photo by rhettmaxwell 

European countries tend to have at least 6 weeks of vacation per year.

Actually the more important point – not only do they have that much vacation time, but they actually take the time off and use it!!!

By contrast, the US is averaging about 16.6 days of vacation (according to a study in 2004) with at least a 1/3 of the people surveyed not planning to use all of that.  My guess is that for a lot of small business owners, the reality is even more restrictive than for employees.

According to a different study in 2005, Americans are working 389 hours a year more than their European counterparts, but overall the US is less productive even with 10% – 15% more time on the clock.  (I assume that also takes into account siestas, croissant breaks and late, late dinners – which would make it even worse…!). 

I’m going out on a limb here, but I would have to guess that all work and no play tends to make you unproductive and more likely to go postal.

What can you do?

There are a ton of reasons why people don’t take vacations – and with gas prices out of control and everyone in the media constantly declaring the economy a disaster, it’s actually pretty easy to choose to stay in the office and keep working (fear is a wonderful motivator).

However that doesn’t mean you can’t take a few days off, even if you can only afford to hang around the house.  But if you’re going to make it worthwhile, then you actually have to unplug and really clear your head. 

Don’t stress about the backlog of stuff in your inbox – you will always imagine things to be worse than they really are.  You can catch-up more quickly than you think you can.

Don’t worry about losing clients and opportunities – if they’re a good fit for you and you’ve let them know what’s going on, they’ll still be there when you get back.

Here’s the plan – pick a week coming up soon and plan for at least 4 days off in a row (a whole week would be better).  If you can afford to get away, get away somewhere that will really let you not think about work.  If you can’t afford to get away, shut down all the access to your work stuff, rent some movies, find a project at home you can enjoy, host a party, go to the lake or the zoo or the ballgame and just stop thinking about working.

I guarantee that when you get back you will have a different perspective and be in much better shape to take on the world.

My plan?  I’m taking my kids to Disney before they get to be too old to really enjoy it or appreciate it (I figure we’re within a couple of years of that already).  We’re not renting a car and we’re staying at a Disney resort.  I’m pretty sure that I’ll be too worn out from trying to keep up with them to have any time to think about work.

Share your vacation ideas here – especially if that will help make you commit to something!  We don’t want to let the Europeans keep winning this battle! 

Shawn Kinkade  www.aspirekc.com

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One of the blogs that I’ve followed for several years now is Pamela Slim’s Escape from Cubicle Nation – I first found her blog when I was trying to figure out what I was going to do as I was leaving the corporate world and I’ve kept reading her because she is interesting, entertaining and best of all, she’s very real (caveat – I haven’t actually met her or talked to her, but she certainly comes across as a real person that you’d enjoy having coffee with!).

Anyway, I had a real flash of déjà vu when I read her latest post – Do you and your lizard live in a van down by the river? .   I can vividly remember several conversations I had with my wife on facing the fear that if I didn’t get something figured out soon, we were going to be homeless. 

I knew it was stupid (my wife continually told me it was stupid) but it can be a slippery slope, especially when you don’t know what to do next.  And, as you might expect, you tend to be fairly ineffective when you’re wallowing in irrational fears.  Of course the problem with these kinds of fears is that at best they will drive unproductive behavior and at worst they can put you out of commission.

Luckily I was able to get past that particular fear of failure – oh I can still stress myself out pretty good if I’m not careful, but I’ve learned how to mostly keep it under control and not be a major factor.

What are you afraid of?

Making the leap to start your own small business is really hard and anyone that has done it, whether they’re knocking the cover off the ball or striking out a lot, deserves a lot of respect.  I would imagine that everyone in that situation has already successfully faced down some fears.  However, there are plenty of fears to go around:

I’ve met with business owners that have made it past that initial set of start-up fears and now they’re afraid they won’t be able to keep up the pace that a start-up requires (actually that’s my theory on why a lot of businesses fail after the first couple of years, not because they aren’t viable ideas run by smart competent people, but because the owners are exhausted and never figured out how to get things systemized).

I’ve met business owners that are afraid of getting in front of people to sell or to market.

I’ve met business owners that are afraid to hire employees and make that next leap beyond just themselves.

I’ve met business owners that are afraid of success (this one’s tough because no one is going to come right out and admit that, but it can drive a lot of bad behavior).

What can you do about your fears?

As far as I know, there’s not a quick, easy, 1 size fits all solution to overcoming your fears, Pam covers an approach recommended by Martha Beck in her post, but here are few of my ideas:

1. Clearly identify what it is that you’re scared of – meaning “Write it down!”.  Until you get a clear and precise handle on what you are actually afraid of, you’ll continue dealing with fragments and pieces.  Take it from me, general anxiety is much harder to deal with than something specific, so brainstorm and figure out what it is that’s got you.
2. Identify the worst thing that could actually happen.  Now imagine that someone else was describing that scenario to you – would you think that was a real possibility?  As an example, my twisted chain of logic for me to end up on the streets and homeless took several pages of writing to describe.  Again, if you’re struggling with an overactive imagination – write it down.
3. Talk it out with someone.  This is actually really difficult, but I’ve found it to be the real turning point.  By truly exposing your fear to someone else, it becomes much easier for you to recognize what’s rational and what’s not.  I’m a bit biased, but this is another area where Coaching can really be helpful.
4. Start an exercise program.  This sounds a little goofy, but there have been a lot of studies that show that regular exercise can make a big difference in managing overall stress.  My personal experience over the last year and a half would tend to back that up.  I still get stressed, but I’m more able to manage it and going to the gym is a great way to get your mind off things.
5. Breathe – you are probably doing this anyway but what I’m talking about is very consciously taking deep breaths and exhaling slowly to reduce your tension.  It’s not magic, but it can make a big difference.

What are you afraid of?  Give me a call or share it here – you might be surprised how common your personal fears might be!

Shawn Kinkade  www.aspirekc.com

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photo by woodleywonderworks

As a small business owner there are probably a lot of times when you feel like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders.

The reality is that you can’t do it all – at least not for the long run, and if you ever want to take your business to the next level, you are going to have to go out on that limb and get some help.

I’ve had a lot of conversation this week (several of them in BANG! Sessions) with business owners that are struggling with finding help.

In several cases, they’ve been burned previously by hiring someone that over promised and under delivered.  In other cases, they were struggling with the right kind of person to bring on board – the low level assistant that can get the grunt work out of the way?  Or should they bring on the sales lead that can take a real leadership position and really get some responsibilities off their plate?

How to Hire the right person

The first step is to not hire anyone – yet.

Before you hire, what you really need to do is get a clear picture of what your organization really looks like.  Even if your company is currently just you, your brother Daryl and your other brother Daryl, you need to create a detailed organizational structure that includes all of the various departments.

Simplistically most businesses will have an overall leader (CEO, President, Ultimate Leader) and several departments underneath, including operations, marketing, sales, finance, human resources, support (IT, engineering, etc.).

At least at a high level, you should also have different positions identified as part of your Organization structure.  If it helps, imagine what your company would look like in 3 years when you need to have a team of 10 people, what would they be doing?  3 in sales, 2 in marketing, 4 in operations?  Nobody said this would be an easy thing to do (and you don’t have to get it perfect, you just have to have some idea of how the work breaks down).

Now – if you think about the position that you’re hiring for, what – EXACTLY – are you expecting this new hire to do?  Not only do you need that information to get them productive once they come on board, but you really need that information as part of the hiring process.

Once you’ve got a clear picture of what you’re new hire will be doing and how they fit with the rest of your organization (which might only be you), you also need to write down how you would evaluate them for success.  If it’s a salesperson, how much revenue do you expect them to deliver in the first year?  If it’s more of an administration position, what constitutes them doing a great job versus an average job?  Add this information to your position description.

Now you can think about hiring

Depending on the type of position, you will look at different possibilities for candidates.  Here are some things to consider:

1. If it’s more of a ‘junior’ position, you might consider getting an intern from a local college (or possibly even high school).  Usually this means you’re paying very little, but the downside is that they likely won’t be around very long and you will have to train them on everything.
2. Consider tapping into your network but only by sharing your detailed position requirements – you don’t need to waste your time on Aunt Mildred’s neighbor’s son if he doesn’t really match what you’re looking for.  Referrals that are a good match for what you want can give you some piece of mind that you’re not just hiring blindly.
3. Along the same lines, you can post job requests on Linked In and have it sent out to your connections for a fairly low cost – again you need to be very precise on what you want.
4. Consider using a staffing agency and bringing someone in as a temp to hire.  You’ll pay a bit of a premium but you’ll have a lot of flexibility and you really get to see if you’re a good fit for them and if they’re a good fit for you.  If not – they go home and you get another one.
5. Post the position in the appropriate locations – local paper, Craig’s List, other local job sites, The Ladders.com (for higher level resources).  Where is your target employee likely to hang out?
6. Consider using Pre-Employment assessments as part of your hiring process.  Interviews and surface impressions can only give you part of the picture.  It’s almost like buying a car without ever driving it if you don’t use an assessment.

What other ideas do you have on hiring practices?  Share them here.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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There is an ‘X’ factor when it comes to product and marketing success.  There are those products and ideas that make unprecedented leaps to popularity.

They generate buzz and make people talk about them.  Think about things like the iPhone or the iPod.  How about the Nintendo Wii? 

Those products are Dramatically Different!

Note: this is 2nd in a series about supercharging your marketing message by leveraging some of the ideas in Jump Start Your Business Brain by Doug Hall.   This is an excellent book with some really practical strategies and ideas for enhancing your marketing message.  The other post:  Overt Benefits

Leap from Commodity to Premium

The studies done at the Eureka Ranch have shown that having a high Level of Dramatic Difference will be 3.5 X more effective than not having a Dramatic Difference.

The tough thing about Dramatic Difference is that you inherently have to create something new, something that’s not really competing with the current product set that’s out there.  In addition to that, that something also has to have a compelling overt benefit.

As an example, a Segway is dramatically different than anything else out on the market.  You can’t really compare it to a bicycle, or a wheelchair, or a car – it’s kind of like a motorized scooter of some sort, but not really.

The problem with the Segway is that although they are really cool, they don’t inherently have a clear-cut benefit (at least for most of the population).  Police officers are using them to get around urban areas more quickly and unobtrusively, but beyond that I’m hard pressed to think of why anyone would really have to have a Segway.

I’ve dragged my feet on finishing out this series because I didn’t have what I considered to be a great example of a dramatic difference (other than the obvious references above).

However I just realized I wrote recently about a local company that perfectly defines Dramatic Difference.  Shatto Milk is a local dairy operation that has totally transformed in the last 5 years and is now being pursued by other farms all over the US on how that transformation can be applied to them.  (read the post to learn more about this great story)

My earlier post really goes into what it took to create a remarkable company, but the end result speaks for itself.  This is a common, everyday commodity that no longer competes in the same space.  It’s still milk, for drinking, cereal, etc., but it’s fresher, tastes better, has superior packaging and comes in a huge variety of interesting flavors.

Not only are they able to charge a premium for a premium product (albeit one that’s inherently the same as other milk), but their dramatic difference has caused them to become a destination product for the stores that sell milk.  People are complaining when Shatto milk is sold out.

So how do you create a dramatic difference with your business?  It’s not easy, but ideally you would start by building on a strength – something you do better than anyone else and see if you can twist that enough to make it something new.

The payoff if you can do that is huge, but it doesn’t happen very often.  What examples of Dramatically Different companies or products can you think of?

Shawn Kinkade  www.aspirekc.comSimilar Posts:

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There’s always something new on the web, so I thought I would share some updates from a couple of clients of mine and a contact I met a few weeks ago.

Math Monkey going Guerrilla (marketing that is…)

Chris Kutenkuler is the owner of the Math Monkey franchise here in Kansas City and he’s been doing a lot of cool stuff lately.

Not only does he have a great summer camp option with Carver Reading and Mad Science and a new Blog, but he was also just featured on Fox 4 – which is a great way to generate some buzz about your product .  Anyway, check out the blog and a link to the Fox 4 video.

Brain Bucket is starting something new

My friend Toby is doing some additional definition on his business.  He’s still helping business owners develop a really cost-effective web presence, but now he’s adding in the option to get the training and coaching you need to really start building that presence into a marketing tool that can drive your business.

You can read more about his approach on his new creation – the Bucket Blog!  I had a chance to go to his introductory workshop last week and really enjoyed the discussion on real, practical enjoyable ways you can develop your web presence (and why you would want to).  He’s going to be doing them every couple of weeks, so check out the next one on May 30th.

Start navigating with Social Radar

I had a chance to meet with Adam Coomes from Infegy a few weeks ago (we met on the KC Online Community site – you should check that out as well).

Anyway, Adam and his business partner have created a really cool product called Social Radar that can let businesses tap into the ‘buzz’ that’s in the blogosphere.  As an example, if you were running the Democratic National Party, you could use the tool to see which candidate is being talked about the most, who’s talking about them, what the related keywords are and how that’s trended over time.  There’s dozens of ways you could use this information to be more strategic, more informed or better equipped to market your product (or candidate…).

Anyway, Adam and Justin have created a new blog that’s going to start featuring ideas from Social Radar that they can share with the world – they’re doing some pretty cool stuff, you should check it out!

Have a great week – let me know what you think of the new blogs!

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