The discussion of what makes us successful has been going on for a considerable period of time.  Many of us are tempted to fall for fads, schemes or popular culture concerning the meaning and methods for achieving success in our lives.  Many of us have come to believe that success is about setting personal goals, and tracking our progress on those goals.  Others view success as a “life purpose” that we seek to accomplish.

Many of these perspectives contain important elements of truth, but many of them are also missing some very important elements.  By understanding these key factors of personal, professional, and professional achievement, we can learn how to create our own vision of success.

The first step on the journey toward our life’s goals and purpose is to create a clearer picture of what they look like.  Each person’s ambitions are unique, but many people share a common passion for some area of interest in their life, and a desire to pursue those interests.  When we develop a vision of the direction that we would like our lives to move, it frequently involves the ability to spend more time engaged in the activities that we enjoy.  This frequently leads us to believe that they key to success is simply to attain more of what we want.

More is Not Always More

The common conception that many people hold is that they will feel more fulfilled in their life if they can simply achieve more.  More money, a nicer car, a bigger house, more vacation, more time to follow their interests.  The implicit problem that we run into when thinking in the context of “more” is that our time is a finite quantity.  Each day only contains 24 hours, and there is only so much that we can fit into that amount of time.

Thus, the pursuit of more becomes a study in time scarcity.  Assuming that we are able to attain the additional things that we want, it is highly likely that they will create additional time commitments that we must undertake.  When these time commitments are added to our existing schedule, it frequently leaves us with more to do than we have time to do things.  This abundance of projects and scarcity of time frequently leaves us shorting the aspects of our life that are highly important (such as personal relationships) but not articulated on our sheet of goals.

What you Subtract is More Important than What you Add

The next level of insight in the attainment of success is to understand that our most important decisions are frequently not what to add, but what to take away.  The only way that we can avoid a permanent time crunch that leaves our friends and family out in the cold is to re-arrange our personal, professional, and financial priorities on a consistent basis.  This means that when we add something, we must be prepared to take something else away.

In the real world, trade-off decisions are a fact of life.  We cannot have our cake and eat it too.  There are decisions that must be made, and the way that we make those decisions will have a tremendous impact on our future.  The way that we can keep our life in balance is to continually monitor our balance of activities to determine when it is time to add something and when it is time to remove something or change the way we do it.

Success is an Equilibrium, Not an Achievement

What all of this ultimately means is that “real” success is not an achievement … it is an equilibrium.  It is a balance of things we want and things we do that deliver the most total happiness and satisfaction that we are able to achieve.  Unfortunately, there are very few success authors who are teaching this truism, and there are many people who are seeking success in the context of goals and achievements.

Granted, goals are very important.  However, goals are not the end … the are a means.  For example, many people profess a desire to run a marathon as a goal in their life.  What most people really mean by this goal is that they would like to adjust the equilibrium of their life in such a way that they can increase their level of fitness to a state where they can train to successfully run a marathon.  However, what this goal-setting process frequently misses is that it is possible to complete a marathon without being in optimal fitness (albeit at a slow pace), and that it is possible to achieve considerable fitness without ever running a marathon.

What happens when we place too much emphasis on the goals themselves is that the equilibrium can be lost.  The desire to run a marathon can come to dominate our thoughts and actions.  (Especially for Type-A folks)  In this way, the goals we are seeking can take on an obsessive nature that displace many of the other highly important aspects of our life in the single pursuit of a particular goal.

As we go throughout our lives, we should seek to keep our goals and ambitions in perspective so that they are viewed in the context of our life’s larger equilibrium.  This is the way that we can stay balanced and pursue the “real” success that is a (whole) life that we want to live.  The decisions that we make will all echo throughout our future, so it is important to choose wisely.

 

One of the famous scenes from JR Tolkein’s book series “The Lord of the Rings” is when Frodo the Hobbit is talking with Gandalf the Wizard about his quest to destroy the ring of power.  Frodo remarks that he wishes the ring had not come to him, and that it was not his burden to bear.  To this, Gandalf replies that Frodo’s sentiment is shared by all people who face difficult times.  But the times you live are not for you to decide.  All that we can decide is what to do with the time we are given.

This scene is very metaphoric for the current economic environment that has left many people wishing for better days or complaining about the burdens of a floundering economy.  It is a time where painful changes are being forced on the populace by market realities and government fiat.  However, we as individuals are not give a choice about the times we live in.  The only choice that any of us really have is about what to do with the time that we are living.

As such, it logically follows that we should seek to focus on the parts of our life that we can actually control.  Said another way, we should concentrate our thoughts and actions on our sphere of influence instead of our sphere of awareness or sphere of concern.  This isn’t to say that we should ‘check out’ from the world . . . knowledge of the local, national, and global marketplace is all a part of making decisions within our sphere of influence.  However, most of us would be well served by resigning our self-appointed post as “General Manager of the Universe” and concentrating our efforts on the pieces of our world that we can control.

Part and parcel to this is the understanding that your life is shaped by our decisions.  Both our good decisions and our bad decisions impact the course of our life.  Most of us seek to take credit for all of our decisions that turn out good, and seek somebody to blame when things take a downward turn.  We want to blame the government, big business, the Fed, or just about anybody else we can.  However, the fact still remains that the investments we chose went down in value.  We didn’t know they would go down … otherwise we wouldn’t have bought it.  Before we can make much progress in our lives, we mus take ownership of the decisions that we make.

The hidden wisdom of this change in perspective is that it actually bestows more personal power.  When we are faced up against a big nameless power, we can easily succumb to a feeling of inevitable helplessness.  However, when our focus shifts to the things that we can control, it puts an entirely different spin on the time that we are given in our lives.  We may not be able to control and influence everything, but we can learn to make the most of what we are able to influence and let go of the things that are out of our control.

It is only by learning to look past what is out of our control that we can learn to focus on what is within our control.  The way that we make the most of the time that we are given is by doing the most with what we can control.  In the end, each of us has a supreme choice to make.  That choice is how we choose to spend the time that we are given to live on the earth.  The quality of our time will depend on the decisions and choices that we make.  It is incumbent upon each individual person to choose wisely.

 

Every time I turn around there is something new and better on the horizon in digital marketing – new hardware, new software, new tools, new channels, new targeting opportunities, new tracking capabilities, new providers, new pricing models, new ad units, new everything. If consumers are overwhelmed by choice in this fast moving marketplace then marketers are doubly so.

Consumers adopt along a well-documented bell curve, while smart marketers watch and follow that consumer curve. In our current environment, there are many overlapping curves to watch, and placing your bets on which ones have staying power or will achieve the uniqueness or scale that makes them attractive to marketers is extraordinarily difficult – and risky.

The risk to marketers in all this change takes many forms. Jump too fast to trial a new offering, channel, or approach and you may get ahead of the consumer adoption and have inconsequential or too highly segmented, early adopter-only participation. Wait too long, however, and you might lose the opportunity to stand out or capture incremental value. Of course, all things in marketing being relative, your risk and potential reward depend on your business goals, competitive environment, and target audience demographics. Groundbreaking ideas, whether in a category, in the industry, or even just within your own organization may bring some advantages but it also introduces uncertainties.

How to manage marketing risks:

• Work with proven providers. As trusted partners roll out new offerings you can quiz them on the readiness of those offerings and even perhaps participate in beta trials.
• Don’t bet the farm. When trying a new approach or effort make it part of your test budget first with rigorous metrics for success.
• Set expectations. If you don’t know what the impact will be – say so. Inventive marketing requires some stomach for the unknown.
• Watch progress closely. Build in out-clauses and other stop measures that may limit the bleeding on something that isn’t working, but make sure you have the appropriate metrics tracked and have allowed enough time to truly assess results. Look outside of expected results to see if there are unintended impacts either positive or negative from your new efforts.
• Make sure you are doing it for the right reason. If this risk doesn’t have an associated and large enough potential reward, then reconsider.

The internal, operations side of the business is a whole different set of risks. New tools and other first-time efforts exact a hefty toll in training and trialing, whether for an agency or for a corporate marketing department. Processes all down the line may be impacted by a seemingly minor change. Multiply that across all the tools and relationships that have the potential for regular change and you may induce staff fatigue around a constant state of transition.

If you swap out key partners, processes, or tools too often within your organization you risk never really maximizing your expertise in an area. It simply takes time to learn to excel at our complex tasks. On the other hand, if you don’t keep current with the latest tools, knowledge, tactics, and opportunities on behalf of your clients or brands you will be obsolete quickly. So how do you make the right changes, offering enough stasis and stability to your practice to support excellence while staying on top of your game?

• Evaluate whether the incremental benefits offered by the change make the investment worthwhile. Include a time frame, if you can, in which you are likely to be able to benefit from the transfer.
• Don’t be swayed by emotion or competitive pressure. Do an objective evaluation of the features, functionality, costs, and benefits as they relate to your specific situation. Use an outside consultant to help you make the go/no go decision if you can’t detach from the emotion.
• Reach out to your networks for feedback.
• Bring the teams impacted by the proposed change into the conversation. Assess how attached they are to their current state of affairs and if they are likely to resist or embrace adoption efforts.
• Designate a leader for the change process and have them develop a transition plan with associated costs and timetables and report back on them regularly. Track training and adoption time in a separate category from other work so you can really see the cost.
• In early change state, consider creating at least one super user who is responsible for training internally and assumes an overseer role to limit errors.
• Learn to look at the ripples created by change efforts across an organization and prioritize how many you will attempt in any one time period even if they are not directly related. Err on the side of caution. Better to successfully navigate fewer evolutions then to suffer from taking on too much at once.
• Don’t necessarily consider it an either/or situation. You may be able to add incremental capabilities or tool sets and still keep the old for a time period if that does not multiply costs unacceptably. That way you can trial something first with a subset of staff or projects/clients and spread out some of the learning time and the risk.
• Don’t be afraid to change course in the middle. If it truly doesn’t feel right for your team, is not as promised, is overly taxing on the organization, or more costly then you anticipated don’t wed yourself to a disaster. Allow yourself the option to reconsider or postpone.

In the end, “better” is often a very subjective term that needs to be weighed against your organization’s mission and business goals, and carefully balanced with your ability to execute. In this age of newer and better we can easily get caught in a hamster wheel of perpetual change. It is a rare and valuable skill to be able to separate the new and better from the just new.

Article source: ClickZ

 

One of the topics that is most frequently written about is time.  Every person wishes that they had more time available to do the things that are important to them.  Since time is so elusive, it is reasonable to conduct a closer examination of the time that we have in a given day, and how we choose to allocate that scarce resource known as time.

Every day contains within it, 86,400 seconds.  One way to gains some insight into how we use the time of each day is to think of the activities we engage in as ‘spending’ our time.  This ultimately begs the natural question of whether we are spending the majority of our time each day on the things that are the most important in our life.  The impact of this question is profound, because time is the single greatest equalizing force in the universe.  All people have the same amount of time in the day.  Regardless of your personal or financial situation, each day contains within it a finite amount of seconds, minutes, and hours.  How you choose to use those precious seconds will shape the future of your life.

Speaking for myself, I prefer to view our daily time in terms of seconds.  By articulating time in terms of seconds, it highlights the extend to which each second is important.  In many cases, it is quite possible to overlook things that we use time on and waste time on by sliding it in-between other activities that take larger amounts of time, and thus delude ourselves into thinking that we are being productive when we are actually wasting large amounts of time on activities that do not support our long-term goals.

Let’s start with the time that we spend sleeping . . . Since rest is an important part of being productive, why don’t we assume 7 hours (25,200 seconds) are spent sleeping?  Most people also have jobs that they work at during the day.  We should also assume 8 hours per day of work (26,800 seconds) and a total of 60 minutes (3,600 seconds) spent driving to and from work.  If we add 30 minutes for each meal and another 30 minutes each morning and evening to get ready, that leaves us with only 19,800 seconds each day to spend on things that aren’t eating, sleeping, or working.

The critical question to ask yourself is what are you doing with those 19,800 seconds each day to improve your life?  Some studies have shown that the average person spends approximately 5 hours (18,000 seconds) each day watching television.  Simple arithmetic shows that if television (or other forms of passive entertainment) occupies 18,000 of the 19,800 seconds that you have available each day to spend on yourself, that you won’t have much time left for self improvement.

What if we shifted things around a little bit and focused on self improvement first and entertainment second?  What if you spent an hour (3.600 seconds) each day reading?  What if you spent 30 minutes (1,800 seconds) each day planning and organizing?  Maybe another 30 minutes exercising to stay healthy?  How about 30 more minutes to analyze your finances and investments?  If you did all of this, there would still be 10,800 seconds left in the day to do whatever you want (including watching television), and would most certainly create a noticeable improvement in your lifestyle and financial situation.

Changes at the Margin

The way that we shift the course of our life is to make small changes at the margin.  It is not reasonable for most people to completely change everything about their life.  However, it is quite reasonable to do one thing differently each day.  In this way, a single small change that is compounded over time can produce tremendous results.  In the case of most people, allocating 30 to 60 minutes (or 3,600 to 7,200 seconds) per day toward an activity that will help their future can pay tremendous rewards over time.

In the end, our achievements of tomorrow will be built on the activities and decisions of today.  In this way, each day becomes a building block for tomorrow.  Each time that we decide to do something productive, it represents a victory.  Each time that we decide to waste time, it represents a failure.  Success results from tilting the balance of victory vs. failure in your favor.  By doing this every day, it can create a tremendous impact over time that creates real value for our personal, professional, and financial lives.

 

Take a look at your schedule this week, business owners. How much of your time is taken up with activities that don’t create new products or services, drive more sales or find new customers?

If the answer is a lot, it’s probably time to think about offloading some of your chores so you can concentrate on what really matters. For instance, are you cleaning counters or writing Web copy, when what you’re really good at is inventing, selling or servicing customers?

Here is a list of the top 10 tasks creative solopreneurs should outsource, says Kevin Reeth, CEO and co-founder of the accounting-software firm Outright.

1. Taxes
2. Production
3. Technology Setup
4. Scheduling
5. Cleaning
6. Bookkeeping
7. Data entry
8. Shopping
9. Creative work outside your specialty
10. Anything you don’t enjoy

Personally, I think that No. 10 there should come first on this list. Things you don’t enjoy take forever to do, naturally. So what that amounts to for you is a major time-waster.

Shopping and errands, to me, rank a close second. Rather than drive to town, hand a bank deposit to a teller and pick up the dry cleaning, your precious time is likely better spent elsewhere. Recruit a teen – unemployment is high among our nation’s youth and you won’t have any trouble finding someone great.

Cleaning I have made a longstanding vow not to do — it’s really a bad idea for me, as I am allergic to both dust and cleaners. Plus I hate it, so back to that No. 10 there.

Having once been a secretary, I’m not so sure scheduling is a good one to outsource. Seems like half the time there’s a miscommunication once you hand that off, and we all have those handy online calendars now that track our appointments. Think I’m keeping that one.

Bookkeeping or accounting always seem like the one where you outsource it and the next thing you know, you realize somebody’s been writing themselves company checks and they’ve flown off to the Bahamas. Or maybe it’s that I’m sort of a numbers dork, having covered business finance for a long time, so I like it. Just did my half-year close and projections for annual income for 2011 this morning…my idea of a good time. If you outsource this one, I say make sure you keep a close eye on it.

Article source: Entrepreneur.com

 

Odessa Hopkins knew she wasn’t spending her time as wisely as she could. The owner of a small Greenbelt, Md., marketing and advertising consulting firm called Another Approach Enterprises, was always juggling projects and keeping busy. But she “would work on a lot of things all day long, but at the end of the day I didn’t really finish anything,” says Hopkins, 52. While client deadlines were met, she says projects were sometimes taking longer than they should because she was juggling so much.

In 2009, she sought the help of a productivity coach and began learning ways to better manage her time. “Whenever people think about deadlines, they think about only the deadline that someone else gives them — not their own deadline,” says Hopkins, who also owns CEO Business Café, a local meeting venue for entrepreneurs. “Now, I give myself deadlines all the time.”

Time-management coaches say entrepreneurs often waste a lot of time in their day, but there are strategies for being more productive. Consider these five tips to get more done in a day.

1. Break projects into smaller pieces with deadlines. You can start by prioritizing activities for every day, writing a to-do list each night and scheduling each task, suggests St. Louis, Mo.-based productivity coach Cathy Sexton. For example, Hopkins realized she needed to place a higher priority to projects based on their revenue-generating capability. Once she had a list of what to tackle first, she scheduled a specific time on her electronic calendar to handle each item.  “If you don’t block out your time, everything else is going to get in the way,” Sexton says. Also, consider keeping a timer next to your desk to make sure you keep to your deadlines.

2. Delegate tasks that don’t generate revenue. Bookkeeping, payroll and copywriting are three tasks entrepreneurs often try to handle themselves to save money. But they often aren’t qualified or equipped to handle these tasks and end up losing valuable time that could be spent on revenue-generating activities, as Hopkins learned. “They end up doing what I call lower-value tasks that others could be doing for them,” says Audrey Thomas, a Minneapolis-based productivity coach. Business owners should realize, Thomas says, that outsourcing these activities allows them to devote more time to making money.

3. Stop obsessively checking email. This was another huge time-waster for Hopkins, as it is for many entrepreneurs, especially when messages are constantly flooding your inbox and distracting you from other important work. “I’d say I spend more time talking to my clients about managing email than anything else,” Thomas says. She recommends setting your email program to retrieve messages only manually — when you press a button to check it — or no more frequently than every 90 minutes. Moreover, she says, emails that are easy to respond to should be answered immediately, so you’re not wasting time reading over the same messages again.

4. Take advantage of technology shortcuts. You likely already use Microsoft Outlook, Excel and other common software programs with built-in time-saving features. Yet many business owners end up wasting time because they never learn how to properly use these programs — and the shortcuts. For instance, Microsoft Outlook lets people move items from their inbox directly onto their calendars, but many people still manually create calendar items, says Peggy Duncan, a time-management expert in Atlanta. Simply taking a class or reading a book about how to use common software programs can save a lot of time over the long run, Duncan says. “Any situation you bring up, there is technology out there to make that work basically go away,” she adds. “But people won’t spend the time learning how to use it.”

5. Train your employees adequately. A big time drain for business owners is employees who constantly ask questions, interrupting their day. If this is happening to you, the problem may be that they’re not adequately trained to do their job, warns Duncan. So make sure you have the resources and training procedures in place to best prepare and support employees in their work. Another big time waster, she adds, are customers who call with questions that could otherwise be answered on your company’s website. One solution is to create a “Frequently Asked Questions” section that prominently displays the helpful information on your website. “It should be a no-brainer for your customers to do business with you,” she says.

Article source: Entrepreneur.com

 

By SUSAN WILSON SOLOVIC

Do you remember your childhood summer job?

I do. I worked in my family business—a funeral home. From the time I was five, my parents found ways for me to “help out.” My first responsibility was to collect broken flowers from funeral sprays so my mother could easily vacuum. It might sound morbid—but it was a way for my parents to spend time with me, instead of dropping me off with a baby sitter. And I learned some invaluable lessons about work ethic along the way.

As we head into summer, some small-business owners with school-aged children are probably facing a difficult dilemma. How do you meet the 24/7 demands of running a business, while simultaneously spending quality time with your children?

Here’s what I suggest: Hire your kids to work for you. It’s beneficial for your business, your children and your relationship. And there are tax advantages, too.

As a grade schooler, I didn’t get paid when I worked in the family business. But as I matured and took on more responsible roles such as bookkeeping duties and other administrative tasks, I received a salary as any other employee would. And that’s where the tax benefit kicks in.

When you hire your own children, you can deduct your kids’ wages (just like any employee’s salary) as a business expense. Plus, by putting a young family member on the books, you’re essentially directing the money back into your household, where it will be taxed at a lower rate than yours, or not at all. If your business isn’t a corporation, you won’t have to pay employment taxes on the wages paid to your child, either.

The key, though, is to make sure the work your child does is necessary and essential for the business. They can’t show up and play video games on the office computer. Document their work hours with a timesheet or time clock. And don’t forget to issue a W-2 at the end of the year.

The Labor Department, which sets the rules as to the ages and hours that young people can work, makes special exceptions for parents employing minors. (Some state laws may differ so make sure you check.)

But in addition to the business advantages of hiring your children, it can be personally rewarding, too. How do you make the working relationship a positive one for both parent and child? Here are some tips to help you manage the relationship the right way:

1. Make it a learning experience. As noted above, in order to qualify for the tax benefits, your children must be doing real work in your business. But make sure it’s more than just grunt work. Give them opportunities to learn new skills and grow, and be willing to teach them along the way. The experience can enhance your kid’s resume—and expose him or her to the ins-and-out of running the family business. In the long run, that also might instill a desire in your child to shepherd the company as an adult.

2. Define responsibilities. Just as my first job at the funeral home was to pick up broken flowers, your children should be assigned work for which they are entirely responsible. It provides them with a sense of accomplishment when they can see how their efforts contribute to the whole. Increase the level of responsibility in accordance with their age. For instance, at Champion Media in Loves Park, Ill., owner Robert Smith has adjusted work responsibilities as his four kids—the oldest of which is 15—have gotten older. When they were young, the kids helped with direct-mail campaigns by sticking labels and stamps on postcards, and were compensated with treats such as ice cream or candy. Today, the oldest kids are handling social media, email marketing and slide creation for PowerPoint presentations as salaried employees.

3. Establish work parameters. Trust me: There are going to be circumstances where the child wants to do anything besides work. Make it clear that they’re beholden to a work schedule. In his case, Mr. Smith makes sure his children understand that they must stick to certain hours, or make arrangements in advance if they want time off. Otherwise, “then they don’t get paid,” he says.

4. Separate work and family. Make a crystal-clear demarcation between “work parent” and “home parent.” You may be upset with your child for something that went wrong at work, but don’t carry that home with you. At Creditloan.com, a consumer resource company in Apollo Beach, Fla., owner Daniel Wesley employs his two kids, ages 16 and 17, and makes sure work mistakes are always dealt with—and resolved—at the office. “It’s a delicate balance,” he says. But “work is work and home is home.”

5. Use positive reinforcement. Don’t forget to reward and recognize a job well-done, just as you should with any employee. So if you have an employee of the month or a spot bonus program, your children should be eligible. But don’t forget sincere praise in front of your team can be a significant reward, too. When your children enjoy success at work, they grow more confident—and that will increase their ability to succeed in future endeavors.

6. Share the entrepreneurial spirit. Personally, one of the great things about working for my parents was experiencing the entrepreneurial spirit first-hand. You should share that with your children, too. Tell them about why you started the company—and why you care so much about your products or services. You might inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs, and win your kids’ respect at the same time.

Article source: Wall Street Journal

 

It’s 3 a.m. and entrepreneur Bryan Lifshitz is sitting at his computer, a Skype conversation open. His wife, Michelle, is getting up to tend to their 1-year-old daughter. “Is that your boyfriend Jonny you’re talking to?” she teases.

In reality, Jonny is one of Bryan’s brothers and the overnight call is part of a near-daily routine that the pair, along with another brother Wayne, engage in to grow a business that operates remotely from different parts of the country.

The trio collaborates virtually as part of Full Sail International, which Wayne founded in 2007 and later brought Jonny in as partner and Bryan as a regular consultant. The company serves as an example of how business owners are using technology, coupled with ingenuity, to operate virtually and find success.

Before joining forces, the brothers rarely chatted more than a few minutes a couple times week: Bryan lives in Phoenix, Jonny in Lexington, Ky., and Wayne in Bethesda, Md. – and they have eight children between them. Now, they’re in constant contact via weekly pre-scheduled Skype calls and a flurry of emails, overnight chats and texts, says 33-year old Bryan, the youngest of the trio, who also owns a creative media firm. And the virtual–and real–work is paying off. The company launched its most successful invention last year, The Piggyback Rider, which simulates a piggy-back ride for a child, while keeping a parent’s hands free.

The first product, a reusable wrist cuff for writing grocery lists that Wayne invented, sold only about 500 units before they decided to discontinue it, but that initial effort is what got the brothers working together.

Wayne designed Full Sail, which is based in Bethesda, Md., to operate from wherever the brothers happen to be. There is no office, per se. Instead, the brothers rely on Skype, which also offers real-time file sharing and allows each brother to share an image of his desktop with each other.

“When we’re testing out ideas or layouts this allows us to have projects reviewed while still in process, without having to spend extra time saving and emailing documents,” Jonny says .

The brothers also share digital whiteboards and Google documents to work on design features or document revisions. Their business processes became more structured when Jonny brought the idea of the Piggyback Rider to Wayne in an email. A day or two later, Wayne — a strategy consultant by day — had constructed his own version and the two began discussing how to improve the invention and sell it.

The product is designed for children who are too big for a baby carrier, but still want to be lifted or — as Jonny’s now 5-and-a-half year-old son Colin preferred — be given a piggyback ride. The product includes a 3-lb harness-and-bar system that rolls up to the size of a towel and is placed over an adult’s shoulders. The child then steps onto the bar that sits across dad’s back and holds onto handles over dad’s shoulder; a safety harness offers extra protection.

The brothers’ first step in moving forward: patent research. They relied on Jonny to tackle that task since he hones research skills every day as a traumatic brain injury researcher at University of Kentucky.

“I could research and go down the rabbit hole and then pass along what I’d found,” says Jonny.

Meanwhile, Wayne began to plot out next steps, keeping the project on task and making sure “we dotted all our i’s and crossed all our t’s,” he says.

About nine months later, Bryan began providing design suggestions and ideas for selling the product. Bryan, who isn’t on the company payroll, but actively serves as the company’s creative consultant, also began crafting a vision for the packaging, marketing and social media push.

“We understand that each of us does things completely differently… that’s the key to our success,” Bryan says.

The Piggyback Rider got an immediate image boost when a children’s expo attendee gave a sample to actress Tori Spelling last October. Days later, her husband Dean McDermott was photographed wearing the PiggyBackRider, his eldest child on board.

Full Sail now sells about 250 of the $79.99 contraptions a month and expects to sell 3,000 this year. Wayne projects revenues of about $135,000 for 2011. The company is also in talks with several major retailers to carry the product, which took almost 18 months and about $50,000 to design, test and launch.

The Lifshitz brothers offer these tips for working with a virtual team.

Learn to do things you otherwise would pay for. When there are more than 1,000 miles between collaborators, adding contractors who also work virtually can add an unwanted layer of complexity. So the brothers learned how to do things they might otherwise pay for, like website design and legal research. They save money and maintain more control.

Be available–always. Jonny was examining slides of brain tissue in his lab when his phone rang. It was a buyer for a big outdoor retailer. “I quickly excused myself,” he recalls. Without an office number to call, responding fast is critical, including answering emails and calls from customers, suppliers and each other with little delay–and never missing their scheduled weekly meeting. “Skype is our No. 1 business tool,” Wayne says.

Use your time wisely. When you don’t have a lot of time and you’re operating from two or three different time zones, staying focused is critical. Bryan admits he can go off on a tangent–he’s the talker of the trio. Wayne keeps their weekly business meetings on-track, tabling ideas not on the agenda for another time.

Article source: Entrepreneur.com

 

Few small businesses have escaped fallout from the economic downturn of the past few years. However, as many indicators begin to show signs of improvement, entrepreneurs need to position themselves to benefit from the recovery, says Jim Muehlhausen, CPA and author of The 51 Fatal Business Errors and How to Avoid Them.

“The default mode is that we’re all very scared,” he says. “Business owners don’t want to spend when they’re in doubt, but it’s important to make smart investments in your business as the economy begins to rebound.”

Muehlhausen offers five crucial steps to recovery that business owners need to take now:

1. Review your business model
It’s time to ask some important questions: Is your business model working for you? Are your sales actually coming from where you think they’re coming from? Is it time to adjust your focus or the way you do business? Take a top-to-bottom look at your best sources of revenue and figure out how you can pursue more of that type of business.

• How the Recession Saved One Company
• How to Stage a Small-Business Comeback
• Famous ‘Trep Failures — and Comebacks

2. Avoid the Hail Mary
If you’re holding your breath for one big deal or event, you’re putting too many eggs in one basket. Too many business owners are hanging their hopes on events that might never happen. Instead, look at ways to grow your business incrementally and make smaller investments in areas that will generate a return, such as expanding into new sales channels or increasing effective marketing tactics.

3. Buy back your time
You may have worked with a skeleton crew to survive a drop-off in business. Yet as the recovery takes hold, it’s important that you aren’t busy wearing too many hats to recognize growth opportunities. Hire a part-time assistant to invest in automation. For instance, create a web-based ordering tool or find a more effective CRM program to help identify and deliver on customer needs more quickly.

4. Get bigger
As so many companies are struggling, there could be opportunities to acquire or merge with a complementary business that has a solid customer base. By doing so, you can expand your offerings and capture more market share. In other words, grow your business now, in anticipation of the upswing that’s on the way.

5. Forget fear
Most important, it’s time to stop fretting. Fear-based decisions are rarely effective and will keep you from seeing your next move clearly. Now is a terrific time to tune up your systems and put effort into developing new products or services.  Rather than lamenting the bad times or trying to make things better right away, Muehlhausen says, direct your attention to two years from now. You’ll be a step ahead of everyone who’s only focused on the short-term.

Article source: Entrepreneur.com

 

Retirement planning, at its best, is about much more than the size of your nest egg. With that in mind, one of the smartest ways to prepare is to map out a to-do list, one that counts down to “R” day.

Mark Matcho

Most workers prepare for later life by focusing on a single, key question: Have I saved enough? Yes, a healthy nest egg is important. But it’s just as important to develop a vision for how you want to spend your time in later life. After all, the more specific your plans, the easier it will be to gauge just how much money you’ll need and how fulfilling your retirement years will be.

We have compiled a checklist, in consultation with Deena Katz, an associate professor of personal financial planning at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, of things to do and consider over a five-year timeline before this crucial date.

Five Years

Lifestyle: Start thinking about how you and your spouse wish to spend time in retirement. Take an inventory of your past and current interests, hobbies and activities.

If you need help, hire a personal or life coach (check the International Coach Federation’s “coach referral service” at coachfederation.org) or enroll in an online workshop or course at a college or community organization.

Some examples: the programs available through My Next Phase (MyNextPhase.com); the University of North Carolina at Asheville’s Center for Creative Retirement; and Civic Ventures’ Next Chapter project, which offers “life planning” and other programs in communities across the country.

Finances: Take a stab at answering The Big Question: Will I have saved enough to retire in five years?

Start by estimating your retirement spending needs, including taxes and premiums for Medicare supplementary coverage. Consider long-term-care insurance, since the sooner you purchase coverage, the lower the premiums will be.

If you don’t have a financial adviser, consider hiring one or using one of a growing number of free or low-cost services sponsored by financial-services companies that estimate how much you can afford to spend in retirement and recommend ways to save and invest. Examples include Fidelity Investments’ Retirement Income Planner and Charles Schwab’s Real Life Retirement Services.

Take advantage of provisions that allow those 50 and older to contribute an additional $1,000 annually to individual retirement accounts and $5,500 annually to 401(k) accounts.

Think about whether you will need life insurance.

Estate Planning: Make sure you have a will, an appointed power-of-attorney, health-care directives and an estate plan.

Four Years

Lifestyle: Start exploring your ideas. If you’re considering relocating, research the communities you’re interested in. Helpful resources include Relocationessentials.com, NeighborhoodScout.com and RetirementLiving.com.

If you plan to volunteer, organizations including HandsOn Network, VolunteerMatch and Civic Ventures’ Next Chapter project can help you get started. To ascertain whether an organization is a good fit, start volunteering now.

Finances: Start thinking about Social Security. You can claim benefits any time between ages 62 and 70. But the longer you wait, the larger your monthly payout will be. Factors to consider include your life expectancy and that of your spouse, who can receive up to half of your benefits. It’s also important to consider whether you will owe income tax on any of your Social Security income.

To figure out the optimal time to claim your benefits, use the calculators at SocialSecurity.gov and read “When to Start Receiving Retirement Benefits,” a publication available on the site. Also, search online for “Innovative Strategies to Help Maximize Social Security Benefits,” a publication by James Mahaney and Peter Carlson.

Three Years

Lifestyle: If you plan to relocate, start visiting communities on your short list. If you want to start a business, enroll in a course or workshop at a local college or through SCORE, a nonprofit that pairs experts with new entrepreneurs (Score.org; 800-634-0245).

Finances: Request an estimate of any pension or retiree medical benefits you are eligible to receive from your employer. Also, revisit the retirement spending and income plans you made two years ago. Spend the year living on the budget you have prepared.

Health Care: Get educated about Medicare, which covers a portion of medical expenses for those ages 65 and older, and supplemental policies, including any retiree coverage your employer might provide. Start with “Medicare You,” among other publications at Medicare.gov. For more information, check the website of the nonprofit Medicare Rights Center (MedicareRights.org).

Two Years

Lifestyle: If you want or need to work for pay in retirement, consider whether to do so part time or full time. Do the opportunities you want to pursue require additional training? Start networking. Devote more time to hobbies to ascertain how fulfilling they might be as primary activities.

Finances: If you’re interested in pursuing a so-called phased-retirement arrangement — which would allow you to reduce your hours gradually, often over a set period of time — approach your employer about entering or starting such a program. The key: Persuade your boss that you’re indispensable, while looking for ways to make an impact on a reduced schedule.

Health Care: If you plan to retire before becoming eligible for Medicare at age 65 and your employer doesn’t offer retiree coverage, arrange for interim health insurance. Ask your employer about Cobra, the federal law that allows many to continue group health insurance for a limited period after leaving a job. You also can research individual policies available from private insurers. (Warning: Insurers turn down about 30% of applicants ages 60 to 64.)

One Year

Lifestyle: If you plan to start a business, draw up a detailed business plan. (See “Essential Elements of a Good Business Plan” at the Small Business Administration’s website, sba.gov.) If you want to work, check the listings at websites including RetiredBrains.com, RetirementJobs.com and SeniorJobBank.org.

Finances: Figure out how to convert your savings into a reliable stream of lifelong income. Some new advisory services, including Fidelity’s Income Strategy Evaluator and Charles Schwab’s Retirement Planning Consultation, can help retirees devise a plan to tap their accounts, while minimizing tax bills and the risk of going broke.

Get a final estimate of benefits from your employer.

Consider whether to roll — or transfer — your 401(k) money into an IRA upon retiring. Leaving your money in your employer’s 401(k) plan may be advisable if the fees are low. Depending on the state in which you live, a 401(k) plan also may offer greater protection from creditors.

Health care: Address any hearing, vision or dental needs you have now, since these aren’t covered under original Medicare.

Three months before your 65th birthday, contact Social Security to sign up for Medicare. (If you claim Social Security benefits before age 65, you will generally be automatically enrolled at age 65, unless you decline coverage.)

Free counseling is available through the nonprofit State Health Insurance Assistance Program, or SHIP (SHIPtalk.org). Medicare.gov features calculators that allow you to search for and compare coverage options.

By ANNE TERGESEN

Article source: Wall Street Journal