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Made for This

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Hi!  For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Kristin. I joined the EtterOps team about a year ago.  I consider the fact that I found EtterOps to be quite serendipitous.

Although I’m not an entrepreneur myself, I find myself drawn to the entrepreneurial spirit. Growing up, I watched my family run a small business of their own.  I spent my summers in the warehouse playing, and you guessed it, I worked. 

I counted and packaged inventory, folded letters, stuffed envelopes, and sometimes my mom would let me help her enter invoices.  This was all while I was in elementary school, so child labor laws might come into question here!

When I was older, my mom stopped working for the business, but I eventually took on a bigger role while in college. There, I saw firsthand as my father struggled to do everything on his own.

I understand what it’s like to run a small business by yourself.  You do a little bit of everything; sales and deals by day, invoices and paperwork on nights and weekends.  And as the expression goes, while you are doing a little of everything you are mastering none.  In addition to what your business does, you might also be doing your bookkeeping, marketing, updating your website or some other must-dos you may not be strong at.  This can be exhausting.

When I interviewed for my position with EtterOps, I was asked if there was a certain task I could do. I said, “Yeah, I can do that.” Then I was asked, and this question sticks in my mind, “But does it exhaust you?”

Wow! I’ve never been asked that question in an interview before. The more I thought about it, the more it sank in. What an excellent question. One that we should ask ourselves for every responsibility we take on.  You can do this or that, but does it exhaust you?

The best part of the EtterOps team dynamic is that we all work at recognizing each other’s strengths and we’re assigned the projects that energize us.  This has been a great success for our team. It allows us to feel fulfilled in our careers and invigorated by what we do.  We enjoy taking tasks off our client’s hands, knowing that they’re exhausted by them. 

I can’t help but think of my parents’ business and how much they could have benefited from an EtterOps.  How much better off financially and in their personal well-being would they have been if they had had a team to help? I can see now that it was too much for one business owner to take on alone.

You have no idea how excited I am to have found EtterOps, and I’m not exhausted by my tasks. I’m energized knowing I get to help each and every one of you, our clients. 

The Remote Workplace and Why it Works for Me

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The modern woman wants it all – a career, a family, the domestic duties of homelife. Is that even realistic in a modern world where the pressures for perfection are a just scroll away, portrayed in every fuzzy, filtered Instagram post? Time is the enemy of every woman, who dreams of sitting on the PTA board and in the boardroom. I regret having to make a choice, especially when the choice is between my children and a career.

After college, I worked in the traditional corporate world for a decade; my career was my “baby.” I got married and had three children in short succession. With the birth of my first child, I was grateful for the time to be at home with my son. I had twins shortly after, went back to work, and that’s when life as a working mom got really hectic! I wanted to continue working for the financial security it provided the family and the ability it gave me to sharpen my skills. However, a traditional job outside of the home no longer met my needs.

The desire for work/life balance was the driver of my employment objectives, and some experiences have been better than others. However, as the newest associate at EtterOps, I have finally found that happy balance between parent and professional. It is so refreshing to experience a culture that values client satisfaction as much as personal fulfillment. I settled into my new role as a “virtual” employee long before COVID-19 changed the face of employment around the world.

Gallup recently surveyed employers about their remote work preferences and policies since the COVID-19 outbreak. The recent article, How Coronavirus Will Change the ‘Next Normal’ Workplace, explores the new face of employment, specifically the change from on-site to remote work. More than half of at-home workers say they would prefer to continue working remotely as much as possible once business and school occupancy restrictions are lifted. The fact that many working parents are also now full-time caregivers and homeschoolers shapes opinions about virtual employment.

The bottom line is that opinions are shifting, and businesses are listening. For many employers, this pandemic has led to an enlightening experiment. Both employees and managers have experienced the positive benefits of working from home and say that more remote work options will be available once the quarantine is lifted.

I can relate to that shift in opinion, given my own experience of blending parenting and working from home. With my children in school, my pre-quarantine work schedule was predictable and manageable. But child-rearing is often neither. Now that they’re home, my success now depends on a great deal of flexibility to meet the needs of my clients and my children. I am very fortunate that I work for a family-centered organization that gives me the resources and opportunity to be successful at both.

We have all had a unique experience adapting to a worldwide pandemic; one we may never see again in our lifetime. The impacts of this pandemic could produce long-term change for each of us. Now that I have lived the benefits of remote working, I personally applaud the companies that choose to offer a variety of working options in the future.

It turns out the modern woman CAN have it all.

To view the entire article from Gallup, click here:

https://www.gallup.com/workplace/309620/coronavirus-change-next-normal-workplace.aspx

Where are You Headed?

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Want to hear something scary? Only 50% of small businesses make it to the 5 year mark.* Yes, that’s right. Statistics show that only half of the small business start-ups created this year will be around in 2023.

Certainly, some will see steady growth and become big businesses. But the data suggests that 67% of those exits are due to failure. These are numbers that have been pretty constant for the past few decades, regardless of the economy.

Okay, we’re done being scary.

The truth is that there are more small businesses starting now than are closing down, and small business makes up 99.9% of the private sector firms out there. In fact, since 2000, small business has created an estimated 8.4 million net new jobs, compared to big business accounting for just 4.4 million. The workforce is changing.

EtterOps is a small business. We service and assist successful sole proprietors, entrepreneurs, and micropreneurs (5 or fewer). Seeing what they do daily allows us a unique perspective in what it takes to remain successful.

In that light, we offer some advice on how to be on the right half of the pie chart.

1.      Know your perfect client

There has to be a market for what you offer.  Build a fictional perfect client for what you do. You certainly want to find your niche, but make sure it’s one with buying power. Also, if you have one client who accounts for most of your business, you need to work on diversifying your clientele. Find more clients, and quickly.

Quick Tip: After you create your perfect client, there are plenty of free demographic resources to review: the US Small Business Administration, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US Census Bureau, and even Google Analytics. These will help you target where your marketing resources should go.

2.      Ease the fatigue

You hear so much talk nowadays about work-life balance. As a small business owner you know how many different aspects of your business you have to attend to. It’s exhausting. But you must attend to the life portion to attain that balance. Schedule time for yourself and keep that appointment.

When you are the face of the business, it has the potential to suffer when you aren’t around. Thus, you’re less likely to take time off, or to even make time for yourself in small ways. Heaven forbid any extended illness issues arise. You can’t afford to burn yourself out. Take that time.

Quick tip: If circumstances have you just too busy to take your personal time in one large chunk, set a timer for every 45 minutes. When it goes off, walk around for 60 seconds or stand and listen to a favorite song. This will help you to reset yourself.

3.      Create a well-rounded team

 You need to have the right team in place to help with all aspects of your business. Many small businesses are passionate endeavors that arise from your unique strengths. Your team needs to fill in the other areas, often managerial or administrative, so that your business runs smoothly.

For the solopreneurs out there, you can go it alone, but you don’t need to. Whether they are apps, services, or administrative assistance, look seriously at what options are available. Melissa Horton in her Investopedia article, The 4 Most Common Reasons a Small Business Fails, states, “Smart business owners outsource the activities they do not perform well or have little time to successfully carry through.”

Quick Tip: If you work from home, outsourcing might not only apply to your business. For our household, yard work and deep cleaning are essential tasks that we hire someone to do once a month – just enough to help out and keep us sane, but not so great an expense that we have buyers’ remorse.

4.      Track your money

There’s no way around this one. Running a business takes money, but you need to make sure you know where it all goes. With a strong balance sheet, you can see where you are spending the most, as well as how much you can put towards reinvesting in your business.

When a small business closes, it is making too little money. However, at the root of that result are other failures, whether that’s overspending on marketing, unrealistic sales expectations, lack of organization and business acumen, etc. The owner should be able to see the financial projections a long way out, and adjust along the way. With a thorough balance sheet there should be plenty of time to make corrections and right the ship.

Quick Tip: If you do outsource, set a strict limit with your contractor on what you can spend, and tell them it is inviolate.

Your small business is special. It feeds your passions, pays your bills, and gives you autonomy. Give it the same consideration and we’ll see you in 2023.

**Statistics recorded by U.S. Small Business Administration. All data is current as of August 2018 and is viewable on their FAQ page, https://www.sba.gov/advocacy/frequently-asked-questions-about-small-business.

Can You Bottle Focus?

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There are many factors that lead to scattered thoughts, some internal and some external.

Some people possess wonderful talents that allow them to see and explore the potential in every thought, idea, and opinion in front of them. There are still others who simply get lost in the land of ideas.

And for small business owners it’s easy to lose focus within the various demands of running all aspects of your business. Often this reveals itself as multitasking.

Multitasking takes its toll on all of us, no matter how well we execute. It constantly shifts our thoughts between tasks. Worse, it often keeps us from contributing our best work.

If you’ve found your focus has suffered for any reason, the best thing you can do is use a planner! Physical or virtual, it doesn’t matter.

I know what you’re thinking, “That’s not how I do things!” I understand. I have a love/hate relationship with planners. I resent that I’m a bound by a schedule. But when I didn’t have a planner, I found that I often underutilized my time. I got sidetracked by calls and emails. But mostly I got caught up in the moment and didn’t write things down. I’ve had to admit lately that I’m more focused when I do write things down and cross them off.

Not using a planner properly is a habit. But it’s one you can break. Here are the three most important things you need to do to break the habit of planner non-use and enter into a more focused work day.

1.      Every day, before you start working, look at your planner. And don’t just scan it and move along. Look at the day you’re in. Look at the last couple of days and make sure you got everything done. If you need to, schedule “Planner Time.”

If it helps you, use a physical planner and transcribe the information to a phone or web-based calendar system. Or vice-versa.

All of this will keep you aware of what needs to be done and when. And if you just force yourself to do it each morning, you’ll soon find a new habit has been formed.

2.      The second thing to do is to actually schedule time to think. For at least one or two 15-minute sessions each week you should set aside time to study, read, or research whatever it is that distracts you from the tasks at hand. This planned time will help satisfy your natural curiosity, and keep you feeling informed. 

For me, this works best as an evening or weekend activity. But some may enjoy it more as a transitional task from ending your work day to your personal time.

My personal suggestion on what to ponder for your first think session: evaluate how you spend your time on a daily basis.

3.      Plan when you will make time to review your emails, your phone calls, and your meetings. You can even go so far as to (gasp) turn off your phone! When I am at my desk, I only use my phone as a phone.

Remember my suggested think session above? Review whether you constantly interrupt your tasks with checking your phone for texts or updates. If you field every notification that comes in, evaluate how often it is an immediate and essential task.

With all of that input, it’s no wonder you’re multitasking and putting out so many fires at once.

I don’t know if you can bottle focus, but planners can certainly help you retain it. They’re not full-proof. Planners are for planning, not doing. That’s still up to you.

You Need to Schedule Your Goals

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Let’s face it. We are busy. And busy needs a schedule.

Scheduling our days is a great habit and ensures we are where we need to be to do our jobs. But we can’t mistake a great calendar for good business practice. We all have goals. In order to reach those goals, we have to make them part of our daily routine.

Various studies agree that half of our daily actions are the result of habit. Given that, we need to either instill goal-creation into our current habits or create new ones.

Why not add it to your schedule?

First, you need to take the time to define what your goals are. A terrific step is to create SMART goals for yourself. For the uninitiated, SMART goals break down like this:

  • Specific – A good goal is clear and concise. Is your goal specific enough?
  • Measurable – Can you measure success by how many, how much, or how often?
  • Achievable – Do you have the resources and support you need to achieve your goal?
  • Relevant – Does the goal make a difference?
  • Time-bound – Have you set a completion date?

Now that you have some goals, and there should be more than one, grab your planner or bring up your calendar app. Review what’s there. Is it all relevant to your goals? Schedule time to review your goals and your progress, and always enter the completion date.

The key is working with the habits and resources you already have. Goal-setting and achieving those goals are essential to the health of your small business.

If taking the extra time is the problem, calculate what your time is worth and see if outsourcing any of your work makes sense. It could very well give you the resources and support you need to accomplish those goals.

You Need to Find the Simple

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When I first started in 2016, I had a client who was having trouble maintaining an organized schedule for his small business. So, he wasn’t always on task, and he wasn’t always on time. Reviewing our administrative services, he thought I might be able to maintain a schedule for him.

I asked if he was comfortable using his Outlook or Gmail calendar, or if he had tried any apps. He said he had tried a few, but he really preferred to use a physical date book. I can relate to that. By nature, I’m very organized and my natural tendency is to keep a date book next to me at all times. 

I asked why, if he had a date book, he was still unable to keep on schedule.

He admitted that he often stopped using the date book because of all the amendments that he had to make. His meticulous nature couldn’t handle all the scratched out appointments and ink-filled pages. It drove him crazy that every time he went to write in a new appointment, he had to see such a mess.

So, I asked him why he wasn’t using a pencil.

“Um? What?”

Uh-huh.

Often we look at a problem and can only think of complex fixes. In this case, hiring someone to maintain an organizational system he really didn’t like or want. He would be wasting time, spending money, and given that he didn’t want a digital system to begin with, almost guaranteeing failure.

Even though the results of the problem were big, the problem itself was simple.

As small business owners, we often get so bogged down in the complexities of our businesses that we fail to see the problem as a simple one. If we can take a moment to recognize which problems are simple, we can apply the simple answer and move on to the more complex problems that truly require our energy and resources.