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We moved back to WP.

Yes, it was over a year ago. In conversation with Mitch Joel, he said anyone moving a blog should put a redirect post in place. This is it.

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Year in Review

I like to pause at this time to look over the past year and into the coming year.

As you look back over your year, ask your self these questions:


What surprised me most in my business?
How my business boomed this year. Usually, when people mention the recession word, business owners look for ways to slash spending which means outside services like bookkeeping are one of the first to go. But not this time. Business owners realized that if they were going to make it through they had better hunker down, with good data, and spend their time effectively.

What was the best thing I did?
I traveled. I took a trip to Iceland and England to attend TEDGlobal, in Oxford; I spent a week with my family on the Bras D'Or Lakes; I went to the Celebrating Communities Conference in Truro and I flew to Toronto to celebrate my parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary. I got clarity, new ideas, different perspectives, met amazing people and realized, you know, this is a pretty good world we live in.

What mistakes have I learned from?
Leadership has the responsibility of nurturing and supporting the people around me. This doesn't come naturally to me so I am asking for help and trying to ally with others who can fulfill that role.

Listening is important to make sure that what I am hearing is what the other person is saying. We all see the world in a different way and perceive it through our own lens. I stumbled a couple of times from not having clear communication and expectations with other people.

What is my most proud accomplishment?
That I have taken several visions to completion and that I am bringing several others along. I turned thought into a tangible. Wow.

What did I not accomplish that I hoped I would?
I had hoped I would have several people here in the office working by now. I'm hopeful that I will by early in January.

Looking back, what was the theme of my year?
Going Places
By that I mean travel as well as learning and stepping out of my comfort zone.


As you look ahead, ask yourself these questions:

Where would I like to be in a year from now? ( I don't necessarily mean geographically)
I'd like to have Crystal Clear Bookkeeping Ltd. in 2 locations with 6 staff.
I'd like the Business Owners Success Club to have 600 on-line members making clear progress on their businesses every month.
I'd like to have taken 4 trips during the year, including a cross-Canada odyssey with my family.

What big thing can I accomplish next year?
I want to take the kids across Canada by Travel Trailer. That means getting my businesses to the point where I don't have to be here. That means delivering value from where ever I am.

I've noticed that I have to focus beyond where I am so that I can overcome the fear and just deliver. I find fear rears its head and stalls projects just before completion as I begin to second guess myself and begin to worry about what other people will think. I'm hoping that by focusing on something bigger, I will be able to just deliver all that I can.

What can I get rid of to make room for better things?
I'd like to say fear, but that isn't realistic. I can say that I will get rid of the hesitation that fear brings. Seth Godin has a great video about that here.

Which of my strengths can I highlight this year?
My strengths are Futuristic, Learner, Input, Maximizer, Strategic: I work best when I'm gathering information and figuring out the best way to use it. I've gathered lots of information and now I want to focus on turning it around and putting it back out there.

What would I like the theme for this year to be?
My theme will be Deliver

This is a great exercise to inspire yourself to keep moving forward. We tend to over estimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what we can do in 10 years. By doing this exercise every year, I am finding that I am accomplishing more every year while directing my 10 year plans better.

How about you...

What Matters Now

Seth Godin, thought-leader extrordinaire, has asked more than 70 of today's top thinkers to write a page each about what they are thinking about/planning for the coming year/want to share.

He has compiled it into a pdf that he is encouraging all to share.

Here's what I'm thinking about/planning for the coming year/want to share.


UNITE

If all small business owners were united into a community whose aim is to support each other, the world would be a better place.

Small business supports local sport, culture and community.

Business owners have a vested interest in making sure their communities have good infrastructure.

Small business is the economic life of most communities by providing jobs, buying goods and services, and making goods and services available.

Therefore, the more successful small business is, the better our communities can be. This applies all over the world and is the reason that the Acumen Fund and Kiva are such important charities.

It sure feels like running a small business is a tough road. Why is that?

If we worked together, small business would be more successful.

Support other small business by recognizing that none of us are competitors, we all want to help, the more you give the more you get in return. Share advice/resources/ideas. Buy from your community.

Read What Matters Now, apply it and pass it on. Tell us what you are thinking about/planning for the coming year/want to share.

The Best of 2009

I went to TEDGlobal in Oxford England July 2009.

This counts as best trip, conference and restaurant meal. (pictures here)

The trip itself was cool because I had an 11-hour stopover in Iceland so; of course, I went to Reykjavik and then for a soak in the Blue Lagoon. I saw the Jeff Koons exhibit at the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park and I spent the weekend after the conference with my cousin, Patricia.

This brings me to my best restaurant meal. After touring Borough Market, several churches and the Tate Modern, Patricia and I met up with my sister-in-law and her husband at Imli, an Indian Tapas place in Soho. There we were - 4 Canadians, all related, laughing, eating and drinking for hours.

The TEDGlobal conference was mind-blowing. It is a world-class conference with all the amenities and comfort you could expect. The speakers were amazing. The videos of them don’t capture all the nuances of their personalities that you can see when you are there. The audience is every bit as amazing as the people on stage and everyone is there to immerse themselves in the experience. The venues, the program and the energy were all designed to keep people mixing and moving. It was an enlightening, life-changing experience. It was a stretch for me to get there and I am grateful that I did.

#BEST09

Another Amazing Female Singer

Imogen Heap wowed us at TEDGlobal this past July. Here is one of her songs. Enjoy.

Room to Fail

I’ve had some very interesting discussions over the last few months about failing.

One person, a CEO of a billion dollar company, suggested that maybe our goal shouldn’t be to stop failure, but to make it easy for people to not be afraid of failure and to support people who have failed. Fail often and quickly is the mantra. With engineering, I view this year's failure as next year's opportunity to try it again. Failures are not something to be avoided. You want to have them happen as quickly as you can so you can make progress rapidly. Gordon Moore

The Shame in Failure

In our society, there is still shame in failing. Failing is equated with losing, rather than with finding another way. Thomas Edison said he found 10,000 ways not to make a light bulb. If he had thought each was a failure, how could he have continued on to 10,000 more tries? Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently. Henry Ford

What's the Worst That Can Happen?

The best lesson I learn from failure is that the world doesn’t come to an end when I do. With every failure I gain more courage because I know that if it doesn’t work, the worst that can happen is that I will end up back where I started and, well, I’ve been there before. Happy is the man who can endure the highest and lowest fortune. He who has endured such vicissitudes with equanimity has deprived misfortune of its power. Seneca

I’m Proud of my Failures

They came about because I had the courage to try something. My high school’s motto was “Not to try is to fail.” We all have to decide how we are going to fail.. by not going far enough or by going too far. Sumner Redstone

Failure is a Nebulous Concept

If I run a series of Lunch & Learn sessions over 3 years that eventually peters out. Was that a failure? What if I told you that it established my reputation within the business community as someone who a) knows a lot about business (I better after listening to the 30 or so business experts I invited to speak) b) is willing to give time and effort within the business community and c) cares about the success of others as much as my own.

I can tell you that other projects have come my way because of that reputation. And that Crystal Clear Bookkeeping Ltd. has grown considerably over the years without paid advertising. It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It doesn’t matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because... All that matters in business is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.
Mark Cuban

Learn From Failure

If I take the time, I learn from my failures and I make the time because failure is the best lesson. Before success in any man's life he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do. Napoleon Hill

Fear of Failing is Tied to Skill Level

I am afraid of failing at hiring the right people. I’ve had some real gems and a couple of not-so-gems. I’ve learned every time.

The downside of hiring badly is that it can hurt my business and cost me money. The upside of a good hire is that my business expands and my life is easier.

When I’m stepping into an area of business I don’t know as well, like hiring, recognizing the difference between success and failure - between a gem and a n-s-g - is much harder. Being unsure increases the likelihood of failure and it makes it more difficult to recognize it earlier.

I will try to mitigate it by creating an evaluation sheet that spells out clearly the difference between a g and a n-s-g and use it early and often. In my case, not recognizing when to ask questions, taking too much of my time needlessly and costing more than I can bill are the important indicators. I will evaluate their work weekly and keep in close contact with my clients.

See, I’m learning. Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough. Og Mandino

Is failure the opposite of success? Or is it merely a precursor? Does the magnitude of the successful outcome depend on how spectacular the failures were that preceded it? Is success possible without failure? Does success without the stepping-stones of small failures breed a fear of eventual failure? Some people are destroyed by their first failure, while others are destroyed by their first major success. So let's have successes in small amounts, leading up to being able to be successful. Jose Silva

Failure is Inevitable

Failure is an important aspect of business and it’s an inevitability so embrace it and be proud that you have just learned yet another way not to do what you tried. Success is not built on success. It's built on failure. It's built on frustration. Sometimes its built on catastrophe. Sumner Redstone

There’s Another Yellow Car

If you look for yellow cars all of a sudden it seems like every second car is yellow. The same goes for purple, blue, pink or brown ones. Now that I’m looking for information about hiring, there are resources popping out at me from everywhere.

I had lunch with a friend, Shelley Fleckinstein of King’s Physiotherapy, who has grown her company to 26 people. Shelley is a people person so I asked her for her advice and this is what she said:

• Be clear about the job
• List the benefits you offer
• Hire on probation
• Create a process for evaluating the new hire

Thank you, Shelley for making it manageable and less scary.

This week the HRSDC (Human Resources and Skills Development Canada) conducted an information workshop about hiring (look, another yellow car). They talked about breaking jobs down into essential skills and then looking at what level of each of those skills are required for the job.

1. For instance, what level of reading is required?
2. Reading emails and responding
3. Reading a full page memo about a new company process
4. Reading a manual to learn a new computer program
5. Reading and interpreting government regulations

Each of these is more challenging than the one before. It is important to realize what level of skill is required and to make sure the people you hire have at least the level of this skill that you require.

For more information about Essential Skills, Skills Assessment and Development and for improving HR practices can go check out these links:

http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/workplaceskills/essential_skills/general/home.shtml

http://essentialskillsthatwork.com/home.html

When I got to the presentation Shelley was there with her manager, Cheryl, so I knew I was in the right place. It just goes to show you that the learning never ends (that's a good thing) and we can always get better at the skills we need.

Hiring

When hiring, I’m supposed to consider:

The new people should have the skills to do the tasks

Their strengths should complement what’s already in the company

I need to be able to assess their strengths

I need them to be able to work on their own

I’d like them to be a part of the team.

I should look for people who will fit in with the culture of my company

I need to understand the culture of my business

Staff will be the face of my business and can make or break success

I should consider people who are different than me so that I will have a well-rounded offering

But not too different or they will clash with my customers’ expectations and the other staff

And all this from a resume and an interview.

No pressure!