Telefini Small Business Blog

Growing up, I can remember hearing stories about George Washington’s bravery in the Battle of Trenton, building models of Abraham Lincoln’s log cabin, and coloring pictures of teddy bears in honor of Theodore Roosevelt’s refusal to shoot a tethered bear during a hunt. President’s Day in school was always marked with extra lessons around the great presidents of our country, and of course, it was nice to get a day off from school.  I’ve noticed over the years though that outside of school, it’s very easy to just simply appreciate the 3-day weekend (if we’re lucky to even have the day off). Outside of academics, it takes much more deliberate intention to reflect on the accomplishments and legacy of our past leaders.  So, on this quiet Monday, I am taking this opportunity to share the inspirations I’ve gathered from looking to our past, and how three past Presidents are shaping the way we develop our business for the future.

Know what you know and know that you’ll never know enough

There are countless reasons to recognize our founding father and first President, George Washington. Perhaps a less celebrated accomplishment though was Washington’s understanding of his own limitations. Washington knew he would need to be surrounded by the best ideas and knowledge of his time. He relied heavily on the advice and counsel of others including Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. He started the tradition of meeting with the heads of various departments as a group. These meetings came to form what is now an established aspect of our government – the cabinet.

From a business perspective, the concept of the cabinet helps me remember that as a leader and co-founder, we can’t do or know everything. My colleague often says that, “It doesn’t matter if I personally can move the mountain. What matters is whether I can get the mountain moved.” We can move mountains by being aware of our own limitations and developing the right teams to add what we may be missing. There is nothing wrong with bringing in fresh ideas and strong people to carry out business strategies – in fact, this will be essential for success.

The Power of Words

It takes resiliency to live in the Northwest through the month of February. We’re known for the rain and never-ending gray days that even hide our beautiful mountain ranges - hence the phrase, “the mountain is out” when the sun happens to break its way through the thick blanket of dullness. February in Washington really pushes you to be strong. One of my favorite local authors, Tom Robbins has even lamented about the dreary, constricting, frustrating, disappointing month of February.  In his novel Jitterbug Perfume, Robbins writes that:

“However more abbreviated than its cousins it may look, February feels longer than any of them. It is the meanest moon of winter, all the more cruel because it will masquerade as spring, occasionally for hours at time, only to rip off its mask….and spit icicles into every gullible face, behavior that grows quickly old.”

I love this description of February, and I highly encourage you to read the full passage. I can send it to you if you like. I write about February right now because I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling increasingly claustrophobic and antsy. There’s this lingering feeling of anticipation…for what, I’m not sure, but for something that never seems to arrive. Perhaps, it’s waiting for that warm, sunny day. Speaking of which, do you remember that rare stretch of beautiful, warm sun a couple weeks ago? It seems like it was ages ago now!  As we wait for the shortest month to take forever to pass, I offer these three tips to survive the remainder of this lackluster month.

1. Bring the sunshine to you, even if it’s artificial

Let me be clear - I’m not referring to tanning booths. Rather, find ways to brighten your space, at home and work. Open the blinds, get light colored curtains, bring in new plants, or even consider getting those “daylight” light bulbs (I don’t know their official name).  This may sound silly, but I even find that just changing the background image on my computer monitor to a sunny, beach landscape has made me feel a little better. At least I can day dream about a sunnier, warmer place. 

2. Stay active

I know there are numerous reports and advice out there about the importance of exercise, but more than anything, I’d say it’s good to just keep moving. Go for a walk, go dancing, just do something that gets you out and about. I admit, as much as I have to drag myself to the pool, I always feel really good after a good swimming workout. Plus, you can reward yourself with a sauna afterwards. Whatever you choose, find something that gets your circulation going – walking, swimming, playing tennis, etc.  My physical therapist used to reiterate how exercising simultaneously does wonders for your brain and cognitive capacity because of all that increased blood flow (I know she purposely reiterated this point to me, since at the time I was wrapping up grad school).

3. Plan for better days

I find that making some concrete plans for a spring trip, or even taking a weekend trip 50 miles away can help overcome those feelings of being stuck in the February rut. Go to the ocean, go hiking, explore a new city or town, or find a great a restaurant. Even locally, if I spend a day in Columbia City or explore Ballard, I feel better (I’m sure that’s partly because it ties into that whole staying active piece). Even a trip to Owen Beach in Tacoma can significantly brighten my spirits – if you haven’t been there, you should check it out sometime. For those living outside of Tacoma, Pt. Defiance (including the 5 mile drive) and Owen Beach could just be that perfect weekend trip. Go have some fun over this long weekend – weather be darned!

These are a few steps I take to help February pass more quickly and less painfully. Tell me what you find to be helpful. Do you have suggestions of new places to check out ?

There are numerous matching sites out there to help you find that perfect Mr. or Mrs. Right. Unfortunately small businesses looking for that perfect partner to help grow their business, start a new product line, or enter a new market have little in the way of matchmaking resources. There are sites to help small businesses connect with each other, including our favorite – partnerup.com.  However, the bigger challenge lies not in finding or connecting with a business partner, but in developing the right type of partnership.  

Opposites attract….but only so much

I’ve heard countless times how opposites attract, and while I believe there may be some truth in that point, when it comes to business partnerships, I would say a better approach is to seek partners who can fill noticeable gaps and who can complement your company’s strengths, skills, and product offerings. A little creativity and out of the box thinking doesn’t hurt, but keep your brand and customer base in mind. How will a partnership with a particular company affect your brand reputation or your customers’ desire to do continued business with you?

To get started spend some time analyzing your strengths, areas for improvement (a.k.a. “weaknesses”), and potential opportunities. Next, analyze whether your company has the capacity to improve or seize specific opportunities on its own. If the answer is “no” or “sort of,” then you’ve just identified a potential target focus for a new partnership. Once you’re clear on your needs, you can start evaluating prospective partners based on the skills, assets, or new target markets they can bring to the table.

I remember several years ago this series of Sprint cell phone commercials in which the “Sprint PCS Guy” went around helping people fix their communication problems. One included a husband bringing home Shamu the whale, instead of shampoo. Another involved a mock up couple’s counseling session in which the wife declares, “all I ever hear from him is **static noise**”. The Sprint Guy politely informs them that static and poor quality are to blame for their problems, and he shows them a better way. I always found these commercials amusing, and you can actually still find the Shamu one on YouTube.

I bring the commercials up here though, because during this “month of love,” I can’t help but think about how good communication is the key to healthy, long lasting relationships. This applies both to personal and business relationships. It’s natural for relationships to have their ups and downs, but your phones shouldn’t contribute to the lows or hinder the development of strong, mutually supportive relationships, be they personal or professional.

I do not proclaim to be a personal relationship expert, but I know three qualities of our phone system that have helped us build and maintain our relationships with customers: Availability, Clarity, and Consistency.

Availability

There’s nothing more frustrating than when you desperately need a question answered or help with a task, and you can’t reach the person with the answers. A busy signal, voicemail, or automated recording are the last sounds you want to hear. When my clients call, my desk phone will ring and if I don’t answer, their calls come to my cell phone. If I know I’m going to be in a long meeting or training, I change the settings so incoming calls on my desk forward to another member on my team, thus ensuring the greatest chance of my clients getting the help they need when they need it.  Relationships get stronger every time you show up during a time of need. You’ve heard the cliché phrases of how a partner “was never available for me” or “was emotionally closed off.”  While we can’t solve all the personality and psychological aspects of relationships, we can at least be confident that our phones aren’t the culprit.

Clarity

Over the past year or so, I started hearing the term “value added” used in conversations around strategy, time management, and training. To be honest, for a long time I wasn’t a fan of the phrase, and I’m still not a 100% sold on it, primarily because I just don’t like the way it’s typically used in a sentence (“is that value added?”)…but I digress. Once I picked up on the fact that “value added” really has to do with choosing to spend your time in the most productive and efficient way to accomplish your goals – be they personal, professional, or organizational, I began to start asking myself if I was engaging in value added activities.

Don't answer too quickly

What I’ve found is that answering the value added question is not always easy. Yes, for some activities it’s clear, and it just takes a quick analysis to realize that you could be spending you time on much more important things (e.g. sifting through countless emails when you can use various tools to automatically sort your emails for you). However, I’ve also come to realize that sometimes it takes time to realize the value in certain tasks, meetings, or projects.

From a business perspective, it’s easy to quantify “value added” activities as strictly those that directly lead to a sale. Professionally, it can be easy to say only those activities that allow you to add a new line on your resume or help you climb one step higher on the corporate ladder are worth your energy. If you’re an independent consultant – similarly – the tendency is to focus energy on acquiring and completing those projects for which you’re paid.  I admit I’ve succumbed to this line of thinking, especially when I felt like we weren’t making enough progress toward our goals. Don’t get me wrong. It is important to make sure you’re focused on the important tasks, and there’s a lot of research out there on how best to spend and manage time, including Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”  However, I urge you to consider that sometimes the true “value added” activities may appear in disguise or may just take a little longer to come to fruition.

A case in point

Do you want the benefits of shared calendars, work groups, and company email without having to rely on servers or IT experts? Are you looking for an affordable and user friendly way to manage your website? Do you want a better way to work and collaborate with your team without having to meet face to face? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, Google Apps may be the answer for your business.

With Google Apps, you get hosted email, shared calendars, Google Docs, chat, video, and a whole lot more for one yearly price. There’s also a free Education Edition for schools and nonprofits. Google is simple, intuitive, and easy to implement. We have used Google Docs and Forms to work collaboratively on marketing projects, collect feedback or registrations for events, and to write program plans, all while working from different locations.

Key Benefits

Google has a great site (http://www.gonegoogle.com/#/company-name) to help you calculate how switching to Google Apps can benefit your company based on how many employees you have. For instance, a small business with 10 employees could:

• Save more than $30,000 in IT costs
• Be 2.8 times more productive while mobile (since you can access what you need anytime, anywhere with internet)
• Save data and money from lost or stolen laptops
• Put 500 hours to better use by no longer having to manage spam or do software upgrades
• Collaborate more effectively – from using chat and video features to reducing the amount of document revisions, since multiple users can edit a single document simultaneously in real time.

Website Creation and Management Made Easy!

Sure, you’re wondering if you read the title correctly, or if I’m referring to another Richard Engel besides the NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent. (Or maybe you’re asking, “who in the heck is Richard Engel?!”) Your initial thought was correct. I’m talking about the Richard Engel, whom you’ve probably seen at least once over the past few years covering events in the Middle East. How can he help my business, you ask? Okay, so Richard Engel probably can’t directly help your business per se, but there are a few key lessons to be garnered from his work as a reporter that can help your business move forward.

1)     Don’t be afraid to jump in head first and truly live your business

It’s clear that Richard Engel has no problem diving right into the thick of riots, protests, and wars. He’s in it, it’s personal, and it’s pretty much his whole life (at least from what I can gather). He’s lived in the Middle East for several years, can easily navigate his way around, and he experiences the same world as those he’s reporting on. With that in mind, do you live and breathe your business? Whether just starting out or celebrating your 50th year, do you feel 100% committed to your work? (Don’t get me wrong – a healthy life/work balance is important too.) However, the level of growth your business has this next year will correlate with your level of passion, commitment, and willingness to let yourself be completely dedicated to accomplishing your goals. Do you understand the environment your business is operating in? Are you willing to take some risks or venture down a different path to get where you need to be? Are you ready to give your business everything you have to offer – your best ideas, creativity, leadership, and sheer effort?

2)     Get to know the people, landscape, and culture

This is probably the most obvious and well known advice for running a business (i.e. “know thy customer”), but I believe it can’t be said enough, and we all need to remember to focus on what truly drives our business – our customers. Not only is Richard Engel fluent in Arabic, he can speak a multitude of local dialects. He can tell you about the customs and traditions of a specific region, what’s going on in local politics, and I’m sure even the best places to eat local fare.  Have you taken time recently or even this week to check in with your top customers? What are they hoping to accomplish this year? What challenges are they facing or anticipating in the months to come? Have they found a new restaurant they love? Perhaps it’s time to meet there for lunch.

Winter is officially showing its face around the Puget Sound region, and we’re preparing for the next “Snowmageddon,” which in this fine area means we’re expecting 6-12 inches of snow. Those outside of Western Washington (including our neighbors just over the mountains) may not understand our all too quick willingness to shut everything down for a few snowflakes. I, however, have accepted this culturally ingrained mentality to “freak out” at even the slightest chance of snowfall. With this acceptance, also comes my extreme gratitude for having the awesome benefits of our Telefini phone system, which allow me to continue working while safely remaining in the comfort of my home.

For me, preparing for “Snowmageddon” means brewing some Earl Grey tea, turning on the fire place (I wish I had a wood burning fireplace), and starting up our Call Manager. I no longer have to feel guilty about choosing to stay home from work because I don’t want to brave the side streets or potential snowfall during an evening commute. With Call Manager, I use headphones with a built in microphone to answer and make calls as if I were sitting right in the office.  If I happened to be snowed in at a friend’s house without access to a computer or my laptop, I could still receive my work calls on my cell phone or direct calls to my colleague by making a few changes on Call Manager using the mobile app.

For me, the little things truly make my day. I don’t mean this to be cheesy. I genuinely get excited when I learn a new trick for example in Excel or Word. Just recently (and I can’t believe I’m admitting it), I learned that if you have a couple tabs open in one Internet Explorer window, you can actually drag out each tab into its own window (which is also great if you have two monitors). It seems simple and a little silly, but I find these small discoveries can make a difference, and at a time when it can be so tough to run a business, why not find reasons to get excited?

First, a look back

For those of you who don’t know me, working for Telefini is still relatively new. For the vast majority of my professional life, I worked for Boys & Girls Clubs. I know, I know. You’re wondering how in the world I went from working with children everyday to working for a phone company, but that’s another story. For now, I bring this up simply to say that no matter what you do in life, it’s important to make it exciting and enjoyable. Believe me, after coming from a job where I worked with amazing youth and could pretty much guarantee I’d have time to play games every day (and have it considered part of my job), I wasn’t sure I could ever top that. To be honest, you really can’t beat working with, supporting, and inspiring youth, but that’s not a big surprise. However, there are some pretty awesome aspects about our phone systems, including Voicemail to Email, that make working with Telefini exciting in its own way.

Discovering Voicemail to Email

It's a new year, and all of us at Telefini have set personal and professional goals for 2012. Beyond exercising more and finding better work/life balance, we're committed to making 2012 an exciting, productive, and joyous year. As a kick off, I have started our Telefini Small Business Blog. My hope is that you'll be able to get to know us and our products better, and that we'll get to learn more about you. At Telefini, we want to understand your needs and learn how we can help you achieve your goals for the New Year. This blog will encompass a variety of topics, including new features or tips on our Telefini phone systems (of course), our lessons learned from running our own small business, and our thoughts on the latest technology trends. I'll probably be the primary writer, though you may occasionally see posts from different Team Members or under a collective pen name.

I look forward to seeing your comments, answering your questions, and building a stronger business community through our blog and our soon to be launched Facebook Page (stay tuned)! I want to make this blog relevant, interesting, and worthy of your valuable time, so if you have suggestions for topics you would like to know more about, please feel free to leave a comment.

In the meantime, all of us at Telefini hope 2012 has had a fantastic start for you, and we look forward to partnering with you in the months to come.