Starting a business - 2nd of 4 options

Yesterday I mentioned the research and consideration that went into our decision of how we wanted to begin our entrepreneurial journey. The start-a-business-all-by-yourself-for-perfect-freedom was the topic. Feel you need a little help starting your own business? Maybe the answer is to purchase a startup kit. These vary from just a brief how-to guide to a comprehensive manual and templates. Other items might be included; for instance, a website, resources or shared information. The cost can be minimal up to thousands of dollars. The key here is the word “startup”, which indicates you’ll receive upfront help, but then you’ll be on your own. If continued support is claimed, I'd be cautious; the purchase of the kit is typicaly the end of the transaction because a start-up is exactly that. This type of purchase can be helpful for those who want to be completely independent, but need or want the assistance to get started.

Crime is up according to the IBJ and Fox News

I just read an article in today's IBJ Daily that talks about the increase in crime. This also points out the need for a thorough inventory of your assets. Whether you are a business owner, home owner or renter, burglaries happen. When they do, you will be required to provide a list of your belongings that were stolen. Can you remember what is missing? Do you have serial numbers to prove ownership. Most don't recover fully after a burglary because they don't have this information readily available. We spoke to a burglary victim just last week. He had over $45,000 worth of items stollen and only received a $25,000 settlement on his insurance claim. Why? Because he couldn't prove value on some and totally forgot a lot of items until it was too late. Even though you have insurance, you will still need to provide a list of what you lost. Create your inventory of your belongings today! Be prepared so you can recover financially.

Starting a business - 1st of 4 options

Do you feel lost and insignificant in the corporate world? Do you have an independence that screams, “I want to do my own thing!”? Then possibly owning your own business is the answer.

But where do you start? Can you do it all on your own, do you need constant assistance, or are you somewhere in between?

There are 4 main options when starting a business: being on your own, buying a startup kit, purchasing a turnkey package, or investing in a franchise. There are wide variances among these entities, and during my research prior to starting our home-based business, I found some major differences.

A startup is a new business, started from the ground up. You’re on your own. You choose what you want to do, and where and how you want to do it. You create your policies, procedures, processes. You determine who your target market is and and how you'll market to them. All creation and execution is in your hands. This is a daunting task, and often takes much more time and money to get started because of the extensive ramp-up caused by the learning curve. (Of course, a coach or mentor could provide some help in this area, but that’s another topic.) Total freedom and total control. This is perfect for some people, but before you decide, consider the pros as well as the cons. Have you considered a startup kit to help you jump start the business? Tomorrow's post will discuss the advantages of a startup kit.

Home inventory - is that all you'll be talking about?

Nope! Since that's our business, it will be a focus of the information. We find many people don't know why they need to know what they own, so we want to help you realize how important it is. But we have learned and continue to learn a lot of small business owner or entrepreneur techniques in ownership, management and marketing. So, you can count on a variety of topics.

Why not just do it themselves?

I'm often asked why would someone use our service. After all, they could inventory the contents of their home or business themselves. Well, if everyone did everything that needed to be done just because we can, we'd be so busy washing the car, cleaning the carpets, sewing new curtains, fertilizing and mowing the lawn, planting flowers, washing windows and cleaning the house, we wouldn't have time to work! And if business owners did everything themselves, they'd be doing the payroll, cleaning the offices, changing the oil in the company cars, designing their websites and paying the bills, they wouldn't have time to run the business! Whether homeowner, renter or business owner, the same is true for an asset inventory. This information is needed, but few take the time to do it even though they could. One homeowner asked how long it takes, because she was working on her inventory for 6 months and just completed the 2nd room! Do you have your inventory completed? And is it up to date?

Learning about Blogging

I've been blogging now for about a week. The hours spent searching, reading, learning, doing, re-doing...exhausting and mind boggling (is that a derivative of blogging? hmmm). Many tell me that it's worth the time and effort. Just visiting the social networking sites to add the Blog URL took quite some time (of course, the Ohio State football game kept interrupting while I cheered on my Buckeyes!). My goal is to include education about the need for personal property inventories - not just disaster preparedness, but all the other reasons, too - many of which might surprise you! Key, though, is to keep it personal, so you'll get to know Mike and me. And we hope to get to know our readers. So please give us your feedback. Personal stories from those who experienced the need to file a claim and did not have the information available will be included. Anyone have a story they'd like to share?

Most valuable assets

I took the afternoon off today because I had things to count. Everyone knows that is what we do for our business, but these weren't the typical things we count on a daily basis. Today we counted balls, strikes and runs. We counted swings of a golf club. We counted soccer ball kicks. And at the end of the afternoon, there were home-made cookies to count. The "we" who counted all these items included Josh, 4 years old and 1 of our 4 most valuable assets...our grandchildren. Josh is full of laughter, love and never-ending hugs (too many to count). What a wonderful day!

You really open drawers???

I was asked this morning at Rainmakers how detailed our home inventory is. We do open drawers and cupboards in the kitchen and other "public" rooms. However, the homeowner has total control over what we document and photograph. Bedroom and bathroom drawers are not opened unless requested by our customer.

Hope that takes care of the concern that many people have. We are there to help you protect your assets. We also offer a confidentiality guarantee to assure our customers that we will not share our database with anyone.

24 hours a day is all we get - Part 3

I'm feeling more in control! The last two days' postings have put me back in an organized frame of mind, allowing me to manage the interruptions. I've heard it said that when you teach something, you learn it. I totally agree!

I'm handling my emails and real-envelope-with-a-stamp mail more efficiently. I'm controlling my incoming calls better. And now I'll share with you what I have learned (and am re-learning) about managing time when you have a lot of meetings being scheduled.

If you’re a home-based business and most of your meetings are in coffee shops or other casual gathering places, schedule 2, 3 or 4 back-to-back. Not driving from location to location will save a great deal of time (and gas). Figure if you schedule appointments throughout the city, you'll need to allow yourself at least ½ hour between each appointment. Let's say you have 4 scheduled; that means you will spend 1-1/2 hours just driving between meetings. To be fair to those who have offices in different sides of the city, find a ½-way point and strategically set your appointments accordingly.

Another option is a telephone meeting. Nothing says all meetings have to be face-to-face. Schedule an appointment for the call, and give it the respect of an in-person meeting - be prompt, give full attention to the other person, and be totally prepared for the conversation. This will save you a great deal of time and many times is a reasonable alternative to a live meeting.

I hope these 3 posts about managing time have helped you. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to post them here!

24 hours a day is all we get - Part 2

Yesterday I talked about how the daily tasks can burden a business owner, to the point that sometimes the important phone calls to prospects or finishing a report or even paying the bills seem to get pushed aside while we deal with what can sometimes be considered time-wasters. And these can create havoc when trying to manage your time.

The telephone is the lifeline for many business owners, but it can also be an instrument that can interrupt and delay important activities. Have you ever called someone and when you ask if it’s a good time, they answer that it isn’t and really can’t talk right now. Then why did they answer it in the first place?

If you answer the telephone under this or a similar circumstance, you have wasted your time and probably interrupted doing something of importance. There is a wonderful invention called voice mail. If you can’t – or prefer not to – answer the phone, DON’T.

For some reason, many people feel obligated to answer the phone when it rings. If you wrestle with this issue, turn your phone off when you want to concentrate on a project or are in a meeting. By removing the option of whether to answer or not, you’ve just given yourself permission to focus. You can return the calls later when you have the time to give full attention to the person on the other end of the call.

I'm finding this extremely helpful, because then I am able to give 100% attention to the conversation that is taking place. Respect for the other person is evident and it will be a much more successful discussion.

24 hours a day is all we get

There are times I feel overwhelmed with the daily routine of doing business. Now, don't get me wrong - I am never overwhelmed with business and always want more - it's the process, procedures and routines that seem to bog me down. And sometimes even get in the way of doing business.

We all have the same amount of time in each day – 24 hours; no more and no less. Some people just manage their time better. Though it’s called Time Management, it’s not really managing time; it’s managing the activities that take up your time.

Small business owners, just because of all the hats worn each day, have more types of issues to deal with and more items to prioritize than others. We seem to be putting out fires instead of preventing them. Or we tend to deal with so many minor interruptions that the big issues, which really should receive our attention, remain on our desk at the end of each day. Since I'm needing to remind myself of these techniques to manage my time, I thought I'd share my 2 cents worth. There are three major time stealers – Mail, Telephone and Meetings. Today, since my inbox is exploding, let's talk about handling mail. This works whether it's paper or electronic mail.

A process I learned years ago and continue to use today is what I call the 3-option process.

Touch/read each piece of mail only once. Keeping mail without acting on it is a huge time-waster. How often to you pick up (or open it), review it and put it back down (or close it)without doing anything with it? When internal and external communication comes across your desk, decide as you pick it up how you’re going to deal with it. You have 3 options:

1. Throw it out (or delete it) – it’s not worth your time, so don’t even keep it. An example would be unsolicited junk mail.
2. File it for future use – possibly a report or magazine article that has great info which you’ll want to refer to later.
3. Respond to it, then file it or throw it away (or delete it).

This can also be applied to text messages. I

The economy encourages having an inventory

The statistics support the need for an inventory of your home or business personal property (a burglary every 10 seconds and a fire every 86 seconds). With that said, many people don't have a list of what they own. But now, with the economy creating a tighter budgets, it is even more important to have this valuable information. If you are victim of one of the burglaries, fires or other disasters, it will be even more difficult to recover financially because of the tight economy. And as insurance companies have more and more claims to settle, it stands to reason they will be asking for more proof of ownership that they have previously. Create your own inventory, or contact a service provider to document your assets for you. Then, even if you never need to refer to this report, you'll have less stress every time severe weather approaches.

They won't just send you a check!

People often tell me they don't need a business or home inventory because they have insurance. If you have this thought, too, please - please - please call your insurance agent and ask them if you should have a list of the contents of your home or business, or if you will just get a check in the mail for the amount of your coverage.

This misunderstanding, which results in people not having a personal property inventory, will cause a lot of stress, heartache and most likely financial loss. Victims of disasters tell us they forgot so many items - or couldn't prove high-end items - that they didn't recover thousands and thousands of dollars when they finally settled their insurance claim.

Residential fires happen every 82 seconds and burglaries every 10 seconds in the United States. These statistics should encourage everyone to have an inventory of the contents of their home or business. And the best thing that could happen is you never need to refer to it - worst case, you provided yourself with peace of mind!

Do you know what you own?

The disasters have been coming at us fast and furious in many areas of the U.S. Most of us have recently faced the possibility of a tornado, flood, fire or hurricane - let along the ever-present reality of burglaries. The financial and emotional stress you would experience is something we all must think about. Without looking around, take a moment to list everything in your office or the comfort of your home. Now try to do that for your entire house or business. Impossible! Much more would be forgotten if you were not in familiar surroundings and under the stress of a disaster.

Compile a business or home inventory. A personal property inventory provides detailed documentation of your assets and eases the claim process. Photograph the exterior and interior. Work room by room until you have captured all the contents. Take individual photos of collectables, antiques, fine art, etc. Remember to open closets, cupboards and drawers. Include model and serial numbers, cost and date purchased. Don’t forget the garage!

Save time and money. The importance of this documentation is evidenced at one of the worst times in one’s life – when you are facing a disaster. It can take months to list everything you own, and you are in limbo while compiling this information. If you have an inventory, and a disaster does happen, you can submit the claim quickly because most of the work is already completed.

According to the National Insurance Industry, policy holders who have a thorough inventory not only receive faster results when filing a claim, they also receive greater settlements. If you don’t remember what you own, you won’t request replacement; thus, you won’t fully recover. And for high-dollar items, you will most likely be required to show proof of ownership (i.e., big screen HDTV).

Seek assistance if you don’t want to do it yourself. Most people agree it is important, but few have this documentation. Reasons people have cited for not maintaining a personal property inventory are that are they are too busy, it takes too long, they don’t know how, or realize they will not keep it up to date if they do create one.

If you are in one of these categories, seek the assistance of a professional to provide the service for you. Verify they are bonded and insured. In addition to the inventory service, the provider should also include secure back-up of your records and a process in place to update your records annually. Without the updates, the report will be outdated very quickly. The cost of a professionally documented inventory is minor compared to the loss you could encounter!