respectable prices for hard to sell items.
When a business owner decides to liquidate their equipment assets, there is only one opportunity to do it right. Hiring a reputable auction company will assist you with a professional, orderly and timely liquidation.