Due to business growth in other areas, Ken and I are shutting down PortlandBusinessCommunity.com.  We will leave the valuable info online, but will shut down new registrations and article submission.  If you feel your business could benefit from business blogging, please visit PDXchat.com, where you can create a FREE blog or website to promote your business.

Thank you for two great years of support.

Ed Bejarana
Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

Create a FREE business blog on PDXchat.com

This lesson reminds me that the same often applies to businesses and business owners. Whether buying, selling, or networking, businesspeople must take the reigns and take the steps to further their business efforts.  Be aggressive.  Be confident.  Create a goal, go after it and be unyielding to any obstacles. Don’t let others or circumstances determine your destiny, but rather, take solid action towards your future and the future of your business.

Jamie Teasdale – www.jjtsolutions.com

1. Decide what activities are required to make your business run properly and smoothly.

In order to stay in business, you will need to schedule accounting tasks such as billing, receiving, balancing, budgeting, etc.  In order to stay organized and keep careful business records, there are administrative tasks like paperwork, ordering, filing, follow up, etc.  Marketing projects, networking opportunities, customer service and follow up are the backbone of any growth plan.  And then there is the actual work.  Make a list of the tasks you need to accomplish  and separate the tasks into two columns, one for monthly tasks, one for weekly.

2. Determine what tasks yield the best return on your time investment.

Do you have more success emailing your clients, or calling them?  This may be best determined by generation.  Younger generations are easy to find on social media sites or via text or email.  Older generations may not have computer knowledge or email abilities and they may be expecting a phone call.  We all know that producing quotes or estimates and invoicing are vital tasks.  Perhaps the paperwork and filing can be set aside and handled once a week on your admin day.  If you’re a small business, you may even opt to enter your receipts and balance your bank account bi-weekly or only once a month.

3. Decide which days of the week are best used on which tasks.

It is typical for phone business to have the best response when handled on Monday’s when businesses return from the weekend and are in-office, while Friday’s tend to be the opposite.  Maybe Friday is a good day for networking, catching up on weekly tasks or deadlines and getting your office organized for next week (admin).  If you attend a networking group, perhaps that day is a good day for meetings, follow up, or customer service activities.

4. Set your schedule and stick to it. Allow yourself enough time to get tasks done.  If you guess you’ll only need an hour, give yourself an hour and a half.  There is no sense in trying to kill yourself to accomplish tasks within an unreasonable time frame and most times you’ll just get behind and the schedule will be forgotten.  Batch like tasks and activities together.  Admin, follow up, accounting are all office-bound tasks, so it might make sense to schedule these on the same day.  Remember that each task has a prep time and a down time associated with it.  In order to use your time most efficiently, try not to “switch gears” too often in one day.

Your priority is your business, so once you have set up a working schedule give yourself permission to stick to your priorities.  There might be the occasional meeting that conflicts with your admin day, or you may need to place a followup call on a non-followup day, but don’t let that discourage you from sticking to the plan.  Learning how to manage the few hours you have in a day to accomplish all you have to do will keep you on top of the game and ready for more.

Jamie Teasdale - www.JJTSolutions.com

Some government programs just don’t work as we all know. Some programs can’t be measured. Most of us know someone who benefited from this one.  Let them feel proud they have a home to call their own.

• Don’t hang out at home in your PJ’s or sweats. Get up at a regular work time and get ready to face the world. This will prevent you from forming depressive habits of low self worth.

• Find someone to partner with. It is true that two heads are much better then one. Having a partner can help keep both of you on the right track. You will gain strength and encouragement from each other as long as it does not evolve into a pity party.

• Sharpen your skills. Read articles and books to stay abreast of changes in your industry. Keeping your mind fresh and alert will fight off depression.

• Volunteer and help others. This will help take your focus off yourself and it can provide opportunities for joy in your life.

• Attend business-networking meetings. Search for Chamber of Commerce meetings or Trade Association meetings. You can visit at no charge for up to 3 times each organization. There are hundreds of networking meetings listed on line. Go meet new contacts. This is much better then sending resumes from home.

• Consider starting your own business. Downsizing has left companies needing services on an as needed basis. Discover if there is a need for your skills. Call and survey companies. You may find a new way to make more money then your old job paid. You can typically charge twice as much as you were making as an employee, but don’t forget that you will need to pay taxes on your new found income.

• Exercise. You don’t need to join a gym. Do push ups, crunches, walk around your neighborhood or beat your pillow with a broomstick. You need something to relieve your frustration and anger.

Ken Bear Cole

A Second Look Business Consulting LLC

Most people with a 401K can take money out without penalty  to  get the mortgage current or to save it from foreclosure. I didn’t know if you knew this.

Give the house back to the bank “in lieu of foreclosure” You can contact your bank and discuss this with them. This will not count as a foreclosure against you and the credit hit is not as severe. This is easier when the house is in good shape. The stays on your credit report for about 3-4 years as a rule.

Stay in the house until the dreaded forced “foreclosure” when you are actually forced out. I would say this is the most challenging and damaging to your credit. Foreclosures usually stay on your credit report for 10 years and is hard to run from. Banks do not like this to happen, because of all the legal issues that accompany it. The banks tend to be more forgiving to your credit in a short sale or just giving the house back.

The “short sale” in most cases is the best scenario. The term short sale simply means the fair market value for the house is less than the mortgage. Several things have to happen to allow this. The bank will ask for the financial information from the sellers to make sure they can not pay the full amount. In this day and age that is not hard to do. You will need a realtor to do a competitive market analysis to show the bank  the true value. Then it is just a matter of marketing the house at a selling price that satisfies the buyers and the bank. The difference of the amount owed and the sold price is the short sale amount. This will hit your credit, but it is the least damaging.  Credit hit is 2-3 years as a rule.

Contact a realtor and ask questions concerning your options.

Bank owned properties and short sales are the things driving down the value in the housing market. It will be this way for awhile.  So, if you need to give it back or short sale it, you are not alone. Do what you need to do to help you and your family.

The amount of time you are willing to contribute to your new venture is directly proportional to when you can expect to start getting paid. If you are jumping in to your new business full-time, your return is going to come much sooner than if you are working part-time. Most people start a Home-Based, or Network Marketing business because they don’t want to take the risk of jumping into something full time, but they know the value of owning your own business, so they agree to start out part-time.

The part-timers are torn on two fronts. First, the financial reward is much, much slower and even more sporadic. The wise entrepreneur sets up a separate bank account and commits to reinvesting all of the income into the business for marketing tools, supplies, training etc. However, more often than not this money is mingled with their general expense money and even though the earnings may be substantial, it never seems to launch the part-timer over the hump to become a full-timer. Second, the part-timer is constantly staring into the future and watching the lifestyles of the full-timers. This pull coupled with the drive from the full-time “up line” creates a conundrum of motivation to succeed and frustration that part-time efforts are not creating full-time results.

If success doesn’t come relatively quickly, i.e. the part-timer is able to jump to being a full-timer, one of two things happens. Either the part-timer will jump to full-time status prematurely, with a “sink-or-swim” attitude, or they become discouraged and drop off of their regular routine. The spare-timer is that unique person that still believes in the product, the company, and the opportunity but they just can’t seem to justify making the commitment to time and activity to expand their business. They may be in a place where revenue needs dictate that they stay primarily committed to their J-O-B and as opportunity presents itself they will make a sale or recruit a new business associate. All it would really take for the spare-timer to once again become a part-timer, or maybe even make the jump to being a full-timer is one or two quality recruits.

If a spare-timer lingers too long, however, they may become a some-timer. These are the folks that for whatever reason have kept their status active with the company, but they are not actively engaged in the daily activity necessary to be productive in growing their business. The pitfalls of becoming a some-timer are first of all developing a romance with “sometime I’m going to be able to do this, or sometime I’m going to hit it big, or sometime I’ll get back into that thing”. The romance aspect of business keeps us from ever making the commitment to become successful, or from making the commitment to just quit. Most all networking marketing businesses, in fact most all businesses have some degree of success built in to them. The one finality to any business is quitting. As is stated in an ancient Hebrew proverb, “Better a live dog than a dead lion, for while there is life there is yet hope”.

Maybe today is the day you’ll pull out that old list of names you made when you were new, plan to attend your company’s next opportunity meeting, and take some action to affect your destiny. Your next big sale or next great recruit may be a phone call away. One of my mentors likes to say, “Don’t let the reason you didn’t make the sale be you didn’t make the call.

Who knows, with a little effort you could become a “Just-In-Timer”.

Gary Russell
503-519-3592
www.DefendMyLife.com

Life sometimes feels like a highway which is bumper to bumper in expectations, wants and needs. Have you ever tried getting somewhere when you were rudely cut off, tailgated, or delayed by an agonizingly slow driver? What was your reaction? Often we don’t take the time to look at these incidents objectively. We read too much into things, saying to ourselves, Why is this person slowing me down?  I’m in a hurry and they need to get out of the way! We forget that the annoying driver is a someone also trying to get somewhere. Our fast-paced society makes us all feel anxious about getting where we need to go. In the end, this can even lead to road rage.

One chamber has gone a little further to help its members in this economic down turn. The North Clackamas Chamber of Commerce has started a new program. It is call BizBoosters! We didn’t come up with the idea ourselves, but we embrace it. It is away the members can directly help one another.  Last Friday, for example, we had 29 members and friends attend lunch at Bajio’s Mexican Grill on 82nd. It was an informal get together and all that participated had a good time. Nothing better than breaking bread with friends!  The NCCC plans to extend this program to service, retail, and other members that supply consumer goods. Want to know more? Visit: www.yourchamber.com (events calendar)

But! Who thinks about the appliances, plumbing, water heater, furnace, air conditioning, or washer and dyer? We usually take these for granted  until they break down. Ever notice, they break down just at the time you can’t afford a repair bill.  When was the last time you had to load all of your clothes into the car and take’em to the laundry? Furnaces and air conditioners break down when you need them the most.

There is such a thing has a Home Warranty. Now, I’m not selling these things, but I thought you might like to know they exist. As a real Estate Broker, I encourage sellers to offer one or the buyers to buy one.   There are two major ones:

 First American Home Buyers Protection Corporation: www.firstam.com/warranty

American Home Shield:  www.ahswarranty.com

You might just want to check them out.