A key part of growing and sustaining a successful small business is building relationships with customers, potential customers, vendors, industry leaders and influencers. That means that now and then you have to take your head out of the day-to-day operations of your business and venture out to conferences, summits, and other networking and learning opportunities. 

 

It can be overwhelming deciding what organizations and events are the best use of your time.  Do not let that stop you from venturing out.  It was not until I took that step that I connected with folks who helped me secure a loan through a special program and gain access to bidding opportunities that I may not have learned about.  Networking and learning opportunities provided by the state at no cost helped me a lot. 

 

Good Place to Start

 

The Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Summit on Friday, June 25 at the Boston Convention Center is a good place to start.  It is targeted toward  minority and women-owned businesses and focused on three major areas.

            1.  Accessing federal, state and quasi-public contracts;

            2.  Connecting with private organizations that want to improve business                                    
                opportunities with minority and women-owned business and

            3.  Learning about funding products that can help you grow your business 

 

For more information and to register go to Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Summit.

 

 

I am a late bloomer when it comes to managing money and planning for my own financial health.  I learned from my own mistakes and it cost me, personally and in my business.  In life it may be true that learning from your mistakes is the best way to make lessons stick.  In business it can cost you thousands, even millions.  When I think of the money I left on the table... April is National Financial Literacy Month and the SBA is offering FREE financial education webinars on April 14 and 21 focusing on establishing and maintaining healthy financial habits.  Check it out.  You have to start somewhere and there is no time like the present to learn personal and business money management.  I know firsthand that It puts money in your pocket.

As a sole owner are you ready to take your small business to the next level but cannot get a loan or afford the added expertise you need to make it happen? Do you need a vacation but cannot leave your business unattended?  Are you working 24/7 and hardly ever see your family? If you have answered yes to these questions, this may be a good time to consider taking on a partner.

When I asked myself those questions, I decided to get a partner to buy into my company – 50/50.  Most folks told me to keep majority ownership.  It was my view that if my partner owned fifty percent of the business, she would have as much vested interested as I did and work just as hard to make it successful. 

Getting a partner to buy into my company added much needed working capital to grow the business.   Other advantages included having someone to collaborate with, share responsibilities and share the financial commitment and the potential to earn greater profits. 

I’m sure you have heard horrific stories about partnerships like when one partner rips off the other leaving the business and the wronged partner without recourse. I can testify to my own partnership disaster. But I can also testify to how well my partnership worked for many years.  In a partnership environment I was able to grow my business, put some money in my pocket from the buy in, spend time with my family and go on vacation without worry.  Our partnership thrived because we each brought a specific strength to the business and took a defined role.  We also shared the same values, work ethics and vision for the business.  The part that got messy was our exit strategy.  We did not have one. 

The most important decision you have to make about taking on a partner is the choice of a partner. Does the person’s personality work with yours?  What expertise does the person bring to the business?  What role will each of you play?  Are they a hard worker?  Do you share similar values and ethics?  Do you share the same vision for the business?

Then consider the partnership agreement and other rules and agreements that will govern the partnership.  Other issues to consider include whether you have the ability and wish to share the responsibility, give up control of the business and whether you can learn to compromise.  Partnerships can be successful when you take the right steps and lay a solid foundation from the beginning.

Starting and growing a business requires far more energy than money.  As a single parent trying to juggle work and family ups the ante remendously.  Starting and growing my company, Sparkle Cleaning, had me on 24/7 and mostly, no always, at my children’s expense.  But I learned that allowing them to become involved in what I was trying to do, letting them know about the losses and successes alike, made all the difference.  I also learned that those we think cannot possibly relate to our challenges have often been where we are and pushed through in much the same way.  So Sparkle became a family affair, as you will see in an excerpt from my book “From the Pits to the Palace.”

“From the Pits to the Palace” (Excerpt)

     Derron was fifteen, Qion nine when I taught them the art of stripping and waxing floors.  Carlin had a small kitchen area that Sparkle contracted to strip and wax quarterly.  The kids were my floor crew the first time in.  Qion and I swept the floor and filled the buckets with rinsing water.  Derron moved the table and chairs out of the space.  The 300 pound floor machine sat in the middle of the room.  I was just about to explain to Derron the intricacies of handling the monster machine when he decided to go it alone.  “Now what we have to do,” I said turning around to direct our next moves.  I sucked in air and belted out “Don’t touch…..” But I was too late.  The floor machine mocked Derron’s command to do its job and careened across the room on its own.  It knocked a water bucket over flooding the floor, spun me around, knocked Qion down and pinned him against the wall.
     “Shit!”  Derron said. 
     I covered my mouth muffling my scream. 
     “You stupid idiot,” Qion fired at Derron pushing and pulling at the machine, trying to free himself.  I stayed in my space, fearful that Qion was hurt. He jumped up and shouted, “You coulda killed me,” charged up to Derron, and stopped short of his toe tips.  “You always think you’re so big.”  We were speechlessness for a few seconds before we burst into laughter.
     One step out to bring back the monster machine and Derron’s feet reached for the ceiling.  His butt slammed onto the floor, causing another flurry of laughter.  Then James Carlin, the owner of the building, appeared in the doorway.  He was a man of medium stature.  Grey hair speckled his temples, pronouncing his murky complexion.  Weary from working long hours, I thought.  Even so, his clothes looked crisp as did his smile.    Feeling like I had been caught doing something wrong with the kids in the building, I was sure Sparkle had lost its largest contract.  
     “You seem to be having far too much fun at this.”
     “Just a few snags getting started,” I said.  “C’mon guys, let’s get this water up.”
     “Your sons, huh?”  He started in and then stopped, reading the situation.  Derron got up from the floor and gingerly made his way to the doorway and dry ground.  He rubbed his butt and groaned all the while.  
“You okay, young man?  You look no worse for your trouble.” Mr. Carlin introduced himself and shook hands with each of them, pumping their arms hard and long. “It’s a good thing you’re doing boys,” he said. “My sons worked with me when I first started too.  They helped me build this company.”  Turning to me he continued, “You’re doing a good job young lady.  Keep up the good work and this is one contract you won’t have to worry about losing.”  
     By the end of the night, the floor sparkled.  Carlin was a Sparkle client for ten years.  It wasn’t until Mr. Carlin retired and new property managers took over that we lost the contract.

Balancing work and family can be a challenge.  When I first started my small business I left my young children, Derron, age 13 and Qion, age 7, at home alone much of the time.  Now I may have had a few more problems percolating than you.  Besides living on welfare, I had drug and alcohol issues.  Nevertheless I stayed focused on making a better life for myself and my children by starting and growing a business.  My entrepreneurial journey had a rough start as you will see in the following excerpt from my book, “From the Pits to the Palace,” but my children became my greatest allies and champions and played a key role in the success of my company that went from a three person cleaning service to a company that supported 165 employees.

 
"From the Pits to the Palace" (Excerpt) 

When I got home and was going in, my heel caught in the doorway.  I lost my balance and stumbled into the living room where the kids were watching television.   I considered that I was more intoxicated than I thought as I straightened up, embarrassed that Derron and Qion might think I was drunk.

Qion did not move a muscle or even look at me.  He just sat with his legs folded Indian style.  His head rested against the back of the couch.  When he spoke, his voice scratched my ears like a nail across a blackboard.

“Some kind of mother you are.” Qion spit out at me.  He was seven-years-old.

I wanted to crawl inside myself and disappear from the face of God’s good earth.   And then I was angry, angry that he had judged me so harshly when I was running as fast as I could to make a life for him.  Or was I?  I sobered in that instant and snatched him up by the collar of his shirt, struggling to keep myself in check.  I could see Derron out of the corner of my eye get up from the couch and move out-of-the-way, not too far, as though he was ready to move in, if necessary, and keep me from killing his little brother.

“You little shit!  Who do you think you are talking to me like that?  I put food in your mouth, clothes on your back and a roof over your head!  Don’t you ever talk to me like that again!”  I dragged him to the stairs and told him to go to his room and not to come out unless he wanted to apologize.  Maybe it was me who owed him an apology, but I wouldn’t let myself walk in that direction.  Not then.

My body shook as I stood at the staircase watching him stomp his way to the top and turn the corner.  The silence that followed was deafening.  Then I felt Derron’s hand on my shoulder.  He turned me around and gave me a hug. 

“He’s a little jerk,” he assured me.  “I fixed chicken pot pies for dinner.  He sucked it up, so don’t worry about that knucklehead.”  He lead me to the kitchen, sat me at the table, and set a plate with a chicken pot pie and a side of cranberry sauce in front of me.  That had to be the best meal I had in years.

 While I ate, I listened.  Derron talked about his school and how he was struggling with his classes.  He talked about his friends, everything he knew about the dangers of taking drugs and drinking and how he would never smoke because he hated it and wished I would stop.  Then Qion came down.

“I’m sorry, mommy.  I didn’t mean it,” he said putting his head on my shoulder and wrapping his arms around my neck.  “I just didn’t want to eat D’s cookin’.”

“You whine too much,” Derron told Qion as he flicked his head.

“So what, you always think you’re big!” Qion rubbed his head with one hand and poked at Derron with the other. 

“I don’t like you drinkin’ all the time,” Qion said.  “You scare me when you’re always walkin’ and talkin’ funny and you smell.” 

“Shut up, Qion.”

“Leave him alone,” I whispered, stunned.

“Look, Ma,” Derron started.  “Never mind, let’s just go to bed.”

“No, son.  Say what you have to say.”

“You drink too much.  You drive when you’ve had too much to drink.  One of these days you’re not going to make it home and then we’ll be without a mother.  Is that what you want?”

“Yeah, Mommy.  I don’t want you to leave us.  Then I’d have to eat D’s cookin’ all the time and he’d always be yellin’ at me and hittin’ me,” he finished by swatting the air in Derron’s direction.

I cried.  “I’m sorry guys.  I’ll do better,” was all I could manage. 

“You’re a good mom, we just don’t want anything to happen to you.  We’ll be okay.  We love you,” Derron said.

“Yeah, we love you.”

That night I lay in bed with the darkness wrapped around me like a straitjacket.  They had exposed me.  And while I hated what they saw in me, my sons, two little old men had sworn their love and devotion to me, no matter.  It did not matter what I did, just that I was their mother.  In the darkness, the tension in my body lessened.  I envisioned Sparkle as a million-dollar company.  I imagined the vacation I would take with Derron and Qion and the house I would buy. 

My sons had built a hedge around me with their love.  Not even I could defy that power.

Writing a business plan is always a challenge.  But, it is a necessary challenge to get over to increase your chances of success in your small business.  I just completed teaching a 14-week business planning course at the Center for Women and Enterprise (CWE).  Most of the 14 students that attended the course said that they did not want to take it and were pressured by someone else or some event that pointed them in that direction.   At the end, they said they were glad they had taken it and done the research and other work needed to complete their business plans.  They learned more about their industries, marketing and public relations strategies, cash flows and financials than they ever expected.  They also said they have a clearer vision and path to make their business launch a reality.  www.carriehjohnson.com

Told the right way, your story can educate, engage and inspire your customers, potential customers, employees, influencers and investors. Tell It! - or you could be leaving millions of dollars on the table.<< MORE >>

At some point you will have to step into the social media arena.  It is essential for most of us who own businesses.  So do what I did, tiptoe a little way in and listen in on one of the many free social media webinars.  Social Media Magic has a couple of free webinars coming up in the next few weeks that will tell you how to start and where to begin.

The thought of writing a business plan always evokes moans and groans from aspiring and established business owners alike.  Halfway through the fourteen-week business planning course I am teaching now students have already learned how valuable doing the research and writing a business plan can be.  One student learned that her business idea, which would have needed a large investment, was not feasible.  Rather than spending thousands to launch her business, she spent $200 to attend a conference as part of her research. Another student found she needed to broaden her vision to make her business work.  Still another found she needed to downsize her vision. 

Writing a business plan does not have to take weeks or months and reams of paper, but it does require researching, analyzing and evaluating your business idea.  While having a plan - whether a business plan, feasibility plan, action plan – does not guarantee your success, not having a plan increases your chances of failing.

One way of growing your small business during an economic downturn and beyond is by selling to the government.  The government buys billions of dollars of goods and services from consulting services to coffee, office products and packaging. 

There are special government programs for small businesses including women and minority owned - programs such as HubZone and 8a.  When corporate America was slow in opening its doors to my contract cleaning company, we turned to government contracts, became 8a certified and won millions.  You need to do your homework to find out if there are any opportunities for your business and how to follow them.  Some helpful sources for information on selling to the government include  www.sba.gov; you can download e-guides from www.gsa.gov ; check out Win Government Contracts for Your Small Business by John DiGiacomo.