Building Your Biz

Outsourcing is great for building your business, if you know the pitfalls before you hire an “outsourcee.”   After the experiences I’ve had being an outsourcee and an outsourcer, there are two sides to every coin.

1.  Outsourcing to other countries produces time zone limitations in reaching the company or person you’ve hired.  So know time zones of your outsourcee with a set time to check in every day with a progress report by email daily and by phone weekly based on your time zone.

The first time a check-in deadline is missed, you have a red flag.  Set up a Reward and Punishment system for those who just can’t get off the dime to do their check-ins.  Unfortunately, this is a pretty good indicator of how your project will progress.

2.  If you’re outsourcing to another country, such as South America, find out the outsourcee’s working hours and time zone.  Can they be contacted on  weekends or holidays?  When are their holidays?  Will they work weekends or holidays if you come down to crunch time.  Do they have a Skype number?

3.  Due to obvious language barriers, whether hiring an outsourcee to convert your teleseminar verbiage to a word document or putting up a WordPress blog with a custom template, it is trying at best.  This is one of my biggest sources of irritation with membership sites of top marketers in their field.  They outsource to another country, and the result is absolute garbage for the following reasons:

• We all have different learning styles:  Text, audio or video.  I cannot stand to listen to audio files or sit there and watch a video for hours on end.  I want handy reference material that has the verbiage in a palatable format.
• People in foreign countries may get the words written down correctly, but punctuation is not there for readability.
• When converting conversation to the written word, editing must be done for reader clarity because no one speaks perfect English.  Not seeing a comma or period for 5 to 10 lines, incorrect synonyms (there, their, they’re) and spelling errors make you look very unprofessional.
• If a user has to re-edit the document to figure out what is being said, the document is not worth the download because it’s taking up too much time.

4.  Have your project specifications down in writing so the outsourcee knows your exact requirements.  If you have to change the specs (and this should be avoided at all possible costs), put it in writing, send it attached to an email with high priority, receipt requested and leave a voice mail that you have changes on your project.  Ask that a new time estimate be given for the changes you have requested in 48 hours.

5.  I’ve found the best people to outsource are right here in the USA.   Recently I worked as an Outsource Coordinator for a major company.  The out-of-country programmers were hired to set up a WordPress blog using a custom template.  12 weeks later, the blog still wasn’t up and running.  It was given to a U.S. programmer.  Once he saw their code, he threw it out, started over from scratch, and three weeks later, the blog was up and running to the company’s satisfaction.  The U.S. programmer was always available by Skype, phone, and email.

Did the U.S. programmer charge twice what the out-of-country programmers charged?  Yes, BUT the U.S. programmer finished it in one-third of the time.

Results:  Less money spent, better work product, less hassles for the business owner, and the project was completed on time.

6.  I highly recommend paying your outsourcees once a week.  I know it’s much easier to do it at your convenience, but put the shoe on the other foot.  The person working for you may only have you as a client and that money means everything to them.  I’ve been in that position and it creates an underlying tension in the relationship that should not be there.

7.  If you pay by the hour, go to http://slimtimer.com and have each outsourcee set up an account.  If you want the hours accounted for specifically, you give them a chart of accounts to use.  Every week, request that the outsourcee put their hours in an Excel spreadsheet and send you a bill via Paypal, Propay, or whatever pay system you use, along with the time sheet.

8.  Give loyalty rewards for meeting deadlines every now and then plus additional bonuses for getting a job (well done of course) completed before or by the deadline as a small token of your appreciation.

These are my tips from having been on both sides of the fence in building my business being an outsourcee and an outsourcer and hopefully this will help you build your business more effectively.

YourBuildingYourBizCoach,
Nancy Dewitz

For awhile my ability to work within my blogging dashboard has been excruciatingly slow but not due to the fault of my blogging company.  Being a Founding Member of the blogging company, I trusted them when they told me that the problem was not within the blog.  In order to get back to my business blogging and building my business on a regular basis, I decided to doggedly pursue the dasdardly matter.

I called my computer support company, and Jared came on the phone within a minute.  Don’t you just love short hold times?  In any event, I explained the problem, and I swear I didn’t whine, too much.  Jared took over control of my computer by remote access and tried the popular browsers, Internet Explorer (gag!) and Firefox (ahhh).  When I showed him where to click to create a blog post, the little spin “thingie” came up and spun on and on and on.  The web page never built.  Then Jared innocently asked, “Do you use Google Chrome?”  I said, “I don’t know.  Let me go look at my car owner’s manual and see if I can find out.”

After Jared stopped laughing, 15 minutes later, he advised that Google Chrome is the most secure web browser these days and suggested we “try” it.  He installed Google Chrome for me.  After closing all other browsers, we re-tested my blog.  Shazam!!!  I didn’t even have a chance to blink before the new web page came up to create my blog post, I typed a few characters and saved the test post in under 2 seconds .  I am still doing backflips.  Yes.  This is what I live for, especially in Florida, lightning fast speed.

So combine lightning fast speed along with a top drawer computer support company (not Norton or McAfee) and an over-the-top, push-button easy blogging software platform, you can come fly with me.  Give your headaches to someone else to resolve.  By the way, I’ve saved $4,344 in computer repair costs over the last couple of years and never had to take my computer anywhere to be fixed.

Your BuildingYourBiz Coach,
Nancy Dewitz

Are you seeing a steady decrease in your revenue due to credit card declines?  It may not be just the economy that is causing problems in building your biz.

With all the corporate data breaches of confidential information affecting millions and millions of credit card holders on a regular basis, remember that credit card companies are forced to issue new credit cards with new numbers and expiration dates to their customers whose information was compromised in order to keep identity theft at bay.  Therefore, it might behoove you to call every client whose card was denied to see if it really is their wish to discontinue doing business with you.  Perhaps they simply forgot or could not get the new credit card info to you or on file.

I used to work with a client that had 5 to 10 credit card declines a day.  Due to handling customer service issues by mail and phone, there were only so many hours in a day to walk clients through the company’s convoluted process of updating credit card info online.  If customers beg you to help update their personal identifying information, something is rotten in Denmark.

So, start looking at your decline rate information.  Review the process of updating credit card info in your system by asking a not-too-computer-savvy family member or friend test it out.  Then call your clients and inquire about helping them update their information.  It could be that your process of updating personal identifying information is so difficult for them to follow that they have discontinued doing business with you for this very reason.  You won’t know unless you ask.

Remember, it takes a lot less effort to keep a client than to go get a new one.  That’s our motto at Building Your Biz.

Building Your Biz Coach,
Nancy Dewitz

Filing Federal taxes, the bane of existence for all home business owners, especially the ones who hate record keeping.  I’m usually lagging by a couple of months, because I focus on building my business instead of bean counting.

However, I decided to get with it, file early, and get a refund based on a huge amount of medical deductions last year.  I must say I am prejudiced when it comes to tax software. I want every nitpicking deduction I can legitimately take so I use TurboTax by Intuit.  I’ve used their software for years and they’ve never let me down until this year.

I logged on expecting to see my refund appear in my bank account like magic on the promised day. Even though TurboTax by Intuit had a message stating all was well, my intuition – no pun intended, said otherwise. I decided to go to http://www.irs.gov, and click on Where’s My Refund to see what was really going on.

After entering my appropriate identifying information, I received a message that I needed to call IRS and give an agent my assigned reference number. If I wasn’t so anal about record keeping, I would have totally flipped out.

After waiting on hold for the 10 callers before me to be “serviced,” a very nice man named Bob with a long ID # came on the line. Great. I tell Bob I was responding to a request on the IRS web site to call regarding my 2008 Tax Return. My continuing education begins.

To make a long story short, the IRS could not find my estimated payment for taxes for 2008. Then Bob says, “Could the payment be filed under your social security number instead of your husband’s?”

Hell, yeah, is what I felt like saying, but I said, “Yes,” ever so politely. My thought was, “Why would I file under his SSN?  I never have.”  My husband does not have a home business nor is he self-employed. However, I decided to play along thinking this fellow might turn into Scrooge and take my measly refund away or delay it for months.

Bob found my payment under my SSN. However, he informed me the refund cannot be processed right away because my estimated tax payments must be transferred to my husband’s social security number. You see, his name was listed first on the 1040, so IRS assumes that he either owns my  business (even though Schedule C has my name and SSN) or he is a partner in it. Take note, ladies, when building your own business. Do you know of anyone in business today who pays estimated taxes in their spouse’s name when their spouse doesn’t even have a business or works your business with you?

So, here’s the deal. In order to file jointly with your spouse, the self-employed person is listed first on the 1040 when you pay estimated taxes under your name and social security number. Otherwise, you pay your estimated taxes under your spouse’s social security number, plus you put your spouse’s name and SSN first on the 1040 to get a speedy refund. This was confirmed by a CPA through TurboTax this evening that this situation is becoming more commonplace.

Well, here we go with IRS playing by their own set of rules. If I were a true Women’s Libber, I’d straighten them out, but I’d rather spend my time building my business than playing footsie with the Feds. Maybe the ACLU can take over now that I’ve brought it to their attention in this blog post, and say, Listen, IRS. Give women a break who build their own businesses, you donuts, and let them know the rules up front.

So, forewarned is forearmed because we need all the help we can get with IRS to file our taxes correctly the first time, just like we do with building our businesses.

Your Business Blogging Coach,
Nancy Dewitz – National Business Growth Expert

Ever had a pdf document that you wanted to convert to Word? If you’re a tad disorganized in building your biz like myself, I cannot find some of the original Word Docs for my pdfs.  Now that’s frustrating when you need to update a document.  I had just about given up on finding a free tool to convert my pdfs to Word, but I did find one.

Go to http://www.pdftoword.com/ and 1, 2, 3; your document will be converted to Word and emailed to you.  By the way, avoid using the RTF format, or you’ll get uneditable junk that will drive you crazy.

Just another free Tool find from Building Your Biz.

Building Your Biz Coach,
Nancy Dewitz

In these days of economic uncertainty and rising unemployment, if you were the unscrupulous type, it would be so enticing to steal from those who don’t know how to lock the front door of their business.  Rather than tell you how you can do this, let’s concentrate on how to protect yourself.

Social Networks:  Open an account and identity with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  Then check your account on a weekly basis to see if those are your messages or facts about you are what you entered.  The Governor of Idaho just found out someone was impersonating him:

“We were looking at, and have been talking about creating our own Twitter account, but
he had the Butch Otter name. The governor should be able to use his own God-given name.”

Google Alerts:  Put your name and your brand into Google Alerts so you are notified by email of any mentions.  In this way you will know what is being said about you in cyberspace and you’ll know if you should respond.

Building your business, if done the right way, with social networks like Facebook and Twitter is well worth the investment of 10 to 15 minutes a day once your account is established.

Your Business Blogging Coach,
Nancy Dewitz

If you’re in a money crunch to build your business, get a load of this.  Yes, it is possible to wash your keyboard in the dishwasher.  Just don’t put it through the dry cycle as the heat is much too intense.

From what I’m reading, this has worked in a vast majority of cases as long as you give the keyboard time to dry out after removing from the dishwasher, about 4 or 5 days; major shorter drying times In tropical climates.  Just remember the keyboard needs to be fully dry before hooking it up to your computer.

So if you’re truly interested in how to save your keyboard, please click here.  You can save some coin to build your business.

Your BYB Coach,
Nancy Dewitz

Building your business in today’s economy can be very unsettling when you sell directly to the consumer.  You, the merchant, are left holding the money bag if someone purchases your product or service with a stolen credit card or if the buyer complains to PayPal, ClickBank, EBay, or credit card companies that you ripped them off.

Yep, that’s right.  Chargebacks will devastate your bank account when building your business.  While most chargebacks can innocently originate with a buyer giving out an incorrect email address so they don’t get their confirmation email, some go ballistic thinking a cyber merchant ripped them off.  That’s fraud, they scream as they immediately file a claim against you.  Most times, the buyer did not think to check their Bulk Mail (Junk Mail) folder to see if they received the cyber goods.

Then there are other unscrupulous people out there who just love to buy things and get their money back after they get the goods.  Wouldn’t it be great to know ahead of time if there was someone who was a regular rip-off artist trying to steal the booty and was denied access to buy?  Well, there is.

I believe now is the time to be smart about building your business and fighting back against the true donuts of the world and/or at least have to the time to react and make nice with your purchasers who may have taken a stupid pill when they ordered from you.  Why eat those dollars?  The banks, merchant accounts, and credit card companies won’t protect you.  As a matter of fact, you are presumed guilty.  Your account will get closed down after a certain number of complaints come in against you so building your business becomes a pipe dream.

So check this out.  This is a new company from the research I’ve done.  I love what they’re doing when I read the number of chargebacks decrease on average by 70% or more.  Be sure to click through on their site so you see what the consumer sees who may be trying to rip you off.

Kind of wish they had an affiliate program as this is something I could really get behind.

Your Business Blogging Coach,
Nancy Dewitz

Filing Federal taxes – the bane of existence for home business owners, especially the ones who hate record keeping.  I’m usually lagging by a couple of months.  However, it’s just as important to keep track of my business expenses records as it is to build my business.  So once a month I sit down and force myself to “do the deed.”  Ugh.

In any event, taxes must be done.  Over the last 10 years, I have used the same tax program.  When it comes to tax software, I want every nitpicking business deduction I can legitimately take.  So I use TurboTax by Intuit as they have never let me down.  I file online quickly and easily.

I logged on several weeks ago expecting to see my refund appear like magic on the promised day.  Even though TurboTax by Intuit had a message stating all was well, my intuition, no pun intended, said otherwise.  I decided to go to http://www.irs.gov, and click on Where’s My Refund to see what was really going on.

After entering my appropriate identifying information, I received a message that I needed to call IRS and give an agent my assigned reference number.  If I wasn’t so anal about recordkeeping, I would have totally flipped out.  However, I had a migraine this morning so I felt things couldn’t get much worse.

After waiting for the 10 callers before me to be “serviced,” a very nice man named Bob with a long ID # came on the line.  Great.  I tell Bob I was responding to a request on the IRS web site to call regarding my 2008 Tax Return.  My continuing education begins.

To make a long story short, the IRS could not find my estimated payment for taxes for 2008.  He confirmed that I filed jointly.  Then Bob said, “Could the payment be filed under your social security number instead of your husband’s?”  Hell, yeah, is what I felt like saying, but I said, “Yes,” ever so politely because it’s not good business to piss IRS off.

My next thought was, Why would I file my taxes under a social security number other than my own?  My business is in my name and I file a Schedule C in my name under my social security number.  I decided to play along nicely thinking this fellow might turn into Scrooge and take my measly refund away or delay it for months.

Bob found the payment underneath my SSN.  He informed me the refund could not be processed right away because my estimated tax payments must be transferred to my husband’s social security number, even though my husband does not  own a business.  However, since his name was listed first on the 1040, IRS assumes that he either owns the business or is a partner in it.

So, here’s the deal.  In order to file jointly with your spouse, the self-employed person is listed first on the 1040 when you pay estimated taxes under your name and social security number.  Otherwise, pay your estimated taxes under your spouse’s social security number, and list your spouse’s name and social security number first on the 1040. Inane as it sounds, it’s true as confirmed by a CPA through Intuit TurboTax this evening when he said, “This is becoming more commonplace with IRS.”

IRS plays by their own set of rules.  If I were a true Women’s Libber, I’d straighten them out, but I’d rather spend my time building my business than playing footsie with the Feds.  It would be ever so nice if someone would give small business owners a break and let us know all the rules of filing jointly up front especially when you pay estimated taxes.

By the way, State Farm, who happens to insure my car, gives a really nice discount for online business tax filing with Intuit TurboTax.  You might check with your own insurance company to see if they do the same.  We need all the help by spending less to file.  And that’s the rest of the story.

Your Business Blogging Coach,
Nancy Dewitz

Ah, just when you think it’s safe to build your business, Adobe’s two products, Reader and Acrobat, are at it again with a security vulnerability that can take your computer down and expose you in ways you never imagined. Be very careful about what PDFs you open on web sites and through auto responder mailings.

At the present moment, the targeted attacks through Adobe PDFs are pretty much on the institutional level, aimed at government and big business. Do I smell a terrorist lurking in the woodpile? I don’t know, but small business owners BEWARE!!

What really surprises me is that Adobe can’t or won’t fix the problem until March 11th and doesn’t have any helpful info to give you in the meantime on how to avoid having your entire computer raided.

Therefore, I would advise when sending or receiving PDFs, you may want to look for a secured document. Maybe that would help, I don’t know. Obviously Adobe is not going to help anyone until they feel like it.