Archive for July, 2008

Consider this. Each of us has somewhere between 12,000 to 50,000 thoughts a day. More than you thought, huh? Some of them help you get what you want and some get in the way of what you want or what you are shooting for. And these results all began with just one thought.

If you attended the Advisors On Target June 26 webinar, you know that I talked about the results of a study I did assessing how successful painting contractors think. What makes them different? How are they so successful? I used the 6 Advisors™ assessment program as the tool for my findings.

6 Advisors is an online assessment program that measures the type of advice you give yourself and the degree of this advice. We each give ourselves advice in 6 different yet distinct arenas. These 6 categories include thoughts relating to:

1. Others
2. Yourself
3. Getting things done
4. The way in which you spend your time
5. Ideas, concepts and discipline
6. Turning dreams into reality and motivation

Your thoughts impact the money you make, the debt you may have, the passion you may or may not have, your energy level, your stress level, your relationships, and your self esteem to name a few.

We all give ourselves plenty of balanced advice and this has helped shape many of our outcomes over the years. But advice we give ourselves that is unbalanced usually ends up resulting in outcomes that may be filled with minefields. The objective is to try and recognize when advisors are out of balance and shift course to achieve better results.

But this advice and internal dialog we all have has probably been around for a long time, so shifting thoughts and making a change will take some focus and diligence.

But change is good! It can mean improving your ability to manage your emotions, choices and actions so you end up with better results and a richer life.

Join me for my next article on the Empathy-Intuition advisor which focuses on the advice we give ourselves about others.

copyright 2008 Cynthia Kyriazis and Six Advisors, Inc.

Large companies often leave smaller market segments unserviced since they don’t represent, for them, a sufficiently profitable target. A small business can capitalize on these unmet needs by developing a product or service that fills the gap. You can think of a niche market as a narrowly defined group of potential customers.

A niche market can be a built on developing a product for a particular consumer demographic, such as manufacturing kosher milk products to meet the dietary requirements of particular religious groups. Many service firms have grown their business by deciding to build up expertise in how a certain industry works and focusing on attracting clients from that industry based on the expertise they can offer. Others will concentrate on a particular service line such as a dentist who specializes in pediatric work. Still other businesses concentrate their resources on marketing to a particular region, so they could be said to operate in a geographic niche. The competitive advantage of being in a niche market derives from being alone there and of being able to offer a level of expertise others can’t match or perfectly filling a particular need.

Niche market businesses are frequently small scale since they tend to focus on identifiable sub segments of a larger market such as cleaning blinds instead of cleaning offices in general. But it’s an error to think that that is a necessary association. The First Commerce Bank, in Charlotte, N.C became hugely profitable concentrating on servicing small business clients and some accounting firms have moved into the big league through providing advice to clients in specific industries or occupations.

There are three basic ground rules for making niche
marketing work for you.

1. Develop a detailed marketing plan:a well developed marketing plan is the key to successful niche marketing. It has to be very specific about the basic business concept - what you are selling, who you are selling it to, why they would buy it (the benefit to the customer) and how you will make money out of it.

2. Appoint a niche champion:the secret to tapping into a niche market and working it to get the best return is to know just what it is the consumer will really value from the product or service you are offering. If you need to, find a niche champion with the knowledge and experience in the product/service that will enable you to develop just the right package. If your niche marketing initiative is really a subsidiary line of business within a larger organization, for instance preparing a line of gluten-free products within a general bakery business, ensure the project is properly funded and the niche champion has sufficient authority and respect to be able to keep the project on track. Don’t throw away the opportunity through bad planning and execution.

3. Market hard: niche marketing succeeds or fails on its success in connecting with exactly the right kind of customer. Both the target market and the marketing channels that will most likely reach them should be closely defined. Give careful consideration to what marketing messages will work best as ‘hot buttons’ for prospects and will prompt them to purchase the product. Marketing spend may not need to be large but it does need to be well focused so as to get your name known within the target market and educate them to the benefits of using your product/service. In the case of gluten-free bakery products, you could advertise in health food stores, food bars, natural healing centers and healthy living publications.

The famous entertainer Bill Cosby once said, “I don’t know what the secret of success is, but I know the secret of failure and that was trying to please everybody.” The same wisdom applies in business as in entertainment. For many businesses, large and small, creating a product or offering a service that satisfies the needs of a niche market has been a recipe for success.

Information for this article is sourced from RAN ONE.

Last month I focused on the “Locate Discrepancies” button that is part of the Bank Reconciliation feature in QuickBooksTM. Like the “Locate Discrepancies” button, another overlooked, but very helpful part of the Bank Reconciliation feature in QuickBooksTM is the “Undo Last Reconciliation” button. This button is located right next to the “Locate Discrepancies” button that you see when you are entering your bank statement information. It’s in the first screen, at the bottom, after clicking on “Bank Reconciliation” from the Home Page or from the Banking Menu.

Intuit recommends backing up your data before undoing a previous reconciliation, which is always a wise choice.

The “Locate Discrepancies” button and the “Undo Last Reconciliation” button are often used in conjunction with each other. If you’ve had to turn to the “Locate Discrepancies” button, but are unable to rectify the issues with your bank reconciliation using that report, it is sometimes wiser to undo your last bank reconciliations until you reach one that is correct and then re-reconcile your bank statement or statements. This can often be more accurate and less time consuming.

When you click on the “Undo Last Reconciliation” button, QuickBooksTM will tell you exactly what to expect by continuing with this process. Please read this screen. The important item to know about this process is that QuickBooksTM will not remove any of your transactions and all service charges, interest and other adjustments made to your bank account, as part of your prior reconciliation, will remain in your bank account.

The “Undo Last Reconciliation” button is really meant as a means to correct a bank reconciliation(s) that has (have) gotten off course. Just remember to use it wisely and after careful consideration.

On June 23rd the Internal Revenue Service announced an increase in the standard mileage rates for the final six months of 2008.

The rate will increase to 58.5 cents a mile for all business miles driven from July 1, 2008, through Dec. 31, 2008. This is an increase of eight (8) cents from the 50.5 cent rate in effect for the first six months of 2008.

The IRS announced the unusual mid-year increase in recognition of recent gasoline price increases. The IRS normally updates the mileage rates once a year in the fall for the next calendar year.

“Rising gas prices are having a major impact on individual Americans. Given the increase in prices, the IRS is adjusting the standard mileage rates to better reflect the real cost of operating an automobile,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “We want the reimbursement rate to be fair to taxpayers.”

While gasoline is a significant factor in the mileage figure, other items enter into the calculation of mileage rates, such as depreciation and insurance and other fixed and variable costs.

The optional business standard mileage rate is used to compute the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business use in lieu of tracking actual costs. This rate is also used as a benchmark by the federal government and many businesses to reimburse their employees for mileage.

To view the IRS announcement: Click Here

Employers should consider increasing the reimbursement rates to match the new IRS rate. Generally, employers must reimburse employees for travel expenses incurred in the course of work. For example, in California, Labor Code section 2802, subdivision (a), requires an employer to indemnify its employees for expenses they necessarily incur in the discharge of their duties. Note that in California, paying the IRS rate does not guarantee that the employer has fully reimbursed the employee for actual travel expenses. The California Supreme Court recently addressed employee travel expense reimbursement in a case titled Gattuso v. Harte-Hanks Shopper, Inc.

The article presented herein is intended as a brief overview of the law and is not intended to substitute as legal advice. Any questions or concerns regarding any statute or case law should be addressed to a licensed attorney.

The first week of July is ‘Take Charge of Change’ week.

The hazy, lazy days of summer and vacations are upon us. This time of year you may not be spending much time thinking about your to-do list, cluttered workspaces or procrastination challenges, but you could be contemplating how to take charge..and gain more time for relaxing.

If so, here are your productivity tips for this month:

1.      What’s hot -  ‘The Secret’ is all a buzz.  It’s about the Law of Attraction and how thoughts drive actions. Identify thoughts that are causing stress and focus and replace them. It will change the way you spend your time and live your life.

2.      What’s not - Delaying decisions. Life is about keeping commitments to yourself. What thought is it that says ‘I don’t have time to do it now’? Thinking this over and over is stressful. So change your thought. No one can do that but you.

3.      What’s next - Liberation. If you do what is required in the ‘here and now’, yesterday and tomorrow take care of themselves. And you have more time to relax even if it’s not your vacation.

It’s your time…use it wisely.