MSPmentor

One of my favorite small-business bloggers, Anita Campbell, recently wrote that the key to being successful in your small business start-up is to be very careful with how you spend money, even if it means growing very slowly. She has some no-lose advice, including being picky about adding products and features, partnerships and employees; acting like the small company you are without faking the accouterments that go with being big; looking for discounts before you buy so much as a box of paper clips; and of course focusing on growing sales.

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Here’s a book that is probably not on any entrepreneur’s top 10 or even top 100 business books list, but it’s one I keep on my desk just about all the time: The Portable Coach: 28 Surefire Strategies for Business and Personal Success by Thomas Leonard. Before his untimely death six years ago at the age of 48, Leonard was the founder of Coach University (where I received my coach training). His book is not a tool just for coaches. It’s for everyone in business who wants to be happier.

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Having just written a book on how to know if franchising is right for you after your corporate career, I collector stories of people making good on the franchise dream. How are they doing it? I interview interesting franchisees all the time and was going to wrap it all up in one mega-blogpost, but I think you’ll gain more as a prospective franchisee if you can listen to these folks one at a time.

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I was reading a blog post recently (darn, forgot to bookmark it) about how to manage your business when things start going badly. The advice included cutting employees’ pay to avoid or postpone layoffs; outsourcing anything that can be done by third parties to reduce overhead; and slowing payments to your vendors. It’s the last item that got me to stop and think.

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Entrepreneur Magazine has a great article on the top five fears of entrepreneurs. But why stop at five? I’d like to expand the list to 10 common fears I hear about during my work as an executive coach.

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For people thinking of starting a business but hesitating because of the recession, you’re out of excuses: a new study by the Kauffman Foundation finds that about half the Fortune 500 and Inc. fastest-growing companies were founded during recessions. Here are some more eye-opening findings.

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Keith Ferrazzi has a nice piece on his blog called “Surefire Tips for a Successful Sales Call,” including a useful 2 minute video. He focuses on relationship selling–making the customer feel comfortable by focusing on her favorite subject–herself.  He gives six great suggestions. Read what he has to say, and then have a look at a few more items that I’ve found useful over the years when it comes to relationship selling.  I learned some of these ideas from Rennie Crabtree of Marketing Outcomes, whom I consider my mentor in relationship selling.

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In the small business I own, I’ve noticed an ebb and flow through the years — periods when I am really “on it” and other times when I am either coasting or not as engaged as I need to be. I bet that managed service providers or anyone with a small business goes through the same cycles. Maybe if you read this you’ll snap out of a down cycle and get back on your game. So here goes: 6 Things Small Business Owners Do To Undermine Their Own Success.

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Last week I spoke at a conference called Re-Branding You, sponsored by NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies and organized beautifully by P&V Enterprises and Events by Ny. The conference was aimed at people who are looking to change careers or positions as the economy shifts. There isn’t necessarily a managed services “hook” below. But there is a central lesson for all of us as we mull our career directions.

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I have a theory about startups (companies forming during this recession) that hasn’t been tested yet, so I’ve been reaching out to my network for input — on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, lots of emails, a few chats over coffee, and now here.

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The Times reports that the growing armies of the unemployed are sick and tired of sending out resumes and are starting their own businesses in droves. One laid-off biologist is making–and taking orders for, thank you very much– $25,000 jelly fish tanks. An entrepreneurship professor at the University of San Francisco coined this phenomenon “forced entrepreneurship.” It’s what you do when you can’t find a job and you have to pay the bills. Plenty of former IT administrators, for instance, could become IT consultants and managed service providers.

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Barry, one of my coaching clients, is a financial advisor in California. He recently told me a story about a certified public accountant (CPA) who fails to connect emotionally with her clients. Stick with me, because the story definitely has implications for managed service providers (MSPs) that are striving to retain customers.

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I recently spoke with a B2B publishing expert. Her predicament is similar to the challenge facing some VARs and solutions providers: She knows her industry cold, as well as the suppliers and the entire value chain. But she asks a good question: so what? Are the skills relevant to the future economy? Let’s be conservative and say no. But her knowledge can be turned into something very valuable. If I were coaching this person, I’d ask her to consider these suggestions:

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Recently, I was updating my contact database and asked my newsletter recipients to answer a question along with giving me their mailing info. The question was, “What is the biggest challenge you faced when making (or thinking about) the transition from being an executive to being an entrepreneur?”

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In 25+ years in corporate management (and those years are blissfully behind me), I witnessed a lot of behavior that was destructive of employee morale, as well as actions that built up morale. Here are some pointers that will help you motivate your people, whether you are in a large or small business.

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If you’re wondering who’s going to do well in this economy, look no further than companies that sell franchises. In a very insightful article on MSNBC.com, Mark Siebert notes that the increase in the unemployment rate of 1.4 percentage points over last year adds 2.2 million people to the jobless pool. And “every 0.1 percent increase in the unemployment rate adds another 150,000 prospective franchise buyers to the marketplace.” Add to those who are being pushed overboard the folks who are going to jump before they are pushed–Siebert calls them the “near layoffs”–and the pool grows larger still.

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I was introduced to B2Bcfo.com’s Keith Simmons (pictured) by my CPA. I don’t often get together for a cup of coffee with a stranger, but because my accountant is someone I really trust, I decided to do it. We had no particular agenda except to see if there might be some common interests, and indeed there were. Keith is a partner in a fascinating business that helps small firms have access to expert chief financial officers on a temporary basis. His focus is Long Island and the New York metro area, but his company has partners nationwide.

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I’ve spent a bunch of time the past several days thinking about ways to reconnect with people who’ve been important to me in various periods of my life. I’ve done a so-so job staying in touch, but the older I get the more important staying in contact feels.

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The Wall Street Journal’s Independent Street blog recently carried an item about getting employees to think like entrepreneurs. The keys are to:

1. Organize them into small groups
2. Share profits
3. Embrace failure
4. Reward ideas
5. Promote risk takers

Those are all worthy ideas. But a fundamental piece is missing. Step Six: The top-down piece. Here’s what I mean.

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For many entrepreneurs and executives, emotions don’t have a place at work. I have met and worked for many senior managers who expect employees to show up in uniform, ready to play, with their game face on. I have also been that manager at times—the one with his own problems who just wishes everyone would do their jobs without complaint and let me do mine.

If only people-management were that simple! In fact, emotions rule in the workplace, whether you want to admit it or not. You think the fight your top tech expert had last night with her husband doesn’t affect you? That you can turn your back when one of your salespeople tells you he’s being ridden so hard by his sales manager that he can’t focus? That it’s not your problem when a customer made your customer service manager break into tears?

I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to the impact of emotions at work as I go through the process of becoming certified as an Emotional Intelligence coach. There are a variety of emotional intelligence skills noted by Genos America, an expert in the field. They are emotional self-awareness, emotional expression, emotional awareness of others, emotional reasoning, emotional self-management, emotional management of others, and emotional self-control.

The other day I was working with a client on emotional awareness of others–the skill of perceiving and understanding others’ emotions. After taking a self-assessment and having several people from her organization take the assessment to score her, she found that while her self-score was high, the score given to her by her raters was quite low. The ratings were based on how frequently she identifies the way people feel about issues at work, understands what causes people to feel specific emotions, and demonstrates an understanding of others’ feelings at work.

She said something interesting when reflecting on her results. “I care really deeply about my people, but I guess I don’t always show it.” Wow, you don’t hear management types show that degree of self-assessment very often! She’s now doing a fieldwork assignment to think about a situation where emotional awareness was important to a business outcome, what she could have done better, actions she can take to develop her skill and how she’ll be able to measure her progress.

Have you had an interesting Emotional Intelligence experience in the workplace? Let me know.

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At first glance, franchises are for fast food and retail stores. But franchises are popping up in the managed services market, and quite a few are successful.

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