Mike Michalowicz's Blog, page 83
July 27, 2015
Episode 38: Gamification and Taxes with Adam Hollander and Tom Wheelwright
Show Summary
Adam Hollander and Tom Wheelwright join us for Episode 38 of the Profit First Podcast. Adam shares his story of how FantasySalesTeam got started. Tom gets down to the nitty gritty about Taxes.
Our Guests
Adam Hollander (left)
Adam Hollander is founder and CEO of FantasySalesTeam. He’s considered an expert in the areas of B2B sales, marketing and gamification. Prior to launching FantasySalesTeam, Adam held a variety of strategic positions at both small and large public companies, including Aberdeen Group and Harte-Hanks. He also holds a degree in Business Management from Babson College.
Tom Wheelwright (right)
As “Tax-Free Wealth” Author, CPA and CEO of ProVision Wealth (Tempe, Arizona), Tom Wheelwright is a leading tax and wealth expert and speaker. Tom is best known for making taxes “fun, easy and understandable”, and specializes in helping entrepreneurs and investors build wealth through practical and strategic ways that permanently reduce taxes. Tom is also 1 of 8 Rich Dad Advisors for Robert Kiyosaki, who wrote “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” He is the Founder of WealthStrategyU, and his work has been featured in Investor’s Business Daily, Accounting Today, ABC Radio News, Real Estate Guys Radio Show and many more media.http://taxfreewealthadvisor.com and http://bit.ly/taxfreewealth.
Show Quotes
As a sales manager, you don’t generally run contests and incentives to motivate your top 20% [of employees] because they’re already driven, it’s in their “DNA” and they are going to over-achieve anyway. The goal is to motivate as many people on your team as possible, and how to keep them that way for as long as possible.
Find something that your employees share a passion for, and create incentives based on that.
If you’re creating sales contests with a small team, start thinking about incorporating activity and behavior metrics in ways to compete (in addition to the results). Start using the foundation of team based competition; for example, if you only have 4 people, instead of putting all 4 against each other put 2 vs. 2. Get them to partner up, push and rely on each other.
Take enjoyment in reminder people that there’s FUN in refund.
They key is to know what the tax line is all about. Tax law is a series of incentives.
Every dollar you spend can be deductible under the right circumstances! There are three steps to do so:
1. What is the business purpose
2. What is the necessity (how does this improve the business?)
3. Document it!
Have a question you’d like us to answer on the air? Email Kristina or Mike!
Kristina@MikeMichalowicz.com
Mike@MikeMichalowicz.com
Show Links
Adam Hollander
Website: www.fantasysalesteam.com
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollanas
Tom Wheelwright
Websites: http://taxfreewealthadvisor.com, http://bit.ly/taxfreewealth
Twitter: @tom_wheelwright
Corporate Partners
Nextiva – VOIP phone providers for small businesses.
Fundera – Single source online funding for entrepreneurs. Also offers an adviser program for CPAs, bookkeepers and business coaches.
TSheets – The #1 customer rated time tracking solution!
July 26, 2015
Fat Guys In The Woods’ Knife Rig (Hosted by Creek Stewart)
A great product lesson comes from The Weather Channel’s wildly popular TV show, Fat Guys In The Woods. The show features survival expert, Creek Stewart, as he demonstrates to the three “fat guy” participants techniques necessary to survive outdoors with only a knife and their own wit and skills. Throughout the show Creek Stewart carry’s his favorite survival knife and sheath. The knife is an Ontario Blackbird SK-5 Survival Knife (this link is for the Noir model. It also comes in a non-coated stainless steel version). The sheath is the Hedgehog Leatherworks’ Blackbird SK-5 Advanced Sheath.
The product lesson? It’s simple. Superior products market themselves.
Both the Ontario Blackbird SK-5 knife and Hedgehog Blackbird SK-5 sheath were designed by survival gear designer and owner of Hedgehog Leatherworks, Paul Scheiter. The Ontario SK-5 knife was featured as a Field & Stream product of the year.
The Hedgehog SK-5 sheath is world renowned for its classic, unique design, as well as its extremely rugged, “built like a tank” toughness.
If you want the word to get out about your own products, the lesson for you is simple too:
Create a product that is such good quality and so remarkable on its own merits that everyone (including television shows) feature it.
July 24, 2015
When Should I Take A Profit?
I don’t care if your business makes a few dollars or a few million (or more). The foundation of every business, of every type, of every size is financial health. You must be profitable. You must take your profit first. Simply put:
If you are making money, you should be taking money.
July 23, 2015
Sell For A Premium
Customers pay a premium for what makes you different than the competition, not what makes you the same.
Be different. Sell those differences. Sell for a premium.
July 22, 2015
6 Indicators Your Business Is About To Hit The Wall
The later the phone call, the worse the news. And for me, those calls usually happen around 10 p.m. at night. My office phone rings and I know who and what’s on the other end of the line before I pick it up. It’s an entrepreneur in desperation.
Their business is going under. They either didn’t pay attention to the signs, or they didn’t know the signs. For new entrepreneurs it’s often a combination of both. There are dozens of indicators you’re about to be considering working for someone else, maybe where you wear your name on your shirt and a uniform and people talk to you through a speaker in the drive-through lane. But you don’t have to go there if you don’t want.
You do have to pay attention to at least these six indicators you’re about to be digging up my phone number late one night:
1. Your modified “Cash Ratio” drops below 0.2. Cash Ratio is your cash on hand divided by your total liabilities due in the next 60 days. If the ratio drops below point 2, that means you have 5 times immediate debt to cash. That is a big pending problem. If you don’t understand Cash Ratio at all, or have never figured it out and don’t know how to do it, that’s an even bigger problem.
2. Your competition went out of business. Sometimes competitors fail because they ran their business poorly, or someone embezzled them into oblivion. Other times competitors start going out of business because the industry is drying up. Don’t celebrate until you find out which it is. If you’re watching competitors dropping around you like flies in a pesticide commercial, you need to re-evaluate how you’re doing before you become just another casualty.
3. Your employees are disgruntled all the time, not just after a long party weekend. They may not like your new “show up to work on time and sober policy,” or they hate that they can’t make every day casual Friday. If you’ve recently cut back on perks, or started snapping at them because you’re stressed, you may have kicked off a domino. Disgruntled employees means you’ve triggered a sequence of events that might not turn out well for you.
Whatever has them feeling like making a YouTube video of their cubicle mate doing horrific things in their workspace then posting it on the Internet, you need to be paying attention and turning it around. Employees are the face of the company. If they don’t follow policy or intentionally try to hurt the company… you and your company are in trouble.
4. You haven’t gone on vacation. Sitting in traffic thinking about the beach and promising your family you’ll all “get away soon,” doesn’t count. If you can’t take a break to do more than go to the bathroom or eat lunch someplace besides your desk, then the business is fully dependent on you. If you get hurt or are forced to take time off, it is just a matter of time before the company hits the wall.
5. Your credit card limits get reduced or bank loans get called. This is a sure sign someone with way more financial savvy than you is seeing a financial tsunami on your horizon. Signs of financial weakness are more evident to the professionals who are in the business of protecting money than they are to you. In this same process, if the outstanding balances on your line of credit are hovering closer to the limits than away from them, that’s also a sign you’re not making enough money to stay in business.
6. Clients are taking longer to pay bills. If your clients are in trouble, you are in trouble. Cash is king and if your king is panhandling at the bank to make bills or payroll, then your kingdom is about to fall.
No one indicator is a reason to panic, worry a lot maybe, but not panic. But if you have two or more of these things happening, you better find my phone number right now. I’m guessing my phone is going to be ringing in a few weeks.
July 21, 2015
The Worst Ones Don’t Even Try
The worst surfer at the beach is the one who never leaves the beach and ventures into the ocean.
The worst athlete at the stadium is the fan commenting from the stands.
The worst entrepreneur is the one who talks but never does.
The worst ones are the ones who don’t try.
The guy who falls flat on his face. The woman who loses everything. They are champions. They had the courage to try. So maybe they didn’t win, but at least they will never wonder “what if?”
The people who talk a big game, but never get on the field. Those people are the ultimate losers. They will always wonder “what if?” and will never, ever know.
July 20, 2015
Episode 37: Drug Testing and Profitability with David Bell and Eric Greenspan
Show Summary
David Bell and Eric Greenspan join us for Episode 37 of the Profit First Podcast. David talks about what drug testing does for your business. Eric tells us what the School of Bookkeeping is all about.
Our Guests
David Bell (left)
David Bell is the CEO of USA Mobile Drug Testing. In his previous position as the VP of Sales and Marketing, he doubled company revenue by helping franchisees leverage technology to increase sales and improve customer service. After seeing the damage caused by drug use first-hand, David sold his own company and worked his way up through the ranks in the drug testing industry to help employers keep drugs and alcohol out of the workplace.
Eric Greenspan (right)
Eric David Greenspan is a father of two boys. I’m also a ferocious entrepreneur and I love marketing, social media and technology. I’ve also been known to create mind blowing customer experiences. I am Chief Clever Officer at SeventyFourMarketing and a co-founder, CEO, Chief Clever Officer, Dean of Delight at schoolofbookkeeping.com.
Show Quotes
Drug testing is in almost every business out there today.
You’re hiring and training people to perform a specific duty. If they cannot retain that knowledge and you have to keep re-training them, that can become costly and inefficient.
If you run a random drug testing program you will get the full benefits. If people know that any day of the week they can walk into a drug test, they may think twice about what they do recreationally on the weekends.
If you are considering starting a drug testing program in your company, be sure to follow your state regulations. Employees must be aware of the regulations.
We cannot be selfish business owners – we have to give to get.
Never fire a client without replacing them first. However, you have to get rid of the clients that don’t suit your business! Replace those clients with better quality clients who pay the rate that you deserve, that makes sense for you financially and generate a decent profit so you can live a happy life!
Knowledge is power. Confidence leads to additional profit.
Have a question you’d like us to answer on the air? Email Kristina or Mike!
Kristina@MikeMichalowicz.com
Mike@MikeMichalowicz.com
Show Links
David Bell
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dtbelljr
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-bell/a/862/918
Eric Greenspan
Website: http://schoolofbookkeeping.com
Corporate Partners
Nextiva – VOIP phone providers for small businesses.
Fundera – Single source online funding for entrepreneurs. Also offers an adviser program for CPAs, bookkeepers and business coaches.
TSheets – The #1 customer rated time tracking solution!
July 17, 2015
Polish A Turd
A college buddy of mine loved to say, “You can polish a turd as much as you want… it’s still a stinkin’ turd.” (If you haven’t figured it out, I went to an aggie school.) Yet so many entrepreneurs throw money at their turd offerings. If what you’re doing isn’t extraordinary, having a nicely polished marketing campaign is just gloss. The turd still exists underneath.
Spend your money, or more importantly, your time on making an extraordinary offering. Not on polishing turds.
Oh… and you can polish a turd. Check this out: http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/polishing-a-turd-minimyth/
July 16, 2015
Bring Web Traffic To Your Site With One Method
As an entrepreneur, you probably know how crucial getting people to your site can be. And chances are, you have read a lot of advice on how to get people attracted to your site. There is a lot of information and advice on the best ways to build a following or keep people coming back to your site. Believe it or not, though, the key to building long term Web traffic is not found in gimmicky phrases or those that promise the deepest savings or best customer service!
Give up on what it is that you can say that is the absolute most influential in getting people to sit up and take notice? It’s their first and last name! That’s right, we all have this little thing called the ego that makes us love to hear our name be spoken. We love to see it in print, and we can’t get enough of it. Furthermore, when we see it, we want to share it with others so that they see it as well. This is where your business can take advantage of this method.
When you use someone’s first and last name, you immediately pique their interest and get them to pay attention. There are a variety of ways that you can do this, and using your creativity, you can likely come up with plenty, but let me tell you one simple way that I do it on a regular basis. For starters, I pose a question to my readers, asking them for a piece of advice regarding a business topic.
I let my readers know that I am looking for their best tip as a response, and they should send it in with their first and last name, business name, and a link to their site. Then I pick the ones that I like the best because I usually get quite a few to choose from and need to narrow it down Then, I post a page with those reader tips. The key here is that with each reader response I also post who submitted the tip, along with a link to their site.
Once I do that, I respond to the readers who’s tips I used to thank them and provide a link to the page where they can see their business tip. That’s all I need to do. From there, they will boost the traffic because they share it with others, bringing new people to my site, many of whom will also become long term readers and may even later contribute a business tip of their own.
I’ve even worked with my clients before to help them boost Web traffic in this manner. We asked their customers to share related stories, we posted them, and those customers drive additional traffic to the site by sharing the link. After all, they wanted people they know to read their story and, well, see their name on the site.
This works in the same way as if you have ever had your name in the newspaper. What is the first thing you do? You buy several copies to pass around. You call your relatives and let them know to look for it. This is because you want others to see your name in print! It’s simply an ego thing.
Forget offering “guaranteed satisfaction” or whatever other type of business cliché you can think of to try to increase Web traffic. Just focus on finding a way to use your customer’s first and last name, and they will do the rest for you. Turning the focus to them will result in the focus being turned on your company in a big way!
July 15, 2015
Skyrocket Productivity With The Library Approach!
Ever notice all the distractions that take place in your office? If you are like most entrepreneurs, there is no doubt that you live it day in and day out. The phones ringing, e-mails coming in, cell phones going off, text messages being received, co-workers needing help – you name it, it happens! Problem is, all those distractions wreak havoc on employee productivity. But there is a way to get it under control, and it’s the library approach!
Quiet Please
If you think about it, the library is one of the best places for getting things done. There are no ringing cell phones, distractions are minimized, and being quiet is encouraged. So all you need to do is replicate this in your office, and you will see your productivity skyrocket! By implementing the library approach in your office, you will be making it a point to minimize distractions and allow people to work on their most important tasks at hand.
Here is how you put the library approach into effect in your office:
1. Designate a one hour window in your office each morning that will be called the “library hours.” You may want to do this from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m (that’s when we do it at my office). The time period you choose doesn’t matter as much as just consistently having people follow it.
2. Let all your employees know about the library hours and what is off limits. During this one hour period, there should be no phone calls made or accepted from outside, no appointments scheduled, no cell phones ringing, no checking of e-mail, etc. There should also be no talking, so this means that co-workers can not go bug other co-workers for help or to ask questions.
3. During library hours, all PDAs and cell phones should be shut off and the office should be totally quiet. All incoming calls can be sent to voicemail and calls can be returned later, once library hour is over. The important thing here is that all employees need to understand, and adhere to, the idea that there needs to be no noise or distractions.
4. For the duration of the library hour each day, every employee should be busy working on their most important task or project. This will give them one unabated hour per day of to work on it.
5. Repeat the library hour each day of every week, so it becomes habit and everyone comes to appreciate it. They may find it odd at first. Scratch that. They WILL find it odd at first, but once they see how nice it is to meet deadlines and get their work done uninterrupted, they will thank you for it!
Increasing Productivity
Without a doubt, one of the biggest boons to your office productivity are all those productivity tools. Yet, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. And all these tools will ultimately overwhelm you and your employees. So by just eliminating all those distractions for one hour per day, you will be adding 5 hours of dedicated productivity time to your office each week. Just imagine, all your employees times 250 hours of quality productivity each year!
You may be thinking at this point that there is no way it would work for your office. You may think that you have to get calls made and answered or e-mails can’t wait. While your fears are noted, they are likely unfounded! They are merely that, fears. I urge you to put the library hour approach into action, even trying it out in your office for a month to see how it goes. I bet you find that you accomplish more throughout the day and virtually eliminate the need to put in extra hours.
Oh, and if you are really struggling in enforcing this new policy. Just hire a librarian to work at your office for an hour each day. She will “shush” everyone into adherence.
