The View From Here

Rafting

2008-05-20T21:51:00.000-04:00

A couple of weekends ago I went whitewater rafting with some friends - most of whom were brand new friends. My friend Mary invited me to tag along with her family to their cabin in Maryland. They have a great place where you can hear a river rapids while sitting on their front porch. There's plenty of hiking, great towns and even Wisp ski area close by. Of course the reason for our trip was the Cheat River festival that was being held that weekend. We chose to raft the Cheat with some professional guides whom Mary knew. What a blast.

I had been rafting two other times - once in Maryland and once on the Gauley in WV. The Cheat definitely matches up. It was riding just over 2' and had great rapids. We only had one miscalculation on the trip. Of course it was the one where we over-compensated pulling one crew member back and sacrificed four of us as a result. When we went to pull one back, we unintentionally over weighted one side of the raft, slided into a rock and went tumbling. I took out my poor partner and then ended up under the raft. Luckily I'm a good swimmer, used to be a life guard and took sailing classes, because otherwise I would have panicked and probably died right there. After tumbling in the surf, I came up toward the surface and there was yellow and no air. So I pushed myself along the raft, figuring I'd end up on one side or the other sooner or later. In fact, that's exactly what happened. Only I ended up on the side of the raft that was butting against a giant rock. Not only that, everyone remaining on the raft was facing the opposite direction helping the others. I saw the rock, saw the waves, saw that no one knew where I was and panicked a bit. I yelled "hello I'm over here" several times before anyone heard me. Then they thought I was a bit nuts and panicking.

To that I say - no duh - I was being ignored, we're heading toward a huge rock and my head is in between the raft and it. Yep, I panicked. What amazed me though is that I didn't panick under the raft or when I tumbled. No, it was when I thought no one saw me or would help me. Of course on analyzing it after the fact, they would have seen I wasn't with the other three and looked around for me. Only I wasn't really wanting to see if we hit the rock before or after they noticed I was somewhere else.

The rest of the day was beautiful and uneventful. Great rapids and loads of laughs. Of course we got drenched - not just from the rapids, but also from the downpour we encountered just before exiting the river.

The festival was soggy but cool. Lots of folk music, great food, and cool items being sold. I saw a lot of people camping and hanging out. It kind of reminded me of the atmosphere you'd find at pre-Greatful Dead concerts.

I've posted some pictures on my My Space page.

What goes around...

2007-07-16T16:56:00.000-04:00

There's a saying: "What goes around, comes around"

When you treat people well, eventually you will reap the rewards that go along with being kind, honest, sincere and hardworking. I just saw, first-hand, how this can play out.

We have a client for whom we've been working long hours to try to finalize their financial statements. They know how much time we've put into the project because we've kept in touch with them throughout the process. They've received status updates regularly and have been very easy to work with. In a recent phone conversation when discussing an up-coming meeting, our client mentioned, since he's done with his end he's not sure what to do with his day. My dad's response..."Take a day off buddy. You deserve it. Go play golf."

Now my dad doesn't make a habit of calling anyone buddy, outside our immediate family. Yet, he has built a relationship with our client that is more akin to friendship than just mere colleagues.

That brief exchange reminded me why I work here...I'm treated well just as every one of the team members and each client. Being respected and made to feel part of a team is a great way to encourage staff to put in the extra hours willingly.

Disclaimer: In case I haven't mentioned it before...I work for my dad, John Guelcher, founder and partner in K2S.

iBoard of Directors

2007-07-06T11:20:00.000-04:00

I read about iBoards on MarketingProfs. I'm now going to get the book Thinkertoys to see what other marvelous gems are to be found. Now you may ask, What is an iBoard of Directors? It's your Imaginary Board of Directors.

When faced with a challenge you need help to resolve, consult your board of directors. No, not your corporate governance... your Imaginary Board of Directors - your iBoard of Directors.

Your iBoard is your collection of business leaders, role models, and personal heroes who inspire and challenge your thinking. The iBoard helps you discover solutions you may not find on your own.

Building & Accessing Your Imaginary Board

In his book, Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques, Michael Michalko provides a few suggestions for this technique...

Select three to five business movers and shakers, living or dead, whom you admire most.

Get photographs of your Board and pin them up to constantly remind you of the talent at your disposal.

Research your heroes. Read everything about your heroes that you can get your hands on.

Take notes on your favorite passages. Pay particular attention to the creative techniques they employed to solve problems.

When you have a challenge, consult the members of your board and imagine how they would solve it.

So who is on my iBoard?

Walt Disney is chairman extraordinaire. Other members are: Mother Teresa, Gandhi, the Dali Lama, Michael J. Fox, Richard Branson, Indra Nooyi (CEO PepsiCo), and Rhonda Byrne (author The Secret).

Chocolate Fake - New York Times

2007-06-25T06:38:00.000-04:00

What are they thinking? Chocolate Fake - New York Times

Did mass-produced chocolatiers believe that we're so gullible as to not notice the difference when our chocolate all of a sudden doesn't taste good. How do you put a good pr-spin on cutting corners.

For the small, home grown establishments, like my favorite Romolo's Chocolates, this is a ready-made advantage. Since most smaller chocolatiers wouldn't consider cutting corners if it meant the quality of their product suffered, they can rally around the idea that they had no intention of implementing the use of oils other than cocoa butter.

To the large corporate chocolate makers (Hershey/Mars) don't do it! I can't imagine "fake" chocolate.

Second Opinions: Take Two Aspirin and Call Me in the Morning | Marketing Profs Daily Fix Blog

2007-05-10T10:30:00.000-04:00

Drew hits the nail on the head with this one:
Second Opinions: Take Two Aspirin and Call Me in the Morning | Marketing Profs Daily Fix Blog

I recall a client who wanted to redo almost every aspect of her logo that was professionally designed by another marketer. As I was trying to build up my marketing business, I took on the client. I should have listened to my instinct. We worked for two months re-doing the logo. She needed to change the spacing of words, tints of colors, everything. The worst part is, I let her do it. I allowed her to override my sense of design, which is normally very good. I don't list her logo as something I did. I never mention it. It's not something I'm proud of.

It's a hard lesson to learn: There is a reason someone is willing to pay me for my expertise...because I am the expert. I'd love to say that I haven't compromised since. But, alas, I have; just not to the extent I did that first time. I think Drew is correct. We do need to remind clients that we're the experts here and we really do know what we're doing.

The Entrepreneurial Mind: Controller? Bookkeeper? CFO?

2007-02-27T11:57:00.000-05:00

A good explanation of what the difference is between a controller, bookkeeper and CFO can be found at: The Entrepreneurial Mind: Controller? Bookkeeper? CFO?

At K2S, one of the areas where we help small business clients is through our part-time controllership services. These are services where we assist businesses with any or all of the functions a controller would perform.

Information about the K2S services can be found at here.

Procrastination

2007-01-17T11:08:00.000-05:00

I heard about a report that was recently released that claimed procrastination makes people less healthy, less wealthy and less wise. Since I'm a habitual procrastinator, I found the results of this study alarming. Part of the report states:

Steel, considered one of the world’s leading experts on procrastination, made his conclusions known in a recent thirty-page article ("The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review of Quintessential Self-Regulatory Failure") in Psychological Bulletin, which is published by the American Psychological Association. He states that 54% of all procrastinators are men while 46% are women. In addition, young people are more likely to procrastinate than older people.

Steel also found within his study that temptation is the major cause of procrastination. Because more temptations and distractions exist in U.S. society to divert people from the task at hand, more procrastination occurs. Other causes of procrastination include the perceived value of performing a job, the aversion of performing a task, impulsiveness, the sense of immediacy, lack of motivation, and the person’s belief in being able to do a job.

On the other hand, Steel claims that procrastinators are not perfectionists as is sometimes claimed in self-help books and other literature. In fact, it is just the opposite. Perfectionists procrastinate less and, thus, perform tasks better because they avoid delays. However, they worry more than procrastinators but have more confidence that they can finish the task.

After reading this, I gave my procrastination habit some deep thought. What I've decided is I'm deadline driven more than a procrastinator. If everything I have to do in a day is listed and due by the end of the day; I'll work my list. The due date can be either something I gave my word to do, something I want to get done, or something that must be done for external reasons. I don't differentiate among those.

So, am I truly a procrastinator then? Yes, it's true I find miscellaneous activities to pass the time on occasion; however, most of those activities are simply the more fun things I get to do in my job...like writing this blog or designing a brochure for the firm.

I'm interested in how others view procrastination. Does it cause you worry or problems with your job? What are your thoughts?

Creativity

2007-01-05T11:38:00.000-05:00

Writing about creativity got me to thinking…a very dangerous thing indeed. I have a terrible habit of rolling ideas around in my mind ad nauseam until I do nothing with the idea. This has been an on-going issue with me.

Let’s take being creative. I love creativity. I enjoy drawing, photography, writing, making jewelry, painting…the list goes on and on. However, I find that I don’t incorporate those loves into my work. I have been trying to figure out why I don’t.

I have assumed that there had to be two different areas of my life…the work one and the personal one. I have kept them compartmentalized my entire career. The people I work with are not the people I socialize with. The same holds true for the people I meet through work. I struggle with getting over this assumption. I’m making progress though.

I am trying to bring creativity into my work. The idea is to make work more like fun and to enjoy what I’m doing more than I already do. It has helped that both my bosses love that I’m creative. I’ve convinced them to redesign our website and make it completely non-traditional. I’ve used my creativity to come up with a novel design for the new site. Now, I’m working on rewriting all the content.

Actually I’m procrastinating by blogging instead. So here’s my theme for our website…A single drop of water can send a ripple for miles; similarly a single idea, given at the right time, can help you for years to come. I’m using a raindrop theme throughout the site. My concept is to tie the knowledge and solutions we share with clients is similar to the power of a raindrop.

Now I have no idea how this will all turn out. We’re in the initial design phases. But, it is more exciting to be writing about accounting from a creative point-of-view than from the traditional boring one.

Differentiation

2007-01-05T09:38:00.000-05:00

It’s a constant dilemma, how do you stand out from the crowd. While listening to Marketplace this morning on my way to work, I heard a compelling example of originality. The story is about a restaurant in Montreal called Robin des Bois (Robin Hood).

The owners of the restaurant “take from the rich and give to the poor” through having famous, celebrity-type people volunteer to be the waiters/waitresses in the restaurant. All wages saved from not employing full-time waiters is then given to local charities, along with profits.

What is also interesting is that the banks gave them money to start up this venture. As any small business owner will tell you, especially those in the restaurant business, getting money from a bank is not that easy. Thanks to all their work at differentiating their restaurant, they have a waiting list for celebrity wait-staff, a waiting list to dine, and a profit to donate...all done within four months of opening.

Creativity is what led to this shining example of differentiation. Taking a known model of business and making it into something worth talking about. Taking the time to allow your creative mind to play, will yield surprising, and often profitable, results.

Why Blog?

2006-12-29T10:10:00.000-05:00

I struggle with what to write frequently. I either have too many thoughts or too few and seems that putting them down in my blog takes time away from "real work". However, I just ran across a fantastic visual of why to blog and I'm inspired.

CK put together a PDF of input she received from other bloggers. My addition would be...I blog because it feels great to share knowledge and experiences. What good is it to learn lots over the years and not pass along what you've picked up. Perhaps I'm a teacher at heart...after all I did spend 3 years doing just that...teaching.

In the spirit of why I blog, I'll be posting later today about branding...one of my favorite subjects.

Writing

2006-12-20T14:43:00.000-05:00

When I was in college I wrote all the time. I kept a journal, I would write for the paper, and I even became editor of the college paper. I loved writing. Then something happened...life. I forgot how much I enjoy writing and creativity. And stopped keeping my journal, stopped drawing, stopped using my imagination with any frequency.

I'm working at getting back in touch with my creative self. Since starting along this path two months ago, I've found myself writing more frequently. I was even inspired to imagine and write a short-story, children's book called "The Adventures of the Prince and the Princess of Gimleston". Now doesn't that sound fun? It was. I took the contents of a dream, enhanced it, then recorded it. I spent a couple of weeks tweaking the story.

Then I found a website Lulu where I can self-publish the book. So, for Christmas my niece and nephew are receiving books, written by me. The story definitely needs work and depth, but it was so much fun to put my first thoughts together, I just had to share it. Consider it shared.

Now, may I suggest to all of you who are equally creative, spend some time playing and engaging your creativity. The rewards are worth it.

Marketing Commodities

2006-12-19T17:16:00.000-05:00

Here’s a good example of taking something that is generally seen as a commodity and turning it into a reason to buy.

From Seth Godin…

I got a soccer ball in the mail today. As far as I can tell, it's just like any other soccer ball.

Except it's not.

It's not... because it's from Fair Trade Sports. They only use adult labor (which shouldn't even be necessary to say) and they donate after-tax profits to kids' charities.

Does it change the way you play soccer? Probably more than you know. Does it change the way the balls get sold? Of course.

A commodity is only a commodity if you treat it as one.

Are there ways to take tax returns and financial statements, generally perceived as commodities, and make them into something worth paying money for? Of course there are ways. This is what I’ve spent 15 years working out. What I’ve determined is you don’t sell the product.

In the case of Fair Trade Sports, they’re selling the way the ball is made and the feel-good aspect that child-labor isn’t involved. They are also taking a stand on human rights and community relations. They’ve made buying the soccer ball into a way to give back to the community and make a statement on child-labor practices.

In accounting, we sell peace of mind and comfort. To us, it’s all about the relationship with our clients, our team members and our community. If we aren’t serving those three constituencies properly, we are going to fail as a business. It’s as simple as that.

Coffee, The Erie Power Networking Way

2006-07-05T09:39:00.000-04:00

I've discovered an incredible business building technique...the coffee. This may seem obvious, however the relationship building that can occur over coffee (or tea in my case) has the ability to transform your business.

I was introduced to "the coffee" by Heidi Kerner at Erie Power Networking. She encourages everyone involved in the network to meet each other for coffee in between our EPN meetings. The theory is people do business with the people they know and trust. This is basic common sense.

"The coffee" begins by meeting people at a networking event. A networking event is anything from a Chamber After Hours to a party at a friend's house. During the course of the event, you meet new people. Your job is to collect their business cards or names and phone numbers. The day after the event, you follow-up with those people you met. You invite them to join you for a coffee. You set aside an hour to meet with this person. Your intention at the coffee is simply to get to know them better and get to know what they do. You are not meeting with them to sell what you do. That's it. The more coffees you have, the more people you get to know, the more referrals you can make to those people, and, in turn, the more referrals you'll receive.

The person who makes the invitation is the person who pays for the coffee. Try to pick a location that is center to both participants. Some of my favorite coffee spots are: Aroma's (2174 W. 8th St), Panera and Starbuck's.

So, at K2S we started encouraging "the coffee". At the moment we have two active participants. I am trying to schedule 3 coffees a week. Through the networking, I've been able to bring in three opportunities for new business. I am also expanding the chances we'll receive new business by getting to know my fellow EPN'ers.

Erie Power Networking is one of the best groups I've joined. I've learned better networking techniques, how to build a 30-second commercial about me and our business, and how to be comfortable speaking about business. Heidi and Phil, the founders of EPN, have brought a terrific resource to Erie.

What is Marketing?

2006-06-27T18:31:00.000-04:00

What is marketing? After 13 years in the business, I believe most people believe marketing is advertising and selling. In fact, those are just two pieces of marketing. Marketing is all about finding the one or two things you do and building your business around them. You need to consider the customer interaction, the design of the workspace, your signage, décor, advertising, message, brochures, website, press relations, even your name and pricing…all these are parts of marketing.

In my world, marketing is a holistic approach to business growth. Without the proper marketing plan, your business won’t succeed. The first step in developing a successful marketing plan is to identify what you really do.

Let’s take an example, my accounting firm. An accountant can say they provide tax returns, financial statements and such. They can build a brochure and website that touts all their knowledge and experience. However, is that what they really do? No, what they do is provide solutions. So, the marketing message is We provide solutions.

Everything the firm does is centered on providing solutions to clients. They incorporated this concept into the layout and design of their office, into their name…K2S…Knowledge to Solutions, etc. Marketing is not just about the ad. It’s so much more. In the future I’m going to discuss the individual pieces of a good marketing plan. I look forward to sharing my knowledge with you!

Tax Consequences of Selling a Business

2006-05-31T12:00:00.000-04:00

AllBusiness.com posted a relevant article for all small business owners. I encourage all those thinking of running a business, or already running a business, to consider their exit strategy from the beginning. Many of the strategic plans you implement will affect the outcome when it comes time to get out. Explore this website for additional information relevant to operating a small business.

Maybe you're ready to retire, pass your business on to your children, and live out your days on a Caribbean beach. (Nice choice.) Or maybe you're so far in the black that the time is simply ripe for you to cash out and move on to other endeavors. Whatever the reason may be, you've decided to sell your business, you even have a buyer lined up — and now you have tax considerations to contend with. (continued at website)

[AllBusiness.com - Finance & Accounting Articles]

Using Technology for Clients

2006-05-26T10:46:00.000-04:00

One of the key components of our businesses is client satisfaction. Everything we do is centered on our clients and solving their problems.

If that’s the case, then it makes sense that we should provide solutions and make them available as conveniently as possible for our clients.

That in turn leads to a discussion about whether our clients are interested in accessing their information easily, from a secure extranet-type of service; or, on the other hand, do clients prefer the current method where they call, we copy and then they pickup or we deliver whatever it is they need.

Let’s take an example…the client is applying for a loan. The bank needs the past two years tax returns. As it stands now, they call or the loan officer calls the firm asks for the years in question. We pull them up on the computer, printout what is needed, mark it as copies and email, fax or snail mail the returns to the bank.

It seems to me it would make more sense to have those returns stored in a secure location where a client can access them. Back to our example, the client decides to apply for a loan. The banker says I need 2004 and 2005 tax returns. The client can log onto a computer, even at the bank, and print out copies of the return for the loan officer.

The question becomes will our clients use such a service? It does not make sense for us to invest in the technology if none of our clients are interested. This then leads to surveying our clients to see if they will use the service.

I feel that our clients would rather have everything available online, securely rather than having to call somebody to get their information.

Now we need to see if I’m correct.

Welcome

2006-05-25T15:52:00.000-04:00

This blog is being to developed to disseminate information about accounting, marketing and technology. Most of what will be posted will be helpful information for individuals and small business owners. If you have any accounting or marketing-related questions, email me!