Small Business Week is here!

It is going to be a big week for small business in San Francisco. Small Business Week 2014 kicked off this morning with a gathering at Twitter headquarters with speeches from San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, and Maria Contreras-Sweet, the Administrator of the Small Business Administration. There were also speakers from Twitter, Kiva and local businesses discussing the impact of social media on small business. Tonight’s gala, Flavors of San Francisco, will be a chance to mingle with over 1,200 small business owners and community leaders (and it’s already sold out).

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are packed with workshops TED-style talks for entrepreneurs on a variety of topics, including identifying your target market, running your business in the cloud, accessing capital for growth, and business law. Check out the schedule and sign up for workshops – they are free but space is limited!

As a part of Small Business Week, I was interviewed by my colleague Ken Stram of 2Bridge Communications for the Small Business Week SF YouTube channel. I was asked to comment on staying in business for the long-term, and you can check it out here.

Small business has a tremendous impact on our neighborhoods, city and our local economy. There are over 80,000 small businesses and start-ups in San Francisco and small businesses create two out of every three jobs. Check out Small Business Week 2014 and share what you learn!

Honoring an influential institution

May 9, 2014
Entrepreneurship Training, Events & Community
PTA
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Last Thursday night, May 1st, Small Business Network San Francisco (SBN) celebrated its 30th anniversary and recognized six small business organizations and individuals during an awards ceremony at the Marines’ Memorial Club of San Francisco. One of the winners was long-time PTA client Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, recognized with the Influential Organization Award. Renaissance’s mission is to empower and increase the entrepreneurial capacities of socially and economically diverse women and men to help create sustainable new businesses and new jobs and promote financial self-sufficiency. The SBN award was accepted by Renaissance Managing Director, Lisa Kirvin.

It has been my pleasure to help design services and provide training, consulting and support to Renaissance students and graduates over the past twenty+ years. As the coordinator and lead instructor for Renaissance’s 14-week business planning class in San Francisco, I know first-hand how Renaissance helps support so many Bay Area small businesses each year. Congratulations Renaissance!

(I was honored to receive SBN’s Small Business Advocate Award last year.)

Step in, step up, step out: learning to lead

In the first years of life we learn to roll over and then crawl, we learn to toddle and then walk, and we learn to mumble, repeat sounds and then talk. We develop new skills by watching, listening and practicing, by falling down and getting up… over and over. As we grow, we build our strength, self-confidence, skills and understanding about other people and ourselves.

Becoming the leader of a business can be a similar process. We step into the role (sometimes before we are ready) and we step up to the opportunity (even if we stumble along the way). Finally, we learn to step out of day-to-day management and into a leadership role. We develop the personal perspective and skills to take our businesses to the next level.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Your business will have different needs at different times. As a new start-up or a home-based business, you need to figure out what you are doing, convince others to buy from you, and close the sale. As you expand, you can go after more clients and customers and adjust your services and products to fit the market. As your businesses matures, you as the owner need to mature as well. You need to know when it is time to step away from the day-to-day running of the business and bring in additional support. This becomes a leadership opportunity.

LETTING GO
Giving up control over certain aspects of your business is one of the hardest things to do as a business owner. Yet it is essential if you want to grow your business. To be successful, your time needs to be spent on the future of your business, not just the day-to-day needs.

GETTING READY
But how do you recognize the gaps that you need to fill? How to define the complexity of your business and bring your business skills into alignment? How do you know you are ready to hire people and train them to operate the business the way that you have proven is successful?

As a small businesses owner, you may be forced to make quick decisions, reacting to opportunities as they appear instead of strategically setting your course. And, you may have to make things up as you go along, essentially “building the plane as you fly it”. Yet when it comes to hiring people, good preparation is key. It is critical to to first ask yourself why you need help, what type of person or skill set is best suited for the job, and how you will train, direct and assess new hires so that you can incorporate them smoothly into your business.

JUMPING IN
Here are six important tips to consider when planning to hire employees and step into a position of leadership.

1. Understand the financial impact
Before jumping into a hiring process, you need to be able to afford it. Financial costs and revenues forecasting comes first. Hiring the right person comes second.

2. Look for people who complement your skill sets
It is important to hire people who can do the type of work that is important to the business but that you don’t do well. Do you struggle to track your expenditures or manage your budget? Bring in someone with strong money management skills. Do you love making the product but shy away from reaching out to potential customers? Hire someone with great people skills and a sales or marketing background.

3. Spend time on training and then get out of the way
You might be eager to get a new person working as soon as possible but it’s important to put energy into training so the new hire not only understands how to do things the right way but also understands why it’s important to do them that way. Once a new person is trained, it’s time to get out of the way. The business is your “baby” and you may have been responsible for all tasks until now. But the only way a new hire can be motivated, loyal to the business and successful, is if you let him or her own some of the work, too.

4. Set the right tone and others will follow
You, as the owner, set the business culture. If you are motivated and happy in your role, if you are transparent, open, consistent and fair, then others will follow your lead. As the owner, you must be a good communicator and in particular, you must communicate your vision and goals with the people who work for you. Without clear business goals, it’s easy for everyone to get lost in the details and lose sight of the big picture. You all need to be on the same page.

5. Continually take the pulse of your team
A good leader takes time to give clear directions, solicit feedback and listen to suggestions. By scheduling regular check-ins, team meetings and performance reviews with your employees, you create a productive space for communicating goals, addressing concerns and answering questions. Your employees can then feel confident that they know what is expected of them, and you can feel free to give them the space they need to do their jobs well. How you communicate with your employees (and how your employees communicate with each other) makes all the difference!

6. Get help through the process
You don’t have to figure it all out on your own. We help small business clients all the time to assess their needs, make the right hires, create training programs to build strong teams, and implement better management systems. Your support network of advisers and other small business owners can be a guide or sounding board as you develop leadership skills and systems for better management.

It is important to invest time, money and attention in your people. They are key to your business success!

Where did the time go?

This is the question we all ask, and perhaps small business owners ask the most!

Fresh Air’s Terry Gross recently interviewed Brigid Schulte, author of the book, Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play, When No One Has the Time. Schulte says that the key to time management is “figuring out what’s important to you, and then making time to do what’s most important first.” It sounds simple and yet it’s hard to do when so many things compete for our attention and everything feels urgent.

Many of us keep detailed to-do lists. Our list will grow and grow and can become so long that it’s easier to focus on the “simple stuff” we can quickly complete and check off the list. We put off the tasks that will be most strategic for our business, the tasks that will help us grow and be a success. Schulte calls this tendency to spend time on the small stuff, “virtuous busyness”.

As small business owners we wear many hats and must often multi-task. We have the tendency to want to do it all ourselves (even when we are stuck) and we don’t want to delegate (or don’t know how to). We are often completely consumed in the business without making time to work on the business, or we let personal stuff get in the way of how we run our business.

There can be a lot of emotions tied up with how we spend and “manage” our time, too. When we have too much to do we can get overwhelmed and frustrated. Our actions become non-productive. We procrastinate (ignoring what we know we must do) or we sabotage ourselves (purposely doing something counterproductive), and we end up paralyzed – blaming ourselves and sometimes even giving up.

One way out of this overwhelm is by paying attention to the Pareto Principle or what is often referred to as the “80/20 Rule”:

If you can figure out which tasks are producing your business’ results, you can spend more time on those activities and less time on others. Often if a task makes you feel uncomfortable or if you are putting it off, it’s probably a sign that it needs your attention!

As a simple way to start, Perry Marshall, author of 80/20 Sales and Marketing, recommends that we flip our daily to do list. “If there are 10 things you need to do today, odds are that one task is worth 10 times more than the rest. It is natural to want to put it off and get the other tasks done first but you need to switch it around and first focus on that one thing that is most important.” Do you need to write your marketing plan, call a disgruntled customer, create financial projections or go after a new client? Focus on that key task first.

When I talk to my business students about time management I share the same essential message. The first step is to identify the priorities — or BIG ROCKS — for your business and then structure your time to put them first. If you are a small business owner (particularly if you are just launching your businesses) you really cannot do it all. You need to focus on the key 10-20% of your business that can bring the best results now. Once you have some comfort in or mastery over that area, you can expand your focus.

Now, it’s time to take action! Starting first thing tomorrow…

Look at your to-do list and pick only three tasks for the day – tasks that are the most important for your business right now. (What task will help you make money now? What task will build a key business skill now?)
Tackle only one task at a time.
Set a start time and end time for each task to keep yourself focused.
Share what you are doing with someone else so that he/she can hold you accountable.
Don’t forget to get rid of all distractions. Clear other work off your desk, turn off email, put down your phone… and get to it!

The reality is that your to-do list will never go away and it will probably always be long. It may be helpful to write down all your tasks so they don’t keep swimming around in your head. But the goal is to not get distracted by your list.

And, it is important to put away the list entirely sometimes. Our best business breakthroughs often come when we aren’t focused on our business. Sometimes it is only when we take a break, that we can gain perspective.

Rock, paper, wisdom

Every year at Paul Terry & Associates, we make wisdom stones for our colleagues and clients. These stones have become a long-standing tradition and also a symbol for Paul Terry & Associates. They express our intention to help small business owners tune in to their passions, stay focused on their goals, find meaning, and make a difference.

Each stone, with its special design and word of inspiration, is unique and the process of making them is a labor of love.

Every year my wife, Leslie, creates a new stone design. Together we select river rocks that are the right size and color, we wash and scrub them, I apply linseed oil to bring out their rich hue, and then Leslie glues interesting handmade papers to each rock, often incorporating string or twine. The last step in the process is adding a word of wisdom to the back of each stone.

After so many years of making these stones together and sending them off into the community, we started to wonder… where do they end up and what do they mean to people?

So we asked. Here is some of what we found out…

They decorate people’s bookshelves, tables and mantels:

They live in the office, the bathroom and the garden:

And they can be found in many rooms throughout peoples’ houses:

“One is on my table, another on my bookshelf, a fourth by my meditation area, and a fifth by my bedside.”

“The chaos of my life always benefits from having a few wisdom stones nearby. And yes, they are in every room of my house. Almost.”

For some people, the stones are decoration. For others, they are continued inspiration. One colleague keeps her wisdom stones in her office and they inspire her communication with her clients. Another colleague shared, “I sometimes have a client pick up a rock to guide our consulting session if they are stuck on some issue: it breaks them into a smile!”

This colleague used her wisdom stones at a party once as a way to introduce people to each other. Each party guest read a word on a rock and shared what it meant for them, which made for some fun ice breaker introductions. She then mused that if she could remember which rock she received on which year, it would be interesting to look at the words of wisdom and see how they matched the trajectory of her business and her business growth.

It has been fun to see where these stones have ended up and what they mean to people. For me, making the stones and then giving them away is a way to connect to community… sharing small objects of beauty that bring joy and inspiration to those around me.

If you have ever received a PTA wisdom stone, please let me know what it means to you.

Good news for local small businesses

January 31, 2014
Current Climate for Small Business, Profiles
PTA
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PTA clients and students have been in the press this month and we want to share their good news…

Judi Henderson-Townsend of Mannequin Madness

Judi Henderson-Townsend of Mannequin Madness was recently profiled in the New York Times about her goal to hit a million dollars in revenue.

Oxgut Hose Co. O-Type Chair

Oxgut Hose Co. Walsh Wood Carrier

LauraLe Wunsch of Oxgut Hose Co. was featured in San Francisco Magazine about her line of products made from recycled fire hoses.

Steve Fox of Urban Putt

Inside Scoop SF profiled Steve Fox of Urban Putt, the Mission District’s forthcoming indoor miniature golf course, restaurant and bar.

Kelsie Kerr

Inside Scoop SF also recently profiled local chef Kelsie Kerr, co-author of The Art of Simple Food and owner of Standard Fare, which will be opening in West Berkeley next month.

Wendy Lieu

And after a successful Kickstarter campaign, Wendy Lieu and her sister Susan are opening Socola Chocolatier’s first retail store on Folsom Street in San Francisco in early February.

Please join PTA in showing your support for local small businesses and these hard-working, passionate entrepreneurs!

And the winner is…

The winners of the Mission Main Street Grants Program were announced today. Congratulations to the twelve small businesses that will each be receiving $250,000 to help make a positive impact in their communities.

PTA was one of the nearly 35,000 small businesses that applied for a grant this past year. We knew from the get-go that winning would be a long shot. We decided to apply anyway and even though we didn’t win, the grant process was energizing for us. The pressure of a deadline was great motivation and it pushed us to reach out to our community and share our plans to pilot a new small business mentor training program. This process has motivated us to expand our offerings and think about new ways to support small businesses.

Thank you again to everyone who showed their support for Paul Terry & Associates. With or without grant support, together we can make great things happen.

Elements of effective mentoring

“The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image,
but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.”
– Steven Spielberg

January is National Mentoring Month so it feels like the right time to be talking about small business mentoring — a key ingredient to success for every entrepreneur.

At some point, we all need guidance, a sounding board and a cheerleader to navigate through changes, growth and challenges in our business. Guidance can come in many forms — from a business “buddy”, through a peer support group, or directly from a trusted business adviser or a team of advisers. No matter the form, what is most important is that our mentors encourage us to look closely at issues and opportunities, and to maximize our potential. With their support, we can develop our business skills, take risks, and be successful.

Our support system must include people who have been in our shoes. We must surround ourselves with subject-matter experts and experienced small business owners who have dealt with similar challenges first-hand and can help us make sense of the clutter and make decisions with relevant, timely advice.

Though I believe that the best small business mentors are other small businesses owners, success in business does not qualify someone as a good mentor. That person must also be a skillful listener and motivator, know how to ask questions, and know when and how to give honest advice. In addition, the best mentors open doors to a wider network that can support us and our business.

To sum it up, I believe that effective mentors…

Listen carefully to what you say (and don’t say)
Understand your needs and respect your point of view
Ask questions and challenge assumptions
Guide based on their own experience/expertise
Share relevant and immediately actionable advice, and
Are accessible and supportive over the longer term.

Above all, the mentor-mentee relationship should be a partnership, based on mutual respect and trust.

As we develop our mentoring services at PTA, I have been reading many articles about mentoring and asking others about their mentoring experiences. What “words of wisdom” about mentoring have inspired YOU?

Mentoring matters

What really matters to us as we move through life? For many of us, it is family, friends, good health and making a difference in the world through the work we do.

I recently read the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson and watched a documentary on his life and last few months. Jobs didn’t ever seem to give up. He pushed himself and others to be different and make a difference. He is an example of someone who had a passion for life, a commitment to make an impact, and a curiosity that never went away.

Jobs felt that “the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe to be great work.” He went on to say that “the only way to do great work, is to love what you do.” Do we all have this passion and enthusiasm? Are we committed to being a success no matter what stands in our way?

Most small business owners are driven… to do something our own way and to be a success. Yes, we want to be financially successful but other types of success matter to us, too: doing something unique, being remembered, teaching others, and leaving a legacy — something that will last.

But what happens when we get stuck? What if we cannot stay connected to the passion? What if success feels elusive and failures do not all become lessons learned? Innately, we know we must keep moving forward and that we will learn from our failures if we can figure out a different path. (Of course, trying to do the same thing the same way over and over is not wisdom, it’s insanity.) Success usually doesn’t just show up. We have to go out there and get it…tackle it, embrace it, own it.

Sometimes we have trouble figuring out the next steps on our own, though. There may be too many options. We may be spinning our wheels around one particular issue. We may hesitate instead of taking action. When we stumble and panic, who can guide us and nudge us forward? Finding someone we trust to mentor us can be critical.

I have a client who is a long-distance open water swimmer. When his group is on a long swim they have escorts in kayaks, rowboats and inflatable motorboats. As he explains, the escorts “look out for our safety, fending off other boats, telling us where we are, where to go, they feed us. They make sure we are okay in mind and body. They are our cheerleaders and companions in our journey to the goal.”

Small business owners also need guides through rough waters. We need escorts, cheerleaders and supporters as we deal with changes and difficulties in our businesses. We might be forced to move locations unexpectedly, have an important employee abandon us, or struggle to make the business financially sustainable. In these times, mentors are essential.

According to the Startup Genome Report, “having helpful mentors” is key to entrepreneurial success. This survey of 650 internet startups found that “the right mentors significantly influence a company’s performance and ability to raise money.” Though we may not have the data to prove it yet, I believe mentoring matters for all small businesses, both new and established. With great mentor support, we can all become the small business owners we want to be.

Remembering a great friend and mentor

As we celebrate another year around the sun, I have been reflecting on what matters to me most and, in particular, the important relationships and mentors in my life. I have been thinking a lot about my late friend and PTA associate, CeCe Phillips.

CeCe Phillips

CeCe and I were born the same year, just a few weeks apart. Our closeness in age felt like a special bond. I often joked with her about how she was older than me. She would always reply, “ Now Paul, you don’t want to go there!”

I thought I was her best friend…at least that is how she made me feel. She was so supportive and always made it clear that she truly cared about me. We talked on the phone, exchanged e-mails, saw each other at business meetings, met for lunch or coffee, and often co-taught classes together. Many years later, when she was too sick to travel because of cancer, I would visit her. At the celebration of her life after she passed, it was clear that she had been a best friend to so many. She loved all of us and had a gift for treating everyone in her life as someone special.

CeCe was a great listener, a quality so important in a friend and mentor. She was curious about me, my family, and my small business. Every time we were together she asked good questions and gave me the space to answer. When giving advice, she was careful to say just enough and not more.

Paul and CeCe back in the day

CeCe was also quick to share with me how I was a support to her. I remember giving her advice once about what she could say in a speech to a small business group. Though she didn’t end up using any of my exact suggestions, she told me afterwards, “What you shared with me was in there. Your ideas helped me think through what I wanted to say. Without talking to you first, I might not have ever gotten there on my own.”

In the last weeks of her life, I called her every couple of days and we would talk while I did errands and she sat in her chemotherapy treatment. We chatted about family, business colleagues, and what we wanted to do next. (We were always planning our next big idea or business venture together.) We laughed together and shared stories. She continued to mentor and inspire me with her passion for life, even as life was ebbing from her.

Of the many lessons I learned from this remarkable woman, three stand out:

Listen closely and watch carefully when someone is talking to you.
Do whatever you can to empower and provide support to all the people around you.
If there is a choice between playing and working, always choose play.

It is hard to label many things in life as “perfect” but this may have been the perfect friendship. Thank you CeCe for being a wonderful friend, mentor and teacher. You continue to inspire!

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