A few quiet trends taking the forefront for 2010

In 2010, I anticipate that there will be a couple "quiet" trends dominating the business landscape. If you have been waiting for our economy to return to business as usual, you will suffocate while holding your breath. "Business as usual" is gone for this millennium and a few under-reported trends lead in terms of economic and social recovery. Here are some of the many changes you can expect to see in the next two to five years:

1. Creativity will lead performance. If you don't believe this, just take a look at how creative organizations must be to survive this economic downturn. Many have changed their focus, broadened their offerings, and updated their strategies to be more responsive to volatile market changes. Why? Many left-brained, task-oriented jobs are being consolidated, automated, or shipped overseas. The current economic changes require that we reposition our skills and industries to be more creative. As I wrote in an earlier blog post, people are the most important asset in any organization. The ones who can think creatively and bring results are the ones who will lead.
2. Job titles will be reduced to a tagline. It will be more important than ever to get the right talent into the right positions within organizations. If innovative, performance-driven organizations want to attract the right people, then traditional top-down title systems won't capture attention. Job titles will be crafted to connect with the role that the individual plays within the organization. Each job title will reflect that the organization appreciates the three key areas of expertise needed in all successful organizations: strategists, integrators, and implementers. With these three areas working together in an organization, the "level" of someone's title will mean nothing.
3. The veil of intimacy created by social media will disintegrate. It's already starting to happen. Just because you're connected on Facebook or Twitter does not mean that you know someone or that you have a relationship. Individuals will increase their efforts to connect in person. Networking events saw a huge spike in attendance in 2009, simply because people were starving for true intimacy. The resurgence of networking, along with face-to-face meetings and phone calls in lieu of text messages and email, will help people reconnect with the subtleties of true relationship building and proper etiquette.
4. Social media will finally get relevant. On the flip side of intimacy, people are getting busier every day. Social media and technology tools will finally become integrated tools instead of separate things to do in the success of individuals and organizations. There are no social media experts. No doubt that phrase will be taken out of context. The truth is that there are marketing, business, communications, relationship, sales, and other experts out there who know how to successfully integrate social media tools into reaching goals. They will help everyone make better use of the time to connect in more meaningful ways. Do we care that @tsuluwerks is eating split pea soup for lunch. I'm sure that at least 90% of you are saying 'Of course not!' But if that split pea soup is part of a special sales effort to help feed the homeless, you might just want to join @tsuluwerks and have a bowl, too. And unless that relevancy is made in 140 characters or less, the rest of the online community will tune out.
5. Everyone will have to get flexible. That means that mom will have to check her Facebook account to keep track of her children (tactfully please! No mushy wall posts!) And the twenty-something aiming for the board room will have to accept that it's rude to check emails during a strategy session. Even making "cold calls" for sales people will mean making a call, sending a tweet, drafting an email, and using text messaging until you know which methods your target prefers. Systems and processes will require updating to ensure that you're reaching who you want in the best way that works for them, not you. So even if you hate picking up the phone, your best customer or top vendor who prefers to hear your voice will know that you're focused on the relationship above all.

I hope that these five of just many trends will help you prepare for the new year and build great relationships with team members, customers, investors, and family.

Happy holidays to all!

Tie Strategy to Performance with The Strategy String

I am excited to announce that on January 10, 2010, my new book The Strategy String will be shipping. The book is available for pre-order now on our web site. Here's a summary:

Our economy is driven by small businesses and organizations. That has become increasingly evident in this last recession. Small organizations, those with fewer than 500 employees, accounted for 50.6% of the non-farm jobs in our economy at the last census count. Unlike past recessions, during which small businesses only accounted for 9-12% of job losses, that number escalated to 45%. It will take two to five years for existing organizations to recover from this economic blow and start hiring in numbers again. Without small business to absorb the job losses from larger organization layoffs, we can expect new for profit and nonprofit organizations will flood the market. It’s happening right now, and unemployment figures don’t account for these new starts and existing entrepreneurs.

As these organizations emerge and existing ones seek to strengthen their strategies, they don’t have the luxury of spending 12 to 18 months developing a strategy like most large organizations. And new leaders don’t have the time to learn the ins and outs of business jargon to translate their visions of a successful organization into results-driven plans of action. They need to shape and launch strategies quickly, yet that will endure and deliver results.

That’s where The Strategy String shines. The author, Tracy A. Corley, has tested this concept and can guarantee that a small organization can craft and launch a strategy string in under eight weeks. Quick action is needed to be competitive in today’s market. Action backed by direction ensures that no activity is wasted and that the results can be easily measured.

The Strategy String: An Organizational Primer for Tying Strategy to Performance makes it simple for organizations of any size to develop and execute a performance-driven strategy. The Strategy String translates the concepts created by business thought leaders like Jim Collins, Michael Gerber, and Kaplan and Norton into easy to understand, ready to use modules that businesses can immediately put into action within their organizations. This book takes the best of the best, simplifies it, and combines it with easy-to-implement activities that time-starved leaders can get.

Have you hugged a young professional today? Rebuilding the next generation of leaders

On Tuesday night, Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce leadership Phil Bussey, CEO, and Kirk Nelson, Board Chairman (also Washington President of Qwest) led a great discussion with the chamber's Young Professionals Network. The chamber, like so many other organizations, need the up and coming generation of Generation X (Gen X) and Millennials (also known as Gen Y) to fill the leadership gap that's afflicting many organizations.

Their words were inspirational, particularly at a time when this economic crisis is kicking so many Gen X and Millennial professionals in the pants. Unlike other recessions, this on is a doozie on many fronts, creating what John Talton has stated as an economic reset.

One point that John left out is that unlike other market corrections and cycles since World War II, this recession has decimated small businesses. Historically, small businesses have fueled up to a third of job growth and have represented roughly 9 percent of job losses, according to research economist Melinda Pitts. This recession, however, "these very small firms have made up 45 percent of the nation's job losses."

When you consider that Gen Xers and Millennials were the fastest growing initiators of new business starts since the turn of the millennium, our young professionals are taking on the lion's share of the economic hemorrhaging. And if you add in that business owners cannot claim unemployment, the hit to young professionals and business owners is much greater than what's getting reported.

Now, more than ever, all professionals need business and community leaders like Mr. Bussey and Mr. Nelson to help them navigate the economic reset and move into leadership roles. Mentorship and support of young professionals will help them make smart business decisions to prepare for long-term job growth and economic recovery.

More articles about young professionals (Generation X and Generation Y/Millennials)

• Gen Xers Feeling More Discontent at Work
• Generation X and The Millennials: What You Need to Know About Mentoring the New Generations
• Why Xers and Management Positions Don't Always Align
  

Relevancy: The Real Gap in Higher Education Funding

During a recent trip to Washington State University (WSU), I had the privilege to spend time with faculty of the College of Engineering and Architecture, including some distinguished thought leaders and researchers from private institutions. I learned quite a bit about what innovative work WSU was doing in the fields of clean energy, green building, and smart agriculture, just to name a few. As a math and science geek, it was like going to Disney World -- just without the long lines. But what most impressed me was WSU's commitment to not just creating great new building products, sustainable energy and fuel technologies, and innovative agriculture practices. Their teams were charged with ensuring that the innovations they rolled out had a clear advantage to society and could fit within the marketplace.

Yes, you're reading that correctly. WSU faculty were focused on creating cool stuff that we can actually use today, not decades from now. I was further blown away by the emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration within and outside the university. Architecture and engineering students work together to create new building materials and testing them in real-world projects. Such close collaboration was not encouraged when I attended architecture school just a 15 years ago. WSU undergraduate students participate in research projects and can see how their work impacts actual users. Their composite materials testing facility is available to innovators and businesses across the globe, not just WSU faculty and students.

Higher education is important to communities, as I discussed in my October 5, 2009 commentary. But bridging the funding gap is more than just finding more funds. It's about changing the perception about institutions of higher learning. A well-rounded college or university develops great students, creating contributing members to our society and workforce. But they do so much more when they work together with private enterprise, public institutions, government agencies, and global communities. Leadership within universities and colleges must be prepared to climb out of their elitist tower and walk among the masses to tell their stories. They will be charged to show how the next great innovation in exterior siding means better-quality building materials at lower prices that minimally impact natural resources. The solutions that they research for energy storage issues must clearly connect to how they will create new jobs for all workers in industries that are supported by integrated and thoughtful government policies.

When everyone understands that higher education about communities, not just students, better collaborations can be forged between private enterprise and higher education. Governments create inviolable policies that encourage that collaboration and look to integrated sources of revenue -- not just increasing tuition or taxpayer dollars. Private citizens see the direct results and benefits of institutional and private collaborations when the get their lower energy bills or on their next shopping trip to their local hardware and grocery store.

Washington State University has forged great alliances with regional businesses and institutions like Boeing and Pacific Northwest National Laboratories. I know that other institutions, including public universities, community colleges, and private institutes, are doing the same. It's time for these organizations to speak up and speak out about the resources and benefits that they offer all of our citizens, not just students. And for those who have not made collaboration among departments, disciplines, governments, and the business community, you're making it harder to get the resources you need to stay innovative. By clinging to your perch in the elitist tower, you're destroying relevancy.

Without relevancy, the funding gap for all institutions will grow deeper and wider. It is up to all of us to make the case and bridge the real gap -- the relevancy gap -- in supporting our institutions of higher learning. We need their innovations to serve as a catalyst for new industries, support businesses in developing industries, and prepare a competitive workforce that can excel in all industries. When institutions bridge the relevancy gap, everyone will work together to ensure that those institutions have the funds they need to continue to support our communities.

Why does higher education matter to business?

Higher education cuts are resounding throughout the country. Our universities, community colleges, and continuing education programs cannot handle the growing demand in a time when state budgets and private investment are shrinking. But why should the business community care?

Higher education does not exist solely to train people in a trade. Don't get me wrong: I don't want to be under the knife with a surgeon who does not have a degree! Higher education builds communities in which continuing education is valued. Those who know how to learn will always be able to navigate market upsets and shifts in available jobs.

If you will recall from my blog post "From Expense to Asset: How Layoffs Can Kill Your Organization", people are the most valuable asset in any organization that hopes to thrive in the information age. People need opportunities in growth and development in order to retain their competitive edge and make our businesses, in turn, more competitive. The business community's support of higher education means more resources and better talent in our communities and at our fingertips. And better educated citizens means better communities for the growth and development of all.

When higher education fails, communities fail. When communities fail, they cannot provide the types of citizens needed to work together to pull that community out of a decline. Failed higher education leads to unskilled citizens, which leads to atrophied communities, which leads to struggling small businesses, and the inability of a community to create viable, desirable jobs.

Business leaders and private citizens work together to create a job-growing economy by supporting our higher education institutions.

It's Time to Poke the Bear: Stop Crippling Your Organization with Inaction

Back in July 2009, I attended a Washington Technology Industry Association/MIT Enterprise Forum event in which talked about leveraging the economic downturn. One of the most valuable points I took away was that strategy isn't about what you're going to do: It's about what you are NOT going to do.

As I look around, I seen a lot of people not doing anything. Instead of leveraging the available opportunities, many are unwilling to take the necessary steps to move forward. These organizations hope to ride out this bear market and come out the other side doing business as usual.

Well, I hate to tell you the obvious, but business is going to look very different when we come out the other side of this downturn. Already, the economy is seeing a bit of an upswing. Those organizations will continue to fall behind and eventually cripple their ability to compete. They will not be ready when opportunities arise, for they won't have been proactive in reshaping their organizations for the new market. The three ways I have seen leaders use inaction to slowly cripple their organizations include:

1. Screaming Poverty. Access to capital is tougher than ever. It's unfortunate what's happening in the credit markets. But demanding something for next to nothing at every turn will get the organization that's always crying poverty nothing in the end. Bears don't care how much you scream. Organizations have to be proactive, creative, and resourceful in developing a strategy to deal with the bears that pop up along the path. Poverty-screaming organizations will slowly run out of cash as they waste their time wheeling and dealing instead of developing an effective strategy and leveraging currently available opportunities. Even with bears lurking, there is fruit on the trees.
   
2. Analysis Paralysis. Many decision makers either know this or someone like this. Organizations trapped in analysis paralysis get so bogged down in weighing the opportunities, that the window of opportunity opens and shut while they're huddled in indecision. Bears like huddles: more snacks in a smaller area.
   
3. Playing Dead. It's an old trick of camouflage that "if they don't see me, then they can't eat me." With Playing Dead, leaders cover their eyes, double over, and think that "If I can't see them, then they can't eat me." Bears have a great sense of smell. They will eat an organization whether it's being proactive or not. When leaders curl into a ball, they don't become more effective in riding out the storm. They just get eaten from behind and don't even realize it.

So how do you recognize when inaction cripples an organization? Three easy ways:

• Revenue has dropped sharply or crawled to a halt.
• Productivity is on a measurable decline.
• Morale is non-existent among your team members.
  

If you're noticing one or more of these three things happening in your organization, you need a strategist to help you identify the gaps and get together a plan of action to keep this bear market from devouring your organization. Tracy A. Corley & Associates can do just that.

It's time to poke the bear and keep moving forward. Let this aggressive market drive you to be proactive in developing and following a responsive strategy that works in the current and future market scenarios. It will guide your organization on the right path so that you focus and move forward instead of getting stalled by what you should NOT be doing. Most importantly, you should NOT scream poverty, get trapped in analysis paralysis, or play dead. Inaction will cripple your organization and eat you alive. Stay on the move with an effective strategy and don't be afraid of the bears you poke along the way.

Here's why fixing your weaknesses is a bad idea

On Friday 9/18/09, I led a half-day workshop entitled Perfect Your Pitch. As a part of developing the content for a successful pitch, I took the participants through a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. When we were evaluating Strengths and Weaknesses, I advised the group to explore their strengths and ignore their weaknesses to determine potential priorities and challenges. One participant asked: "Shouldn't we try to fix our weaknesses instead of ignoring them?"

Completely ignoring the things that your organization doesn't do well is not the whole truth. Every organization should know what they do really well. It takes an honest, objective analysis for them to know what they do poorly.

Unfortunately, many organizations waste precious resources on training, infrastructure development, and human resources to prop up an offering or line of business that is actually dragging the organization down. They do this for a number of reasons, including to look like a "full service" organization, to capture what looks like low hanging fruit, and/or to foster a culture of ownership and refuse to let go of lost causes. Inevitably, clinging to these resource drains will remove capacity from the areas in which the group is strong. This refusal to avoid weaknesses eventually appear in the form of dwindling net profits.

The way to address this is to first acknowledge the weakness. Know that it is something that you do rather poorly. It's okay if, for example, you're a law firm and do not handle criminal cases. There are plenty of capable attorneys out there who would appreciate the referrals so that you can stay focused on business law and estate planning.

Once you acknowledge the weakness, determine if it is absolutely critical to the survival of your organization. If the answer is yes, then you have a major issue. That weakness isn't really a weakness: it's a threat. Instead of throwing resources at it to enhance it, you should be doing everything possible to stamp it out. If the weakness is NOT vital to your survival, then just ignore it. Be aware of it, but find a solution that does not tie up your organization's resources.

To acknowledge what you don't do well and need to improve starts the conversation regarding whether each weak spot is a weakness or a threat. A weakness is a feature, offering, or characteristic which the organization can comfortably ignore or hire out to someone else. If your strategy integrates abilities on which you cannot profitably deliver, the entire strategy is flawed. The organization needs to take a harder look at strengths and reshape offerings to leverage only the strengths and opportunities.

Any strong organization stays focused at all times on exploring their strengths and exploiting opportunities. Threats must be confronted, and weaknesses should be avoided. If you find that you're confronting or exploring weaknesses, you're wasting your time. These fruitless activities are as tragic as avoiding opportunities. Stop fixing your weaknesses and expend those resources on exploring your strengths. Your bottom line will be so glad that you did.

Please welcome Mike Stephens, Customer Relationship Builder

There's a new face at TsuluWerks, Inc. You might have seen him roaming the town or heard his friendly voice on the other end of the phone. If you haven't met him already, I would like to introduce Mike Stephens, our new Customer Relationship Builder. A natural people person, Mike joins us from the IT hardware industry, bringing his management and relationship building skills from companies like EMC and Sun Microsystems. He volunteers with First Step Community Support Center to help families in need. His commitment to people and community made him the perfect fit for the TsuluWerks, Inc. team.

If you want to meet Mike, please join us on Wednesday, 9/16/09 at the Smart and Simple Strategies for Small Business Conference at Microsoft Conference Center or at the Perfect Your Pitch workshop on Friday, 9/18/09. Or check out his profile on our web site and give him a call at 206-782-4040 x101. He would love to meet you!

An Event for Securing Small Business Capital: Perfect Your Pitch Workshop

enterpriseSeattle and Tracy A. Corley & Associates (a division of TsuluWerks, Inc.) will host Perfect Your Pitch on September 18, 2009. The event, sponsored by Towers Perrin, runs from 8:00 am to noon, with registration starting at 7:30am. The informational workshop is designed to help new and growing businesses secure venture and angel funding to launch and expand their enterprises.

"Capital is tight for all businesses from all sources," says enterpriseSeattle clean energy and technology specialist Steve Gerritson. "Small businesses have to be able to quickly and clearly get their messages across to potential funders. This workshop, specially designed for us by Tracy Corley, will help them communicate their value proposition and handle any open ended questions that might come their way."

The event will be held at the enterpriseSeattle offices at 1301 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2500 from 8am to noon and is limited to 50 participants. The event cost of $95 ($125 at the door) includes the program presented by Tracy A. Corley, workshop materials, continental breakfast, and a half hour coaching session with an enterpriseSeattle consultant.

The program will cover:

• How to present with purpose
• Telling your story with clarity
• Organizing your presentation for maximum impact
• Selecting language that commands the room
• Deliver with confidence, even in 10 minutes or less
• Preparing for anything in open-ended sessions
• Building buy-in with stakeholders and investors

The event will also be simulcast to other locations across the state to make the presentation available to all of our state's CEOs and other C-level executives of start-ups and growing businesses. Participants can register online or call Steve Gerritson at 206-389-8656.

About enterpriseSeattle

For over 35 years, enterpriseSeattle has provided client-based economic development services to businesses throughout King County and its 39 cities. enterpriseSeattle's mission is to be a "difference-maker" in the community by growing the jobs and tax base in King County, its 39 cities and the greater Puget Sound region. It accomplishes its mission through a customized client services program focused on business retention, expansion and recruitment. It's objective is to become the premier economic development organization in the US. It supports businesses in the areas of Life Sciences, Clean Technology, Information Technology, International Trade and Logistics, and Aerospace. www.enterpriseseattle.org

About Tracy A. Corley & Associates

Using Vision Driven Results, Tracy A. Corley & Associates aligns individuals and organizations with simple, actionable strategies and precise execution for change and growth. They offer consulting, speaker services, and media content to improve cash flow, enhance competitiveness, increase efficiencies, and build confidence in their clients and their communities. The organization is led by Chief Strategist, Tracy Corley, who simplifies the strategic planning process for small businesses, nonprofits, corporations, and public agencies. Its parent company, TsuluWerks Inc., has been providing strategic consulting and marketing services to organizations since 2000. www.tsuluwerks.com

About Towers Perrin

Towers Perrin provides global human resource consulting services that help organizations effectively manage their investment in people. We offer clients services in areas such as executive and employee compensation, employee benefits, communication, change management, employee research, and the delivery of HR services. www.towersperrin.com

Importance of Interdependence in Politics

Last night's Washington state primary results were surprising in many of the races. Some of the surprises, in my opinion, were good ones whereas others leave me wondering what's really going on. It takes me back to the presentation put on by Express Employment Professionals that I attended a few weeks ago. The presenter hit on another very relevant topic, interdependence (I talked about another one in my last blog post).

I first read about interdependence in Steven Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The concept is that all of us are born as dependent beings. As we grow older many of us discover our independence and work really hard to define ourselves and declare what makes us unique. Highly effective people, Covey explains, move beyond independence to interdependence. Like dependence, the individual relies on others, but does so consciously, without losing sight of the things that make him unique. Interdependent folks retain their individual identity, but use it in a way to work together with other people and their communities.

I think that our political races bring a lot of surprises because our local community is made up of a large number of independent people. I applaud the Northwest's emphasis on independent thinking and forming your own opinion on issues (though not everyone is willing to express them). Where our region falls short is in interdependent thinking. When people have to come together to benefit the greater good, either the fierce thorns of independence surface, causing passionate friction and factionalism, or the dictates of "political correctness" coats over the real issues so that everyone can feel good about the uninformed decision that is being made. In interdependence, individuals have the ability to step outside of their own self-focused needs and look at how the decisions being made today affect our region as a whole, now and in the future. We're lacking that in a region where folks vote on everything, yet are making decisions based on their own commutes or religious preferences and are not thinking about the benefits or detriments that their choices will make on other people, the neighborhood, region, country, or global community in the long term. This unwillingness to work together and find common ground on disparate issues brings many surprises.

We have some great finalists in the upcoming races who have the ability to look beyond partisan issues and make tough, informed decisions based on long-term impact. On the flip side, we have some finalists who are finalists because of their hard-lined, myopic focus on popular hot-button issues. It's the difference between being a politician and being an effective, results-oriented politician. I look forward to the next two and a half months of campaigns and hope that our region will make the tough decisions and choose candidates who are committed to interdependent leadership instead of independent factionalism.

From Expense to Asset: How Layoffs Can Kill Your Organization

Thank you to Express Employment Professionals for hosting an educational event led by Russ Moen, VP, Human Resources. The 4-hour event, "The Leader's Role in Creating Fulfilling Jobs", took its lead from the book Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick Lencioni.

One topic discussed was the value of people. In financial terms, human resources usually show up under "expenses" when looking at a balance sheet. In today's economy, many businesses are hyper-focused on the bottom line, looking at where they can best cut costs. For many businesses, employee-related costs result in 65% to 95% of all expenditures within a fiscal year. From a bottom line point-of-view, employees are a financial disaster. When times get tough, it looks like the fastest, most effective way to trim costs is to let folks go.

Our economy has changed significantly in the past 40 years. According to Moen, a review of a company's stock value in 1982 could be tied 65% to tangible assets (i.e. equipment, real estate, cash) and 35% to intangible assets (intellectual property, patents, systems). As we shifted from an industrial society into the information age, 2002 brought an average of 80% (yes, eighty) of stock value tied to intangible assets.

What happened? People took on growing value. In an information-based economy, innovation, service, and intellectual property contain the majority of a company's assets. Where does innovation, service, and intellectual property originate? In the minds of people. The information age has turned people from expenses to assets. People are your bottom line. Without them businesses cannot create value.

I think that choosing the right people for your organization applies not to the tasks that they can perform, but to the way they think. Diversity of race, religion, and gender don't matter as much as diversity in thought, creativity, and problem solving. The value of the people on your team has less and less to do with the cost of acquisition and benefits costs, but rather with the return on investment due to increased productivity, surge in innovation, increase in filed patents, and ability to be nimble and responsive to changing market economies.

The current market correction is showing how come companies have over-inflated the value of commoditized tangible assets and downplayed the value of the people and their innovations. I regularly see small businesses struggling to survive who are sitting on a wealth of intellectual property or innovative systems that they could share with the market to increase cash on hand and business value. Conversely, I have also seen many organizations bloat their books with intangible assets that don't exist.

What is the value of people to your organization? Where does their contribution to your success show up in your financial statements?

When Manufacturing Flounders: How Montreal spurred growth when key jobs evaporated

In the latter years of the last century, Montreal economic development specialists were in the midst of a dramatic change: their manufacturing sector was about to experience serious decline. The Canadian dollar was depressed against the US dollar, and outsourcing made manufacturing facilities move across borders and overseas. Like many of the world's wealthiest nations, Canada was watching its manufacturing sector shrink. Between 2004 and 2008, one in seven manufacturing jobs had disappeared.

Montreal was determined to not become a victim of outsourcing and other changing market forces. Montreal business and policy leaders became proactive in its actions, working to move manufacturing sector workers from the factory floor to other jobs. Montreal worked with higher education programs -- universities and technical schools -- to provide unemployed manufacturing sector workers with access to career opportunities and retraining. they surveyed their industry landscape and noticed that they had growing clusters in other market areas that had not yet been accessed. The business and policy leaders worked together with small businesses, nonprofits, corporations, governments, and support organizations to craft policies and programs to enhance those heretofore under appreciated industries. In 2007, manufacturing lost 19,000 jobs while service sector jobs increased by 97,000. This positive growth was due in great part due to a rapidly-growing video game industry.

The resulting public/private partnerships encouraged growth in these sectors by supplying a home-grown pool of talent and development-friendly policies. It was initiatives such as these that led to market stimulation and support for creative businesses like world-famous performing arts venue Cirque du Soleil. The creative sector now accounts for 30% of the region's jobs. All service sectors are growing at 34%.

Like Montreal, our local, state, and federal governments should be crafting policies and encouraging public/private partnerships when major industry segments start to decline in certain areas. Such proactive measures could have stalled and even offset the damage inflicted on Michigan as a result of the auto industry collapse. I applaud the Seattle City Council Bill 116574 for raising the minimum Business & Occupation tax threshold for businesses from $50,000 to $100,000. It will only serve to stimulate small business growth and development in these tough times as manufacturing jobs decline and major corporations implemented hiring freezes and layoffs and cut back on outsourcing to local manufacturing and other vendors.

Our own under developed industries with high growth potential will be able to keep a bit more cash in their businesses for creating jobs, marketing their services, and adding much needed capital resources to their fledgling organizations. More actions like these are needed to keep our communities focused on rebuilding a job-growing economy. Just because some jobs move south, north, east, or west doesn't mean that all is lost. If we look around a bit, we might find, like Montreal did, that we have thriving industries already blossoming in our economic gardens. We just have to tend to them and encourage them to grow.

What is your region doing to support business and create jobs? I want to hear from you!

When Big Corporate Decisions Make Huge Local Impacts: Boeing Purchase Impact on Puget Sound

Today has been a very intense day. I gleaned all of this by consuming 7 minutes of news coverage: Nearly 1 billion people tuned in or turned out for the funeral of pop icon Michael Jackson. Human rights organizations around the world are calling for the release of Iranian election protesters. The Taliban is buying children for suicide attacks. The District of Columbia will recognize same sex marriages. Nobody knows what's going on with soon-to-be-ex-Governor Sarah Palin. SC Governor Mark Sanford is still dominating with embarrassing headlines. And Boeing has announced the purchase of a 787 fuselage assembly vendor in North Charleston, SC.

Being a SC native, it's interesting to see the state garnering so much attention (I didn't see any serial killer updates in the 7-minute stretch). But having lived in Seattle for 13 years, I am vested in the success of the Puget Sound Region, small businesses in particular. Any big news that takes jobs to another region is putting strain on an already flailing small business environment in the Greater Seattle area.

When a major corporation decides to move part or all of its business from one region to another, it doesn't just affect that company and its workers. The surrounding community is impacted by relocating employees who sell their houses. The region is impacted by individuals who lose their jobs and rely on social services to survive. These impacts dent a housing market struggling to recover and stomps on already overburdened state government budgets (or should I say deficits?)

Small businesses are impacted by the diminishing buying power of their consumer base. Other small businesses are impacted by the loss in potential first- or second-tier supplier contracts with the corporation and its major suppliers. When these small businesses lose their revenue streams, their employees start losing their benefits and wages, then their jobs. Then those employees start relocating to find better jobs or have to rely on social services until they can be re-trained in another industry or find another job in their fields. Small businesses shutter their doors, leading to a decline in state tax revenues and job availability for the nation's 9.5% of folks that are unemployed (note that small business owners are not traditionally represented in that figure).

Such a simple business decision in one company has a huge impact on an entire region. A friend who recently relocated from Detroit can tell how she's upside down on a Michigan mortgage while clinging to her small business engineering job here in Washington state. With a new Seattle mortgage under her belt, can she afford to relocate if her job moves east?

I have joined the Washington Aerospace Partnership to help keep the Seattle area the world's largest aerospace cluster and to help the more than 650 aerospace businesses in our state gain access to the resources they need to sustain revenues and fuel a job-growing economy. If you as an organization or individual would like to learn more about this partnership and get involved, please visit the Washington Aerospace Partnership web site.

If you are in SC or other regions of the country impacted by the changes in the manufacturing sector, I would love to hear from you. I will be writing a post about how Montreal addressed a decline in its manufacturing cluster and is still thriving as the world's third largest aerospace cluster.

It's Our Anniversary -- and Time for Some Changes

It's been an amazing journey: TsuluWerks has been in business for 10 years. As we reflect back on some of the great consulting and design work we have provided for our corporate, small business and nonprofit clients, we realize that we've changed. We've grown up quite a bit and want to update our company to reflect those changes.

We're leveraging social media much more to provide you with more resources. We have added new Facebook pages for our consulting and speaker services and for Shameless You. You can also follow us on Twitter to get great business resources.

Keep an eye out for changes in the upcoming weeks, like the new case studies we added to our web site. We will continue to update and improve our resources and solutions to help your organization grow and prosper.

The Death of Privacy Brings Rise to Integrity

Privacy is dead. Video cameras are everywhere, documenting where we work, play, and even live. Parking enforcement officers are using video captures of license plates to ensure we don't overstay our welcome on Seattle streets. Audio recordings are made when we least expect them - just watch this report about how cell phone can be used by prying stalkers.

I have even encountered the Facebook photo phenomenon: a friend since childhood has incriminating pictures of me that date back to my awkward tween days. When she posts them on Facebook, the only control that I have is to untag my name from the photo. It's okay, Cindy! But others are experiencing the collection and sharing of their personal data with an irreverence and lack of privacy that we have never seen before.

Does this mean that our moral boundaries are being ripped down? Not really. I think it's a call to integrity. As more of our individual lives get exposed in permanent online channels, it forces us to live our lives more honestly and openly. Today, you don't have to be a celebrity or a politician like Michael Vick, Elliot Spitzer or Mark Sanford to find yourself exposed. It's high time we matched our actions with our proclaimed principles.

This is true for businesses as well as individuals. Your integrity means everything when building relationships with your customers, your employees, and your community. A disconnect between your company's values and its actions can cause confusion and destroy trust. For example, I have worked with a company that claimed a philosophy of respect and collaboration. When it came time to work together to help them build their business, their tone was condescending, heirarchial, and dictatorial. There was little collaboration between our team and theirs, and even less collaboration between their senior management and their employees.

Another example would be the greenwashing that some companies employ in their marketing and communications. Environmental practices and policies are becoming increasingly important to consumers and business customers. Some companies use claim a commitment to green practices, yet only demonstrate them in shallow ways. A regional grocery store chain in South Carolina labels its whole uncooked chickens as "All Natural" and "Free of Any Hormones*". The asterisk then continues to explain that the chicken actually contain hormones, just none that are "known to cause harm in humans." An "all natural" chicken does not include added hormones. Adding the asterisk and the fine print is an example of greenwashing in an attempt for the company to look more environmentally friendly.

When reviewing your policies and practices, remember that information is easily accessible and privacy is dead. You never know when someone is about to read your deeply personal emails aloud on CNN. Integrity is when what you do when no one is looking matches what you say. If you can be consistent and demonstrate integrity, you can walk confidently through your day, cameras or not.

New poll on LinkedIn: Your Perception on Blogs as Web Site

If you have 2 minutes, check out our poll on LinkedIn: Does the use of WordPress or Blogger affect your perception of a company?

I have heard a number of comments about people's perceptions of companies who are obviously using a blog technology like Blogger or WordPress for their web site. We would appreciate your gut reaction and comments!

Part II: Bridging the Financial Gap for Small Business Owners

Last time, I discussed a few ways that small business owners can set and meet personal financial goals while managing the riskiest investment they will ever make: their businesses. In addition to diversification, treating your business as a separate entity, and paying yourself first, my friend and I discussed a couple of other key points:

• Create an exit strategy. All good things must come to an end. How do you plan to bow out? How can you create a business that will run without you? You might even consider retaining financial ownership in the company while leaving leadership, management, and operations to your team.
  
• Create a post-business spending plan. Just like a traditional retiree, you have to decide your "living expenses" once you've exited your business. For entrepreneurs, though, that spending plan can include much more than just traveling the world. What kind of legacy would you like to leave to your family or community? Would you like to start another business venture? Or would you like a traditional retirement with extensive travel plans? Whatever your goals, create a post-business spending plan to figure out what it's going to take to reach your goals.
• Know your numbers. Exactly how much money will it take for you to exit your business gracefully and take on the next stage of your life? Your financial advisor or wealth manager can help you with this. You number will depend on when you plan to wind down and the diversification of your financial portfolio. It's not realistic to pin all of your hopes on a whopping check from a company that wants to buy you out. You might have to put in a few years and sacrifice some business value as the business changes hands. Or, you might never get an offer. Having a diverse portfolio will ensure that even if you simply decide to close your doors, you will have the financial resources you needs to cover the business and personal needs.
  

Your financial team can help you sort through many of these financial points. All small business owners should have a solid financial team that includes a banker, an accountant, and a wealth manager. Each of these folks will bring a fresh perspective to your financial situation and help you get the right mix of systems, structures, and resources that are both creative and solid in helping you reach your goals. I help my clients put together a financial strategy for their business plan, then connect them with a financial team to help them with day-to-day business and personal financial needs. Give me a call today if you need to develop a financial strategy and need access to resources to build your financial team.

Health Care Outrages Missing Front Pages

Many thanks to CNN for this commentary about health insurance rescission practices.

Part I: Bridging the Financial Gap for Small Business Owners

Today I met with an old friend who recently made the transition from corporate executive to wealth management consultant. During our conversation, we discussed one of the greatest gaps in the financial equation for small business owners. When it comes to personal financial planning, sbo's often find themselves at a loss when attempting to finance a retirement that they haven't prepared for. They are so mired in the day-to-day operations that a vast majority of their wealth is tied to the success of the business.

What are some steps that small business owners can take today to minimize risk and maximize personal wealth while running a business?

• Diversify. Just like any other financial tool, your business is one of many investments. Even with recent stock market volatility, it's the riskiest part of your portfolio. A well-balanced investment portfolio includes a balance of high and low risk investment tools and gets adjusted as your goals change or as you get closer to your exit. If all of your net worth is tied to your business, work with your wealth manager to figure out what you can do to move some of that net worth into other investments, like real estate, stocks, bonds, and money market accounts. Keeping your finances diversified will help you better navigate economic recessions and other market downturns and average out returns for the life of your business.
  
• Treat your business as separate entity. Some people get this, some people don't. Treat your business as if it were a new life and get it set up as a separate entity, like an LLC or corporation. And don't mix finances between the two. If you learn to treat your business as a separate entity and stop putting business lunches on your personal credit card, you will be able to get a much clearer financial and strategic overview of your business. Like children, businesses eventually grow up and gain independence. You have to set up clear boundaries early in the development of your company, or you'll look up 20 years from now and wonder why you have a 35-year-old eating your food and leaving the gas tank empty.
  
• Pay yourself first. I know that small business owners hear this, but I don't think that enough of them "get it." I know people who have been running businesses for five or six years and have yet to take a paycheck or distribution. What's wrong with this picture? You forgot to include one of your most valuable assets in your business's financial plan: you! A business is designed to create jobs and generate wealth. Like it or not, you're actually a part of the team. If you remember to pay yourself first, you'll realize that if you're more than a few years in and still depleting your savings, maxing out your HELOC, and/or taking on another job to run your business, you haven't set proper financial goals. In your business plan, the financial plan should include your salary and benefits along with the rest of the team's. And set a realistic salary to help you meet your retirement goals. The only employer match you're going to get is the one you give yourself. Oh, yeah: you also pay double the taxes of an employee.
  

I will continue the final points on this topic next week. Stay tuned for more ways to bridge the financial gap. I am available to help you put together a financial strategy for your business plan and connect you with the right folks for your business and personal financial team.

Getting businesses out of the business of health care

The top reason that someone accepts or stays with a job they hate is that they need the health benefits.

This attitude is part the reason why Danes were recently voted as the happiest people in the world. They are free to do what they love and focus the family without worrying about being covered in case they get sick.

Now, I'm not advocating a socialist-style national health plan like Denmark's health coverage. At a recent discussion in Montreal, Canada, about nationalized health plans, even our presenter, a health care professor who has practiced medicine on both sides of the border, concurred with Niall Ferguson's assessment that socialized systems are not fiscally sustainable.

So what do the Danes and other socialized nations have that we don't?

They have portable health care coverage that goes with them, whatever they choose to pursue in life. They don't have to take on a crappy job that's a 90-minute drive from home (each way) just for the benefits.

We need health care reform. I'm not necessarily on board with the current Administration's approach. The key change that we need is to get businesses out of the business of health care management and administration.

I'm not sure that this is a job for government either. I have the following recommendations on the White House's guiding principles for comprehensive health care reform (the verbatim principles are italicized):

The Administration believes that comprehensive health reform should:

• Reduce long-term growth of health care costs for businesses and government.
  I recommend that we take the responsibility for costs out of the hands of government and businesses and put it into the hands of the people. If individuals receive their premium bills each month and regular reminders regarding coverage, they will be more aware of costs, coverage, and benefits. Businesses can then choose to contribute to an individual's privately selected health care plan. As a result, the business does not have to manage a pool of benefits and coverages. They can also elect to provide access to insurance consultants to help employees review and select the right personal coverage, but the management of the benefits and costs should be an individual choice that moves with you from job to job.
  
• Protect families from bankruptcy or debt because of health care costs. Health insurers should stop penalizing the insured for cost overruns by health care providers and make doctors accountable if they order unnecessary procedures. The standards for procedures and allowables should be made public so that if the insured has time to review the procedures, they can do so before and be aware of what the doctor should be including and what would be considered exclusions. This "magic formula" has always been a mystery. This might require insurers setting standards for procedures and new technologies and experimental procedures to be approved by feds and insurers. Insurers should also allow the insured to get second and third opinions. With more choice, better information, and the ability to research their choices, both the insurer and the insured won't be stuck with surprise bills and unnecessary debts.
  
• Guarantee choice of doctors and health plans. It would really help if all doctors could honor all major health plans. Health plans would benefit the public more if they have minimum guidelines in place that carry throughout the nation, not just in your home state. That way, if you travel, get a job in a new state, or find a specialist across the country whose services are the most beneficial and cost-effective, you don't have to fret about "networks" and exclusions. This would mean that insurers would have to work with doctors to ensure that they are properly compensated for the services they provide.
  
• Invest in prevention and wellness. This is a "duh" statement. I love my HSA (Health Savings Account) which automatically includes the cost of the annual physical in my insurance coverage (no copay, no application to the deductible). Health education with prevention and wellness should be a public school education requirement as part of mandatory ANNUAL physical education. Community classes should be easily accessible to adults for continued education through community colleges and community (even religious) institutions.
  
• Improve patient safety and quality of care. I echo a few points above. Just keep it competitive and keep the consumer/insured informed. Doctors must allow time for patients to consult advisors and family members before procedures can be done. The pressure to have procedures done can be overwhelming.
  
• Assure affordable, quality health coverage for all Americans. Affordable and quality can be relative. The first step is to set some minimum requirements for affordability that adjusts for inflation/deflation and for quality so that it meets acceptable health guidelines. A government plan is not the answer, though basic catastrophic care and annual physicals would lead to more prevention and lower costs. Our GDP is too closely tied to our being sick. More choices in catastrophic, preventative, and supplemental care plans with nationwide competition would drive up quality and down prices through increased competition.
  
• Maintain coverage when you change or lose your job. I cannot believe that they went after Microsoft for bundling IE with Windows, but we still associate health care options with our employers. The average employee today sticks with a job an average of 4 years, which is a drastic change from the Baby Boomer era (job tenure of 10+ years). Increasingly, more and more people are working as free agents and are responsible for choosing their own health care. Removing health care from compensation packages will allow people to focus on meaningful careers and not sacrifice quality of life. Employers can focus on innovation and job-growth, not plan management and escalating health care costs. The result would be fewer layoffs and more job satisfaction. It's criminal to think we're sacrificing quality of life (which ironically impacts wellness) just for benefits. All plans should be portable nationwide with international care coverage options.
• End barriers to coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions. Coverage should truly be accessible to all. If the health care industry is doing its job with education, some preexisting medical conditions can be prevented. For those that aren't, patients should never be denied coverage. All patients should have the option to review less expensive, experimental treatments when feasible. Some standardization or approval methods might be needed, but it will continue to drive innovation.
  

I would also like to propose a couple of other ideas:

• Make tax-free savings plans available (like HSAs) to cover cost of premiums in case a person loses their job or to cover gaps in premiums provided by employers. These should be available independent of the insurance plan you choose (unlike HSAs).
  
• Incentivize individuals with tax credits for maintaining healthy lifestyles and reducing health care costs. Who says that we're too old to participate in the President's Physical Fitness Test once we graduate from high school?
  
• Keep insurers, businesses, and governments out of health care decisions. If a patient gets a variety of opinions and finds the procedure that will best help him, it should be covered without going through a series of approvals and reviews. The decision should be made between the doctor, patient, and the patient's family.
  
• Provide more incentives to businesses and communities to provide wellness and preventative care programs to their employees and to the public. Tax credits, stimulus funds, and other programs can be designed to reward businesses and organizations for making education available. They would also be required to demonstrate a measureable decline in health care costs and an increase in health and well-being.

Even with our private health care system, the insured subsidize the uninsured. The uninsured use the most expensive care service - the emergency room - for routine check ups and colds. We all pay for that through the rising cost of medical services and health insurance premiums.

It's time we stop kidding ourselves and realize that we're already paying for a socialized system that's putting the management burden on employers. A complete revamp of our medical system should allow for national (if not international) portability, put individuals in charge of their health care, stop penalizing patients due to inaccessible information and guidelines, release businesses from health care management, and create an economy that rewards health instead of illness.

I could go on, but I would prefer to hear from you. I'll keep you posted on future discussions on this and other topics affecting employers and employees alike.

Beyond Blogs: Creating and Managing Social Networks and What it Means for Your Web Site

Okay, I have to admit that for the longest time, I was confused. I knew that all software runs on a database. Some just have more functionality than others. I also fully understood that you could create a web site using blog platforms like WordPress. But I didn't really see the potential until I participated in Friday's Social Networking for Business Conference, developed by Joe Kennedy and his partners.

They showed us how Expression Engine, a sophisticated content management system (CMS), allows you to manage all of your web site content, articles, blog posts, and other communications through a single tool. Just like traditional software, CMS systems need a database to store information. The web page "templates" determine how that information gets communicated to the world. In old-school terms, those web page templates were part of the User Interface (UI).

So, software applications like Word or PageMaker were really fancy databases that are installed on your computer to get work done*. Social networks are really fancy databases that are hosted on a web server to start conversations. The buttons and tools that you see when you access these databases is called the UI.

What makes social media so different is that now more UI systems can access the same database to deliver content in multiple ways. You can set up your own database on your server (with Expression Engine or another CMS) or you can use a database on an existing server (like WordPress or Facebook). That's how this blog post at www.Blogger.com gets sent to my mailing list using Mail Chimp. It also gets linked to my Facebook and LinkedIn pages. I can also have the same blog post in hundreds of different ways, including embedding it into my web site, and adding "feeds" to partner sites. And it all happens as soon as push the "publish" button in Blogger.

If your company is already using a CMS like Joomla or our own CMS Builder, you might already have all the tools you need to set up a complete online presence that integrates social networking, social media, blogging, and a traditional "web site." If you don't have a CMS, you will have to change the structure of your web site in order to keep up with search engine, social network, and other emerging technologies.

Of course, I'm a business strategist and want you to approach your social media strategy with purpose. I recommend reading this article to get you started. No matter how large or small your organization, social networking and media is here to stay. If you get your tools in order to be scalable, you'll be light years ahead of the competition, both online and offline.

Need help upgrading your web site and other marketing and communications tools? Give me a call at 206-782-4040.

*Software has traditionally been hosted on your computer. Not so much so thanks to cloud computing. I'll have more on that soon.

Worth Beyond Wealth: Importance of Values for Organizations

Over and over, I am hearing great leaders talk about values. Rita Ryder, Patty Stoneseifer, and Phyllis Campbell all referenced the importance of values in determining the direction of your personal and professional lives. Whether you're determining how to live, give, work, or play, always remain true to your values.

Values are part of the foundation for a solid business strategy. A complete strategy includes a vision, mission, values, and a position. When equipped with these four things, you're quickly on your way to creating a business with worth that extends beyond wealth.

Here are four questions to start your thinking about your business values:

1. What key characteristics are important for us to be able to deliver outstanding results for our clients?
2. What ideas and beliefs do we hold as special or sacred?
3. What standards have we set for conduct and behaviors in our group?
4. What "normal" actions, characteristics, behaviors, and conduct would be intolerable in our culture and violate our principles?

Good businesses thrive because of their values. Values are strong desires that lead to results-generating actions. If you know what actions you should take (mission) to achieve your ideal state of being (vision), your values will be clear.

Are all of your stakeholders living your company's values? If not, now might be a good time to tap into the abundant talent that is looking for a thriving company with strong values.

If you need help communicating or defining your values, ask me how The Strategy String can generate worth beyond wealth in all areas of your organization.

It's Finally Here! Shameless You Action Workbook!

For you Shameless You! fans out there, the new Shameless Self Promotion Action Workbook was unveiled at yesterday's Seattle Chamber Annual Tradeshow. We had hundreds of folks stopping by the booth, checking out this personal development program. If you're a job seeker, workplace professional, or a business owner looking for an edge, this workbook will get you started on the path to shamelessness.

The Shameless Self Promotion Action Workbook is for sale now on our web site at www.tsuluwerks.com/tsulushop.

Look for new workbooks and tips books on strategic business development.

Celebrating Small Business in This Month

Small Business Week is May 18th to May 22nd. Keep an eye on the Small Business Administration's Event Calendar for a preview of Wrangling New Assets from Existing Profits on 5/19 from 1pm to 2pm. These and other events are available for review on the Washington SBA web site.

Of course, a week isn't enough to celebrate small business. The entire month of May has been declared Small Business Month by the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce. Check the GSCC small business web site to learn about all the great events taking place throughout Puget Sound to help your business grow.

Letting Go for Real Success

At the SBA awards dinner on April 23rd, one of the recipients shared the story of how her immigrant family inspired her own entrepreneur path. When her parents immigrated to the Pacific Northwest, they started as dairy farmers. When the economic recession of the 1970s hit, the dairy industry was under fire. Instead of bemoaning their woes, her fifty-plus-year-old parents decided to attend community college. There, the couple found their calling in the hospitality industry. They ran a profitable hotel until retirement.

Her parents were not afraid to change gears midstream. They realized that letting go was the best way to move from surviving to thriving. Do you need to change gears? Or can you tap undiscovered opportunities within the business you already have?

Free Trade Show Passes

Visit our booth at the Seattle Chamber Trade Show on May 12th. Be sure to complete the trade show passport for a chance to win a free spot at our upcoming Profit Wrangler Roundtable event on May 22nd -- that's a value of $129!

If you'd like a FREE PASS to the largest B2B trade show in our region, let me know by 5pm Pacific on Wednesday May 5th. Your name will be entered into a drawing, and the winner will be selected this Thursday.

News Flash: Merchant Banks Seize Small Business Cash

Cash Vanishes from Merchants' Accounts

Citing the increased risk of bankruptcy, credit-card processors are increasingly demanding—or simply seizing—cash reserves from entrepreneurs

If you're a small business owner or CFO that processes credit cards, I recommend that you review the BusinessWeek Online article, then check with your merchant bank and processor to ensure that you don't wind up in a cash flow crunch. To be surprised with an account drain is the last thing you need with tightening credit and slow receiveables.

One thought on how to protect your funds: Use a separate checking account for your merchant account funds, then transfer them to your main account later.

Another option: Use a service like PayPal to handle transactions from a major new initiative that might dramatically increase the volume of your credit card transactions.

The Importance of Connecting for Success

Last week, Phyllis Campbell, the Pacific Northwest chairman of JP Morgan Chase, gave a wonderful presentation at the Puget Sound Business Journal Live breakfast about leadership and personal success in the current economy. Emory Thomas, publisher of the Puget Sound Business Journal, and Campbell discussed the importance of values and integrity in leadership and about the value of diverse networks for business success. She shared that one of the four points that she learned through her years as CEO at US Bank and The Seattle Foundation, and as an active corporate board member is to always "get ready." The "for what?" she stated, wasn't important. It is critical to be prepared for whatever challenges - or opportunities - might present themselves.

During the Q & A session, I asked for her view on how small businesses and emerging leaders can get ready for what's coming next in the economy and in our communities. Her advice: Connect. Don't pull back when times get tough. It is important to reach out, leverage your network and make meaningful connections. Connecting isn't a personal pursuit: it's about working together as a community to leverage opportunities, give back, and grow.

What have you done lately to connect with your community? I want to hear what you're doing, so please post your comments here or send me an email.

New Action Event for Business Owners, CEOs and Executives

Big Thinking for Small Business and Nonprofits

Just because you're a small business or a small nonprofit organization, you can't be thinking big. I love Michael Gerber's The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It. He talks about a woman who bakes wonderful pies and starts a business selling her terrific pies. Unfortunately, she has been sucked in by the Entrepreneurial Myth and doesn't understand the complexities that go into launching a small business.

Like the woman in Michael Gerber's book, you need to understand that though you're a solo-preneur or have just a small team, your organizational chart looks similar to those of the big guys like Microsoft and Boeing. The only difference is instead of having 4,000 people to fill in the organizational chart, your name is filling in each of the slots. Even if you don't have a team member with the title of "Chief Financial Officer," someone is responsible for -- or irresponsible with -- your finances.

If you have launched a new business or are developing a nonprofit organization, I urge you to spend 20% of your time working on your business, not in it. That means, instead of working the register, baking pies, or making introductory phone calls, use that time to step outside of the day-to-day operations and think strategically. Is what you're doing bringing you the best return on your investment? Are you staying on track to fulfill your vision? What new products, services, and outreach can you be doing to increase cash flow, leverage opportunities, and improve efficiencies?

Spending time each week to focus on the strategic side of your business will help you keep the big picture in mind and make better decisions to improve your bottom line. If you lose sight of these and other key strategic questions, you will find yourself off track and missing the mark on the entire reason you started the organization in the first place.

If you need help setting aside time to work on your business instead of in your business, I encourage you to sign up for one of our Strategy String workshops during small business month. If you prefer one-on-one conversations for your business, drop me a line and ask me about ConsulCoaching and Advisory Sessions.

Financing for small business

In my recent Council for Small Business meeting, we took at look at the hottest topics impacting small businesses this month. As usual, the topic of finance came up repeatedly. Banks simply aren't lending like they should. Some banks and organizations like the SBA are leveraging stimulus funds to make it easier to access capital. Venture capitalists and angel investors are also looking for entrepreneurs and startups with solid business plans. This uplifting article tells of how six small businesses owners financed their dreams through various sources.

If your bank isn't lending to you, consider microlending programs, family members, personal credit lines, and grants in addition to venture capitalists and angel investors. A word of advice: don't use your HELOC for any purchases not related to improving or maintaining your home. If you need assistance identifying the right financing sources, your local SBA, SCORE office, or chamber of commerce can provide you with counselors and financial expertise.

I will post the notes from our meeting on the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce's LinkedIn group later this month. If you are a chamber member, please join this group to get the details of the discussion and to learn about next month's exciting program and opportunity exchange.

If you need resources for your small business, drop me an email. I can point you to some of the right resources you need to get your business off the ground and keep it moving forward.

Extreme Office Makeover promises one lucky winner a $35,000+ fresh start

TsuluWerks is offering nearly $10,000 worth of services for the Extreme Office Makeover. One lucky small business or organization will win over a total of $35,000 worth of products and services from: Microsoft, JWCS, Dex, BizXchange, FastSigns Seattle, TsuluWerks, X-BAR, Innovatively Organized, ISOutsource, Queen Anne Upholstery, FedEx and more!

The prize includes a Business and Marketing Strategy Session with TsuluWerks. This consultation, valued at $9,950, includes a SWOT analysis, business strategy tools, positioning, and competitive analysis. You will walk away with the tools you need to create a solid brand, start your marketing plan, and drive all areas of your organization.

All qualified organizations that enter will receive a FREE Technology Assessment from a Microsoft Partner. Apply before 5:00 pm Pacific on April 24th at www.seattlechamber.com/makeover. No purchase is necessary, and you do not need to be a Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce member to win. Complete rules and qualification requirements can be found at the link listed above.

Wall Street versus Main Street: Really?

Over and over, the media reports are comparing the financial industry bailout with the auto industry crisis. Union leaders and media are saying that it's an unfair bias that is belittling blue collar jobs. Is the Federal bailout policy really a smack down between Wall Street and Main Street?

1. The financial industry can survive without the manufacturing sector. Like it or not, the financial industry does not need the manufacturing sector to be a viable industry. Unfortunately, no industry, big business, small business, or consumer can live without a credit-backed monetary system. Money itself is nothing more than a great credit-backed ponzi scheme designed by the federal government (okay, that was a bit harsh, but money is an instrument of debt, where bank notes, or the digital equivalent, are exchanged for a good or service. There's a lot of work that goes into fluffing up the value of those bank notes). Without money, few industries would survive. Niall Ferguson outlines how the financial sector works really nicely in his book, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World.


2. The American auto industry is an important part of the industrial age of America. Unfortunately, we're no longer an industrial economy. Our economy is changing, and it's up to business leaders to see that and encourage the development of industries to match the new global information age that we're in. When the economy shifted from agrarian to industrial in the mid-nineteenth century, the American farmer didn't die out. The agricultural industry became a smaller and smaller part of our economy. We have been going through a similar transition since the 1980's - perhaps even the 1950's, when the number of white collar workers first outnumbered blue collar workers. In the information age, more manufacturing jobs are not the answer. Like the flight of folks from the countryside to industrial centers in the 1800's, we will see a movement of workers from the manufacturing sector to service industries as the information age continues to evolve into the next economic model that is more environmentally and culturally aware. The auto industry will just become a smaller part of our economy.


3. Bankruptcy doesn't mean the end of the American auto industry. I'm not a fan of bankruptcy. Like all systems designed to protect and foster growth, many businesses and individuals abuse it to get out of their obligations. It does, however, provide an opportunity to restructure and protect the most important systems within an organization that would otherwise fail. Former industry leader Delta Airlines emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2007 with a stronger balance sheet, revised cost structure, and lower debt. The result was a fresh start from an airline industry giant that did not keep sucking at the federal teat. In the end, Delta is still flying and my dad and his former co-workers are still receiving their pensions. Bankruptcy would force the auto industry to get creative or die.

The decline of the auto industry in American life marks the end of an important era. We cannot cling, however, to lifestyles and dreams of an era that no longer supports the realities of a changing world. The auto industry lagged behind the shifting economy during the past few decades and has lost the brand loyalty and support of an American people with more choices and an eye to a global future. China is the hottest market for all automotive brands right now. Our world is changing. It's time that the auto industry caught up, without constant taxpayer assistance.

New Service for Small and Growing Organizations

I have long been passionate about helping my clients with advisory and business services that they can immediately put into action. Now, those services have a name: ConsulCoaching™.

ConsulCoaching is more revealing than consulting. And unlike coaching, my clients get practical deliverables, like strategic roadmaps and marketing plans, to help them move their businesses forward.

Therese Beale, President of Beale Communications Planning, says that after ten years as an entrepreneur "I'm excited about the new directions that are emerging for my company as a result [of ConsulCoaching]. It's refreshing to fall in love with my business all over again!"

If you've hit a snag with your business growth, want to get your fledgling business off the ground, or just want to fall in love with your business all over again, visit the ConsulCoaching web page to learn more. Or give me a call at 206-782-4040.

Strategy is not just for big businesses

In a recent presentation of Dollars + Sense, a participant commented that setting strategy and key performance indicators (KPIs) was for large businesses. According to the participant, small mom and pop shops are too small to worry about effective business analysis. Not true, I say. The smaller your business is, the more critical your need for good measurements and an effective strategy. Unlike larger organizations, you don't have much wiggle room to make repeated mistakes. KPIs and a solid strategy will help keep you on track and quickly reveal when things are taking a turn for the worst. Regardless of tour size, you need solid measurements and a well defined strategy. That's how the larger organizations get and stay big.

Keeping It Simple

My sister has a foster child who is in his mid teens. They have worked out an allowance system: he has a set allowance, yet certain chores have to be completed in order for him to receive his full allowance. For each chore that is not completed, a portion of the allowance is deducted. My sister and her husband aren't forcing him to do his chores: the hope is that he will be self directed to do what he is supposed to do in order to get his full allowance.

To date, the child has never received his full allowance. Some weeks, he doesn't receive any allowance. He does just enough to get what he wants at the time and lets the remaining funds go untapped. He doesn't yet see the value in doing the extra work needed to acquire the additional funds.

It might sound odd, but small businesses are like that, too. If they don't see the full value in responding to your call to action, signing up for your trial offer, or participating in your survey, they won't. If the process is too complex and the payoff too little, participation will be low. To motivate small businesses to participate in your offering, the offer must be short, clear, compelling, easy, and possess clear payoffs. Otherwise, they could be leaving valuable information and resources on the table -- and never truly realize the full benefits of what you have to offer.

Growth-focused Events for Small Businesses

This morning, James Dimon, Chairman and CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, presented at the US Chamber of Commerce, providing the nation with an optimistic, yet realistic state of our economy. Overall, there are opportunities for growth for all businesses. If you're a small business or nonprofit organization, I have a few upcoming events in the next few weeks that can help you leverage your strengths and take advantage of market opportunities:

1. I will be the luncheon keynote presenter at the 2009 Women in Business Conference at the Bellevue Hilton on March 12th. The topic, Wrangling New Profits from Existing Assets, will be an interactive and timely conversationfor growing small business clients. For more information, check out www.bellevuechamber.org.
2. Next week, two opportunities to catch the FREE webinar Dollars + Sense: Business Strategies for Marketing that Sells will be available on March 18th and March 19th. You won't even need to leave your office to participate. The option to call in is also available for phone-only participation. Visit www.tsuluwerks.com/events for more details and to register.
3. On March 19, I will be at the Bellevue Entrepreneur Center, presenting Dollars and Sense: Business Strategies for Marketing that Sells as part of their brown bag luncheon series. For more information and to register, contact Kim Fredericks at 425.213.1211 or visit www.bellevuechamber.org.
4. March 23rd marks the Crave SHOP Symposium/09 in Seattle. The organizers are extending a special for my network, since I will be participating in a panel presentation entitled Marketing Masters: Offline, Online, and Viral Strategies that Work. To receive 50% off your registration, select this link.

Other event topics will be presented in April, including Shameless Self Promotion for New Businesses. I hope that you can join us for one or more of these events!

Opportunities with Large Accounts are still available

Even though many organizations are tightening their belts, others are moving forward with previously budgeted projects and with new opportunities, thanks to the new Recovery/Stimulus funding recently approved by congress. What can you do to capitalize on these opportunities? Get ready to do business with large organizations by joining us for the webinar The Real Truth About Landing Large Accounts. We are still taking registrations for our March 4th and March 5th presentations.

Embracing Efficiency in a Narrowing Economy

The president unveiled his budget this week. Like so many others, he has acknowledged the need for shrewd management and growing efficiencies. Small businesses are rethinking both strategy and execution so that they can continue to move forward at a time when so many competitors are shuttering their doors. Local and state governments are streamlining services and consolidating functions to provide more services with less revenue. What can you do to be more efficient in this narrowing economy?

• Update your strategic plan. Many of organizations create a plan, only to let it collect dust when times are good. Or, even worse, some organizations don't have a plan. Revisiting your strategic plan is vital to take advantage of market forces. We took a look at capturing market forces in our February 11th and 12th webinars, The Strategy String. With the right strategic components in place, your organization will be creative and flexible in times of market changes. This will allow you to be more efficient with all of your business areas: marketing, operations, finance, technology, research and development, and sales. Ask your team: What parts of our strategic message are unclear? What information do you need to ensure that everyone is moving towards our company vision in the most efficient way possible? How can we make the changes needed to our strategy and how we communicate that strategy with minimal capital investment, yet encouraging an increase in productivity and focus on cost savings from the entire team?
• Leverage new technology. Technology is constantly changing and evolving. The tools that your organization might have put in place two or three years ago have most likely evolved. Innovative developers -- individuals and long-term corporate players -- have made it possible for organizations of all sizes to automate routine business processes and streamline IT needs with the growing availability of inexpensive, and even free, technology tools. Some tools require installation on your systems. Others can be leveraged with the rise of cloud computing to minimize your need for investing in expensive network and hardware upgrades. Ask your team: Are we using technology in the most efficient way possible? Should we re-evaluate our technology policies to be more responsive to new technologies or look at making an incremental change to capitalize on recent market forces? What new technologies exist that we can leverage with minimal capital investment, yet with maximum return on productivity and cost savings?
• Revise clunky processes. One of our local organizations is recognizing how much cash it's hemorrhaging thanks to clunky processes. IT systems don't talk to one another, and interdepartmental communications are non-existent. As a result, each process takes four times as many steps as some of their competitors' process to achieve the same results. Ask your team: Are there areas where departments are duplicating efforts or not talking to one another? Are we wasting valuable resources due to IT and other systems that have been cobbled together without thought to an integrated strategy and rollout plan? How can we update these processes with minimal capital investment, while maximizing our return on productivity and cost savings?
• Minimize wasted resources. The city of Bolinas, California has realized what it means to conserve resources. The city imposed a 150-gallon water limit on each household (yes, household, not person). That's the equivalent of a 15 minute shower. Yet, the folks of Bolinas understand that running out of water is more critical than making drastic changes to bathing, laundry, and drinking habits. People are dealing with one of the areas worst droughts in a self-sufficient, conscientious way. Organizations have already started conserving resources, like minimizing printing and turning out lights when folks leave the room. Have you approached this recession like the city of Bolinas has approached its drought? Ask your team: What resources can we modify drastically to encourage long-term conservation of resources? How can we look at inexpensive or free alternatives to some of the materials and services available in the market? What can we do to go beyond environmental savings and look at all of our daily activities to maximize our return on productivity and cost savings?

Increasing efficiency should be the goal of any organization, regardless of economic climates. Embracing efficiency does not have to be painful. Updating your strategic plan, leveraging new technology, revising clunky processes, and minimizing wasted resources are all areas that TsuluWerks helps it clients to achieve through its consulting and ConsulCoaching services. If your organization would like to increase efficiency to thrive in this narrowing economy, give Tracy Corley, the Empress of Efficiency, a call at 206-782-4040 x4.