Now that it has dawned to the last of us, that the bankers misused our trust to line their own pockets and the politicians where their usual self and did not notice, even so many “spoil-sports” told us for years that things where going wrong big time, it is time to find a way out of this mess.

I would suggest to you that you, me and many others like us are the solution to this crisis. SMEs make up for over 50% of GDP in our countries, for over 60% of all innovations and this market sector is still expanding as we speak.

It is high time that we stop listening to these overpaid, egotistical and usually arrogant bankers and politicians because they are at least as fallible as we all are.

Let’s face it, job security is and has been a myth for a long time. Starting a business – full or part time – is the only option to regain some control of you financial future. While the stock markets crash and more and more redundancies are being announced, you may want to think about you own business.

Just remember don’t borrow any money to start up – bootstrap. — ST.

I had an interesting conversation about my view that management control over employees is a myth. I have believed for some time now that an office is often a total waste of money and completely unnecessary. Most of the time I’m told it’s OK when you work by yourself, but not if you have employees, as they need to be supervised and somehow “controlled”.

I have now been working for almost ten years from home, and most of my staff works from home too. Apart from being an eco-friendly way to work, it saves people time and frustration to travel in and around London to come to an office, where we all sit in cubicles or offices. In the days of broadband internet, Skype and OnlineOffice, there is no need for an office, even to have meetings.

Offices, like cars are are often nothing else but status symbols – what other reason can there be for a small business to have an office? If that is true then how is the office helping with your business, it’s a big expense. Seriously, if you do not have clients coming thru your office doors several times every day, why have the office. Even if you have, do really all your people need to be in the office every day? I guess not!

We are in an economic downturn, what is more important – your ego or your business – ask yourself that every time you walk into your office. I’m sure there a good reasons for some micro businesses to have offices, even so I currently can’t think of any, but I’m convinced in most cases a healthy bootstrapping and outsourcing mentality would be more beneficial for your business.

Unless the first business goal is to feed your egomania, you need to have a good hard look at your cost structure to survive in these times. — ST.

I recently spoke with one of my readers about his small business, when she all of a sudden declared she felt like a business failure. I was somewhat surprised by her statement as I thought she had established a nice little business, was making enough money and had a good work/life balance. She explained that someone had started in her line of business and his business had grown faster and she felt she could not compete with this business, she still worked form home while this competitor had already opened the third shop in the the state. She almost declared herself a failure. I asked her what her intention had been for her business when she started.

She began to explain, that she wanted to work from home since she wanted to be home for her child and still have an income and not lose touch with the work she loved. It was always clear to her that she could only spend about 10 – 20 hours of work per week, but that would give her the income and the professional life she needed, while getting her work/life balance right.

As she was telling me about her business, she began to lighten up – as she realized she had done exactly what she set out to do – far from a failure she was a success. She had made the same mistake we all make from time to time, she had compared herself to a business that clearly had different goals. Sometimes our ego gets the better of us or in cases like this the worst of us, which is why I believe it important to write your goals down on a piece of paper and look at it each week, to help you to focus and realign your actions with your goals.

Any business is only a failure when it is literately failing, like running out of money failing, if that is not the case you are a successful business. Looking at the competition is all about seeing what is happening in the market and learning from the comparison how to achieve your vision and goals, not to limit yourself to what your competition is doing.

The vision for your business should go beyond comparing yourself to your competition, comparing yourself will often limit your vision. — ST.

When my wife went to university in London in the eighties one of her professors was of the opinion that the education was wasted on women, since they would leave university, get married and have children. While nobody says these things anymore in public, we still seem to have the same mentality.

Today I travel around the world and speak with all kinds of people about micro-business, like home-business. Often the conversation includes the so called “skill shortage”, felt especially hard in Australia these days. When I question this alleged shortage, I’m always surprised about how little consideration is given to well skilled and educated parents – mainly women – sitting at home looking after the family.

After one of these conversations today, I was reminded of this professor and began wondering if he was right with his opinion in the final analysis? Trivially, his assertion that educating women is a waste, is completely nonsensical, but the final result to the economy seems to suggest his analysis could be right. How else can it be explained that we ignore this massive “skills resource” sitting at home.

The technology we at WinWeb have developed allows for work from anywhere at anytime, others have done the same in other areas? Where is this “skill shortage”? The truth in my opinion is more the fact that we often block this remote working possibility from our minds, but why?

If you consider the skills potential of parents, if each parent would only contribute one hour on average per week to their learned professions. This would be a staggering number of man hours per week.

The benefits for the home working parent would be very tangible too. They could show a almost uninterrupted work history, stay in touch with their profession and would therefor find it much easier to get back into full-time employment after the kids have grown up.

To often my conversation partners look somewhat bewildered at my initial suggestion, but then often admit they had never thought about this possibility.

It is not a waste to educate women or any parent, it is however a waste to treat parents as if they do not exist in work terms. I consider it an insult to each parent and unbelievably damaging for our economy. — ST.

It’s a fact, that so many people will tell you that starting a small business is a bad idea, should not really influence your decision making at all. An here I include the so called business gurus – just ignore them.

Can you imagine what happened when

• Alexander Graham Bell announced he wanted a phone in every house – Western Union called it an “electric toy” and “totally out of the question”;
• Henry Ford said he wanted one car in every family – most felt the horse was here to stay.

The same happened to me still in 1995, when most people thought the internet was going to disappear faster than it had arrived – I remember the abuse very well. So why do people get so negative about other peoples business ideas:

• Lack of Vision is probably the biggest reason;
• Envy is another big reason – driven by the inability to take a risk themselves and the fact that they can’t bear to see others succeed;
• Genuine concern for your well being – they thing your are taking too big a risk, you are naive, and so on.

Take advise on certain techniques on how to run your business, but do not take advise on if you should start a business or not. As these examples above show, you never know how big a business will get.

People make it big in business, while I think it not necessary to make it big, it may never the less happen and it could be your turn next. ST.

It is fair to say, that the only constant in life is change. While I always caution people, that change is not necessarily progress, it is also correct that change is what is creating new business opportunities every day.

It is living with this change and realizing the opportunities change generates that is the important process here. So how could a small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants go about seeing these opportunities?

The answer sounds easy, but requires patience, you need to look at your chosen market segment from the out-side. You have to become a judge, not a participant. Look at all the trends and judge them, find ways to improve upon techniques and find out what people are talking about.

Don’t be blinded by your own business, if you already have one. You must realize, that you can ignore or unfairly discredit someone else’s idea today, only for them to come back and kill your business tomorrow. Fighting a trend is futile and a wasted opportunity.

If something you see is better, appropriate it, in business that is called “best practice sharing” or “benchmarking” – within reason of cause! ST.

I remember my years as a physics student in university, we were told about “Thought Experiments” great physicist made – Newton’s Apple, Schrödinger’s Cat or Einstein’s Train. So these guys were sitting in their chairs and really just ask on question: “What If……?”

Entrepreneurs are not unlike the physicists or philosophers, they ask themselves – consciously or unconsciously – the same question:

• What if …. I could make cubic eggs?
• What if …. I could make that cheaper?
• What if …. I could make it easier to use?
• What if, what if, …….

This has got to be the most entrepreneurial question even. Often finding the answer is not the problem, finding the question is.

So, how can you cultivate an environment conducive to “What if….?” questions? Look outside of your box, read books from other business entrepreneurs, try and see how they made a change work for them, read your wife’s Cosmopolitan – your husband’s Mens Health magazine, look at other industries, ask your kids what they like, be interested in anything and ask yourself all the time, what if…..?

Your customer calls to complain about the last order – what if? Your assistant is unhappy with the coffee-machine, what if? What if, applies to all aspects of your small business or startup business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants:

• Customer Care & Support;
• Sales;
• Marketing & PR;
• Accounting & Credit Control
• especially Business Planning, and so on ….

It just does not end, you may not be the next Einstein, but I bet you, you will get some pretty good answers from yourself, if you bother to find the right “What If….?” question.

Some “What If …?” questions get me regularly quite excited, and keep me awake all night with excitement about the possibilities – so go forth an “What if…?” – a little, or a lot for that matter! ST.

Choosing an accountant/CPA is probably one of the most important decisions to get right, because you are unlikely to have an accountant’s grasp of

• taxation
• company law
• dealing with the tax authorities
• wide range of knowledge about small business.

You need to make sure you find an accountant/CPA who concentrates on small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants before you make any appointments.

Another aspect is size, make sure you are not “one among millions” sort of speak, smaller accountants practices are often more in tune with your small business needs, because they are a small business too.

Here are some questions I would be asking when starting out with a new business venture:

• Should I start my business as a sole-trader, partnership or limited liability company?
• Can you help me to find and raise finance? (Read about bootstrapping first!)
• Will you help me with setting up my cash-flow forecast?
• When do I need to register for VAT (UK), GST (Australia) or when do I need to charge sales tax (US)?
• Am I ready to start trading, or should I wait?
• Do I need to choose my financial year and trading year end date?
• Are you going to do my bookkeeping and accounting work?
• Will you work online with me, so we both can be up-to-date with my business progress?
• Will you deal with my employment issues, pensions, annuities and insurances for me?
• Will you help me to understand more and more of these issues myself, and will you be available for advice if and when I need it?

There are many more issues to consider and they depend on your business, that is where your accountant will help you too. If you find the accountant is dealing with other businesses like yours you are in good hands, they can give you better and more realistic planning guidelines about your business venture.

The most important question is the one you need to ask yourself, “do I trust this person and can I work with him/her long term?” If you feel intimidated, or misunderstood, get up and walk. An accountant should be your advisor, he/she should never be your boss, what I mean is you need to make the final decisions, not your accountant. No matter what advice you get anywhere, you are always responsible.

Most of all your accountant should be a trusted advisor, trust me you will need his/her advice on a regular basis! ST.

Disclaimer: As with any of my readers questions, I do not have all the answers and here on my blog I can only give you some ideas, since I know very little about your small business. If any of you can add anything here do so for the benefit of my reader, who asked the question and everybody else, leave a comment below – I’d be most grateful.

How often do we sit in front of our TVs or computers and see people in need, or the environment in trouble, and many more distressing things. Every-time, I wish I could change it all, the truth is I can’t – but we all can help.

The type of help I’m referring to here will not make the headlines, will not get you noticed by everybody, but it will help. I’m talking about pro-bono work, or sponsoring an organisation with a service or product you offer. I believe it can be better resources or money spend, than doing google ads, it is a good bootstrapping technique – and a win-win situation for you and the sponsored organisation.

For example, the College StartUp blog has an article today about “5 ways to get “paid” for pro bono work“, they talk about the marketing benefits you may gain by doing good. Every small business or start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants has something to give, which could make a difference.

You may not be able to change the world, but if we all did our bit, we could make a hell of a difference. ST.

Again I had several questions regarding “crisis planning“, “disaster planning“, “data-security” and “data-backup“, so I will cover all of them in this post.

When I started thinking about WinWeb’s Small Business Infrastructure, we always knew we had to do something about data-security and data-backup. The truth of the matter is that most small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants, do not have a coherent data-security and back-up strategy. To be perfectly blunt about the subject, it is not made easier by confusing technology and more to the point terminology, that even we have difficulty understanding some time. So I believe:

We should not expect business start-ups and small business in general to be accountants, bookkeepers, IT specialist, lawyers, marketing & PR gurus and so on. We should provide small business with an infrastructure in which it can concentrate on core business tasks, while at the same time enabling the business owner to stay informed of all relevant business facts like cash flow, sales, HR issues, tax position and more. This will enable him / her to make informed decisions, maybe with the help of an external advisor.

I formulated at the beginning that one of the benefits of using WinWeb’s OnlineOffice would be:

No security problems. No business interruption problem.
Your data is continuously backed up onto multiple RAID-5 data servers in multiple physically and network secure data centres – if that is not enough you can make a copy of your data anytime onto your PC or a CD. Should your computer crash or get stolen – no problem, just log on to another computer and keep working – can your competition do that?

So that takes care of the data security and back-up problem. To give you a little example, one of our clients is a web-designer for a niche market, he lives in an area which was flooded earlier in the year. His computer equipment gone, but all his data, addresses, email and work was safely stored in our OnlineOffice. He moved to his parents for a time and was back working within a few hours – not everybody was that lucky.

A burglary or fire would do the same – and can be dealt with quiet easily. This is not so easy when you have a business that manufactures goods, even when you do it from the kitchen table, you will incur “business interruption“. You will need a plan for that too – insurance may be the first step.

But loosing customers and with that revenue is not something an insurance is going to cover you for. So you need to plan ahead, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is there somewhere else I could work from temporarily? Parents, friends, short term office hire, etc.
• How long until I can get my raw-materials again? Maybe you should require your supplier to get a certain amount in stock for you, make a contract.
• Could you hire machinery until you can replace your own? Find suppliers now.
• Could my staff work from home if necessary? Online technology will help with that.
• Could I outsource some work temporarily? Have a look at virtual assistants in your area.

There are other questions you could ask yourself, just take 30 minutes, get a piece of paper and imagine your business, office, house, kitchen just burned down – trust me – the questions will come, and so will the answers. Oh, just to mention it, a disaster plan in a burned out house is of no value to anyone, keep it online or safe elsewhere.

Answer: YES, a small business needs a disaster plan, just like any other business. ST.

Disclaimer: As with any of my readers questions, I do not have all the answers and here on my blog I can only give you some ideas, since I know very little about your small business. If any of you can add anything here do so for the benefit of my reader, who asked the question and everybody else, leave a comment below – I’d be most grateful.