The Productive Entrepreneur

Extreme Week Ends with New Home for Family

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has finished up its project in Pekin, Illinois, and it's still hard for me to believe that I was part of this incredible experience!

The Grys family returned home yesterday (Tuesday) to their beautiful new home. If you’re not familiar with the back story, let me tell you that this is an amazing family and the show is themed on celebrating local heroes. The couple has fostered more than 250 children over the years, mostly with special needs. Their youngest adopted son has been diagnosed with dwarfism and brittle bone disease.  It is said that he is in almost constant pain and breaks 2-4 bones every month.

The old house was torn down to the ground and a new one built in its place over the course of 106 hours… implementing special accommodations and technology that will make the home more appropriate for Jake’s very special needs.  During that time, we had to coordinate 500 skilled laborers, nearly 1,000 other volunteers and supply/labor donations from more than 200 companies.  It’s been an exhausting week, but fulfilling nonetheless.

The link below will take you to a video of the family's reaction and the photo is what the house actually looks like from the front.  The show is tentatively scheduled to air on January 11th. 

http://www.hoinews.com/news/video.aspx?id=213657  

Don’t Disappear!

Have you "disappeared" from the sight of your clients?

It's hard sometimes to keep in touch with your clients, especially when we're busy (and maybe overwhelmed) and concentrating hard on a big project or two. Most of us have gone through times when we haven't been very good at this.

But what if your clients wanted to get in touch with you? Do you return e-mails and voice messages in a timely manner? Or do they wonder if you've evaporated in to thin air?

Sam Carpenter, a blogger for StartUp Nation, recently talked about contractors that had a reputation for disappearing before completing the job. He talks about how they don't answer phones or return phone calls, and leave their voice mailboxes full so no other messages can be left. He wonders how they stay in business.

In his post, "Gone Missing" he writes, "The dysfunctional communication system is a reflection of the new contractor's chaotic personal methodology in which he or she is so wrapped up in fire-killing and "doing the work," that insidious inefficiency remains invisible while it gobbles up the bottom line."

So take a minute right now to think about your communication system. Is it dysfunctional? If so, you are truly hurting your own productivity, because even though you're out there working hard, you are losing valuable clients to the competition.

Here are some tips to get functional again:

• Commit to returning phone calls and e-mails within 24 hours – no ifs, ands, or buts! At the very least, let the sender know you received their message and will get back to them about the issue soon.
• Set aside time each day to answer voice mails and e-mails. Find a time that works for you and stick to it.
• Consider using a virtual answering service so your callers can talk with a live voice.
• If you are going to be unavailable for a while, use the auto response feature on your e-mail to explain when you will be able to respond. The same goes for your voice mail message.
• Delegate responses to your virtual assistant or an employee. Give them enough information to thoroughly answer the question and then allow them to be the contact person if the client needs more information.

Don't let your business earn the reputation of those contractors who disappear, never to be heard from again! Take care of your clients with prompt communication.

Researching the Candidates

Election day will be here before we know – thank goodness! I am definitely looking forward to campaign-commercial-free radio and television again!

There's been A LOT of focus on "Joe the Plumber" in the last few weeks. He has become the face of "small business owners" across the country. And whether he's the best example to use for this role or not, he has encouraged the presidential candidates to talk about their positions on issues that affect small businesses everywhere.

With all of the back-and-forth, accusations and assumptions, it's still sometimes hard to get a clear picture of where the presidential candidates stand. I agreed with StartUp Nation's blog writer Melanie Rembrandt, when she recently wrote an entry titled, "Public Relations and Politics – Question Everything." She said,

"It's important to review what the candidates support and what the various propositions entail. Instead of "going with the flow" and simply following what you see, hear and read in the news, please do me a favor and conduct a little bit of research. Get the real facts and make your own decision…You may be surprised at what you find."

One resource that might help is the International Franchise Association. They asked several questions and have posted each candidate's response on a Web page titled, "Shaping The Nation: Presidential Candidates Present Their Visions."

Other online resources include:

http://www.votesmart.org/

http://www.transparentdemocracy.org/?gclid=CITGjYnzq5YCFQv7agodZ1hcyw

http://vote-usa.org/?gclid=CMr-q6zzq5YCFRIcawodBwLWxw

Don't forget to vote on November 4^th!

"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" Comes to Peoria

What a whirlwind the last 2 weeks have been! On October 7, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" announced that the show would be coming to Peoria and partnering with my good friend and colleague, Melanie Spurgeon, to build a new house for a local family. The surprise "door knock" by Ty Pennington will happen today!

I've been working closely with Melanie to coordinate her communications strategy, project management, and sponsor and donation procurement. This particular project is completely dependent on volunteers and donations, and Melanie knows she could not build a house in seven days without this support.

I invite you to follow the progress of the build - sign up for updates at http://www.extremehomemakeoveril.com. You can also donate at this site.

To learn more about the project, visit http://www.designbuilthomesextreme.com. Here you will find information about Melanie and her business, our team, the show, and the family.

I am so excited to see the final results! It will be a busy and exhausting week, but we will all be extremely proud of our efforts when we watch the family's expressions as we yell, "Move That Bus!"

80/20 Rule – “The Pareto Principle” Applied

The 80/20 Rule is one of the most helpful of all concepts of time and life management. It is also called the "Pareto Principle" after its founder, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who first wrote about it in 1895. Pareto noticed that people in his society seemed to divide naturally into what he called the "vital few", the top 20 percent in terms of money and influence, and the "trivial many", the bottom 80 percent.

He later discovered that virtually all economic activity was subject to this principle as well. For example, this principle says that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results, 20 percent of your customers will account for 80 percent of your sales, 20 percent of your products or services will account for 80 percent of your profits, 20 percent of your tasks will account for 80 percent of the value of what you do, and so on. This means that if you have a list of ten items to do, two of those items will turn out to be worth five or ten times or more than the other eight items put together.

Number of Tasks versus Importance of Tasks
Here is an interesting discovery - Each of the ten tasks may take the same amount of time to accomplish. But one or two of those tasks will contribute five or ten times the value of any of the others.

Often, one item on a list of ten tasks that you have to do can be worth more than all the other nine items put together. This task is invariably the frog that you should eat first.

This is important to the productive entrepreneur because it tell you to focus on activities, not accomplishments. The most valuable tasks you can do each day are often the hardest and most complex. But the payoff and rewards for completing these tasks efficiently can be tremendous. For this reason, you must adamantly refuse to work on tasks in the bottom 80 percent while you still have tasks in the top 20 percent left to be done.

Before you begin work, always ask yourself, "Is this task in the top 20 percent of my activities or in the bottom 80 percent?"

The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place. Once you actually begin work on a valuable task, you will be naturally motivated to continue. A part of your mind loves to be busy working on significant tasks that can really make a difference. Your job is to feed this part of your mind continually.

Value-Focused

Deciding what you value most is an essential task for you to be a productive entrepreneur. Because the things that are high on your value list will be the things that you spend the most time on, and the tasks that you give 110% to complete. By defining what you value most – the things that are most important to you – you will be creating an instant priority list.

Since I'm a business coach concerned with helping you reach your fullest potential as an entrepreneur, let's focus just on your business for a minute. Go ahead and write down the things that you truly value about your business. What (or who) can't you do without?

Now take a minute and consider the top two or three things you have written down. If you truly value them as much as you say you do, don't they deserve your most focused attention and best effort?

I have no doubt that you are bombarded throughout your day with questions, demands, and needs from others. And even if you realize that you can't do it all, that doesn't mean that you won't at least try.

Your productivity and ultimately, your success, depends on you being very focused on those top two or three priorities, giving your very best to get those tasks done or meet those responsibilities with excellence and satisfaction.

Self Employment Expert Karen Greenstreet presents it this way in a recent blog:

"Give yourself a break from perfectionism and make a choice to give your very best only to those things that are high on your "Things I Value" list. Things that are unimportant should be dealt with quickly so that you can focus your time, attention and passion on the things that need your best work."

What are the things you value most in your business endeavors? Which things need your best work? If you don't know, I'd love to help you find out. And if you do know, I can help you figure out how to deal with those other things so that you can dedicate your time to the things that you value most. Leave a comment, or send me a note!

***

Joy Duling is a business strategist and creator of The Productive Entrepreneur ProgramTM. If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to explore the resources available at www.theproductiveentrepreneur.com. Each month, Joy presents resources and educational opportunities aimed at helping self-employed, entrepreneurial business owners increase their personal productivity so that they can accomplish BIG goals.

What Do You Value?

The concept of "value" seems to be taking a top spot in the news these days, and it's almost always referring to money or things of monetary value. What's the value of your home now? Your investment portfolio? Your savings account?

Money is the lifeblood of the economy – so much so that the government has taken on a huge sum of bad debt just to open up the credit markets again to keep money flowing. It has an intrinsic value to you as an entrepreneur and a small business owner because it's how you complete transactions – buying new equipment, supplies, and office space, and receiving payments for the services you provide. But does the value of the money you have become the overriding concern in your business?

I'd like to think, and even suggest to you, that money doesn't hold the top spot in terms of the values you hold in business. Successful entrepreneurs think about the other principles upon which they should build their business – customer relationships, the sense of accomplishment, dedication to service, a good, honest reputation.

In a recent post to his blog, Personal Development Coach Steve Pavlina says, "Does it bother me that my financial assets (such as my home) may go down in value because of the broader financial meltdown? Not really. The numbers in my life may get smaller, but money isn't the primary way I store the value I've created. I prefer to hold excess value in goodwill and relationships, not a number in a bank account. I'd rather have a million friends than a million dollars."

There are things that a bad economy can't take away, and those are the things that should really be the foundation of your business. Granted, the money pays the bills and allows you to take care of your needs. And there's nothing wrong with setting goals to make enough money to accomplish this. But remember that money can't buy those intangible things that really make our businesses and services attractive to our customers. Although our economy may be in limbo, a business built on those principles will persist and survive.

*** Joy Duling is a business strategist and creator of The Productive Entrepreneur ProgramTM. If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to explore the resources available at www.theproductiveentrepreneur.com. Each month, Joy presents resources and educational opportunities aimed at helping self-employed, entrepreneurial business owners increase their personal productivity so that they can accomplish BIG goals.

Federal Legislation Introduced to Simplify Home Deductions

Interested in simplifying your tax return? Then here's some information you'll like to hear! The federal government is considering legislation that would introduce a standard deduction for small business owners. It's called the Home Office Tax Deduction Simplification and Improvement Act. The press release follows, as well as a sample letter that you can send in support of this legislation.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Chief Counsel for Advocacy Thomas M. Sullivan today commended Representative Charles Gonzalez (D-TX) for introducing the Home Office Tax Deduction Simplification and Improvement Act (H.R. 7074).  The bill will simplify the home office deduction by introducing a standard deduction for small business owners.  It is companion legislation to S. 3371, introduced earlier this year by Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME).

In a letter to Representative Gonzalez, Chairman of the Regulations, Healthcare, and Trade Subcommittee of the U.S. House Small Business Committee, Sullivan said that he supported the measure and commended the Representative’s introduction of the bill.  Sullivan wrote, "H.R. 7074 will address the issue [home office deduction] legislatively."

Members of the small business community frequently appeal to the Office of Advocacy for relief from tax requirements that are disproportionately burdensome.  According to research from Advocacy, tax compliance is 67 percent more burdensome for the smallest businesses compared to their larger competitors.  Tax complexity, combined with the fact that 53 percent of America’s small businesses are home-based, prompted Advocacy’s support for H.R. 7074.

Last year, as part of Advocacy’s Regulatory Review and Reform (r3) initiative, the National Association for the Self Employed (NASE) and others identified the home office deduction as a tax provision that is unduly complex. 

Advocacy agreed with the NASE and named the deduction as a 2008 r3 Top 10 Rule for Review and Reform.

In July, Chairman Gonzalez held an oversight hearing on "Regulatory Burdens on Small Firms: What Rules Need Reforms?" that examined the 2008 r3 Top 10 Rules for Review and Reform.  The hearing, at which Chief Counsel for Advocacy Sullivan testified, focused on the need for reform of the home office deduction.

 The Office of Advocacy, the "small business watchdog" of the federal government, examines the role and status of small business in the economy and independently represents the views of small business to federal agencies, Congress, and the President.  It is the source for small business statistics presented in user-friendly formats, and it funds research into small business issues.

For more information, visit the Office of Advocacy website at www.sba.gov.advo.

Letter follows here:

September 26, 2008

 

VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL AND FACSIMILE

 

The Honorable Charles Gonzalez
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Re:  Support for H.R. 7074: Home Office Deduction Simplification and Improvement Act of 2008

Dear Mr. Gonzalez:

I am writing to express my strong support for H.R. 7074, the Home Office Deduction Simplification and Improvement Act of 2008.  Members of the small business community frequently appeal to my office for relief from tax requirements that are disproportionately burdensome for small businesses. 

The latest research shows that tax compliance is 67 percent more burdensome for the smallest businesses compared to their larger competitors.   Tax complexity, combined with the fact that 53 percent of America’s small businesses are home-based, prompts my office’s support for H.R. 7074.

 H.R. 7074 is consistent with what small business expressed to my office during an initiative we launched last year to encourage Federal agencies to minimize the regulatory burden on small business on a regular basis.  As you are aware, the Office of Advocacy started the Regulatory Review and Reform (r3) initiative as an annual exercise for the small business community to identify the top 10 Federal regulations that should be reviewed and reformed.   The home office deduction was identified by the National Association for the Self Employed (NASE) and others as a tax provision that is unduly complex.  We agreed with NASE and have called upon the IRS to consider implementing a standardized deduction under their existing administrative authority.  

This issue was further highlighted in a recent hearing you chaired in the House Small Business Subcommittee on Regulations, Healthcare and Trade on July 30, 2008.  The hearing examined the extent to which agencies are complying with their obligation under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) to review the regulations to determine if they are outdated, duplicative, or overly complex. 

The hearing so aptly conveyed the need for reform of the home office deduction and your legislation, H.R. 7074, will address the issue legislatively. Congress established the Office of Advocacy to represent the views of small business before Federal agencies and Congress independently.   Due to the Office’s independence, the views expressed in this letter do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) or official administration policy.

I commend your introduction of the Home Office Deduction Simplification and Improvement Act of 2008.  Thank you for your leadership and I look forward to working with you on this and other issues of importance to small employers.  If you have questions about the content of this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me or my office’s tax counsel, Dillon Taylor.  He is reachable at (202)401-9787 or Dillon.Taylor@sba.gov.