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Risk Management for Small Businesses by @SaabyConsulting

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Risk Management for Small Businesses

by Karen Jensen | Featured Contributor 

We are a nation of small businesses.  In fact, over 90% of U.S. businesses have less than 20 employees.  But many small businesses aren’t developing or implementing a risk management strategy – and that’s a big mistake.

I know as small business owners, we wear a lot of hats, but there are tried and true business practices that are absolutely necessary to ensure business success – risk management is one of them.

Risk management doesn’t have to be scary or intimidating.  It should be part of your overarching business plan. (If you don’t have a business plan, you might want to consider writing one of those too)

Are you a small medical practice?  Running an Airbnb property?  A restaurant with public wifi? An exporter of goods or services? Have an Etsy or Ebay store?

What is a risk management strategy?

There are lots of fancy definitions, but a solid risk management strategy really sums up everything about your business, how you keep it running and what you will do if it stops running (by design or by accident).

Some examples are:

  • your cash on hand and what you owe (financial risk management)
  • identifies and protects your proprietary information (Intellectual property risk management)
  • protects your customer and employee data (governance and compliance risk data)
  • your business continuity plan defines your business will do in the case of an unplanned event

I talk with so many small business owners who really have no idea of what their current state of business is.

The beauty of a small business is that you can make it anything you want.  If you design jewelry and sell it at local green markets on the weekend, you probably don’t need a lot of complicated software.  But if you want to build an Etsy store or your own website, you are going to need to know some basics.

  • Free versions of anti-virus and malware aren’t as good as paid versions. It’s essential for an online presence to employ reasonable tactics to protect your information and your systems.
  • Outdated software isn’t supported by the manufacturer. Windows 7 hasn’t been supported since 2015.  Yes, the security patches will be deployed until 2020, but seriously?  Why are you still running Windows 7?
  • Make a list of all the software applications you use. Are they current?  Do you use them?  This doesn’t take long and should be part of your business continuity plan.
  • Review your business credit card statements as carefully as you review your personal statements. Recurring charges that are unnecessary?  Services you don’t use with recurring billing?  Think lean and mean.  Only buy what you need and don’t pay for things you aren’t using.
  • Do you have employees? Consider writing an employee handbook.  I know quite a few small business owners who hired friends and family, who later sued them for employment practices.  Think hard about hiring friends and family.  If you decide to do it, make sure you define roles and set clear business practices.
  • If you want to build a growth strategy, make sure your business is in order. Spend the money to have your business reviewed by a small business attorney and a financial expert.  You can’t get an SBA loan without 2 years of tax returns, so it pays to get this all set up correctly in the beginning.  There are lots of attorneys and financial planners who specialize in small business architecture.  Invest in your business!
  • Let’s talk about technology. Technology can be such a big and frightening word for small businesses.  There are so many emerging technologies to follow, sales pitches about the new software you “must have” and just keeping up with the day to day requirements.
  • Small businesses are the weakest link in the cyber security chain. Over 60% of small businesses that are the victims of cyber crime go out of business in six months.  Can you do business without your customer database?  There are numerous reputable tools to help small businesses be cyber secure.  Many of them are also free so there’s no excuse!

 

I’m on a mission to help more small businesses succeed!

Keep me posted on your small business story.

 

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What kind of leader are you? by @SaabyConsulting

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What Kind of Leader are You?

As small business owners, we barely have time to keep the business running, let alone worry about what kind of leaders we are.

If you are thinking about how to grow your business, and you should be, now is the time to consider what kind of leader you are.  Even if you have never explored any research on leadership practices, I think most of us would acknowledge that while a good leader is critical to achieving a high level of morale at an organization, more often than not, leadership is frequently based on nepotism, favoritism and an ever- changing model of inconsistent rewards and inappropriate and poorly understood punishments.

Business growth is a team effort.

If your team isn’t on board with the organization’s goals and objectives, or worse, you haven’t even told them the organization has goals and objectives, rest assured, your efforts will fail.

Leadership is a process and even if you don’t think you were born to leader, you can certainly learn to be one.

Before you go on a mad hunt for leadership articles on the Internet or spend tons of money on books to read about leadership (wondering when you will find the time to read them) or signing up for boot camps on leadership – stop and take a deep breath.  You have more knowledge than you realize about leadership.

Start with a leader you have experience with.  What did you like about them?  Did you ever wonder why they conducted meetings at 7:30am?  Why some people always seemed to advance while seemingly not doing very much work?  And some people, no matter how hard they work, never seemed to get the recognition they deserve?  Did you have a clear set of goals on how to do your job?

These are just a few of the questions you can ask about a leader you may have had.  Maybe you had a leader, or a person you admired in a leadership role.  What about them gave rise to your admiration?

The point here is that the first step in becoming a leader is doing an assessment that defines what you think a good leader should be, where you think you are as a leader and where you want to be.

A critical aspect of leadership is your interaction with others.  It could be family, or colleagues, or subordinates or people you have business relationships with.  Use good judgement here but take some time to ask the people in each of these groups what they think about either your current leadership style, or what kind of leader they think you might be.  Be prepared.  It’s very likely that what other people think about your leadership skills is NOT what you think you are projecting.

There is literally tons of reference material about leadership and the qualities of a leader, so I will leave you to sift through all that.  Here are some good ideas about how to build your leadership at work and at home.

  • The best leaders base their success on the success of the team.
  • The best leaders take ownership when things go wrong and give credit to the team when things go right.
  • The best leaders build a following by leading transparently – being open about their own struggles, empathizing with others and setting clear expectations for their followers.

What kind of leader are you?  Would love to hear your thoughts.  Keep me posted on your leadership journey.

 

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The Power of You in Business by @SaabyConsulting

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The Power of You in Business

Photo by mentatdgt from Pexels

by Karen Jensen | Featured Contributor

I’ve spoken to so many women over the last several years – across all industries, revenue models and business types.

In all but rare cases, there are still some old patterns of behaviors and expectations that we really need to be committed to get rid of PERMANENTLY.

Do you fit into any of these?  I know I did…

  • Lacking confidence – I don’t know why, but especially in business ownership, women are less likely to approach situations with confidence. It may be cultural, gender related or any number of other things, but it’s got to stop!

Remedy?

You got this!!  We are moms, sisters, friends, household managers, partners, business executives et al.  And we are doing most of those things at the same time!  If you aren’t born with confidence, that’s ok – it can be learned.  You ARE good at things – think about all those things, write them down, shout them from the rooftops.  People are naturally drawn to someone who is confident.  In a world of competition, you need every advantage you can get.

  • Not all women LEAN IN – I can’t say I know the why of this one either – but I’ve seen it too many times to know that not all women lean in. Some of our business sisters haven’t gotten the message yet, or they got it and disregarded it.

Remedy?

You be the business sister that LEANS IN.

When I first started out, I approached a woman that I thought might be a good mentor, or just someone that I thought would have a good perspective.  I told her I was having troubling connecting with potential clients.  She asked me to make my pitch to her – right there on the spot.  Well, see Item #1 above lol.  I stumbled a bit and told her I started my business after being laid off/outsourced.  She stopped me right there and said, “You sound like a loser”.   Needless to say, that wasn’t what I was looking for, BUT I did learn something from that.  She was right in a way.  I wasn’t owning my story with confidence and I wasn’t prepared.

I do things a lot differently to LEAN IN when I’m approached by an entrepreneur.  I know how hard it is when you are first starting out to approach someone you don’t know and figure out a way to talk to them.  When they stumble a little bit or start to apologize, I stop them….and tell them what they are doing, why they shouldn’t do that and how great they are for being on this journey!  Some of them have cried because no one has really treated them with any respect in their business journey.

It’s bad business to treat people disrespectfully and kindness is NOT weakness.  The business world is VERY connected.  Reputation is everything for a small business.  I’m not taking anyone’s crap, but I’m also mindful of my behavior and how it is a reflection on my business.

  • Failure to delegate and accept that you can’t do it all. We want to be everything to everybody all the time under every circumstance.  Sound familiar?

Remedy?

You are a leader, and leaders cultivate people who can do all kinds of different things.  It doesn’t make sense for you to get up at four o’clock in the morning and drive yourself tirelessly through the day until midnight, then do it again the next day.  I hate to break it to you, but on that schedule, you aren’t doing the best you can.  You might be doing the most you can, but not the best.  Get a good night’s sleep!  You want to be around to see all the results of your hard work.  Set realistic goals for yourself every morning but incorporate flexibility into your design.  Things happen!  The people who survive are the people who can best adapt to change.  Try a virtual assistant – just to dip your toe in the waters of delegation.  If you can let go of a few things (that someone else can do better than you can), you have more time to work on new business and solidifying core business.  You are also helping to strengthen the workforce supply chain.

You are the business!  Take care of yourself!  Believe in yourself!  Just think of the example you will be setting for those that come after you!

All the best.

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The Power of You in Business by Saaby Consulting Company

Tips to keep your business from running out of business by @SaabyConsulting

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Tips to keep your business from running out of business

by Karen Jensen | Featured Contributor

In a perfect world, customers and clients would be lined up outside your door, your email Inbox would be overflowing, and your website would consistently be number one in SEO.

Even the most successful entrepreneurs have changes in their business models.  No one has represented this better than Oprah.  She fearlessly left a successful television show to start her own channel.  She has continued that pioneer spirit by diversifying her brand even further with Weight Watchers, movies, etc.

Diversification should be part of every small business strategy.  Just because your market is flowing a certain way NOW, that doesn’t mean it will continue.

How to stay on top of your business?  As the founder and president of my own company, I’ve learned the importance of benchmarking and measuring how well my strategies are performing.

In marketing and advertising, there are any number of free tools that have been a part of my strategy since early on.  I may never get to page one for a search (that really can be ok), but I know exactly how many visitors go to my site, which one of my posts is doing well (and which one’s aren’t) on every social media outlet I have.

Staying connected is critical.  Decide what you believe in as a company.  I consider every post, every blog and every interview a chance to portray my company in a good (or terrible) way.  At networking events, I put aside personal concerns and focus on who I want to connect with and making sure I’m never dismissive of people who come up and speak to me.

What are my financial metrics and how are they performing based on historical data?  I know exactly how much I’ve spent on supplies for the last seven years!  I think of this as the “Prius Effect”, where having access to data changes how you behave.  I’ve watched incidental spending decline as my business has grown.  In the beginning, I wasted a lot of money buying things I thought I should have, or things other people told me I absolutely needed.

Stay current in your industry and see how you can expand your business to new industries.  Over the last several years, I’ve expanded outside of my core business of technology solutions to smarter city solutions and workforce solutions.  Technology is impacting literally every aspect of business, creating opportunities and making some things obsolete.

Become your own subject matter expert – about your industry and your company.  People respect knowledge and well thought out ideas.  I have an opinion on frontier technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence that isn’t what most people are talking about.  The truth is – implementing blockchain at this point is at best, theoretical, and artificial intelligence doesn’t really exist right now.  A more accurate term for today’s artificial intelligence would be data and/or predictive analytics.  There aren’t any machines making human decisions – it’s going to take a long time for us to feed all the data into the machines that they would need to know.  There are also ethical considerations that aren’t getting the attention they deserve.

You won’t be an entrepreneur until YOU think you are.  If you are still searching “how to be an entrepreneur”, you probably aren’t quite there yet.  But you can get there.

All the best to small businesses and entrepreneurs everywhere!

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