It’s not often that the writing of a behavioral economist is thought-provoking and easy to read at the same time. But if you pick up Dan Ariely’s new book, The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home, you’ll find it’s like having a conversation with an old friend, a very wise old friend.

Ariely’s self-depreciating humor and enthusiasm for human eccentricities will help you identify ways to improve how you love, work, innovate and manage.

Some of the questions he answers:

• Why large bonuses can make executives less productive.
• How confusing directions can actually help us.
• Why revenge sometimes seems so important.
• Why there is such a big difference between what we think will make us happy and what really makes us happy.

Ariely also uses some of the research presented in his first book, Predictably Irrational, one of the most popular books on a previous best seller list. It deals with biases and unwise decisions.

Through fascinating anecdotes, he shows the negative and positive effects irrationality can have. He focuses on what we do at work and in relationships, what really motivates us, and how unwise actions can become habits.

The author says this is a highly personal book. In the second part, he draws partly on his difficult experiences as a burn patient. While he includes plenty of research, his reflections make for a well-balanced read, whether you read it cover-to cover or one part at a time.

If you are interested in prescriptions about how to defy logic and improve how you love the one you’re with, or how to improve at work, Ariely has some advice for you.

Before you invest time and money in traditional strategic planning consider this – only 5-10% of strategic plans are ever implemented.

The reason most organizations engage in strategic planning is to reduce anxiety. It’s like taking a couple of aspirin for a headache. In this case the headache is the future. The aspirin is a couple of days locked in a room putting checkmarks in the appropriate boxes. Mission statement (yada, yada, yada): check; SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats): check; long range goals (3-5 years): check. Ah, that feels better. And like the aspirin bottle, the plan is put on the shelf. But the future, like the headache, keeps coming back. As Dr. Phil likes to ask, how’s that working for you?

Even if you do try to implement a plan using this process it will be flawed. Think back five years ago. It seems like a millisecond doesn’t it? If you look no further ahead than five years you’ll see the future as an extension of the present. You’ll be trying to solve tomorrow’s problems with yesterday’s solutions. If you really want your organization to succeed in the future, you need a pioneering process instead of just a planning process. Instead of looking ahead 3-5 years you need to look a generation ahead.

To get started, assemble key people in your organization to be part of your pioneering team. How many and who you choose will depend on the size and structure of your organization. Break them into small groups and have them select a facilitator and recorder for their group. Ask the following questions, one at a time, giving the group time to share and record their answers. After each question, have the groups share their answers with the rest of the team.

1. What did the world and your industry look like 30 years ago? This question primes the pump. Once you’ve compiled a list of the monumental changes that have taken place in the last 30 years you understand there will be monumental changes that will take place in the next 30 years.
2. What will the world and your industry look like 30 years from now? While no one can accurately predict the future remember that Jules Verne was writing about a trip to the moon 100 years before it happened. Don’t limit your thinking. Tell your team to be as futuristic as their minds will let them.
3. What will your organization have to be, do and look like to succeed in the future you just described? You are not bound to the form or model of your current organizational structure. Borrow a page from Star Trek and dare to boldly go where no man has gone before.
4. What will you have to do to help the organization get there? Planning for an organization’s future requires collectively creating a picture of our future where we’ll find meaning and purpose, not just as a group but as individuals.

The collective answers to these questions provide the information your team will need for the next assignment: A major newsstand business magazine has selected your organization as The Model Organization in the year 2040. Have each team member write an article describing what happened in the three decades between then and now that enabled you to become that model organization.

These articles are a matter of engaging your team in a process of writing tomorrow’s history today. Everything you need to do to succeed in the future is contained in that history. You’ll identify your organization’s purpose, operating philosophy, business models and structure. You’ll identify goals and objectives and the people who need to be responsible for their completion. Your history will have everything you need to develop a real strategic plan.

Implementation then becomes a matter of living the history. What makes this process effective is that instead of starting at the present and trying to work your way forward you are starting at the future and working your back.

Of course, this is a condensed overview of the pioneering process. It takes a genuine commitment of time and energy.

If you simply want to reduce your anxiety about the future take the road most traveled and use the traditional check the boxes method. But if you want to succeed in the future, you have to go beyond traditional planning and do some serious pioneering. Pioneering has never been for the faint of heart. It’s for those who want to lead rather than follow, and thrive instead of just survive. Pioneers take the road less traveled. Which road will you choose?

About the Author:
Jim Whitt is an unapologetic people provoker. For more than 20 years as a speaker, consultant and author Jim has provoked people and organizations to reach their full potential. He is co-founder of Purpose Unlimited which is in the business of transforming lives, leaders and organizations through the power of purpose. To find out more about his speaking and consulting please visit www.PurposeUnlimited.com.

No matter what size of a business you have, you probably rely on using telephones to communicate with your customers. Despite the fact that the Internet has changed the way many of us do business, most companies still rely on customers picking up the phone to communicate with them. Why not just take advantage of what the Internet has to offer by using a virtual office phone system, which lets your present, and future, customers communicate with you the way they are most comfortable doing?

Today, you have a couple of choices when it comes to your office phone system. You can use a traditional hardware-based system that requires lots of expensive equipment to purchase and maintain, or you can use an Internet-based system that takes advantage of the latest technologies. These cloud-based virtual phone systems are a very affordable alternative to the hardware-based systems that you find stuffed in some corner closet of a business.

Go Virtual and Reduce Costs
When you choose a cloud-based virtual office telephone system over a traditional hardware-based system, you are greatly reducing your initial costs, as well as your ongoing costs. A virtual system only requires you to have a quality high-speed Internet connection, and Internet enabled (VOIP) phone handsets, along with a reasonably priced monthly subscription service to a virtual phone service. Compare this to the thousands of dollars it costs to initially set up a traditional hardware-based office phone system, and you begin to see where a virtual option makes a lot of sense.

Ongoing maintenance costs are non-existent with a cloud-based phone service, as the service provider deals with these issues. A virtual cloud-based service uses the provider’s hardware, located at their facility, and they handle all maintenance and upgrade costs. As long as you pay your monthly fee, you will have access to a reliable phone system that is running with the latest hardware. If you had the phone hardware at your location, it would be up to you to maintain and upgrade the system, which can get expensive in a hurry.

Bring Remote Employees Together
Since a virtual phone system uses the Internet to connect your office phones with the service provider’s equipment, your phones can be located anywhere in the world yet function as one system. This means you can have employees located throughout the country, or world, and even working from their homes, yet share one advanced phone system. Customers calling will think all of your employees are sitting in the same facility and will have no idea just the opposite is true.

A virtual office phone system takes advantage of the huge network that is the World Wide Web and connects remote employees as if they were at the same facility. Call routing and transfers are handled seamlessly, allowing every employee to have equal access to your phone systems powerful features.

Large Corporation Features
A cloud-based virtual office phone system gives you features normally enjoyed by Fortune 500 companies, at small business prices. These features include:

• Full Control Over Features – You can easily setup your system, as well as quickly make changes, through the service provider’s secure online interface.

• Virtual Receptionist – A virtual auto attendant (receptionist) answers incoming calls and makes sure they are routed to the proper employee or department. You can create custom greetings and hold messages.

• Fully Customizable Voicemail - Every phone extension (employee) has access to a fully customizable voicemail system where they can record a personalized greeting and screen phone calls as they see fit. They can also be notified when they have a new message through email and text messaging, as well as through online notification.

• Call Forwarding – Incoming calls can be forwarded to any working landline or cell phone, which means that you will never miss another customer call, even while you are at home.

• Call Logs – You have a complete record of incoming and outgoing calls, which can be accessed from any Internet enabled computer.

There are many other features available with a typical virtual phone service, giving you telecommunication capability you once only dreamed about.

Take Your Phone Service To The Next Level
With monthly plans starting at less than what many phone companies charge for a single business phone line, a cloud-based virtual office phone system provides your company with advanced communication features. If you are a one-person operation, or you have employees spread across the country, a virtual phone system can take your business phone service to the next level, facilitating easy customer and intra-office communication, at a very affordable price.

About The Author:
Marshall Davis runs Business Service Reviews, a website that reviews products and business services for the small business owner and entrepreneur that helps them start, grow and operate successful businesses. Visit his virtual office phone review page to find a cloud-based phone solution that meets the needs of your business.

When it comes to expanding your business globally, minority-owned firms have a natural competitive advantage-and a new initiative may further improve their chances at success.

The minority business community has a great advantage in the global market-due in large part to language capabilities, cultural compatibility, ancestral ties and business agility.

President Obama’s National Export Initiative (or NEI) calls for doubling U.S. exports within five years. Under the NEI, there will be more credit available for exporters, more government trade promotion and a sharper focus on knocking down the barriers that prevent U.S. companies from getting free and open access to foreign markets.

The goal of the NEI is to increase the number of small, medium-sized and minority-owned firms exporting to more than one market by 50 percent over the next five years. The initiative also hopes to focus attention on exporting to emerging markets, and identifying market opportunities in fast-growing sectors such as environmental goods and services, renewable energy, health care and biotechnology.

More than 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside the U.S. and one of the easiest ways to grow American minority-owned businesses is to sell products and services to people outside the border of the United States. To assist minority-owned firms in breaking into global markets, MBDA Business Centers work with a variety of partners to help create strategies for growth.

To help grow your export business, MBDA recommends you:

• Look at industry trends and know your position within the domestic market prior to establishing an international business strategy.

• Research the global market for your products and services.

• Determine the effects of exporting on your current operations.

• Outline what resources you will need to successfully execute your export strategy.

• Familiarize yourself with various global distribution channels.

Contact an MBDA Business Center to assist you. There are more than 45 Centers nationwide.

If starting a business conjures up visions of spending thousands of dollars on setup costs before you ever open your doors, you’re in for a pleasant surprise.

Technology innovations have made it easy to leverage your skills into a business, and money no longer has to stand in the way of your dream. Cloud computing and the ability to work virtually has made starting a business on a shoestring more possible today than at any other time in history.

There are a few key items that every business needs to get up and running. The good news is that for under $100 you can have all the right tools to get your business started:

Business Phone Service. A business phone service projects a professional image with your customers from day one and helps you appear as an established organization. For just $9.99 a month, RingCentral (www.ringcentral.com) provides more business-class services than you get from expensive office phone systems. Services include multiple extensions, a toll-free or local number, voicemail with e-mail delivery, call forwarding, Internet fax, click-to-call, dial-by-name directory and more.

Online Server and File Sharing. Purchasing a professional-grade server is expensive. Fortunately, unless you are planning to run your own hosting company you can skip the expense of a physical server and the IT staff needed to maintain it. Egnyte (www.egnyte.com) offers a virtual server for file storage, backup and collaboration for only $15 per month. The service enables you to back up your business data, store files and even share files with customers and partners.

Connecting with Customers. E-mail marketing is a cost-effective and efficient way to get in front of your prospects and customers or remain top of mind through ongoing communication. Start your business off right by using an e-mail marketing service like Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com) to build trust with your best customers through regular newsletters, promotional offers, event announcements, online surveys and other outreach. Constant Contact services start at less than $15 a month.

Web site Hosting. You can establish an instant business presence with a Web site and e-mail. A professional-looking Web site will help you compete against larger, more established businesses. It is your online corporate office, but unlike physical real estate, it will not cost you a fortune (around $10 a month).

The right tools, an idea, initiative and $100 can kick off a business today. There are ways to leverage great technology without burning a hole in your wallet.

Here are some safe, secure options — all of them free — that can help make your computer more productive, useful and fun:

Firefox Browser:
(www.GetFireFox.com) — Get onto the Internet with this alternative to Windows Internet Explorer that is compatible with both Macs and PCs. It is fast and secure and allows you to download lots of free plug-ins that provide information, social media integration and multimedia capabilities.

TweetDeck:
(www.TweetDeck.com) — This free program enables you to easily manage, monitor and post to all of your social media networks, including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, from one place.

Trillian:
(www.Trillian.im) — Not everyone uses the same instant message service. You might use AOL while your friend uses Yahoo. Trillian lets you combine all of your instant message accounts — AOL, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ and IRC — into one program. Recently updated, it can integrate your Facebook and Twitter accounts, too.

LogMeIn:
(www.LogMeIn.com) — The free version of LogMeIn lets you securely access your computer from anywhere in the world. Want to check your home computer while you’re on the road? Go to a web browser from any Internet-enabled computer or mobile device, and log in to your account to instantly connect and access any programs, files, photos or music on your desktop.

Windows Live Desktop:
(www.WindowsLive.com/desktop) — Windows 7, which will be loaded on many new computers and mobile devices this year, does not include its own email program. Instead, Microsoft offers a mail program as a free download from this site, along with other programs, including a photo organizer and an application for creating videos.

Picnik:
(www.Picnik.com) — Picnik is a free alternative to Photoshop and offers photo-editing capabilities such as cropping, resizing, sharpening and red-eye reduction. You can add special effects, fonts, or various shapes to turn your precious memory into a work of art. Google’s Picasa is another good option for free photo-editing software.

Any or all of these programs will immediately add value to your Mac, PC or laptop — at absolutely no cost.

Do your homework first and check out product reviews from reputable technology sites such as CNET’s Download.com to find out more about free and safe software options before you install them on your computer.

The “long-tail phenomenon” is a buzz word for selling smaller quantities of a wider range of goods. The goods are designed to mirror consumer preferences and have higher profit margins. They fill a niche.

Companies have embraced the long tail for some time. Low volume, high-profit product examples include super-premium ice cream, heritage meats and heirloom vegetables.

The idea doesn’t work for all types of products, but it does work for unique marketing areas in which products are so pleasing that certain consumers are willing to pay more.

Other qualifications, according to The Wall Street Journal:

Determine what is a real sweet spot rather than a valueless niche. Listen to what customers say to you and on their blogs. But think about it. Henry Ford reportedly said if he’d asked people what they wanted in the way of transportation, they would have told him, “a faster horse.”

Using tools like SpredFast, TweetBeep, StepRep and HowSociable make keeping a pulse on your market more manageable. These tools enable you to track brand and keyword mentions, so that you can respond accordingly.

Standardize components to limit the costs of producing another product line. Variety and standardization can be achieved at the same time.

Before starting anything new, review your present products and weed out those that are not profitable. But some products that make little profit have value when considered in broader terms. They can make your company’s other products more profitable.

The sweet spot products don’t have to be better than others already on the market, but they have to be different and appeal to the targeted customers.

Jobs are few and far between these days, so more people are hanging out their own shingle and starting a business.

But not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. Hours can be long, starting up can be expensive and there’s no guarantee for success. But for many, the satisfaction of being their own boss is priceless.

“The rewards of successfully operating a business are phenomenal,” says Jim Hogge, a business adviser in one of the most entrepreneurial states in the country–Idaho, which ranks fifth in the nation for new startup businesses.

Hogge, director of Idaho’s Small Business Development Centers, says certain factors need to come together in order for entrepreneurs to be successful.

So what does it take to be an entrepreneur?

Here are some questions to ask yourself before starting a business:

1. Can you be a leader? Do you have the vision, passion, discipline, organizational skills and the motivation to work through the good and bad times?
2. The average entrepreneur works 67 hours per week. Are you willing to devote the time to make the venture successful?
3. The founder typically provides 25-35 percent of the funds needed to start a business. Do you have access to this much money?
4. Do you have experience in operating this type of business or a similar business? It is challenging to start a business without having to learn everything about the business as you go.
5. Entrepreneurship is a family endeavor. The business will initially take much of your time and can be a lonely journey. Will your family provide the support you will need?
6. Is your location helping you? Choosing a place with low taxes, access to university assistance, a dedicated workforce and low energy and business costs is more important than ever when every dollar counts.

“The entrepreneur can build something that is enduring and financially rewarding,” says Hogge. “Most importantly, there is a great deal of enjoyment, satisfaction and even fun in building your own business.”

To learn more, visit http://www.commerce.idaho.gov/building-your-business.

As I teach MBA and doctoral-level courses in management and leadership, I like to remind students that my favorite oxymoron is “business ethics.” I also remind them that I’m mostly kidding. I’ve spent many years as an entrepreneur with and without partners. I’ve contracted to organizations of all sizes, bought and sold businesses and started them up from scratch. I can say with complete confidence that the single most significant, ongoing crisis in American-style business is a large and expanding deficit of ethical behaviors.

The Philosophers’ Big Idea
We have many options available to us when considering ethics. As a branch of philosophy, some of the greatest minds of all time have mulled over and presented their ideas in the context of everyday life. Business leaders and managers have easily adopted these approaches and continue to define and refine what it means to be ethical in daily practice. Some do their best to maximize the good for all according to an accepted set of rules. Some carefully consider the consequences of their decisions and actions in the organizational context. Some don’t really care about what happens to organizational members as long as the outcome is an inflated bottom line.

One ancient and eminently useful approach available to us today is virtue ethics; it is based solely upon the virtue, or moral character, of a person and was originally presented in Western literature by Plato and Aristotle. Virtue ethics took a back seat for many, many years to utilitarian (consequentialist) and deontological (rule-based) approaches. Now, with the advent of leadership approaches such as Servant Leadership and my own Middle Way Management, virtue ethics is making a comeback worthy of Elvis in ’68.

The Virtuous Person
What is a virtuous person? This question lies at the heart of virtue ethics and is probably debated more than the legitimacy of virtue ethics itself. Aristotle presented the idea that the ultimate goal of the virtuous person is living well (his term is eudaimonia, but I won’t bore you with the definitions here). Of course, in ancient Greek thought, this was not related strictly to physical comfort, pleasure or luxury, though these could be the outcomes of being a virtuous person. No, a virtuous person is someone who always does the right thing for the right reasons.

If we think about virtue ethics in the context of organizational culture, we see that the rules (policies and procedures) and consequences (strategies/tactics and planned outcomes) have already been created for us. These constraints are necessary for an organization to operate efficiently and effectively, yet how do they influence the virtue of organizational members? As many of you are intimately aware, managing people is a delicate undertaking that requires compassion, empathy, patience, and kindness on the part of the manager. HR policies and procedures are the beginning of the people management process, while virtue ethics allow us to practice in meaningful ways on a daily basis within those necessary constraints to discover equitable and fair outcomes.

In the end, virtue ethics is a way of being, rather than a way of doing. Rather than asking “What are the rules for proceeding?” or “What are the consequences of my actions?” when confronted with situations requiring ethical choices, the manager who practices virtue ethics will ask herself, “What sort of person am I?” For instance, an employee who consistently shows up late for work when his timely arrival is crucial to the success of the organization may be managed in two ways: 1) according to organizational policies and procedures with little to no regard for root causes or 2) with compassion and care while seeking to understand root causes and then finding a remedy within the constraints of company policies. Interestingly, both of these approaches offer a maximization of good for all parties concerned, even the organization, yet only one of them relies on the personal virtue of the manager to find resolution.

Big Decisions for a Small Business
Over the years, I’ve come to the decision that I will never have another employee – period (perhaps I will regale you with the stories behind this decision in a future post). This puts me in the same position in which many of you find yourselves: Singletons in a sea of organizations. As such, we are left asking ourselves how the people management aspects of virtue ethics apply to our work lives; they do, but in different ways. In our cases, we can call upon virtue ethics in every business relationship and interaction. As we engage in commerce with customers, suppliers, competitors, government regulators, and others, we are in a position to frequently ask that important question: “What sort of person am I?”

Like you, I have many examples of how asking this question might have saved me and others from imminent grief. If you have not considered this question in any kind of detail, take some time out of your busy day and begin the process of defining yourself within a virtue ethics context. This way, the next time you are confronted with an opportunity to exercise your morality, you will be crystal clear on what to do and why you are doing it. This may seem like an effort at defining the obvious, yet I know from personal experience that my workload has prevented me from making decisions in the past based upon what sort of person I am. In the rush to make a decision, any decision, I have compromised my ethics and inevitably regretted the decision. Now, I am able to pause and ask the question before making any ethical decision.

Virtue Ethics in Action
As you think about virtue ethics, you may be wondering how one might fit them into an existing leadership or management approach. In my case, I have settled on virtue ethics as the foundation of a new leadership approach I’ve created called Middle Way Management™. While Middle Way Management is based upon Buddhist ethical concepts, it is very much linked to Western ideas about virtue ethics, especially when and where the rubber meets the road-during daily practice. Middle Way Management emphasizes the practice of managerial compassion as a way to relieve suffering at the individual and organizational levels (yes, organizations can suffer, too). As a Middle Way Manager™ goes about managing team members with compassion, he must remain mindful of his values and of the sort of person he is because both are basic parts of his daily practice. In this way, Buddha meets Aristotle and both leave us examining ourselves in fundamental ways that increase our chances of success in the competitive marketplace.

What sort of person are you?

About the Author:
Darin R. Molnar, PhD is an entrepreneur and founder of Middle Way Management, a more compassionate way of leading and managing people. He regularly contributes to the Middle Way Management Blog on the Middle Way Management website and is completing the first book on the approach, Middle Way Management: Where Compassion Meets the Bottom Line, due out Q4 of 2010.

Dr. Molnar teaches at three universities where he oversees courses in business management and ethics, organizational behavior, and leadership at the undergraduate, MBA, and doctoral levels. He enjoys fishing for salmon and steelhead with his four children whenever time and the fish allow.

In shaky economies, companies that invest in their marketing often come out on top. But for small business, making these investments often feels risky. Not only are time and resources tight, many small business owners feel they lack the knowledge to make the marketing choices that provide a return.

In fact, figuring out “what works” is the top marketing concern for nearly 80 percent of small business owners, according to a recent survey by Deluxe Corporation.

“Most small business owners are talented at their trade, but not at promoting their businesses,” says Stephanie Chandler, entrepreneur, speaker and author of “Leap!: 101 Ways to Grow Your Business.” “They’re willing to work long hours and invest whatever is necessary to grow their businesses, but demystifying the marketing process and having the confidence to try new approaches can be daunting, especially if they have tried something in the past and were burned.”

The survey also showed that more than 60 percent of small business owners would be more confident investing in marketing if there was a way to guarantee return on investment.

Chandler says that there are five things all small business owners can do to rev up their marketing and see better results:

Plan the work, then work the plan: Decide specifically what you want your marketing to do – raise awareness, generate leads, retain customers – then choose the marketing elements that will accomplish your goals. Stick to the plan and give your efforts time to work. If you are not sure where to begin, SCORE, counselors to America’s small businesses, offers free advice.

Let leads lead you: Look at the leads you are already generating, or the ones that most often convert to actual customers. Ask them how they found you so you can efficiently invest in those areas to increase your likelihood of success.

Ask an expert: If you have a specific marketing need, like designing a logo or writing Web copy, ask an expert for help. Look for resources among your peers or in online forums such as PartnerUp.

Polish your social skills: Social media is here to stay. Look at sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. See where your customers are engaged and join the conversation. Start with one tool. If it is working, it is easy and free to keep building your social media connections.

Know what success looks like: Decide what indicates success for your business – new customers, leads, website visits, coupon redemption – and track your progress over time. Look for times when your marketing efforts overlap with increased performance.

To help small business owners learn to market well, Deluxe has partnered with SCORE, a national non-profit group that counsels entrepreneurs, and Chandler to launch Project Rev – a yearlong, marketing lab to help small businesses find marketing solutions that work. For more details on these and other small business marketing topics, visit http://www.projectrev.com.

- Courtesy of ARA

As a recovering entrepreneur (you never really get it out of your system, do you?), I have built and managed businesses in several sectors of various sizes and configurations. Regardless of whether my company is composed of just little, old me or me and couple dozen of my closest friends, my management strategies and tactics remain largely the same. Some of these I have learned in the School of Hard Knocks and some I have picked up from business school. Both are relevant to my small business philosophy in some pretty significant ways.

What is Your Target?
Whenever I start up a new business, I am careful to spend some quality time thinking about what I call my “Target Strategy.” I grab a clean sheet of 8×11 paper and draw several concentric circles so I end up with a diagram that looks like a target. In the bullseye, I list my core competency or why I am starting the business in the first place. If I am creating an IT consultancy, I might list consulting, as well as my domain of expertise (i.e., which software packages or systems are my specialty).

Expanding Your Target
I then move to the ring immediately circling the bullseye and list all of the business processes and functions in direct support of my core competency. In my example above, this might be sales, marketing, and even contract programming. These should be the tasks and processes that would cause your business to flounder if they were removed from the target.

The third ring includes the business processes and functions supporting the second ring. While the tasks and processes listed in the second ring (sales, marketing, etc.) can soak up a significant amount of an entrepreneur’s time and energy, the third ring is packed with ancillary functions that are simply time-sinks. This ring includes tasks such as bookkeeping, office cleaning, company vehicle maintenance and a host of other services that many small business people think they can save a couple of bucks on by doing themselves.

Spending Your Time (and Dollars) Wisely
“I’m not going to pay a bookkeeper fifteen dollars per hour when I can do it myself!” If I had a dollar for every time I heard this from a small business person, I could retire today. This is an excellent example of being penny wise and pound foolish. Whenever I hear a phrase like this, I am quick to remind the small business person that every minute she wastes on bookkeeping is a minute taken away from sales. This is why you must quantify, quantify, quantify your task time within all of the target rings, not just the bullseye.

If you are a single IT consultant and you discover your combined sales/production time is worth, say, $100 per hour, where are the cost savings in doing your own bookkeeping, office cleaning, or vehicle maintenance? Every second you spend toiling away on those outside rings is a second of lost core value and revenue. Persisting in this thinking will not only limit your income, it will put your company at risk and, let’s face it, you are already shouldering enough risk as an entrepreneur. Concentrate on the core and let others whose core businesses are the ancillary services you require serve the outer rings of your target.

People: A Second Ring Consideration
One important second ring business function I neglected to mention above is people management. If you are fortunate enough to be so busy you need help, you must bring people into your company on a contract or employee basis. This can be a tough transition for an entrepreneur who has started a company based upon his expertise, yet has little to no management experience. Managing people in a small business can (should?) be much like managing them in a very large organization.

If you are new to managing people, I highly recommend you seek out the assistance of a professional people management company (a third ring supplier) to act as your HR department. These organizations exist to help businesses of all sizes attract, recruit, and retain the right people. While this approach can seem expensive to a small business person, again, it must be weighed against core production costs. These organizations can also help with coaching and training of both you and organizational members. This is a vastly better strategy than learning to manage people through trial-and-error, which is far more expensive than doing it right the first time with the help of others.

Targeted Ethics
As you think about your company in terms of the Target Strategy, you will begin to see that focusing on what is really important in your organization can also help you with ethical dilemmas as they arise. So many ethical lapses in businesses large and small are prompted by pressures; pressure to bring in more revenue, pressure to beat out the competition, pressure to save money. These are all necessary for a vibrant and healthy business practice, yet they can cause ethical breaches that compromise organizational members and entire companies.

As you concentrate on your core competencies by identifying them within the bullseye of the target diagram, you relieve some of the pressures harboring the potential to drive you or members of your organization to make ethically challenging decisions in the interest of expediency. We have all been challenged with decisions made in the heat of the moment based upon the various pressures of operating a small business. If you are worried about getting the bookkeeping done at month-end, rather than remaining focused on producing the highest quality product for your customers, ethical short-cuts might seem like a good idea at the time; they usually are not.

Hitting the Bullseye
If you have not already done so, grab a clean, white sheet and get started on your Target Strategy diagram today. Hey, a restaurant napkin will work, if that’s all you have handy. As you settle on the description of your core competency, you will see that many of the tasks you perform on a daily basis are better left to the professionals. You will also notice how your bullseye is someone else’s second ring service. Seeing yourself in the context of your customers’ Target Strategies will increase your sense of pride while helping you refine your own strategy.  Happy shooting!

About the Author:
Darin R. Molnar, PhD is an entrepreneur and founder of Middle Way Management, a more compassionate way of leading and managing people. He regularly contributes to the Middle Way Management Blog at http://MiddleWayManagement.blogspot.com and is completing the first book on the approach due out Q4 of 2010. Dr. Molnar teaches at three universities where he oversees courses in business management and ethics, organizational behavior, and leadership at the undergraduate, MBA, and doctoral levels. He enjoys fishing for salmon and steelhead with his four children whenever time and the fish allow.