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Using the Right Tool for the Job – It Makes All the Difference!
By Victoria Zillioux

We are in the process of designing a new website and blog so I have been looking around the Internet for small business hot topics. Of course we are all familiar with the general topics we see in the news about the economy, job statistics and lack of financing for small businesses. But what I have been looking for are blogs and discussion groups that more specifically deal with small business issues. Has anyone found any sites or blogs like that?

I have found some interesting blogs in my research that I thought I would pass on:

Harvard Business Review is an interesting blog that includes a variety of people who write on different subjects. The topics are timely and the blog site is well maintained and current, as you would expect from this group. Depending on the topic, there can be quite a bit of response from readers. But it is not consistent and also not necessarily small business focused.

Ken Blanchard’s blog site is also a site focused on business issues but doesn’t seem to draw a large number of comments on the topics they write about. It ends up being more like a one-way conversation without reader participation. The topics picked always seem to be good ones. So why is there little conversation generated?

The blog located on a lesser known site of Social Media Magic focuses on social networking tips, so it is less of a general business information site, but it also does not seem to generate conversations. It can be very informative and since this is such a hot topic, you would thing there would be some readers responding.

I have tried the social media sites such as LinkedIn and find that much (but not all) of what I find there are people marketing their services. Some discussion groups are looking more like Craig’s List advertising than places where you can find useful information in a discussion format. I am wondering if other people are having the same experience or if I am just somehow missing the mark. I have put some questions out into discussion groups for information and perhaps my active participation will uncover the information we are looking for. I’ll keep you posted on that one.

Evidently blogs are not going to supply me with the information that I am looking for. To give you a little back story, we realize not everyone is in a position to hire a consultant to better understand what is happening in their organization or to motivate employees, to increase market share, improve bottom line or just take the temperature of their company. So, we are developing a site that will provide businesses with the ability to assess and address organizational issues through use of our well-tested diagnostic tools and analytics. We have lots of tools to share but we’d like to know which ones you’d be most interested in seeing first. We would certainly appreciate feedback.

To a large extent, entrepreneurs are “do-it-yourselfers” who are the take-charge sort and would like to move their organization forward but don’t have the measurement and analytical tools that would indicate where to start and how to go about it. Most small business owners have started their business because they are experts at a particular product or service. But they are not necessarily business experts. Business dips (or even growth spurts) can be difficult to predict and scary to manage. Growing a company includes bringing on employees in operations and sales and requires a multitude of people and management skills that were not required when the business was smaller.

So our questions are:

• If you had access to a business consultant’s toolbox, what would you want to find in there?
• What problems would you like to solve?
• What business issues would improve with the right tools?

We are thinking that some of the tools we use with our clients such as employee surveys, benchmarking and measurement tools, mission and vision workbooks and management training tools would all be helpful. But we want to hear from businesses out there as well. We know what we think – it’s what the business owner’s think that is important to us.

We are planning to send out a quick survey to our contact list to better understand what business people would most like to be able to use. We would appreciate your help in this endeavor. We will keep it quick and easy to respond. Please give it a bit of thought and let us know.

In the meantime, since I haven’t found the blog out there that opens discussions around small business issues, we will get one started ourselves. We’ll let you know when that goes live so we can all create an on line business community to bring up ideas, questions and suggestions as well as comment on what we have to say. We hope you will be interested in participating.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

News & Events at SDW:

Watch for these upcoming events:

• Our new Business Solutions Toolbox Survey.
• Our new Member Benefits program.
• Our new website where you’ll be able to download diagnostic and analytical tools.

The Arte of Motivation:

“Imagination is the eye of the soul.”
- Joseph Joubert

Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) was a French moralist and essayist who published nothing during his lifetime but he wrote a copious amount of letters and filled sheets of paper and small notebooks with thoughts about the nature of human existence, literature and other topics, in a poignant often-aphoristic style. The word aphorism (literally “distinction” or “definition”) denotes an original thought, spoken or written in an easy to remember form. After his death, his widow published all of his writings in a series of books called Collected Thoughts of Mr. Joubert. In these he literally poured out his soul and let his imagination show to the world.

What original thoughts will you imagine today? You’ll probably do lots of things that are on your schedule, many of which you’ve done many times before or you’ll do them without much thought. These things we do out of habit and take for granted can feel like they’re unimportant and meaningless tasks to collegues and customers. How much better would they be if you put some extra thought and time and energy and enthusiasm into them?

• Take a different route to work today and see if your perspective on what and how you’re going to do things changes.
• Stop and talk to the people you work with today about what they’re doing – don’t assume you know and see if you find out anything different.
• Look at your business plans today and see if they really reflect what you want and need to be doing – chances are things have changed and your business plans have not – and the men and women you work with might appreciate the renewed direction of an updated plan.
• Ask your best employees what’s on their mind today and how you and they could work better and smarter and more effectively – chances are they’ve been waiting to tell you and you’ll find out some things that will greatly improve what you’re doing.
• Call your top customers today and ask them what they really need from you and how they think you’re doing – most likely they’ll be surprised you asked and then tell you what they would really like.

With a little imagination you can transform the many often repeated habits you have into more thoughtful, creative and productive actions. Take time today to imagine and believe that what you’re doing is for the first time – that’s called “being in the moment”. If you do this right, the energy and enthusiasm that you show will spread to those around you and together you’ll have a renewed sense of purpose that can re-energize your business.

I recently heard Sting perform for a business incentive group meeting; while on-stage he sang Roxanne, one of his all time greatest hits. While I’m sure he’d sung that song thousands of times before, on this night it seemed as though it were fresh and new. When asked how he could have made it seem like it was the first time he’d sung it, he replied: “To this audience it was the first time.” That simple response defined for me what “in the moment” really means: put all your enthusiasm and energy into whatever you’re doing each and every time and those you’re doing it with and for will catch that feeling and respond as if it is special and focused especially for them. It is funny how simple concepts like this can lead us to a whole new way of thinking about what we do and how we do it.

And, it is funny how a simple quote, from someone you’ve probably never heard of and who lived more than 150 years ago, can apply to our business practices today. But then, there’s not much new in the world of basic business practices that can’t be learned from the lessons of the past. In this case, the original thoughts of a French moralist and essayist can be applied to what we do every day. Take time today to apply some “in the moment” focus to your efforts and see if it transforms your habits into more successful actions. Imagine that!