The Barcelona Soccer Team squad are all the same and all with the team’s strengths. They are dominating their league. They force the other teams to play to their style and the whole team is strong in their style.

I knew a team that was very creative. They brought in one person to be their process person. She drove everyone, including herself, nuts. I always wondered what happened there. I always assumed that they needed that process person and they just didn’t give her the space to do what she needed to do.

It could be that they were never going to use her processes and it was a matter of thinking they needed something they didn’t. It’s hard to say, because that project didn’t make it.

Daniel Pink

Have a listen to this video of Daniel Pink and Marcus Buckingham talking about teams and strengths.
http://www.danpink.com/office-hours

Marcus Buckingham

Family
Cafe staff
Caterer
Stationary Store Owner
Hairdresser
Courier
Postal Carrier
Landlord
Rotary club
Chamber of Commerce
Lions Club
Networking Associations
Hobby clubs
Culture organizations
Sport Teams
Sport Facilities
Yoga Instructor
Mechanic
Sign Maker
Neighbours (We’re Canadian, eh?)
Subcontractors
Suppliers
Industry association
Operating Staff
Staff admin/reception
Tribe
Customers (Our Business Owners)
Realtor
VA – research
VA – admin
Electrician
Carpenter
Handyperson
Banker
Cleaning
IT
Marketing
Librarians
Facebook Friends
Twitter Followers
G+ Circles
Trainers
Website designers, hosters
Graphic designer
Printer
Local Small Business Organizations
Phone company
Radio Stations
Newspaper reporters
Payroll company
Mastermind group
Friends
Boards you are on
Other Business Owners
Mentor
Cheerleaders
Sparks/innovator
Inspirer
Bigger picture person
Hugger
Shoulder rubber
Financial Advisor
Accountant
Lawyer
Mayor
Town Council
Politicians

Each of them brings a piece you need for you, for your business, or for your community.

Who else is on your team?

One of the first moves I made when I decided to work towards making my business more effortless (although I didn’t call it that back then) was to create a little checklist on an index card for the Crystal Clear Lunch & Learn series I was running.

I listed the 4 things I needed to bring:

Signs I had great signs with movable direction arrows and a white board area for writing in the day’s topic and speaker

Cookies  You gotta feed people something at a Lunch & Learn.

Handouts and other resources pertaining to the topic

Supplies This was a prepacked (ie, it wasn’t emptied) bag with a table cloth, cups, tea bags, sugar etc.) and my business cards and other marketing material, because the series was a marketing initiative.

On the back, I had the phone number for the local café where I picked up a premade carafe of coffee.   They made the coffee and supplied the little milk and creamers.  I think buying the coffee is worth it just so I don’t have to worry about dairy products.  I had the phone number of the venue.   I started to call to check in the morning of.  A couple of times there was a hitch. This meant I had a few hours to straighten it out.

That little index card meant more than not just forgetting something on the day, which would not be catastrophic, merely annoying.  Much more than that, it meant I didn’t have to think about it until a few hours before.

I took the time to think about what I wanted to get out of the series and what was needed to make that happen.  By recording it and having it available, I didn’t have to think about it again.

The heavens didn’t open, angels didn’t sing, but I sure recognized a tool that saved me time, cleared brain space and optimized the situation.

I made a checklist a few years ago during an HR workshop. I won a coffee card for it, but that’s not the point here, although it probably put the whole thing in a more favourable light.  I spent a few more hours adding in pages about our mission, our policies and privacy.  Since that time I have used it every time we have a new person start here.

It works.  Once again, I don’t have to think about it until it’s time.  The rest of the team hear about our mission, our policies and privacy, again (we have an open office).  Everyone knows what we are doing here, how they fit in and how everyone else fits in; and they know everyone else does, too.

The New Employee Induction Tool is for sale on our resources page. A free Employee Handbook Template that is very comprehensive and a free sample Employee Evaluation are available for download, too.

This is just the beginning.  We will have many more resources for you – paid and unpaid.  Here’s to making Your Business Effortless!

What checklists do you use?  What checklists would you like to use?  What do you do over and over again that should have a checklist?

Do you want to craft Your Effortless Business?

1. Sign up for the email updates
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Three announcements:

1. I have created my first product and put it up under Resources.  It’s a tool to help you welcome a new hire on their first day.  It’s pretty comprehensive and is designed to make them feel welcome and to help them hit the ground running.
2. I have written a book and it is launching on February 29^th!
3. I will be presenting a live and in person, 2-day, Crafting Your Effortless Business workshop in early March.

As I build this business I will pull back the curtain from time to time to let you see the workings of an online Information Business.  It’s not about Crafting Your Effortless Business, but about how I make this business; although, of course, I will be using Effortless Business principles.  Consider this the meta-view.

I want to break down what an Information Business is.  First you develop an idea or concept.  It should be at that wonderful confluence of your Passion, your Expertise, and something people Need enough to pay for it.  This is the information part.

The business part means that there should be an economic engine there.  Usually that means consulting, coaching, workshops, memberships or speaking.  There will be products, too.  These are usually books, workbooks, home-study courses or tools.

How the book came about

I decided to write out Your Effortless Business as a way to clarify it in my mind and to have it.  Some friends of mine were starting a publishing project and were looking for manuscripts to use as a guinea pig.  I sent them mine and they liked it, but asked that I expand it into book size – small book size, but book size.  I spent the last month writing every morning.

They have a full team and a strategy and support and professional feedback.  I’ve done this before, written a document and then I get to a place where everything I want to say is down, but it doesn’t flow, doesn’t make sense and isn’t making my thoughts persuasively clear.  Enter Joel Canfield.  We met virtually and talked through what I had and what I was trying to convey.  He helped me see a structure and a flow that makes the ideas come alive.

The book is now in the hands of our first reader, my good  friend Connie.  She will give us feedback from a gross level that will help me fill in gaps and clarify specific ideas.  Next, Tom will edit.  He will be looking at the writing itself, making it clean.  Finally, Leigh Anne will take Asia’s cover design, my writing (if I can still call such a team effort ‘my writing’) and make it into the book form.

This book could be called the Effortless Book all because of working with a team of professionals.  They’ve made the process Predictable – I know what to expect each step of the way.  We are using the appropriate tools, I’m making the time I need and Joel is great at keeping my head in the right place.  We have a great team.   The remuneration to me will come from several sources – book sales, yes, but others, too.  Books tend to be a springboard for other projects such as consulting, coaching, workshops, and speaking.

If you are interested in creating an Information Business, then follow along by signing up for the updates.   I am posting about Crafting Your Effortless Business and I am pulling back the curtain to show you this Effortless Business as I build it.

Here is a very abbreviated outline of this article. Go read the article, it won’t take long and you will have the outline here to refer to later.

•  People buy for many reasons almost none of them have to do with the features of your product. The facts are used to justify the decision that is already made.
•  Find out what the most important factors are.  Make them an integral part of your offering and your marketing.
•  Practice, practice and listen to your customers.
•  People will pay if they like it. Even if it’s free elsewhere.
•  There are lots of different models for pricing. Predictability for you and the customer works for both of you. Take away the risk as much as possible
•  Bootstrapping means a focus on getting a product out fast that starts pulling in money. That means focusing on what customers want.
• Practice, test, try again.

What one thing did you take from this that you will change from your business?

How do you get to that point?

Most people start a business aiming pretty widely.  They start as a plumber for hire.  They may prefer renovations over new installs.  As time passes, they may do some jobs involving claw foot tubs.  If they have a passion for it and if people are interested they will develop more expertise.  They’ll find out who has a few in the back yard; who refurbishes them; who has the taps that fit them.  Eventually, people will get to know that they are the ones to call about claw foot tubs.

This happens because they tested the market as they went.  They listened to what people wanted and they followed their passion at the same time.  They won’t be working with the tub insert crowd and they won’t be working with the whirlpool crowd.

I told the women from the job-finders club that starting a business is an option and that I help people in business. That sparked for one of them as her eyes lit up.  She told me her passion is retail – sales retail, but (with sagging shoulders) she said that requires too much money and there’s too much involved in setting up a shop.

I told her about a friend of mine who sells environmentally safe products in pop-up spaces about once a month.  She also sells one to one to the people who know her.  I mentioned the farmer’s markets – we have several in the local towns.  There are restrictions about what products can be sold there. There are also craft fairs, specialty shows and flea markets.

It won’t take a big investment, she can start part-time and the best part, I said, is that it’s a way to test what people want.  Once she finds what takes off, she can think about growing into a full time shop.

Keep listening to your customers.  They will tell you what they like of yours.  They will ask for other things.  They most definitely talk with what they buy.

Your Effortless Business is predictable and pays well.  Selling what people want to buy is one of the keys.

When I first meet someone I’m all ears, I want to find out about them.  I want to know what they are passionate about.  If I can help them, I do it.  I get a thrill from passing on a tip or a hint or a great resource.  My favourite, though is when I can connect 2 people I think will be able to help each other.  The ball, is then in their court.  I love doing that!

Once in a while a meet someone whose passion matches mine and that’s when I can practically hear that ‘Click’ sound.  Usually when we first meet we don’t have enough time to get into too much depth, so we set up a further meeting.

In this case, I met with both of them over the past 2 days to discuss a project having to do with automating accounting.  Both meetings went well, and in both cases we are moving forward to the next step.

In an initial meeting, I’m looking for values compatibility, for matched expectations and for personality fit.  I’m only trying to figure out if I want to keep talking to them – to set up the next meeting.  We’re exploring and asking questions.  Before we end the meeting, we agree on how and when to follow up and what we should do or bring for the next step.  We are still exploring, and in a lot of ways we are helping one another get clear about what we want.

That’s how you build a team: one person/group at a time.

Who have you clicked with recently?

The 5th Element is YOU!

Without you, none of it happens.  You have to do it.  You have to lead and be creative, swallow your fear and fight entropy to craft Your Effortless Business.

This blog is where I talk about the 4 essential components.  My other blog, the Business Owners Success Club is where I talk about you.

I have written a post here about your role in crafting Your Effortless Business.

It’s small business owners that support the local arts, sports and culture.  It’s small business owners who work with local government to make sure the water is clean, the electricity is flowing, the streets are safe and clean, and the community is the best it can be.

I believe I can help small business owners craft their businesses to be easier, so they will have the time and resources to make their communities better.

Everything else in your business comes from your WHY.  What work you do, with whom you work, how much you charge, even what paper you use (or don’t).   It all comes from deeply understanding your WHY.  Start with your WHY.

Here is a great TED video of the bottom-line importance of your WHY.

Here’s a great worksheet from Lance Secretan to help you drill down to your WHY.

http://www.secretan.com/Why-Be-Do-Worksheet.pdf

What’s your WHY?

PREDICTABLE

You know where you are and where you are going.  You know how to do what you want to do.  You know when to ask for help and from whom.

You know your why.  Your Business Model is clear.  You have policies and procedures in place that everyone follows.  You have an effective financial system (mostly automated) giving you the feedback you need to keep you moving forward.

Most surprises are good ones.

ENVIRONMENT

Your business can run without your direct input for the day-to-day running.  Everything is in place so you can give it your all.

Your information is stored appropriately and in a way that makes retrieval easy.  All repetitive tasks are automated.

TEAM

The people around you support you and the work you do.  Your team can articulate the common goal; they understand how they fit into the big picture, everyone shares similar values.  Everyone brings their own unique value and everyone appreciates the value others bring.  The team is compatible and able to work independently.  You practice effective delegation.  You coach your team to communicate, collaborate and cooperate.

WELL PAID

You offer true value.  You can do the work efficiently and cost-effectively.  You bill appropriately and you make it easy for others to pay you.

You have a marketing system in place that attracts the right customers and makes what you offer clear.  People feel they are getting a great deal when they work with you.

What do you think?  Does that sound right to you?  Which of these do you do well?  Which would you like to work on next?