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A Dollar! Who’s Excited? by @tenaciousAngie

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by Angie Weber | Featured Contributor

I have a very important question for you, reader. When is the last time you got excited about a dollar?

I mean like really, jump-up-and-down, can’t-wait-to-put-it-in-your-piggy-bank, kind of excited. I’m going to take a wild guess that it probably hasn’t been anytime soon.

Let’s change that.

A few weeks ago my husband and I got a very exclusive invite to an A-list party… a 4 year old’s birthday. Well actually, my kids got the invite, but they say it’s all about who you know. 

During the opening of the presents, the birthday girl tore open a card and yelled with pure joy and excitement, “Mom, look… A DOLLAR!” Unknown to her- it, in fact, was not a dollar – it was a crisp twenty.

This happened a few more times throughout the opening and she held the same excitement each time she saw another “dollar.” It got me thinking; not only did this little kid have more cash on her than I did, it made me realize we might not be celebrating a dollar as much as we should.

We have some big sales goals around here at the tena.cious office and I’m sure (or hope) you do as well. But would you really be excited if you made a sale for 100 pennies? You probably wouldn’t be too thrilled unless there were enough pennies to equal a few Benjamins.

But why not?

Let’s embrace our inner 4-year-old. Let’s focus on the fact that it’s a sale! I know it’s easy to move right on to the next one, but we should be celebrating each and every sale we bring in.

Let’s give Washington a little more credit. Yes, it is only a dollar, but you need to start somewhere, right?

The birthday party, mixed with the fact that I just finished listening to “Profit First” on audible, has had my head spinning. If you haven’t hopped on the bandwagon of listening, get with it girl- they are amazing!  

PS. If you haven’t listened or read this book yet, you should probably stop reading this blog and go download it right now. The book seriously blew my mind when it comes to money and business. This system pretty much makes you account for every.single.dollar. It’s like Dave Ramsey for biz. And, you may have already guessed it from the title, he makes you think about your profit first. Yes, first. Not your expenses, not your sales, your profit. You know that thing that you dreamed of when you became an entrepreneur. 

But I can’t lie, even though all the accounts and transactions can be intimidating, it makes you really think about every dollar you were bringing in… and sending out. It’s crazy to think how many of those Washington’s you could be keeping in your account vs. spending. (e.g. gym memberships … need I say more?!)

By now you’re probably wondering, what’s the purpose of Angie spitting all of this out at me?

A) I want you to get excited about those dollar bills coming into your account! To be considered a business (not a hobby), you need money. So let’s give a high five on any sale coming your way – no matter how big or small!

B) Think about your profit, peeps. Let’s keep a hold of some more of that money and rethink the places we are spending it.

The next time I see (or hear from) you, I want to you to be excited about your sales and profits – the really, jump-up-and-down, can’t-wait-to-put-it-in-your-piggy-bank, kind of excited.

So get out there and get those dollar bills, y’all.

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angie weberAfter time spent searching for the perfect job and having no luck, Angie Weber was introduced to tena.cious. Not only did she find her passion for small business, she also discovered one very important thing about herself- she is a true intrapreneur. (You know, those people who act like entrepreneurs, but don’t have as much risk in the game?)

While she co-runs tena.cious and helps clients showcase their personalties online, she also spreads awareness about intrapreneurs- the good, the bad, and the ugly awesomeness. If you want to get an inside look on intrapreneurs, check out here podcast, The Intrapreneur Life.

What to Do Next When Your 5-Year Business Plan Comes to a Close by @DeborahSweeney

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by Deborah Sweeney, CEO of MyCorporation.com

Writing a 5-year plan is usually the very first step in the occasionally stressful but always rewarding road of business ownership. One of the biggest problems with most 5-year plans is that you are sort of flying by the seat of your pants when you write it out. Until you actually run a business, you have no idea what type of obstacles you’ll face, or even what you can achieve. A 5-year plan is often based on cursory research, some hope, and a bit of guesswork. At the end of your first five years, you should look back on your original plan to see how far you’ve come, then figure out what you need to work on for the next 5 years to come by doing the following five things:

1. Identify new goals.

After the first five years, the rate of failure for small businesses decreases dramatically. If you’ve made it past the five year mark, your business has shown that it can be profitable, which was likely one of your main goals. But what were your other ones? Did you set out to increase your market by a certain percent? Did you want to pay back a good chunk of your business loan? Check off whatever goals you met, and focus on the goals you didn’t meet, or want to build on. Doing this may seem a bit obvious, but actually looking at a hard copy of your goals is an excellent way to help focus your company and define your growth strategy.

2. Reevaluate what’s working and what isn’t.

When you run a successful business you can sometimes get stuck in a ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’ mindset. It can be a bit unnerving to fiddle around with the inner workings of the company if, thus far, all of the elements seem to be aligning and working well enough together. But if you refuse to fix or ignore a problem in the business, that problem will rear its head and could be a lot more destructive. If you feel like something isn’t working, be it marketing, accounting, employee relations, or stocking methods, now would be a good time to fix that problem.

3. Take a look at your competition.

Your market and industry has probably changed quite a bit over the past five years. Competing businesses have fallen, and new ones have popped up to take their place. Take a look at the industry and your competitors to see what everyone is up to. Doing so will help you to continue to stand out from the crowd, and could also reveal new ways to remain competitive within the industry.

4. Make sure your finances and paperwork are in order.

After five years, you’ll probably have an excellent accounting system in place, but it never hurts to perform a sort of self-audit and see exactly where you stand financially. The five-year mark is also a good time to make sure any state paperwork that needs to be renewed has been – some states, for example, require businesses to renew their trade name (DBA) every five years. If you’re still chugging along with the default sole-proprietorship structure, think about forming a separate entity for your business so you can protect your personal assets and allow your business to carry its own debt.

5. Grow!

Stagnation is your business’s enemy, so never stop fighting it and always try to grow in some way. Growth goals can be as simple as making more money or finding more customers, but they can also be a bit more abstract, like introducing a new marketing strategy or learning more about entrepreneurship. As long as you are always aiming for bigger and better, neither you nor your company will stagnate.

Making it past the five year mark is a real accomplishment, but it is too easy to start resting on your laurels and assuming your success will continue without any further effort. You are always going to face challenges as a business owner, though those challenges may change from the ones you dealt with when you first started. Use that old five year plan to figure out what you’ve done well and what needs work, and then try to improve on both. And don’t forget to enjoy your success – you’ve earned it!

Photo Credit: ‘SeraphimC via Compfight cc

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About the Author:

Deborah SweeneyDeborah Sweeney is the CEO of MyCorporation.com. MyCorporation is a leader in online legal filing services for entrepreneurs and businesses, providing start-up bundles that include corporation and LLC formation, registered agent, DBA, and trademark & copyright filing services. MyCorporation does all the work, making the business formation and maintenance quick and painless, so business owners can focus on what they do best. Follow her on Google+ and on Twitter @deborahsweeney and @mycorporation.