When you own a business, taxes become an important topic. You must make sure to pay your taxes on time and in full. If you fail to do so, you could face penalties and fees that can add up fast.

It is well worth your time to look into the benefits of paying quarterly taxes. Doing this can ensure your business stays on top of things and keep your account free from extra charges.

Switching From Annual IRS Tax Payments to Quarterly

If you currently only pay your taxes at tax time every year, you can easily switch to quarterly taxes. The IRS explains you can simply begin making quarterly tax payments using the correct form.

These payments are estimates of what you will have to pay when you file at the end of your business tax year. If you were previously paying taxes, then you should be able to figure out how much you owe by looking at your last tax statement. You can also use a quarterly tax calculator or get information from the IRS.

Keep in mind, you will no longer have to worry about how to pay quarterly self-employment tax because it is part of the estimated tax you will pay. This estimate pays self-employment, income, and alternative minimum taxes. It is the same taxes you would pay if you filed your normal return, but broken down into multiple payments.

You should also be aware that answers to any questions you have, such as how to pay quarterly taxes, 1099 issues, or do I have to pay quarterly taxes, can be found on the IRS website.

You should also consult with your business accountant, who is there for this specific purpose. Do not forget about using your accountant for more than how to get a small business loan.

How to Pay Your Estimated Taxes Quarterly

Before paying estimated taxes, you want to be sure you owe them. If you have a corporation, you should pay if you will owe $500 or more in taxes. For all other businesses, pay if you will owe at least $1,000. Do note that this is the general rule. You should always consult your accountant for what your business should do.

To figure out what you owe, you will use Form 1040-ES. You will need your estimated adjusted gross income, taxable income, credits, deductions, and general tax liability. You can use your previous year’s tax forms as a guide for this information.

When you know how much you need to pay, you can pay quarterly taxes online with the IRS. Pay quarterly taxes through the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System, which is fairly easy to use.

You will pay four times each year. The quarterly taxes dates are:

• April 15
• June 15
• September 15
• January 15

Do note the IRS can change these dates each year. You can always find the current schedule on the IRS website. You should check it every year when filing your tax return.

Avoiding High Tax Penalties

One of the biggest benefits of paying quarterly taxes is avoiding penalties. You will receive a notice from the IRS about the penalty for not paying quarterly taxes. It will often include fees because if you fail to pay, it becomes late.

You will face a penalty for underpayment if you fail to make any estimated payments when required to do so under the law. How much you will pay depends on a few factors. The IRS will use your tax return, once you file, and apply a percentage for each quarter you did not pay.

The penalty and other fees can increase your tax liability substantially. Nobody wants to pay more than they need to in taxes. The best way to avoid this is by making tax payments at intervals throughout the year instead of waiting to pay it all when you file your returns.

The Benefits of Paying Quarterly Taxes

Beyond avoiding the penalties, there are a few other benefits of paying quarterly taxes. These relate to making your business run more effectively and efficiently.

Reducing Tax Liability

If you do not pay your taxes quarterly, you will have a large tax bill when you file your taxes. Even if you are not required by law to pay quarterly, it can still help you out in the long run. It is much easier to make small payments throughout the year rather than be stuck with a huge payment due when you file your taxes in April.

Helping Your Cash Flow

By paying your taxes throughout the year, you can more easily control your business cash flow. You will not end up with a huge surprise at tax time, and you can more easily budget these payments.

This will help you to stay on top of the available capital you have without having to worry about losing a large chunk in April.

Making Taxes Easier

Paying quarterly also makes things easier for you at tax time. You already know what you owe or will have a good idea.

It is simple to figure out what you will owe when you file and start the next year’s estimated payments.

Final Words

Paying your taxes quarterly may be something new to you, but it is very beneficial. IRS rules require these payments, so if you fail to pay them, you could end up with huge penalties added to your taxes when you do file your annual tax return.

Also, paying quarterly is a good idea if you want to keep your business finances orderly and organized. It simply becomes a normal expense that you can work into your budget.

Your accountant should be able to assist you with this process. He or she can either handle it for you or guide you through the process if you prefer to handle it yourself.

Remember the IRS has plenty of assistance on its website as well if you have questions or need information. Use all the resources available to help you as you transition to paying your tax liability quarter.

If you want to start a business, you need to surround yourself with the right people. One of the first professionals you need on your team is a business planning attorney.

A legal advisor can assist you with various aspects of starting up your business. He or she will be able to offer legal advice to avoid problems down the road.

It is essential for you to understand the value of hiring a business attorney because this decision can have a big impact on the future of your endeavors.

You Should Really Speak with a Lawyer Before You Sign That

Starting a business requires a lot of paperwork. Before you sign anything or enter into any type of agreement, you need a business planning attorney to look over the paperwork.

FindLaw explains you will need to have a lawyer assist you with everything from choosing your business entity to drawing up contracts. You want legal advice as you register your business and to help ensure you get every permit or license you must have to operate legally.

A lawyer for a business startup can also help you ensure you conform to any special rules or laws concerning your business industry. Also, an attorney will be of great assistance when it comes to taxes.

Above all else, having a small business attorney will give you a professional who can represent your business and act as a guide to help you through all the legal processes you must go through.

Building a Relationship with an Attorney Before You Get Started

You will need to find the right attorney with which to work. It is important that you begin by looking for someone with whom you feel comfortable. You can start by making a list of questions to ask when hiring a business attorney.

Asking Questions 

The first thing you need to inquire about is experience. You need to know the lawyer has a background in business law. He or she should have previous work in the field with provable achievements.

It is also good to ask about connections within the business world. You want an attorney who has referrals ready when you need them for other professionals, such as an accountant.

It is also a good idea to make sure the lawyer understands your industry. Every industry has its own intricate details you must know when starting a business. It is helpful if the attorney you hire already is familiar with the requirements and legislation concerning the type of business you wish to start.

Starting a Search

Once you know what questions you want to ask, you can then think about looking for potential attorneys. You may want to start with a search for a ‘business attorney near me’. Using someone local will help ensure he or she is available and easily accessible.

You may also use search terms with dates, such as 2011 attorney business plan, or more specific terms, such as corporate lawyer for hire.

Working with the Attorney

When you find and hire a business planning attorney, you will need to ensure you keep a good relationship with him or her. Start on the right foot by providing the lawyer with all the paperwork he or she will need, such as your business plan, banking information, contracts, and expense reports.

You should also talk about your expectations. Set a meeting schedule and let the attorney know what you wish to get help with. You should also talk about the small business lawyer cost.

Always show up on time for meetings, and always pay your bill on time. Doing these two things will help you to stay a priority for your attorney. If you fail to do them, it can harm your relationship.

Cultivating strong business relationships is an essential part of business, and this includes building a good one with your attorney. Do not take him or her for granted because your lawyer is going to help your business in so many ways.

When You’re Not Sure About an Aspect of Business, Consult an Attorney

Once you have an attorney on staff, you should make use of him or her when needed. Do not be afraid to consult with your attorney on anything. You should never wait too long to talk to the lawyer about a legal issue.

Entrepreneur explains if you are already facing legal troubles, it is too late to get the right guidance you need. Keep your attorney in the loop on everything and never hide something from him or her.

Making good use of your legal professional can help in so many ways. Your attorney is there to assist with all the aspects of your business, and if he or she cannot help, then to offer a referral to another professional who can.

The Small Cost of Having an Attorney Review Your Contract

It is worth mentioning that you need to have your attorney review every contract you enter into. Contracts are such a large part of any business. Your business planning attorney should be more than happy to assist with reviewing documents before you sign them.

Your attorney can also help negotiate contracts and ensure you get the best terms.

Doing this one thing can save you a lot of time and prevent you from harming your business with a bad decision. So, if you use your business attorney for nothing else, at least involve him or her in all contract deals.

Wrapping Up

A business planning attorney is a must-have if you want to start your business off on the right foot. Having a legal professional on your side can help you to avoid numerous issues along the way.

You can save money and time by hiring a lawyer as one of the first decisions you make for your business.

Just make sure you choose someone who has skills in your industry and a familiarity with business in general. Then, make sure to build a good relationship with him or her. You should then feel as if your attorney becomes like a partner who helps you run a successful business.

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The staff that you employ are responsible for your company’s overall customer experience.

Think about your last experience as a customer. Were the staff you encountered friendly? Were they rude? If they were exceptionally friendly or rude, you likely remember your previous experience fairly well.

When it comes to a business, the staff that helps run the business play a large part in its reputation. A company can have the right plan and method, but the staff can make or break the customer experience.

If your business has been seeing problems in the client experience department, it may be time to reevaluate your staff. But you may not know where to begin when considering how to improve your business’s customer experience.

If you want to know how to work with your staff for the best customer experience, keep reading!

Your Customer Experience Starts With Employee Experience

Communication is a large part of how your staff acts on the job.

To provide great customer service, you need to provide a good employee experience. Imagine that you are working a stressful, fast-paced job. If you’re not in a good mood, you aren’t going to want to be very friendly with your customers.

A business can preach that the customer is always right all they want. But at the end of the day, we’re all human, and so is your staff. You cannot expect them to be in the best mood all of the time.

By being understanding of your staff and personable with them, you can create a trusting work environment.

Developing a Customer Experience Model for Your Business

Working in a customer service business is not an easy task to do. There are going to be many times that a customer is going to be upset no matter what you do. In these moments, having a good customer experience model for your business will help you.

Your client experience model is a part of your business that you cannot overlook. The rest of the business is pointless if you and your crew have no idea how to handle the clients for your business.

Once you have a customer experience model in place, it is up to you and your staff to maintain the standards of the business.

A lot of times, the customer experience part of business goes wrong if staff cannot uphold the customer experience model. It can be difficult to remember every customer policy during a busy or stressful day.

Your job as a boss is to ensure that all of your staff have the resources to remember how to handle customers. Resources will help even veteran staff in moments where they may forget the company’s best practices in the heat of the moment.

Hiring Friendly, Customer-Facing Staff

A big part of improving the consumer experience is to hire the right people.

Hiring the right staff can be one of the most difficult parts of running a business. Even if your business model is flawless, the wrong staff can mess up the company entirely.

You need to consider every position in your business. Each position is just as important as the next, whether it’s a crew member or a manager.

To create a friendly customer experience, you need to hire friendly staff. Your staff does not have to be friendly all of the time in their lives. But if you can hire people who know exactly how to act around customers then you’re in luck.

When hiring potential future employees, it’s important to be able to read who is friendly. We all know that people put on their best faces during an interview. But if you watch and listen closely, you can tell if someone is faking their friendliness.

How Your Employee Happiness Decides Your Customer Behavior

Your employees are often the first people that your clients will see. As a result, your employees also leave the first and last impression that a customer will have.

If your employee is in a good mood, your customers are likely to mimic that same energy. Even if there are issues in a business transaction, your client is much more likely to have a good impression of your business if the employees are pleasant.

Many restaurants and stores will get negative reviews based solely on the fact that the staff is unpleasant. In the customer service world, being able to handle customers professionally and pleasantly is a trying task.

Because it can be so difficult, many stores and restaurants run into the same issues again and again.

As the leader of your staff, it is up to you to do everything that you can to keep your employees happy. A happy crew is a lot more likely to bring in happy customers.

Conclusion

Overall, the attitude of your staff can make or break your overall customer experience. You want to treat your employees well first, and then focus on how they interact with customers.

Make sure to keep a good eye on who you are hiring and how their personalities are. Hiring friendly people and getting to know them is the best way to ensure a good customer experience.

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Many vendors often wonder how to handle their pricing. Private vendors and artisans, especially those who operate exclusively through online distributors, have an especially hard time knowing how much to charge for their goods and services. All the while, the market for a given product or service grows more and more competitive and complicated by the day. Luckily, understanding one of these things will help you understand the other much better.

E-commerce has experienced a truly meteoric rise to prominence over the past two decades alone. For consumers, this means that they are no longer bound to the vendors in their local area. Anyone can have anything shipped to them through the mail at any time. This only serves to increase the need for every vendor looking to turn a profit to need an understanding of their unique competitive advantage and competitive advantage pricing.

What Is Competitive Advantage?

In a word, your competitive advantage is the thing that makes your business special. It is the thing you can give to your customers that no one else has. It is the advantage you have over your competition.

Competitive advantage could be anything from notoriously good customer service to a unique product to more customization options on a given order to faster shipping than most or all competitors. Customers are constantly searching for reasons why they should choose your business over the multitude of similar products, so it is always best to understand what makes you and your business stand out.

What Is Competitive Advantage Pricing?

Times are tough, people are unlikely to pay more for anything if they do not see a distinct benefit in it. It is so important to understand the competitive advantage you and your business have over others so that you can understand how to market and price your wares and compete.

E-commerce suffers from a particular need for effective competitive pricing strategies. Before the internet, most people were limited to the stores in their local area. If only one person sold a product, they got to set the price for that product in that area. Thanks to the world wide web, that is no longer the case.

Competitive pricing is part of every business, but e-commerce has increased the amount of competition behind it both among e-commerce vendors and brick and mortar stores trying to keep up with them.

How Your Pricing Strategy Can Be Used As A Competitive Advantage

Knowing both of these terms, it is likely becoming clear how an effective pricing strategy can benefit your business’s competitive advantage. A competitive pricing strategy alone could be your business’s competitive advantage as well. Some even find that competitive pricing directly helped them grow and diversify their business in a short time.

Underselling a product that you and a competitor both sell is a simple example of a pricing strategy being used as a competitive advantage. Your sales will be better on that product, and it may call customers’ attention to other products that your competitor does not have and that you can safely sell at a higher premium. Perhaps not the most imaginative example of this principle, but it does get the point across.

On the other hand, understanding the dynamics of both your pricing strategy and the strategy of your competitors can help you make more informed decisions about pricing in general. Recognizing the advantages and disadvantages of competition-based pricing can be a life-saver. Knowing how to price products so that you maximize your profit margin while also keeping the cost low enough that customers do not find it restrictively expensive is a very valuable skill.

Benefits Of Using A Competitive Pricing Strategy

Any vendor should remember that a pricing strategy should never be static. Pricing any services or goods should always be a dynamic process of assessing what your competitors are doing and the demand for certain products. It is not as easy as simply underselling the competition. That said, there are several benefits to learning exactly how competitive pricing advantages work.

The first thing that competitive pricing strategies can help you with is making you think not only about your direct competitors but also indirect competitors too. Direct competitors are easy to spot: One shoe store competes with another shoe store, one hamburger restaurant competes with another. We all know this. What is harder to see is the indirect biases.

But a hamburger shack still competes with its local Mcdonald’s, A shoe store still has to contend with Walmart. Both of these colossal companies have the money and resources to undersell you and out-produce you. The way you beat them is not by doing the same, it is by showing customers why your shoes or your hamburgers are worth spending the extra money on.

This is the central principle of competitive pricing. It is not purely about the dollar amount of your price, but how both you and your customers can justify that price. People will pay hundreds of dollars for a pair of running shoes if they think it is worth their money. The people selling these high-end shoes to them have succeeded in convincing the world of their value.

Let’s face it, these high-end shoes do not cost hundreds to make, but they are made and marketed in such a way that customers would rather buy them than a $20 pair from a cheaper store. This is competitive pricing. The manufacturers and distributors of these products recognize their competitive advantage pricing for profitability and activity-based pricing for competitive advantage.

Understanding Your Competitors to Determine Your Price

The first step in recognizing your competitive advantage is recognizing the advantage of your competitors, both direct and indirect. Sun Tuz famously said “if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of one hundred battles. If you know yourself, but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.”

One way to take these wise words is that understanding your competitors helps you in a very direct way. By definition, you cannot have the same competitive advantage as your competitor. Understand what your competitors do well, and do something better than they can to exploit a weakness in their business model. This is the advantage of competition-based pricing.

Of course, you will need to have some money available to go into business on this competitive level in the first place. For that, there are small business loans that will help you get on your feet.

Share with me on social how your business optimizes pricing  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram use #pricing

After years of hard work and schooling, you finally land your dream job. However, you may feel unprepared for your career once you get there. Even worse, you may feel stagnant as you stop challenging yourself and grow unhappy.

Creating learning opportunities in the workplace will force your employees to try harder and reinvigorate their interest in work. Employing new learning experiences through staff training, courses, and challenging assignments can boost satisfaction, leadership, and productivity.

The Benefits of Creating a Learning Culture in The Workplace

Creating a learning culture in the workplace has countless benefits for your employees:

• Keeps their skills relevant for their field
• Enhances their value as an employee
• Expands their certifications to complementary fields
• Increases confidence in capabilities
• Raises overall job satisfaction
• Boosts productivity, performance, and employee morale
• Encourages them to stay at the same workplace
• Provides opportunities for financial growth

If you want to have a stronger employee base with skilled and committed individuals, consider implementing learning experiences in the workplace.

Types of Learning Experiences in the Workplace

There are many types of learning experiences in the workplace. They vary from formal, casual, online, in-person, classrooms, coaches, employee-led, and more.

Education Programs

A professional development program needs to provide continual development and give the employees control. You can open a training program to teach leadership skills like communication, values, coaching, feedback, and conflict management.

The best education programs offer collaboration with other employees. The work should add to their normal workload, but happen with different people to introduce them to other personality types.

If you can, try to have your program overseen by a professional organization. They can work with your company to schedule and implement the coursework into your workday or after hours.

The courses can cover any job-related topic that you wish to reinforce in your employees. Whether you want them to learn programming languages, financial skills, design, people management, or anything else, you can find an education program that fits.

Having multiple education programs can boost interest and help employees develop a growth mindset where they strive for more opportunities in the workplace.

Keep in mind that formal education programs can get costly, depending on the institution. You may wish to opt for more informal methods that you implement during your workday to save resources.

Informal Training in the Workplace

Another one of the types of employee learning is informal training in the workplace. Approximately 25% of Americans think schools should solve workforce-development issues. These can include seminars, guest speakers, online courses, and podcasts.

You can hold a classroom-style seminar at your workplace where you train several employees on one task. This method encourages communication and questions, and you can tailor the education to your company’s needs.

Hiring a guest speaker can expand employee horizons to related or complementary fields. They can learn new viewpoints and implement them into their work. You could have a post-speech questionnaire to test their interest in it.

Many institutions offer online courses for a quality education that you can readily fit into your schedule. Online courses come at a lower cost than most in-person ones, and the employer can track employee progress.

You can recommend podcasts or TedTalks for your employees to listen to that relates to your job. Many speakers provide innovations and tips for advancing in their field that could apply to your company.

Coaching

Managers can provide some coaching to employees by offering direction, positive feedback, and constructive criticism. Only managers can directly assess employee performance to see where the individual needs the most work.

You can create a mentor program where a higher-position employee can coach smaller teams for support and answering questions.

Employee-Led Sessions

Having sessions where employees discuss their ideas of the company can help everyone understand where there is potential to improve. In these sessions, a person discusses an experience or topic that interests them as their colleagues listen and ask questions.

The topics could range from new skills, funny stories, pop culture, or an innovative article. As long as people talk and learn, you are adding education in the workplace.

Why You Need Employee Learning & Development Programs

You need employee learning and development programs to facilitate growth. If you want to keep your employees for more years and keep your company relevant in the changing workforce, staff training can help. Even small businesses can benefit from educating their employees.

Sending employees to conferences can create new connections. You could find new businesses to collaborate with, and learn what the competition looks like. For instance, you can find learning opportunities examples from what similar companies have begun doing.

If they have started expanding digitally in ways you have not, then you can implement a programming course.

Once you start trying training methods for employees, you could expand your company’s scope and gain a wider client base. Overall, employee training will improve your staff’s and business’ quality, and you can do it affordably.

Conclusion

People strive to learn throughout their lives. Education programs keep our minds sharp and help us retain an interest in our work. Instead of having your employees participate in the same droll activities each day, consider adding learning opportunities in the workplace to improve their engagement and job satisfaction.

You can also create a stronger workforce that keeps your company relevant during industry changes.

Share with me on social how you and your business continue education in the workplace on  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram us #continuingeducation

Your relationship with the community is critical for your long-term business success. It all starts with understanding the importance of giving back to the community and outlining a robust game plan.

Why it is Important for Your Business to Give Back to the Community

So, why is it important for business to give back to the community? Giving back to your community is an effective way to invest back into the people who have supported your company.

Nonprofit and volunteer groups are vital in growing and supporting the community. But they cannot do it all by themselves, which is why giving back matters.

When your business gives back to the community, it also can help build your brand awareness. Providing value-first assistance back into the local entities will position your business in the favorable eye of the community.

A large majority of your local publications are full of content with businesses doing volunteer work, presenting checks, and supporting other events. While you are investing money into the community, it also serves as a cost-effective marketing tool to better position your brand.

3 Ways You Can Support Your Community

Giving back to the community is a big step for you and your business. Below are three strategies your business can start implementing today.

These company giving back to the community ideas are sure to boost brand awareness right away.

Commit a Day to Volunteer

You and your team can schedule a day in the future to execute a company-wide volunteer program in your local community. Volunteer days enable your employees to interact and strengthen company culture. If you have cross-functional teams who do not normally work together, a volunteer day allows for this.

While this could be a challenging project for a large company, there are things you can do to boost attendance. Send out a survey ahead of time to narrow down 2-3 dates that most people respond to.

You can also designate a “volunteer lead” to research community opportunities, conduct outreach to specific organizations, and plan the event.

Company Match Programs

Company match programs allow you to highlight your commitment to the community. The management team should evaluate a monetary match on any employee donations for specific non-profits.

Not only is a company an integral component of a social responsibility system, but it can also boost team member enthusiasm and engagement.

The company match has the potential to deliver a long-term impact through philanthropy and volunteerism. As you discuss with the company leadership team, assess the accountability, structure, and buy-in of the employees.

Next, assign ambassadors to execute the game plan, monitor performance, and engage with the employees on the program.

Letter or Mail Campaigns

If your employees cannot find time to volunteer offsite, they can provide value through letter and mail campaigns. You could prepare homemade, personalized cards or packages for hospitalized children or to those deployed in the military.

The project lead should schedule a “card-making” office event with supplies, snacks, and other resources to fulfill the initiative.

How to Encourage Employees to Be Passionate About Giving Back to the Community

Your company cannot carry out its social responsibility program without the willingness or buy-in from the employees. You must figure out a way to motivate your employees to participate or get involved in volunteering or giving back to the community.

The business must do its part to passionately support its employees in their quest to give back to the community.

Below are three specific things you can do to motivate your team members in being socially responsible.

Provide Flexibility to Allow Them to Do the Community Work

If you want your employees to give back to the community, you must enable them the time to do so. Allow them to go out in the city and do their work on company time.

While the employees may be willing to invest personal time into volunteering, you are likely to have less participation.

Corporations giving back to the community should always respect their team member’s right to work-life balance. It would be best to allow a few hours each month or quarter to let the employees engage in non-profit or volunteer work.

Deliver the Resources Necessary to Contribute

Recycling projects and food drives are excellent ways to get your employees to contribute to the social cause.

However, you can turn it around and provide your team members with a financial budget to direct toward the program or non-profit of their choosing.

Instead of asking for cans or food to give to a food bank, you can allocate smaller budgets to each group or department. These funds could be used to cook meals for a family in need, form a bake sale, or other value-added projects.

Create Autonomy

Although a formal giveback plan is effective, you can also leave it to your teams to develop creative outreach and volunteer initiatives. Doing so will empower your employees to manage their own time, be proactive, and strengthen relationships with other colleagues.

You could then hold a company event where each team shares what they did to impact the community.

How to Get Started Position Your Business to Give Back to the Community

It is never too late to make a strong commitment toward giving back to your community. Social responsibility will benefit your company, your customers, and the surrounding communities.

This process all begins with developing a plan. Much like your normal business operations, you must execute strategic planning to ensure success. Each month or quarter, set aside time to sit down with your team or yourself to brainstorm ways your company can improve the world.

Outline 3-5 goals, metrics on how to measure success, and set a deadline. Then, you can form teams, ambassadors, or social champions to carry out the mission.

From here, the sky’s the limit in transforming the community around you, boosting brand awareness, and increasing team member engagement.

We here at ROK give back in many ways. For ever deal we fund, we donate 50 meals to Feeding America.

Here are some other giving back to the community examples, which will help get your name out to the loyal citizens:

• Donate a percentage of your revenue toward a charity on a specific day, time, or frequency
• Direct money toward a food bank
• Offer your products or services at a discount (or free) at a related local event
• Offer temporary use of a company vehicle at a local event or function
• Sponsor a local youth sports group or team
• If your community does a lot of parades, submit a float or help decorate

Share with me on social how you and your business give back  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram use #giveback

I heard this a few years back and at first, my first reaction was “What’s the difference”?  Working IN your business (to me at least) means you own a job, working ON your business means you own a business and you are doing things to grow our business outside of your designated responsibilities.

Don’t get me wrong, there are times you need to work IN your business but your goal should always be to focus your efforts ON working on your business. It has taken me time to get in this mindset, and personally, it’s been years since I’ve worked in my business. 

When you are first starting out, you probably have no other choice to work ON and IN your business. But as time passes and you’re able to delegate more of your tasks you should have more time to work ON your business. That could mean a lot of things, attending more networking events to meet new potential clients or establish new relationships. Spending more time analyzing your expenses and profits, and making decisions based on those numbers. Or simply taking time to think about where you see the business in 2-5 years and putting together incremental goals to get there. 

Another example would be if a contractor starts his/her business. Some examples of working ON the business as a start up would be getting the entity setup, logos and websites created, business cards printed, etc. Working IN the business would be the time they spend on swinging the hammer, selling jobs, billing, etc… Most business owners see the opportunity to work IN the business as a way to increase profits. Many will think that working ON the business can wait, as they need to take on that job, or help someone achieve the deadline, which in reality can be a major mistake for the business as a whole.  I’ve met many business owners over the years that 20-25 years later they are still only working IN their business and never ON. They also are usually the ones wondering why they have plateaued in their businesses. 

You need to spend more and more time working ON the business or you’ll be stuck owning a job and NOT owning your company. 

Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t happen overnight. As mentioned before this took me a while to get this mindset down. Personally it took me about 2 years to shift from IN to ON.  When I started I was working early mornings doing tasks like billing, payroll, accounting. I’d spend 8:00 am – 5:00 pm working IN the business, dealing with clients, working with my partners and vendors. Then from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm I’d be back to working ON the business. Running reports, and coming up with marketing campaigns.

As time went by I became burnt out. I wasn’t allowing time for my family or time for myself (which if you read some of my other blogs you will see time for “Me” such as working out/exercise is crucial for many reasons)  This also prevented me from really working on tasks and projects like forming partnerships, training staff, really diving into the profits of the business, and getting involved with industry associations & trade shows. It’s been more than 7 years now that I have only worked ON the business and not IN. 

Also, feel free to share your experiences on working ON vs IN your business

Share with me on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram your experiences of working ON vs IN your business use #OnvsIn.

Business planning is absolutely essential in having a successful company. When doing so most set annual and “Long term” goals (i.e. in 5/10 years I want to grow the business to X) This is great and necessary. You also need to set smaller and shorter goals in order to celebrate the mini victories. If your only goals are “long term” 5/10 year goals you can easily lose focus or sight of that goal. 

I like to set goals no longer than 5 years (yes, I may have plans or visions for 10+ years out but an actual goal I feel should be no longer than 5 years) I will also set incremental goals of annual, quarterly, monthly and even weekly. 

It’s important to celebrate the small wins. If you set your sights on a 5 year goal and fall short (which happens too often) do you ever celebrate? Even if you do hit that goal to only celebrate once in 5 years is a shame. As I’ve mentioned in other blogs and tips, most of us live, eat and breathe our businesses, why wouldn’t you celebrate the wins, even the small ones. 

It’s also important to include your employees in these goals. Celebrating is only that much better when you can include the team in it. 

Examples of some incremental goals I’ve set in the past have included:

• Adding 2 more employees by end of the Quarter 
• Increasing sales by 6% this month 
• Taking the first step to working on the business and less in the business 
• Having 5 client calls this month 
• Getting all employees trained on a new product 

Try and set an incremental goal for the month, Include the team in it and make sure you celebrate when you hit that goal. Doing this will only help to keep everyone motivated and collectively working towards one main goal. 

Share with me on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram. some of your short and long term goals using #goalsetting.

Being a business owner, we can all relate to the fact that our workload exceeds almost any other person within our organization. We often wear many hats, and juggle multiple tasks and priorities at once. The most important thing I have found over the years to keep myself sane (and organized) is detailing out my days/weeks ahead of time (as much as possible).

Spend 5 Minutes Reviewing Your Schedule

One of the first things I do every morning is spend at least 5-minutes looking over what I need to accomplish that day. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately I usually have more that needs to be done in a day that I can actually get to (this is even after I’ve delegated out as much as possible).  

Once I review my schedule, I prioritize what needs to be done that day. I use a task management system (there are a million of them out there). The system I use is web-based, has an app on my computer as well as my phone. No matter where I am I can add, delete, mark completed, and even delegate tasks. 

I like to see what’s past-due and try to knock those out first. 

Schedule Time for Tasks

Reviewing your day’s tasks and scheduling in time to knock out your to do’s is crucial. I often block off a bulk of hours on my calendar so I can allot time to accomplish my tasks. Days where I am unable to complete a large majority of those tasks, I consider that a fail. That is why when it comes to my workload, having those hours set aside (uninterrupted) for the most part, helps me achieve those tasks. I consider every day an opportunity to achieve something within the business.

The fact is no matter how you operate (notebook, app, computer program, or list) as long as you’re tracking your workday and making progress it’s better than doing nothing. Too many business owners just “wing it” I promise that is not the best plan you can have. As I’ve mentioned in other “Tips” your business deserves you putting your best foot forward, and working on things that you are unable to delegate. Take 5 minutes at the start of the day to review your schedule, I promise you won’t regret it!

How do you prepare for your day ahead? Share with me on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram.  Use #scheduleyourday

Personal Health doesn’t just keep you feeling and looking good it’s also beneficial to your Business. 

We spend so much time building our businesses, sacrificing our own personal well being. We tend to put redundancies in place and many forget to put attention to the business’s most important asset, YOU. The one person that cares the most, usually knows the most and is the most crucial to the success of the business. 

I’ve been guilty of this in the past myself. I made every excuse as to why I couldn’t workout, I’m too tired, I have too much to do. When I would find the time? I could do XYZ rather than a workout… When you stop and think about it you can use those excuses for some of the most basic activities (eating, sleeping, breathing) BUT we need these not only to survive BUT to also continue working on the business. When you eat cleaner, get a good night’s sleep, and spend as little as 30 minutes a day working out (4-5 days/week) you will see an increase in your work and the business, not to mention some of the benefits mentioned earlier (Looking and feeling better). 

Studies show regular exercise will also increase happiness, happier business owners create happier workplaces which also create happier employees and customers too. Recently, I stopped going to two local small businesses simply because of the negative attitude of the owner. Ironically one was a health food store (although I don’t think the owner worked out) and a butcher who definitely didn’t exercise. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you need to start entering body building competitions…at the very least take a 20-30 minute walk after dinner or on a lunch break, take the family for a bike ride on the weekends, just start moving! Personally, it’s hard for me to take much time out of my day, so I started waking up earlier to fit in my exercise routine. Now, 98% of the time I’m up and out of bed before my alarm even goes off. It’s also nice knowing I have a few extra minutes just for me uninterrupted. 

Regular exercise is a chain reaction, the more you do the better you feel and the more parts of your life will be better too, including your business.

Do yourself (more importantly your business a favor) and exercise 30 minutes a day for a month and I guarantee you will notice a difference in your energy, mood, and overall happiness. 

Want to take it one step further?  Encourage or motivate your staff to do the same. At ROK we hold a weekly Bootcamp on Saturday at 9 am. Everyone is welcome, between 25 – 30% of the company attends. Not only does this help with the benefits mentioned above it also creates team morale. It’s a great time to just blow off steam, feel better, and strengthen the bond we have grown over the years! 

Share with me on social how how a regular exercise routine has improved your business! Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram.  Use #personalhealth