Akron Today Magazine

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Developing Leaders in Akron

It’s an old debate — can great leaders be made or are they just born that way?  While there are some people who’re born with natural leadership talent, the majority aren’t.  But, being born with the talent doesn’t mean it’ll be used effectively or guarantee success.  We all know a charismatic slacker, who “wasted his potential”.

A natural aptitude is not enough to become an effective leader; even those who have it must learn how to use it. They sharpen their skills through trial and error, just like the people who don’t have an innate ability.  Successful leadership is achieved through intentional focus and the willingness to learn.  Here are 3 things to focus on and practice.

Build a base of supporters

Good leaders commit to a long-term strategy which builds support and connections before they need them.  They create allies both within and outside the organization.  We’ve all had the experience of feeling used and resentful when someone suddenly notices us because they want something.  At best they get begrudging help and at worst can be sabotaged.

Build credibility

Do the work, there are no shortcuts.  On-going, long lasting successful leadership is built on the firm foundation of good execution and taking responsibility, which earns other’s trust and respect.  The capital you accrue is what you spend when (not if) you make mistakes.  It’s the difference between “He messed up, we need to get rid of that guy” and “Well at least he was trying to do his best, he’ll do better next time”.

Build others interest in your success

People respond to winners — they want to help, be around and work with them.  They respond to them for the most human of reasons, “What’s in it for me?”.  If you learn to listen to and act on what’s important to others, they’ll become invested in your success.  They’ll actively promote your ideas and support your power when they see how it’ll benefit them.

There’s this belief that leadership should be organic, people either got it or they don’t.  This simply isn’t so.  Successful leadership is achieved through intentional focus, a lifelong willingness to learn and practice, practice, practice.  Being born with the gift of natural leadership is the least of the skills you’ll need.

10 Ways To Free Up Your Time

Let’s talk about how to free up a bunch of your time.  Most people feel overwhelmed and busy most of the time and there are ways to put more minutes back into your day and they do not take too much effort.

There are a lot of reasons you should want to free up your time.  Even if you just want to have more fun and enjoy life more, freeing up time is a noble en-devour.  Another reason you might want to free up time is to do more side gigs and make some extra money to pay down bills.  Either way, well worth doing.  Here are 10 ways to grab back those minutes.

  1. Live close to work – Have as small of a commute as possible.  If you are living in Hudson and working in Fairlawn, why?  You can change your job or your home.  Cutting your drive can add an hour or more a day to your free time.
  2. Work from home – Better yet, make your commute a short walk to your home office.  You may be able to work from home all the time or only some days a week, but cutting down on drive time can free up your day.  Also, less office chit chat might make you more productive.
  3. Plan your meals – Do you go to the store every day or two?  Plan out your meals for the week and shop once.
  4. Get up early – Get up earlier and go to sleep earlier.  Chances are you are more productive in the morning and even if your sleep hours remain the same, the morning hours will probably be more productive and free up time later in the day.
  5. Time your errands – Do your errands, such as going to the post office, the bank and shopping during times when other people are working.  This cuts down on lines and waiting.
  6. Prep outfits – Know what you are going to wear for the week and prep them all at once.  The less you need to think about your clothes the better.  There is a reason that many great leaders have worn the same outfit most of the time.  They save their time and energy for more important things.
  7. Declutter your home – In our article on decluttering your home, we talk about how having less stuff saves time and money.
  8. Automate finances – One of the best things I ever did was automate most monthly financial transactions.  I know how much money I need to have in my account and everything happens automatically, saving me time and avoiding late fees.
  9. Hire help – If you are not an expert on something, don’t try to do it yourself (unless you truly enjoy figuring it out.)  You can find people to do thing much more affordably than before with sites for people doing gigs like tutoring, handyman, lawn care, etc.  Know what your time is worth and don’t waste it when you could hire out more cheaply.
  10. Limit Non-work Screen Time – Whether it is binge watching Netflix or reading fake (or real) news, limit your time in front of screens and get back hours a day.

All of these things individually are fairly minor habit changes or location changes that can vastly free up your time and improve your life.

7 Common Business Mistakes

When you have a business, you are bound to make mistakes.  Even if you have a business degree, you are rarely going to be good at everything you need to do.  It can be overwhelming.

We have assembled seven common mistakes people make when they are business owners.  If you catch these things up front, you are going to save yourself money, headaches and possibly save the business itself.

  1. Not Charging a Late Fee – If you do not charge a late fee up front, it is much harder to add it later. A late fee is not a way to make extra money.  Instead, it is a way to encourage on-time payment and reduce slow pays from people.  If they call and complain, you can always “forgive” it one time as a courtesy.  Having dependable cash flow is critical for keeping the doors open for any business.
  2. Not Promoting Business Where People Are Reading – People spend more and more of their time reading in social media and on their phones. So, your marketing plan must include a mobile friendly website and promotions in social media.  Our magazine is an example of how this can work.  Businesses pay to be featured in our mobile friendly online magazine and we push the articles out via paid social and news channels to be seen where people currently spend their time, generating many thousands of views of active, targeted potential customers.
  3. Never Raising Your Prices – You do not want to do a bait and switch (raising prices quickly or unexpectedly) but you also do not want to never raise your prices. Inflation and added costs to your business for other services justify a modest price increase regularly.  Most customer’s do not mind a modest increase regularly in industries where it makes sense.
  4. Allowing Too Many Customizations and Options – If your business offers too many options and customizations, there is a good chance you are hurting sales and making your business more complex and expensive to run than you need to. Just as an example, a restaurant with too many items on the menu must stock more ingredients, hire more cooks and prep people, spend more time training people and probably end up with more food sent back.  Focusing on a small but very tasty menu can improve costs, make customers happier with easier options, improve service and speed and help you be known for something very specific.  These same issues could be true for an accounting firm, a retail store or car sales.
  5. Getting Sold Things You Do Not Need – Once you open your door people will start telling you that you need SEO, registered with Google, employment posters, signs, insurance, etc. All of these things are valid usually, but you need to understand what they are, why you need them and carefully choose a vendor if you are buying services or products.  Don’t buy from the 1st person to send you an email about it.
  6. Not Using a Payroll Company – If you do not know how to do payroll, a payroll company is the way to go. There are a lot of forms to file and there are monthly requirements, quarterly requirements and annual requirements.  Trying to do it yourself in Excel will probably result in fines if you are late or make a mistake.  The small cost of a payroll company is well worth not having the paperwork headache.
  7. Buying Things You Think You Need To Have – Lastly, if you are just starting a business it is common to think you need things that you actually do not need. For example, many companies now run virtually without office space.  You might think you need a fancy website, but you actually only need one page and active social presence.  You might think you need brochures, but chances are you do not.  Landline phone?  I doubt it.  Before you buy things you think you should buy, really take a hard look at what you really need and do not get stuck in an old way of thinking.

The last twenty years have seen a lot of changes.  With cloud apps, shared office space, outsourcing and mobile devices there is a good chance you can now get a lot of work done and build a business without all of the old overhead.  Keep all these things in mind and build a leaner business and you will be more successful.

Best Akron Marketing Agency

Akron, Ohio is home to a number of fine marketing agencies. And which marketing agency you pick depends on what your main objective is. If you want to produce mail and print pieces, then you need to look for those older Akron marketing agencies who have specialized in that for many years. If you are more interested in growing quickly, then you need to find an Akron marketing agency that specializes in digital marketing, including pay per click and SEO.

Most businesses want to generate leads and awareness from online marketing. Lead generation via AdWords and SEO is the best way to attract new customers locally and nationally. Buzzoodle Digital Marketing Agency is the best Akron marketing agency with over 15 years of experience doing only that.

The reason this is your best bet is simple. SEO takes time, but over time attracts very high-quality buyers to your business and the cost of the click is zero, although there is an investment of time and money in advance, to attract them in the first place.

But if you need leads fast, you also want to mix in PPC. Adwords is the most common PPC 9pay per click) ad engine and it will allow you to start attracting targeted, high quality leads within 24 hours in most cases. The cost of each click is higher, but you are also getting leads quickly as well.

The combination of using Adwords for quick lead generation and SEO for longer-term, lower-cost lead generation is the best way to meet your short term and long term needs for your Akron business.

Buzzoodle has helped companies navigate this maze of opportunities for many years and grown people’s businesses. They combine Akron SEO expertise as well as Adwords management to optimize your ad campaign to test and generate the best leads for your business.

Additional services include Akron website design and development, social media marketing, native advertising and custom application development. Buzzoodle ia an Akron Marketing Agency that can provide the full scope of digital services to clients.

To reach Buzzoodle visit their Akron Marketing Agency website today and see what they can do for you.

What is External Benchmarking and How Does it Help?

Many small business owners think that external benchmarking is a complicated process, which only large corporations can benefit from.  They believe that there’s no advantage to be gained for their small company by doing it.  Also, even if they wanted to do it, they think the process is cost prohibitive, in addition to requiring time and manpower they don’t have.

And while this can be true, one methodology has a 12 step procedure, it doesn’t have to be that way.  There’s no universally accepted template for the process.  In its most basic form external benchmarking is simply a way to measure your company’s performance in a certain area (i.e., operations, quality, profit and loss, technology) against the best practices of other companies.

Comparing your company practices to another’s best practices provides you with 2 important things.  One is benchmarking gives you insight into how your procedures, operations and costs compare to other companies who’re “doing it right”.  Small business owners who lack basic, broad based knowledge of standard business practices, let alone best practices, is epidemic.

Secondly, benchmarking is a way to learn from the mistakes and experiences of others, without having to go through them yourself.  If you’re willing to learn from the process it’ll give you the perspective, insight and knowledge you need to stay competitive through effective management of goods, services, operations and costs.  External benchmarking provides numerous competitive advantages.

For example, a fictional Akron machine shop had significant employee theft.  The owner learned the best practices for correcting the problem from the owner of a plastics fabricator in Elyria.  However, when the problem was maintaining calibration of his machines, he sought out the best practices of the non-competitive machine shop 2 streets over.

External benchmarking doesn’t have to be complicated or costly.  It can be a onetime event related to a specific problem or an on-going course of action focusing on one or more problems.  It’s impossible for a small business owner to know everything he needs to know to stay competitive and make a profit.  Therefore, it’s worth the time to learn if external benchmarking is right for you.

 

Participate In Your Community By Joining a Board

People often do not realize that many local organizations have boards that meet regularly to help with organizational issues or keep track of the finance and operational goals.  Nearly all nonprofits have boards.  Schools all have boards. Communities have boards or councils.  Mental health organizations have boards. Large corporations have boards, but you might be surprised to find out that smaller companies and even startups have boards.

Qualifications are going to vary greatly based on the board and what the leader and the current board members are looking for, but you might be surprised to find you are just what they are looking for.  For example, a mental health board is not going to be made up of all psychologists usually.  Instead, they will often be made up of people in the community who care about mental health.  They will bring their varied talents to the table to help look at things from different perspectives.

Boards typically meet once a month but it could be more or less.  Some are paid positions, and many are voluntary.  Some voluntary positions do pay a small stipend to cover expenses.  At a minimum, they typically feed you at the meeting and it offers a chance to give back to the community and learn about a topic in more detail.  It also improves your skills and knowledge in the area.

Typically a board is either an elected position in the broad sense, such as needing to be on a ballot and get elected.  Think city councils and public school boards.  Other positions are typically by vote of existing board members.  One person might bring you in and if you and the board agree it is a good fit they vote and make you a member.

Board sizes can be from a small group of 5 or 6 up to a large group of 30 or more.  The larger the group the longer the meetings may go if everyone likes to talk and ask questions.

So how do you get on a board?

To begin, know what area you are interested in.  If it is entrepreneurship, you will want to try to get on a startup board.  If it is education, a school board.  If it is mental health, then a mental health board.

Next, you can use Google and LinkedIn and find existing organizations that match your interest.  Look on their website and see if they list board members.  Call or email an inquiry about open board positions.  Ask if you can attend a board meeting.  Have your resume polished up and ready in case they ask for it.

And keep circling back around.  If a board is full when you contact them make sure they know you would like to be considered for a position in the future.  Then follow up regularly, maybe quarterly, to see if positions have opened up.

Unless you are very familiar with the industry and how boards operate, begin by listening a lot and asking questions after the meetings.  New visitors and board members sometimes try to do too much too soon, and it can be difficult.  The first six months or more will most likely be learning and absorbing all the stuff they are doing.

Being a board member in any community organization is very rewarding.  It can lead to new friends, new opportunities and a real sense of helping people.

10 Point Small Business Marketing Checklist

Small businesses often do their own marketing and have some minimal outside help.  This can mean small details get overlooked and even minor things you do not see can be costing you a lot of opportunities.  So we have assembled this list of 10 things to review and improve if needed to save you time and improve your chances of getting more leads and sales.

  1. Dormant Social Media & Blogs – Social Media accounts and blogs that never get updated tend to also never get traffic because the various services take freshness into consideration.
  2. Mobile Website – More than half the traffic to your website is probably on a mobile phone. Websites can be made to display optimally for mobile devices and this will improve your traffic and the inquiries you get from these kinds of visitors.
  3. Online Reviews – It only takes one bad online review to really hurt your traffic and lead generation. The reason is that people do research on many kinds of companies and if they find a bad review first, they will most likely stop researching you.  There are ways to address online reputation and even having reviews taken down.  One good defense is a good offence though.  Ask happy customers to review your business and build up a lot of positive reviews.
  4. Functioning Website Forms – The kiss of death is when you find out for the last year your website contact us form has not been working. Test this regularly.  Software updates or changes in your spam filter might have stopped these contacts from reaching you.
  5. Effective Advertising – If you are running your own Facebook or Google ads you need to know your numbers and pay attention to the results. Just letting these kinds of campaigns run without knowing if they are profitable or now is a huge money waste.  Try using a magazine like this one to run native advertising which is then pushed through these channels and is more effective than just sending traffic to your main website.
  6. Spam Filter – Your spam filter on your email is always getting updated. This could mean you may not be seeing legitimate leads and prospects who are trying to contact you.  This could be especially true if you offer something free, like a “free estimate” on your website.  Visitors would send an email asking for the free estimate and your spam filter picks that up as spam and does not deliver it to you.  Another lead lost.
  7. Old Emails – Do you have older emails no one monitors in your company? Maybe ex employees?  Leads might be coming into these emails and just sitting there unanswered.  Make sure all these kinds of email situations are forwarded to your active email.
  8. Phone Forwarding or Voicemail Full – Do you have old phone numbers out there not being forwarded properly? Maybe tied to some older marketing?  This needs to be fixed because the cost of forwarding an old phone number is much lower than a lost customer.  Also, if your voicemail is always full people probably are just giving up and calling your competitor.
  9. Business Registrations – Especially if you have a physical storefront, you need to register your business in Google local and other places so you show up in apps that use GPS, on maps and in more searches. Basic common sense but some people may not know how important this has become.
  10. Local Media Exposure – Magazines like this one offer great ways to reach a local audience. For example, we offer the opportunity to submit a free article to us for consideration or sponsored articles which are seen by many thousands of local readers.  Not taking advantage of local media when you are a local business is money down the drain.  Local media outlets specialize in connecting with the exact same people you are most likely trying to reach.  And you can just reach out to them – they all want to talk to local business owners.  Find out what they have to offer.

Bonus Tip: If you have a business relationship, like Daniel Moneypenny, then do not let the relationship be forgotten.  Follow up regularly.

If you verify you are not losing leads and also improve these areas where needed, you should see a significant spike in leads and new customers.  At least once a year I run into someone who has not known about one of these things causing leads to be lost for many months.  It is painful to think about “what-ifs” when you see your website form not working or lots of old leads you did not see in your spam folder.  Save this article and review it occasionally to make sure you are not having problems that are costing you money.

Hoarding Can Be a Business Problem

Shows on hoarding are one of the constants of reality TV. Through these shows hoarding, which is a mental health disorder, has become a part of the general public’s lexicon. On the shows people hoard a variety of items in their homes and on their property. However, hoarding behavior isn’t limited to personal spaces. There’s a group of people, much larger than the average person would imagine, who hoard at work too.

Hoarders have an on-going difficulty discarding tangible and intangible possessions. This is because of a perceived need to save things since they made be needed, be of use or have value in the future. A person with the disorder experiences distress at the thought of getting rid of or sharing the items. This results in the excessive accumulation of “stuff”, regardless of its actual value or usefulness.

Hoarding isn’t limited by geography. It isn’t specific to a person’s home environment. It’s behavior which also can be observed in a work setting. Almost everyone has worked with or heard stories about someone who shows signs of hoarding behavior in the work place. There are 4 main ways it manifests.

Equipment/tools – Small businesses have been bankrupted due to the hoarding of the owner. This is particularly true when it comes to machinery, vehicles and tools. They’re unable to get rid of old or unusable equipment. Some have been known to leave obsolete machinery on the shop floor, taking up space needed for income producing machines.

Tool hoarding has lead to spending too much money (profit) on unneeded and unused tools. Or it may cause the owner to be unable to throw away broken, outdated or miscalibrated tools, resulting in lost time, poor quality control and noncompetitive manufacturing practices.

Supplies – Almost everyone knows or has heard of “the supply lady”. This is the person who’s in charge of the supplies. She has more Post-Its, pens and coffee creamer than the company will ever need, behaves as if they’re her personal property, and doles them out grudgingly.

Inventory – Some business owners become emotionally invested in their inventory, both raw materials and finished goods. This is one of the hallmarks of hoarding – objects create feelings of well being and security. They carry too much product in the misguided belief that they may need it someday. The business becomes insolvent when it’s unable to turn or support the expense of its inventory.

Information – Household paper items (i.e. mail, newspapers, and magazines) are commonly hoarded. This is, also, true in the work place. The depiction of an office worker unable to find anything among his over flowing stacks of paper is a cliché.   However, the stacks of paper are being replaced by information hoarding via electronics.

Electronic devices allow a hoarder to accumulate information faster and from more places. In addition, they make it easier to hide the behavior for longer periods of time. It’s an emerging business problem that’ll continue to grow. Some companies are dealing with information being inaccessible or lost when an employee has too much irrelevant and extraneous information on their business devices to find it.

The symptoms and consequences of hoarding range from mild to severe. In some cases it may not have much impact on a person’s personal life and job, while in other cases it seriously affects their thoughts, emotions and behaviors on a daily basis. It’s just a matter of time before there’s a workplace segment of Hoarders.

 

Accounting Checklist for Business Startups in Akron

There are a few steps that you should take to ensure that your small business is successful. Organizing your accounting practices early will assist you to concentrate on the important work of growing your company. You will realize that there are a number of finance software applications that you can use for your accounting practices.

Bookkeeping is an essential part of any company because it helps in controlling the operations of your company and avoids an audit by offering the IRS what they require. Therefore, in order to attain your long-term objectives, increase your sales and organize your company’s accounting practices, ensure that you consider the following factors;

  • Make sure that your small business is legally registered and thereafter open a bank account for your company. The bank account for your business should be separate from your personal account including checking and credit card. Separating your company and personal expenses will give you peace of mind in the future.
  • It is critical for you to keep a record of all your expenses so that you can be certain that your business will be successful. This activity will assist you to track the development of the organization, organize your financial statements and also the deductible expenses. Therefore, keep all the important receipts of your business.
  • Develop a bookkeeping system through the different kinds of software that are available or simply an Excel worksheet if you have a very small number of monthly transactions. Additionally, you can hire a temporary bookkeeper that is based near your business.
  • The next step is to create a payroll system that will assist you to assign different roles in your small business and then compensate them for their input. Create a payroll system for all employees including permanent staff members and independent contractors. There are many companies that offer payroll solutions and your accountant can recommend one.
  • You should produce accurate and detailed invoicing so that you can easily answer questions from your clients in case of a misunderstanding. In addition, you should consider online payments so that you can automate your bookkeeping process.
  • You need to be ready to receive large expenses such as computer upgrades and equipment repair. These kinds of major expenses can come up in a slow month and therefore, you should be ready to avoid a cash crisis.
  • Devote some time to update your books. Dedicate a few hours per week to clear out your paperwork so that you can avoid a long pile up. It is important that you stick to the days that you have set aside so that your books can be updated at all times.  If you have hired a bookkeeper this is easier for you as you just need to be organized and get information to them, and keep an eye on their work.
  • Re-evaluate your accounting practices regularly. At the start, you will only use an Excel worksheet; however, as your company grows you will need to use more improved methods. Therefore, when you realize that an Excel worksheet is not adequate for you and needs a lot of effort; you should begin to look at the Internet-based bookkeeping platforms. Continue to reassess the effort and time that you use for your company’s bookkeeping so that you can save time for other more relevant activities.

Not taking accounting seriously is a huge risk for businesses.  It can lead to lost money, paying too much in taxes, poor business performance and even large penalties and fees simply by not paying things on time. If you are not able to conduct the bookkeeping process on your own then you should seek the assistance of an expert. That way, you will have a chance to concentrate on running your small Akron, Stow or Fairlawn business and try to get ahead of your competitors.

 

 

 

Akron Business Networking

Akron is full of things to do.  But if you are starting a new business or if you want to get out and meet more people because you are in sales, you have to know where to go.

What many people do not realize is that not only is there an Akron Chamber of Commerce that provides business networking opportunities in Akron, but there are many other chambers as well in all the surrounding communities.  I have been to Fairlawn, Kent, Stow, Ravenna, Streetsboro and more different chambers.

Beyond that, Rotary is in many of these same communities.

Then you have professional networking organizations that provide specific networking opportunities.  One I was in was B to B Connect which generated a lot of referrals for our business to business marketing agency at the time.  They had groups in Kent, Stow, Akron, Streetsboro,  Aurora and more locations.  Because the same group meets every two weeks, you get to know people better and even if you do not get business, you will probably develop some good business friendships.

Network After Work puts on events in Akron and Cleveland as well and you do not have to be a member to attend and meet some new people.  The combination of events to meet new people and other events where you get to know people better is very powerful over time.

Then you can check Facebook Groups, LinkedIn and MeetUp to find even more things going on in Akron for business networking.  If you want to go to something new every few days you should be able to find something.

Some tips to networking better:

  1. Follow up the next day – nothing is more frustrating when people do not follow up after meeting.
  2. Do not expect sales – look to grow your network of connections and keep them fresh (reaching out regularly) and the sales will come over time.

Sure you can go to Cleveland which has come great events as well.  But chances are you can find all the new customers you want in the greater Akron area if you just know where to look.