Small Biz Survival Tip: Smart people who know each other and learned together

That's the secret to surviving economic downturns. A fascinating article in today's NY Times on how NY City survives so well in recessions includes this quote:

The secret of New York’s post-1970 reinvention was that smart people, who knew each other and learned from each, innovated in ways that made billions in financial services.

(Looking at the last 4 words of the sentence may bring doubt to its wisdom.)

Regardless, the truth remains that smart people who know each other and can learn from each other will innovate ways that will make us...hundreds of thousands, or millions or billions or...trillions. Trillions is what we need to rejuvenate our economy.

Ok. So how's this wisdom applied for small business in small towns? ( NY City is not included in the universe of small towns. )

What about trust? Small business in small towns know each other. And they have skills and talents and resources to help each other. They also share the most important, and most undefinable, element: trust.

However, the universe of potential resources may be limited.

And now with social media....blogs and twitter and youtube and rss feeds and google reader...our community of smart people grows exponentially into a global community of resources we need and those who need the resources we can provide.

The secret to surviving downturns...is to surround ourselves with other smart people, get to know each other, learn from each other and innovate ways to make billions in [something other than financial services...].

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About the Author: Zane Safrit's passion is small business and the operationsí excellence required to deliver a product that creates word-of-mouth, customer referrals and instills pride in those whose passion created it. He previously served as CEO of a small telecom service provider in rural Iowa. Zane's blog can be found at Zane Safrit. His radio show can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/zane-safrit. And he twitters at zanesafrit.

How to send text messages through Gmail Chat

Gmail has introduced the ability to send text messages straight from Chat.

How to

First, you need to turn on this feature. Go to Settings, (text link at top right of screen) then Labs. Scroll way down the list to find "Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat" and click Enable next to it. Scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes.


Once you have text messaging turned on, here's how to send one.

1. Open a Chat with the person you want to text. 
You do this by clicking on their name in the Chat list. That will open a chat window.

2. Switch to text messaging. 
Click Options in the little Chat window. Click on Send SMS. If you don't have a cell number saved for this contact, it will open a window to ask for the cell phone number. Enter their cell number and click Save.

3. Type your text message, and press enter.
Gmail reminds you that some carriers charge for each message received.

What is this good for?

It's just another tool in your communication tool box.

Businesses with some people in the field, some people in the office. Send messages direct from the office without switching to your cell phone. Examples: plumbers sending updated service info, or real estate agents sending schedule changes. 

People who hate pecking out text messages. Or people who just hate cell phones.

Limits:

This only works with US phones on major carriers. My Pioneer Cellular phone, for example, is not supported. So for small town folks, this could be an issue.



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Love your customers

It's the most basic of business basics. Love your customers.

You're heard it a million times, and if you're feeling stressed, it's easy to forget. When you are working, in the flow, making progress, and a customer calls or walks in and interrupts, it's hard to remember.

But... how do you work on that?

Jon Swanson gave me the best answer I've heard.

"You need to know what your purpose is. The point of a business is making a difference in the lives of people, and the most important group of people is...customers."

The lesson: take time to be clear about your purpose.

That means time away from the business to think about, and be clear about your purpose.

In the moment, the way to apply this is to pause. Pause and remember your purpose. If you're interrupted by the phone, put your hand on the phone, but don't answer it yet. Take a moment. Picture a client with good news. Imagine all the wonderful possibilities. Smile, then answer.

For customers coming in the door, take a deep breath, and remind yourself of your average sale. Mentally say, "Thanks for the $50!" Smile and go give some great customer service.

This article is part of the Small Biz 100, a series of 100 practical hands-on posts for small business people and solo entrepreneurs, whether in a small town, the big city, or in between. If you have questions you'd like us to address in this series, leave a comment or send us an email at becky@smallbizsurvival.com. Get the whole series by subscribing to Small Biz Survival.

Photo by Becky McCray.

Same ol', Same ol'. Every month

Same ol'. Same ol'. Month in; month out. No biggie, right?

That's what you do to survive. You face a cash-flow issue; you dodge it by finding a new product, a new service, a way to offer more to your customers and/or you find ways to streamline your business operations and cut expenses, do more with less.

And every once in awhile you take a breath and celebrate it.

And if you use a resource like Twitter...you can share it with a global audience. Maybe find others who've done the same: dodge a cash-flow bullet or found a new revenue stream or a way to cut costs.

And you reach out and connect with them. And now you have one more resource for ideas or partnerships or support or commiserating or resources or tools to help you get to the next month. And a few more people to help or be helped by.

That's what small business does. We help each other. That's what social media does. It helps us...help each other. It helps us far more than it does big corporations where the approval process to use a tool like Twitter compares with an elephant's gestation cycles. ( No. I don't know how long. But I could ask on Twitter and someone would tell me and I would have a new friend, resource. Imagine if you asked a question about business or answered a question about business every month...? After awhile, you'd have a network of 100-200-300 people or more, all helping each other. You might even have a new product, a new service, a new partner or vendor. You might even skip a month or two in between crises. )

Anyway, take a minute and share your story with someone who could benefit from it. They might have one you could use to hear, too. Then you might both be able to help each other or others. And grow your business, too.

How cool would that be...?

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About the Author: Zane Safrit's passion is small business and the operationsí excellence required to deliver a product that creates word-of-mouth, customer referrals and instills pride in those whose passion created it. He previously served as CEO of a small telecom service provider in rural Iowa. Zane's blog can be found at Zane Safrit. His radio show can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/zane-safrit. He tweets at twitter under the username: zanesafrit

learn from mistakes until you succeed

“Take risks, and you’ll get the payoffs. Learn from your mistakes until you succeed. It’s that simple.” ~ Bobby Flay

Heard from Laura @Pistachio Fitton, via @dan_martell, on Twitter

I'm still redefining failure. Have a great quote or story about failure? Share it in the comments.

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Christmas Brag Basket - fill it with joy

Each week, I open the Brag Basket. It's designed as a fun place for you to share your projects and accomplishments. But you can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone a well-deserved pat on the back.

And it's Christmas-time, people! Let's fill the Brag Basket with joy.

The Brag Basket is open for everyone, whether from a small town, a big city, or anywhere in the world. (But it's true that I love small town brags!)

Will you put something in the Brag Basket this week? You can brag on a friend, your own project, yourself, others, anything! You don't need special permission, and you don't have to be from a small town. Just leave a comment right here. There's no deadline, so you can brag anytime during the weekend, and I'll open a fresh Brag Basket each Friday.

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Everyone ought to try it at least once

"I'm kind of the spinning plate lady," Glenna Mae Hendricks said of her small business enterprises. 

You know Glenna Mae as Maesz, one of our contributors here. She was also one of the featured speakers at the recent entrepreneurship event in Alva.

"I've been an entrepreneur since the early 70's," she said. "I'm kind of the example of don't do it my way."

She and her husband had no resources and no business plan.

"You just had to tell the bankers what you wanted to do and why it would work," Glenna Mae said. 

When they bought an oil field service company, they had to learn a lot of regulations really fast.

"Don't do it this way people!" she said. "It's not easy!"


"I don't make a real good employee," she said. "I don't always know when to shut my mouth with a boss... But now I'm the boss, and if I know it's right, I do it."

In 1992, she bought a liquor store, even though she had never worked in retail in her life.

"All right, why not?" she thought. "I can do this."

"I approached it like a service business and I truly believe that that's what made it succeed," she said. 

Her ultimate advice to would-be entrepreneurs?

"Everyone ought to try it at least once."


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Mistakes: Thinking small about fees

Scott White, The BIG Kahuna, shared a story of a small business mistake:

Last night my wife and I went to a birthday dinner at one of the nicest St. Thomas restaurants. We really happen to like this restaurant. There were 8 of us in total. The food was fantastic. The service was white glove.

What could go wrong? Read the rest of the story at Thinking Small, then come back. Don't forget to read the comments, too!

(humming the Jeopardy! theme while I wait for your return...)

Welcome back! What do you think? Was the restaurant right? Were the eight customers right? How do you think the restaurant should have handled it?

My solution? Instead of an extra fee, I'd love to see them provide a bonus dessert or gift to the group. How about a gift certificate for a future visit? Yes, I know they didn't buy the cake there, but then you'd have eight new evangelists singing your praises all over, instead of eight disgruntled people grumbling about you to everyone they meet. Is that worth the $40?

By the way, to the commenter at Scott's who said these fees are common and therefore OK, I couldn't disagree more. If these fees are so common and so unpleasant, they represent a terrific opportunity to make your business stand out by not nickel-and-dime-ing your customers to death.

Photo: unhappy restaurant hot pot, Lima, Peru, by Becky McCray.

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Show what you do

"We had a great morning with about 15 people at the Pillar Ranch open house! Anytime you show what you do, it's more effective."
Royce Gomez, @rghorses on Twitter 

Royce is right on. The best way to really connect with people, potential customers, is to show them what you do, to get them involved before they become paying customers.

It's relationship building. It's layering. It's sampling, like the wine tasting in the photo. It's part of creating a compelling offer.

Here's an example for service businesses, from Dawud Miracle, also on Twitter:

"WOW, what a busy day. Do you need help with your website, blog or business, get a FREE 25-min consult with me." 

Dawud linked to his free consultation page. There, he asks you three questions: your biggest issue, your business, and your message to him. All in all, a brilliant example of how to show what you can do, for a service business.

How are you showing your customers what you do? 

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Photo by Becky McCray.

Technorati Tags: Small+business, marketing, sales, selling, Royce+Gomez, Dawud+Miracle

Cooperative eXtension helps rural small businesses

You're in a small town; you're running a business. Did you know your local cooperative extension has an entrepreneurship program to help you? Yes, the cooperative extension service. They're probably in your county courthouse.

In Oklahoma, the statewide entrepreneurship program includes more than the usual fact sheets.  Glenn Muske specializes in home-based and micro-business. Then there is the Robert M. Kerr Food and Agricultural Products Center, supporting value-added food and agricultural processing products in Oklahoma.

The services in your state will be different, customized to your local economy. And of course, the quality of people makes all the difference. So it's worth checking into.

You can find a small group of entrepreneurship articles and other resources on the national eXtension site.

Photo: specialists from the Robert M. Kerr FAPC helping a local business, by Becky McCray

Technorati Tags: small+business, rural, consulting, extension, cooperative


This article is part of the Small Biz 100, a series of 100 practical hands-on posts for small business people and solo entrepreneurs, whether in a small town, a big city, or in between. If you have questions you'd like us to address in this series, leave a comment. This is a community learning project. Get the whole series by subscribing to Small Biz Survival.

Failure is only the opportunity

One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again.
--Henry Ford  A man's life is interesting primarily when he has failed--I well know. For it's a sign that he tried to surpass himself. --Georges Clemenceau

Shared by @DelWilliams on Twitter.

I'm sharing these quotes because I'm still campaigning to redefine failure. 

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Our best article from 2008

Joanna Young asked her readers to pick their best post of the year. What was our best small business article from all of 2008?  I think it would have to be our Checklists for starting your first business.

My friend Chris suggested the post at SXSW. I got some help from Maesz, and we wrote it up. Chris liked the post, bragged about it, and Lifehack picked it up from there. That put us on the Popular list at (what was at the time still called) del.icio.us. As of right now, the workshop I proposed based on this post is still in consideration for SXSW 09. (knock wood, hold thumbs, cross your fingers)

More importantly, a whole bunch of actual small business owners commented, asked questions, and joined the discussion because of it. Then it launched our Small Biz 100 series. So far we're up to 30 posts focused on hands-on business basics for you. All because Chris made a suggestion. 

Joanna asked us to finish this sentence, in under 30 words:
This post is simply the best because…

it answers the questions that first time business owners would ask, if they only knew who to ask! 

If you got to pick, what post of ours would you say was simply the best? What about your own posts? Have a special favorite this year? 

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Find your good news for the Brag Basket

"Despite the seemingly bad news, people still have lots of stuff to brag about."
Marco Terry, in the Brag Basket, Dec. 5.

Each week, I open the Brag Basket. It's designed as a fun place for you to share your projects and accomplishments. But you can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone a well-deserved pat on the back.

The Brag Basket is open for everyone, whether from a small town, a big city, or anywhere in the world. (But it's true that I love small town brags! Will you put something in the Brag Basket this week? You can brag on a friend, your own project, yourself, others, anything! You don't need special permission, and you don't have to be from a small town. Just leave a comment right here. There's no deadline, so you can brag anytime during the weekend, and I'll open a fresh Brag Basket each Friday.

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Dial2Do lets you call in emails or text messages

Dial2Do is my new favorite tool to get things done on the go.

Let's start with basics. You can call in, Dial2Do records your message, and you can have it email or text that message to one of your contacts.

You can also specify Reminder, and the service will transcribe what you say and email you a reminder. This replaces how I used to use Jott. Even if I never explore another bit of it, this reminder service is a "killer app" for me.

For more business uses, set up your calendar. You can add appointments and hear existing ones. It will even read your email to you, as well as sending out new emails. Post business expenses to Xpenser by calling them in. It also works with Remember the Milk, 30 Boxes, Toodledo, and Vitalist.

Now let's look at the more creative things you can do with it. Are you a big fan of Evernote to track information? Dial2Do will transcribe your voice note and email it into your Evernote account.

Need a word translated? Add the Translate service, call in and it will figure out the word you said, look up the translation, and then text or email it back to you. It works with 12 languages.

What's the weather going to do? Set up your ZIP code online, and it will read you the forecast when you call in. (You could even change the ZIP when you travel.) By the way, Dial2Do has local phone numbers in over 20 countries.

We aren't finshed. Hook up your Twitter, FriendFeed, your blog, and many more. Listen to feeds from a dozen or so different blogs. Add the RSS feed for any other blog you want it to read to you. Or easily set up a command to email or post to a URL to work with a whole bunch of other services.

OK, now we're finished.

Technorati Tags: Dial2Do, tools, small+business, business, cell+phone, reminders, GTD, organization

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Mistakes: Going for 'viral' at any cost

Not everything that goes "viral" is good for business.

Example: Pizza Hut commissioned a short video, hoping for it to go viral and spread their brand. The video shows a couple of guys going into small independent pizza places and having a Pizza Hut pizza delivered to them there.

What's the message? It says nothing about quality, taste, or any other thing that would promote their brand. It does, however, make me feel incredibly awkward about Pizza Hut mocking some small business people. Is this the message?

But, hey, it went viral.

Support your local small business people. Order pizza from the independent. 

And if someone comes in to punk your business, walk right up, and offer a direct comparison with your product. Because I'm betting every one of those pizza joints could have put the mass market pizza to shame.

Read more commentary (or watch the video) at Experience Manifesto.

Technorati Tags: viral+video, marketing, Pizza+Hut, Experience+Manifesto

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Interview on small business, small towns, Africa and more

Deb Brown, a small town newspaper editor from Iowa, has interviewed me on a wide range of subjects! She has also shared the interview on her blog, Deb Works.

We talked about making a living in a small town, Small Biz Survival, lessons I've learned from my businesses, social media for small town businesses, African safaris, grant writing, and agritourism.

Here's a sample, about reducing brain drain.

How can we get our kids to come back to the community after college? What do we need to be doing to help develop our community for them too? 

Engage them. Put young people in charge of projects. Involve them in "adult" meetings, like Rotary or the City Council. Setup a job shadowing or mentoring program with local businesses. Do everything you can to make young people a vital part of everything in the community. It's not just about projects or assets. It's about building a sense of belonging and community. That will stick with kids long after they head to college, and that is what will make them want to return.

You can also go further to bring them back, with events focused on homecomings. You can hold all-school, all-year reunions. If you can compile a mailing list of interested alums, you can market not just your events, but also your town. Your city government might be able to offer inexpensive lots for building or other move-back incentives. You have to be creative about it.

Read the whole, long interview at Becky McCray - A Real Entrepreneur.

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What to do when sales are down

Sometimes the best advice comes from other small business owners. Mark Hayward asked on Twitter,
"Small biz owners, are your numbers down? Ours seem to be off quite a bit from this time last year...How are you compensating?"

In the course of our conversation online, we came up with two suggestions:

1. Diversify - What else do you have to offer?  

Mark owns a guest house on a tropical island and maintains a great online presence for it with a whole bunch of different social networks, etc. Mark has considered doing some consulting with other small businesses, to help them market using these same tools.

What skills do you have you could use to either expand your business, or possibly start a side business? Have you developed any tools, software or skills you can offer to other small business owners? 

2. Refocus your time to do more outreach.

Mark said it this way, "ahh, next, step away from Twitter ...and focus more on some travel sites. :)"

When you have less business to do, it can be either tempting to do relaxing or distracting activities, like Twitter, or it can feel odd, not knowing what to do.

Focus your time on reaching more people you can serve. 

More ideas from other small biz owners: 

Gabriel Pagan @gabopagan added several points:

• discipline and cost control without sacrificing quality and service (hard!)
  
• redoubling efforts to get new clients while doing as much to keep existing ones
  
• trying to get all employees with sense of ownership, we all in this together
  

Royce Gomez @rghorses also provided a good idea:

packages and more advertising for increased sales

Alisa Treasurefield @treasurefield said to persevere: 

I say keep keeping on, improve things, come up with better packaging/presentation

Your ideas?

What would you do if sales were down? What real-world experience can you share?

Technorati Tags: small+business, recession, marketing, advertising, promotion, social+media, Alisa+treasurefield, Royce+Gomez, Garbiel+Pagan, Mark+Hayward

This article is part of the Small Biz 100, a series of 100 practical hands-on posts for small business people and solo entrepreneurs, whether in a small town, the big city, or in between. If you have questions you'd like us to address in this series, leave a comment or send us an email at becky@smallbizsurvival.com. This is a community project! 

Get the whole series by subscribing to Small Biz Survival.

Despite the bad news you have things to brag about

"Despite the seemingly bad news, people still have lots of stuff to brag about."
Marco Terry, in last week's Brag Basket.

Each week, I open the Brag Basket. Obviously, it's designed as a fun place for you to share your projects and accomplishments. But you can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone a well-deserved pat on the back. 

The Brag Basket is open for everyone, whether from a small town, a big city, or anywhere in the world. (But it's true that I love small town brags!)

Will you put something in the Brag Basket this week? You can brag on a friend, your own project, yourself, others, anything! You don't need special permission, and you don't have to be from a small town. Just leave a comment right here. There's no deadline, so you can brag anytime during the weekend, and I'll open a fresh Brag Basket each Friday.

Brag Basket graphic by BJ Novack, KickAss Web Design.

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Wireless printer review: Epson WorkForce 600

The Product: Epson WorkForce 600 all-in-one wireless printer

Short and Sweet Review: Great for small workgroups.

Who should use it: Small businesses ready to move up from basic printers.
Patrick Gevas of Walt and Company sent it to me for a review. I set it up in my home office, where it feels really big, compared to the previous tiny printer. Setup was easy, though I hit a glitch with one ink cartridge. I just took it out and put it back in. That fixed it.

So far, I've used it to fax, copy, print and scan. I like it! That huge, clunky old fax machine someone gave me to make do with at the store? It's outta there! I'll happily carry faxes home to send with this sucker instead.

Separate ink cartridges for each color
Each color gets its own ink cartridge. For small businesses printing quite a bit of color, that should be a cost saving feature.

Power cord
The printer is pretty big, so I started to scoot it right up against the back of my desk, except that the darn power cord sticks out. Drat. In a small office rather than home office setting, this is probably not a big deal.

Wireless is Nice
Just like my other wireless printer, I did need to use a USB cable (included in the box!) to do the initial setup. After that, it's good to go wireless. You can set it up anywhere in the office.

Memory Card Slots
The front panel has slots for your camera memory cards. In fact, I noticed you can access those memory card slots across the wireless network. I'm thinking that this could be handy at times. It is also another reason to have good wireless security in place for your business.

Bottom Line
This printer would be a good fit for small businesses with a few folks working together, and a need for quite a bit of printing, and lots of functionality in one unit.

Photos from the installation are online at Flickr.

You can get more information from the Epson site: Epson WorkForce 600.  

You can also look at the Amazon listing:
Epson WorkForce 600 Wireless All-in-One Printer
(affiliate link)

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How NOT to use Twitter for a tourism business

This is just my opinion, but I wouldn't choose to use Twitter to promote my tourism business the way @Gabriola007, Gabriola Gables Waterfront Estate in British Columbia is doing it.

There are no rules for using Twitter, so I'm not saying that they are doing it "wrong" because they aren't following my advice. They are welcome to try any tactic they choose.

Every single tweet is about the estate. They have followed 657 people, trying to get their attention. They have not actually conversed with any of them. It's broadcast only. It reads like a brochure, and I'm not interested.

Here's an example that I think is a much better use of Twitter for promoting a tourism business, @Mark_Hayward, owner of Palmetto Guest House in Culebra, Puerto Rico.

He doesn't even link directly to his guest house promotional site. Instead, Mark talks with people. He shares his many interests, including his Train for Humanity project, small business articles he finds, and family. He talks about his guest house, teases us with the wonderful weather, shares photos, and is a real human being. I want to go visit him.

You choose. Sound like a brochure, or be a real person.

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How to find people to help you with your business

Ready for some help with your business? You can research online all day, read every book, even talk with friends and family, but sometimes you just need another experienced business person to sit down with you, face to face, and work on improving your business. No matter where you are, odds are that you are in the territory of some free business consulting sources.

These first two are more or less consistent nationwide in the US. No matter where you are, you can call on the nearest of these services.

• Small Business Development Centers. Our Contributor Jeanne Cole (OkieJ) works for the SBDC based in Alva, Oklahoma. Her job, along with all SBDC counselors, is to provide free business counseling to anyone who asks. She helps people in any stage of business, and she drives halfway across the state to meet with people on their own turf. Trust me, there is an SBDC and the local equivalent of Jeanne near you waiting to help, probably based on a college campus. Check the SBDC Locator to find yours.
  
  
• SCORE. Through SCORE, volunteers with real business experience can help you fix problems in your business. SCORE has lots of chapters in the US, but they are pretty far apart in my corner of the state.  Patrick Allmond used SCORE once, but found that because these are retired executives, they usually aren't up on the latest tech trends. There are exceptions, though, so try to get matched with a volunteer that meets your needs.
  

This second group of resources is more general. The names and programs will vary from place to place, so you have to do more research to find them in your area. The best place to start is:

• Universities, Colleges, Technical Centers. Many educational institutions have some program or center dedicated to small business. The services available vary widely. You'll just have to call and find out what's available to you. Even if you are not near the campus, you are probably still in the service area of some help, and they may drive out to meet you.
  
  
• Business Incubators. All incubators provide services to the businesses that they house. Some also provide assistance to outside businesses. It never hurts to ask. Some incubators worldwide are listed at the NBIA.
  
  
• Trade Associations. Depending on the type of business you are in, you may get some help from a trade group or business alliance. They also may be able to help you connect with another small business person in your industry, but not a direct competitor, for some in person discussions.
  
  
• Chamber of Commerce. The local chamber of commerce may have their own business counseling program, or may point you to other local resources. They should know all the other players in your local market. If you local town chamber is too small to help much, try the next bigger neighboring city.
  
  
• Economic Development Associations. This could be a city agency, a county group, or a regional or state organization, but some offer help directly to existing business owners.
  
  
• State Business, Commerce, or Economic Development Department. This is usually an agency of the state government, so start looking on your state's government website. In order to get in-person help from the state, you may need to be a pretty large business. More likely, they may help you find a more local resource person.
  
  

I've given you several options, because I know that personal help is only as good as the person offering it. If you don't get the help you need from one person or one source, keep looking.

Hiring Paid Consultants

Besides these free resources, there are also paid consultants to help with your business. Here's where I need your help. For the next article on hiring paid consultants, I need your experiences.

• Have you worked with a paid consultant? What were your results? 
• Are you a consultant? What can you share about working with client small businesses?
  

Special thanks to Sheryl Schuff and Derrick Parkhurst for their help with this post.

Photo by Becky McCray. 

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Failure is a mischievous friend

Failure is a friend and a teacher, but it can be mischievous. Don't let it scare, intimidate, discourage, or sadden you. You are great, remember.
--Pastor WD Favour, Enugu, Nigeria, via Twitter  

That may be the most interesting view I've read in quite a while. Failure is a friend. It can be mischievous. Fascinating!

We've done a whole series on failure, and I explained why in the Redefining Failure Masterplan. Every entrepreneur has to face the possibility of failure. In fact, you likely will fail, repeatedly. Get ready for it, get through it, and get moving.

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There is a reason for the Brag Basket

Each week, I open the Brag Basket. Obviously, it's designed as a fun place for you to share your projects and accomplishments. But you can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone a well-deserved pat on the back. 

The Brag Basket is open for everyone, whether from a small town, a big city, or anywhere in the world. (But it's true that I love small town brags!)

Will you put something in the Brag Basket this week? You can brag on a friend, your own project, yourself, others, anything! You don't need special permission, and you don't have to be from a small town. Just leave a comment right here. There's no deadline, so you can brag anytime during the weekend, and I'll open a fresh Brag Basket each Friday.

NOTE: Once again I have a Friday full of meetings, so cheer for each other, OK? Thanks!

Brag Basket graphic by BJ Novack, KickAss Web Design.

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Less Paper to File

I have stumbled upon, what I believe to be, an easier way to keep track of items paid on-line.

I signed up to receive my credit card and utility billings on-line. The following is how it works. I:

• get notices via e-mail;
  
• go the the site;
  
• print only the page on my bill that contains the actual billed items (all their advertising, etc. can stay unprinted);
  
• set-up/schedule my payment for a couple days before the due date;
• print the confirmation of payment scheduled on the BACK of the billed items page;
• go to my accounting software, record the upcoming payment (I enter the confirmation # as memo);
• file only one sheet of paper.

I haven't written a check in months except in local stores where I cannot use a credit card.

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Hire better people with The Collaborative Hiring Process

Hiring the right people is vitally important when you have only a few or even one employee. Contributor Zane Safrit knows quite a bit about hiring, through direct personal experience. He's sharing the best of his experience in a free ebook, The Collaborative Hiring Process.

Zane goes through the whole process, from finding people to interview, all the way through welcoming the new people into your organization. The added bonus, Creating Employee Evangelists 16 Ways...Without Costing a Dime, is worth reading whether you are in the hiring process or not.

It's a terrific resource. I read it, and found it really drew me into thinking about the people in my own businesses. I highly recommend it.

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Rural competitiveness requires airports

Oklahoma State Senator Jay Paul Gumm writes a regular column and chose to talk about rural competitiveness and infrastructure recently. Infrastructure can mean lots of things. Gumm talks specifically about rural airports.

These airports are critical gateways to mid-size communities. They are where CEOs land to look for business relocation or expansion sites. The airports are business centers for entrepreneurs who provide services to the aviation industry....

A small airplane manufacturer has relocated its production and office operations from San Diego, Calif., to the Blackwell-Tonkawa Regional Airport. This one relocation will generate 40 jobs and millions of dollars of economic impact.

Alva benefited from the development of Vantage Plane Plastics (airplane interior parts manufacturer) out of a locally-grown business, through its acquisition by a California company, and its recent expansions.

Your own business may rely on the local airport more than you think.

Our local bank had to call for service of a specialized piece of equipment. The service people came in a small jet, actually a bit too big for Alva's airport. They had to land an hour away and drive in.

The Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma Jari Askins will go anywhere for any event (almost). But you have to have an airport of a certain minimum size for her plane to land. So if want her to come celebrate your major expansion, be sure you've supported your local airport.

Cafe Bahnhof in Waynoka, Oklahoma, receives visitors each week who have flown in, rather than driven, just to enjoy Dieter Dorner's hospitality and Bavarian style food. He even lists fly-in information on his website. You can bet he supports his local airport. 

How about you? Do you rely on your local airport? How are you supporting it?

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7 Ways You Screw Up Your Life

Marti Lawrence has pulled together an all star cast (including a small contribution from me) for her third book, 7 Ways You Screw Up Your Life.

All the principles apply straightening out your business, as well as your personal life, and Marti presents them in a clear and amusing way. 

The Foreword is by Chris Brogan. There is also an interview with Jeremiah Owyang. The guest author contributions include my bit on Failing Well, Upbeat Living Despite Chronic Pain By Susan Reynolds,The Roller Coaster Theory By Terry Starbucker, and Cherishing Failure By Liz Strauss. That's a pretty impressive crew.


I asked Marti a few questions about her bringing this book to completion. 

What kicked off this book project?

I sold used books on Amazon - stuff I picked up at garage sales and thrift stores.  As my sales increased, I noticed that self-help books always sold quickly. I guess a lot of us think we're screwed up!  I am an avid reader, and always had an interest in self-improvement, so I tried to read a book before I sold it.  I found many of them to be…well, kind of dull.  I thought to myself, "I could write a better book than that!"

So I did.  I took the information I'd read in many of those books and information learned from listening to motivational speakers, and put it in a more humorous format.  I've always enjoyed explaining things to people, and I felt that a fresh and funny perspective could help people wrap their head around the basics of improving their life.  I've made all of the mistakes I discuss in the book, so I hoped that sharing the ways I had learned to overcome those problem areas, could be of value to other people.

How did you convince high profile folks to participate?

I asked.  I know that sounds so simple, but it was scary to make the request.  Overcoming that fear was like "living" my own advice in the book.  Several people I asked rejected the idea or never wrote back, but I didn't let it deter me.  I think that fear of rejection holds so many people back from doing things that can have amazing results. But I had built a relationship with these people first; by commenting on their blogs, offering help, encouragement, advice or good link references whenever possible.  All were Twitter friends.  I think it goes a long way to receiving good things in your life, if you give whatever you can, first.  Plus I had the good fortune to ask people who are generous with their time, like you! I deeply appreciate the contributors and I try to say, "Thank you" at every opportunity.

You had to persist for a long time.  What advice do you have to other people who are working, long term, on a project?

You can't give up.  Persistence does not come easily to many of us.  It's a struggle to make yourself continue to work on a project that has had unavoidable delays.  Between starting and finishing this project, I lost my father-in-law, became full-time caregiver to my mother-in-law who has Parkinson's, saw my daughter graduate high school and my husband had a massive stroke which paralyzed his left arm and leg. But I kept coming back to it, sometimes for 10 minutes, sometimes for several hours. I didn't let myself think, "It's hopeless."  I believed in the book and the possibility of it helping a lot of people, and that inspired me to keep plugging away at it.

Do we really all screw up our lives??
 

I don't think anyone is perfect.  I know I'm not!  Everyone faces challenges and struggles, and many simply don't learn how to cope.  People tend to seek instant gratification when things go bad, but that often leads to more problems.  Or they simply deny that there is a problem.  A lot of times we build a problem into an insurmountable obstacle, instead of trying to break it down into manageable bits.  And a lot of people are just too humorless.  You've got to be able to laugh at yourself and find the humor in a bad situation.  Maintain a positive outlook and be willing to fail.  I was struck that even though I told the contributors they could write on any topic covered in the book, many independently chose to discuss failure.  Failure and fear of failure is a powerful force, and finding the courage to try something, and be willing to fail, is the greatest challenge many people face.  I've failed dozens of times, and I know I will continue to screw up, but I keep on trying!  I hope that is the message everyone will take from the book, that problems can be overcome, failure can be a learning experience, and that taking that first step, even though it's scary, is the only way you will ever succeed.

So, by now, you realize that Marti knows all about this stuff. She's also a terrifically entertaining writer. She even graciously shared a discount for 20% off purchases through Amazon:  5SJMRP5B

Three different versions are available, with all the details here: 7 Ways You Screw Up Your Life.

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