Photo CC by Joanbrebo

Guest post by Mike Humphrey, Japan

Skiing has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I don’t know why my parents decided skiing would be our family sport. They were not avid skiers, and we didn’t live in a ski town. Whatever the reason, I was on skis at 3, and my love for the sport began. We would spend every weekend in the winter on the hill.

When I was 15, I became a ski instructor. Skiing is my passion. I love being out on the hill, and I love the mountains.

As I grew older, skiing was still part of my life, but it became a hobby. I went to university and got a job. I started a family, and things were going well. I would ski weekends at our small local hill, but it was slowly being relegated to an afterthought.

That all changed seven years ago when I left my corporate job. It was time for a life choice: continue with my career or make a change. With some savings in our account and dreams of powder turns, I leapt. I left my job and moved our family to a ski town in Japan.

It has been seven years since we moved to the mountains, and it has been filled with joys, challenges, and, of course, skiing. In that time, we have operated two hotels and a restaurant and weathered the storm of Covid. It has been a hell of a ride, and not without its difficulties. Despite the challenges, I would never return to working a corporate job.

Read on to discover the challenges we faced while building a business and our dream life in a small mountain town.

Photo CC by Cookie M

The Challenges of Running a Small Business in a Ski Town

1 – Seasonal Customers

The highs and lows of running a business in a seasonal destination, whether a ski town or a beach destination, are extreme. During the winter, the city’s population triples in size. In the span of 4 months, we get 400,000 tourists visiting our small village of 5,000 people.

The influx of customers is terrific for business but not always for sanity. Imagine the demand for your products skyrocketing for four months and then crashing back to almost zero as soon as the snow starts to melt.

As a business, you need to develop systems and processes to adapt to the extreme shifts in market demand.

Choosing a Business Model

There are generally two models to choose from when you decide what business to run. You can cater to tourists, or you can cater to residents. The best businesses are the ones that can manage to do both.

Catering to Travelers

With this model, you fully embrace the higher-paying tourists. You charge higher prices and focus on optimizing your returns for tourists. During the low times, you minimize your expenses and either shut the business down or drop prices and try to scrape by attracting lower-paying guests.

This is how we operated when we ran our hotel. We were very strategic with our opening dates and only worked during the peak season. During the slow times, we shut down the hotel, went into maintenance mode, and did upgrades.

This worked well when there were lots of guests, but if you have a terrible snow season or a global pandemic, for that matter, you can run through your reserves quite quickly.

Catering to Local Customers

Your goal here is consistent revenue throughout the year. You have to choose your prices to match the local market. Your customer base is smaller during the low season, but during the high season, your revenue jumps drastically.

This is the model we use to run our restaurant. We live and work in the community year-round and provide good food options at reasonable prices regardless of the season.

By establishing relationships with residents and business owners within the community, you can develop a strong clientele that will sustain you throughout the year. Those relationships help you to flourish during the high season when residents recommend your services to travelers in town.

Catering to Locals and Tourists

Matching both markets is a tricky needle to thread, and I haven’t seen many businesses do this successfully. Essentially, you must provide a service that can increase prices during peak times without alienating local customers. The closest we came to this was with the hotel, which had peak and low-time pricing. But this isn’t catering to local businesses; it’s just modifying your pricing to match traveler demand.

Photo provided by Mike Humphrey

2 – Staffing

Ski towns have some unique staffing issues that can be challenging for small businesses to overcome. The small local population combined with the boom and bust market makes staffing one of the most difficult things to deal with.

Staff Training

In a ski town, the money-making window is short, and staff is transitory. We hired 5 – 7 staff during peak season to help run the hotel. They would arrive early to mid-December, 1 – 2 weeks ahead of our first guests.

We rarely had repeat staff, and they had to be fully trained before the Christmas rush. It was trial by fire. You have to get them up to speed in 2 weeks so they can provide the best customer service possible. When the guests do start to arrive, it’s crunch time. You are running at full capacity almost immediately.

It’s the perfect storm. You need to hire the right people and have outstanding training programs and processes in place so they can hit the road running as quickly as possible.

Finding Good Staff is a Challenge

While this may be true for any industry, working in a ski town is appealing because you can ski. There is always a balance between finding a good employee and their desire to hit the hill.

As soon as the ski season starts, it’s too late to hire someone new. You better find the right people at the beginning and make sure they are doing a good job. Having to fire underperforming staff mid-season is a considerable risk.

You have to weigh the negative impact of keeping the employee on versus the risk of being short-staffed.

I have been through both experiences, and it was better to let the person go instead of hanging on.

Here are some tips for finding good staff.

Ask For Recommendations

Ask previous and current employees if they know anyone who would be a good fit. Check with friends and family or other business owners in the area.

Watch Out For Red Flags

Trust is critical; skills can be taught, but trust and work ethic can’t. During the interview process, look for signs that there may be issues. Identify them immediately and be upfront. Don’t move on until you feel entirely comfortable.

Check references. Call them and have an honest conversation. Ask what issues they had with the employee.

Use Contracts To Your Benefit

An employee contract goes a long way to establishing a good relationship with an employee. Reviewing and signing a contract makes your relationship official and keeps your employees committed.

Photo CC by lamoix

Retaining Staff

The boom-bust nature of the ski industry means you can’t always keep staff all year long. The business can’t sustain employees during the low season. You always run a skeleton crew during the off-season and go into maintenance mode.

This means retaining good employees is hard. Expecting people to stick around and barely make enough money to live is unreasonable. Here are some ways to keep staff all year round.

Provide Extended Vacations

Give staff the chance to take time off during the shoulder seasons. They can take the opportunity to travel or go home to see family.

Reduce Staff Living Expenses

Consider alternative living arrangements or provide food through your business.

Collaborate with another business and offer a trade. Provide your services in exchange for cheaper accommodation for your staff.

It’s Hard Work

You have to make hay while the sun shines. For 4 – 5 months, you run flat out. Not only that, it’s playtime as well. You want to be out on the hill as much as you want to run your business. It’s easy to be understaffed and run your employees ragged. It’s a 4-month whirlwind of activity that can be hard to handle.

The critical takeaway is good hiring, training, and processes/systems. Watch for red flags when hiring staff; do not ignore your feelings about people. Don’t get me wrong, I have had some exceptional employees, but I’ve also had some horrible ones. Getting staffing right is crucial to making your small business work in a ski town.

One-on-one Training

When you’re in the thick of things, spending an hour or two with your employees teaching them may feel like a waste of time. But this is time well spent. An hour now could save you 10 – 20 times that time later in the season.

Learn From Other Businesses

We have friends who manage a hostel. They offered to take us through the building to show us how they managed their property. Here are some of the changes we made:

1. We added a self-check-in process for late arrivals
2. Better Signage
3. Better local information Kiosk

Hire an Expert

If you’re unsure how to get better, find someone who has done it before and offer to pay them for their time. Have them watch how you run your business. Then, get them to make recommendations on how to improve.

Lessons Learned

After the season, talk with your employees about how things went. What things did you do well, and what could be improved? What pain points did the employees experience? Your perspective and the perspective of your employees will be different, and it’s essential to record what you learned.

Document

Solid documentation can be a great way to leverage your knowledge and compound your efforts. Keep records of everything you do. I like to use a Google Folder to build up a library of procedures. Whenever I need to use it, I review it and try to improve it. Things to document:

1. Role Descriptions
2. Job Postings
3. Marketing Materials
4. Standard Operating Procedures
5. Annual Schedules
6. Maintenance requirements
7. Licensing renewals

This list will depend heavily on the type of business you run.

Implement

Last but not least, implement. If there is no action or change, then nothing will improve. I like to use project management software like Asana or Wrike to break everything down into manageable tasks. It will eventually get done as long as it’s written down and recorded.

3 – Cashflow Management

Cashflow is king, and managing your finances through a ski town’s boom and bust cycles is tough. Your business depends on tourists arriving at the start of the season to keep it running.

Building a reserve that sustains your business throughout the year is essential. But you also need to balance this against re-investing in your business. Cash sitting on the books doesn’t help your business grow and expand.

4 – Work-Life Balance

Running a business in a ski town is not all fun and games. You must be organized, stay on your toes, and manage your time well. It can be easy to get overwhelmed by the pace.

You can use the winter playground if you manage your business well and have the right staff. However, if you don’t, you will run yourself ragged, trying to keep everything afloat.

Final thoughts from a seasonal business

So, if you’re considering launching a business in a ski town, remember these points.

First, be prepared to put in a lot of hard work. It may not seem glamorous, but running a ski town business takes dedication and determination.

Second, be mindful of costs and stay on top of your finances. Knowing what you’re spending and where it’s going can help ensure you stay profitable.

Third, hire and train the right people to help you build a successful business. Finding and building a great team will make your life more enjoyable in the long run.

Finally, take advantage of where you live. Enjoy the mountains, the people, and all a ski town offers. It’s an incredible experience and one you won’t want to miss out on. I have seen too many business owners forget why they started their business and don’t get out and enjoy the lifestyle.

Photo CC by Radek Kucharski

Frequently asked questions: seasonal business

What are the peak seasons for running a business in a ski town?

The peak seasons are typically winter and summer when people come for skiing and summer outdoor activities.

Is it possible to maintain a steady income all year round in a ski town?

This largely depends on your business model. Some businesses are seasonal, while others offer services that are in demand year-round.

How do I attract local customers in addition to tourists?

Offering locals-specific discounts, involving your business in community events, and building a solid local reputation can all help attract local customers.

What challenges should I expect when running a business in a ski town?

Challenges may include:

• Dealing with the seasonal nature of business.
• Maintaining a steady workforce.
• Managing cash flow

How important is fostering relationships with other local businesses in a ski town?

Very important. Strong relationships with other businesses can help you stay informed about local trends, collaborate on joint initiatives, and create a support network.

Any advice on maintaining work-life balance while running a ski town business?

Schedule regular breaks, get involved in local activities, and ensure you take time for yourself and your family. Remember, enjoying your surroundings is part of the ski town experience!

About the author Mike Humphrey

Mike Humphrey is a writer and entrepreneur. He has operated several hotels and restaurants and founded mykhumphrey.com, where he writes articles about business, freelancing, remote work, and living abroad.

If we meet at a conference, I’ll be happy to give you some of my time. If you need more help, then it may be time for a coaching call. Photo (C) Eva the Photographer, courtesy of SMTulsa.

Years ago, Thursday Bram asked me some questions about how freelancers and other consulting and professional folks can avoid giving away too much of their knowledge for free. Her article at Freelance Switch is no longer online, so I thought it was time to share it here, as well.

Here’s some of my best advice on how to draw the line between free and paid conversations.

What is your reaction when someone asks to just ‘pick your brain’? Do you have a standard reaction that you use across the board or are there people that you’re more willing to talk to?

I decide how to handle people seeking free advice based on my existing relationship with them. Some people are close friends. I’ll help those folks more than someone who emails me out of the blue. Most of the questions seem to come from folks who don’t know me at all. So I try to assess the situation based on our relationship.

Do the people who just want to ask you questions typically turn into paying clients without much help from you?

It doesn’t happen by magic, you do need a strategy. And even then, not all of them will convert. Some are just freebies no matter what you do. I’m a collector of good phrases to use.

• Liz Strauss told me she would say, “If you’d like me to do that for you, I charge $XXX/hour.”
• Denise Wakeman said she will point people to her matching products already available. If someone asked her to look over their publication, she would give them the link to her sales page for a publication critique. Those products are really packaged services.
• Cathy Stucker would say, “I can spend ten minutes with you, and if you require more assistance I will be glad to schedule a consultation at my regular rates.”
• My colleague Deb Brown offers 15 minutes at no charge. When she gets on a call, she sets a timer. When it’s up she asks, “Do you want to go on with a paid conversation? That costs $XXX per hour.” 
• Sheila Scarborough used to invite folks to talk with her at her weekly co-working session, Round Rock Jelly. If the question is more involved than can be answered there, it’s a consulting job.
• Jennifer Navarette told the story of meeting with a potential client in his office. He asked lots of questions. Finally, she stood up to come around the desk and reached for the keyboard. Her partner interrupted, “You do know that we just crossed into paid time?” he asked. “Oh, yes,” the prospect said, instantly converting to a paying client.
• Barry Moltz used to say, “time to turn on the meter.” (He’s from Chicago. Can you tell?)

Even with a special phrase in your arsenal, you still have to have a way for people to pay you.

What strategies have you used to turn this sort of person into a paying client? If it isn’t possible to do that, how do you keep this sort of person from wasting your time?

Offer them the help they need, but in a way that respects your valuable time. Here are three ideas of how to educate people on your own terms.

1. Create a standard resource you give to people that want to do it themselves. Invest a few hours in creating a simple how-to booklet, paper or downloadable PDF, and save those hours you would normally spend trying to assist the freebie-seekers. You probably have all the info you need in your article or email archives.
2. Do workshops. Charge a modest fee. Then Do-It-Yourself-ers can be encouraged to take the class, online or in person. This lets you group up the learners, help them all a certain amount, get paid for it, and allow some of them to see that they really do want professional help. Record the session. Then the next time you get hit up for more free advice, you can refer them to where they can purchase your workshop. Do NOT make this a pitch for your service. Do make it an honest useful training.
3. Package your services into a defined product. Then charge for it. If you often get asked to look over someone’s plan, make that a service. Same with requests for help getting unstuck on a project. Once it’s a product, it’s easier to refer and sell.
4. Set up a professional-looking place people can see your coaching or consulting offers. And give them a way to pay. They can’t buy something you aren’t actually selling. Use one of the many easy to use online learning platforms that lets you collect online payments.

You don’t have to charge everyone every time.

Decide in advance how much you want to reinvest in others. Maybe you’re happy to review a resume, reassure someone just getting started or spend some time with promising people in your area. Maybe you like to help at a conference whenever possible. That’s up to you.

Set your limits, and be ready to speak up for yourself.

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Shawn popped up a business test in his own yard! Photo by Deb Brown

Your fellow reader Ava asked a great question:

If I am already working, in school, and wanting to start up just a real small small business, then how would that work differently from someone who is coming from a completely different stand point, like not working or in school and is just generally starting up their business with saved money? Thank you!

The secret to starting a real side hustle, side gig or just a real small small business is to take small steps.

Try small scale steps that get your idea in front of people who can pay for it. That’s how you’ll build knowledge of what works, build an initial following in the market, and build assets toward your next, bigger step.

What can you do to test a business idea?

You don’t need much to start small. Even one square foot of space may be enough. Photo by Becky McCray.

• Try something temporary: pop-up for a day, a week or a season.
• Try something tiny: look for just a few hundred square feet to set up in.
• Try something together: set up your business inside an existing business, coworking space, maker space, shared art studio, or shared commercial kitchen.
• Try a truck or trailer: use more than one town to gather enough customers.

For example, a high school student in Alva, Oklahoma, popped up a business test by borrowing just one square foot of counter space in a beauty salon. She sold hand braided headbands made from fabrics scraps.

Our Deb Brown wrote more about testing your way into business here: Business plans are not worth the paper they’re written on

Surprise twist: this is how I’d advise someone not working or in school, someone who was generally starting up their business with saved money, too.

You can ask your rural small business question here.

These apples from a backyard tree might go to waste, or they might be the start of a profitable side business.

By Becky McCray

Need an idea for your next small town or rural business? This one would make a good side hustle: Gather and resell fruit that would otherwise be wasted.

Think of all the fruit, berries and nuts that no one picks, especially in yards and public spaces in your town.

You don’t have to be in a big town, either. In my yard, we have apple, pear and pecan trees that produce far more than we can use. Then there are my neighbors’ half dozen fruit trees, the wild greens and seeds growing along the side of the road, not to mention the wealth of mulberries that drop each year. All that in a community of just 30 people.

It will be different where you live. My friends in Maine talk about gathering and cooking fiddlehead ferns, and Deb learned that you can forage for hazelnuts in Iowa in a workshop from her Legacy Learning group.

You might have heard food gathering called foraging, urban harvesting or gleaning. Whatever you call it, it’s an opportunity for a small business, especially a seasonal or part time gig.

Where to find free foods to gather

You can ask around to find good sources for fallen fruits.

• Who has lots of fruit trees in their yard?
• Who used to garden but is older now?

Knock on their door and ask for permission to harvest the fruits or plants they won’t be needing. You can even offer to split the harvest: part to them for having the trees or plants, part to you to sell.

You can also look around for fruit, berries or nuts that are free for anyone to take.

• Where is fruit falling on sidewalks or over fences into the alley?
• Where are berries or nut trees growing wild or in public places?

Look for classes or workshops in foraging or harvesting wild foods. Extension education groups or cultural heritage organizations may offer sessions.

Talk to your elders to learn what they remember about gathering wild foods. My grandmother told me about gathering wild greens for salad back in the Great Depression.

Be good neighbors

Learn to forage safely and for safe foods. Check your library for books about local wild foods you can check out. Ask librarians if they know of workshops and classes. Learn and follow the health and food safety regulations that apply in your area.

Don’t enter people’s private property without permission, of course. Ask permission if it’s not clear where the boundary is or it just seems like you ought to.

Leave some for others. You’re part of a community, so don’t strip shared trees bare or take more than you are pretty sure you can sell. Maybe take special care to leave some easy to reach fruits on lower branches for kids and elders who may come after you.

Be smart business people

Take small steps in your business by gathering a few samples, just enough to sell at the farmer’s market this weekend. Then you’ll have a better idea what and how much to gather on the next foraging trip.

Add value to your wild foods. Find out the health regulations, then try your hand at jams, jellies, roasted nuts or even baked goods.

Wild sand plums make great jelly that’s always in demand in Oklahoma. The bushes grow wild alongside many county roads.

You can add value to nuts like hard shell pecans by having them cracked. Learn how to thresh wild grains to make them more valuable to customers.

Even cleaning and displaying your fruits attractively will add value. Scout around the farmer’s market or grocery store for ideas how to make your own foods sell better.

The types of wild foods available and the ways you can add value to them will vary, so learn from those local workshops and local elders.

I bet you could even sell responsibly foraged flowers.

The county is just going to mow these wild sunflowers down. What if you cut some to sell at the farmers market?

Falling Fruits on the map

There’s a collaborative global map of free places to go look for foods to harvest at FallingFruit.org with entries in most countries including the US, Canada and Australia.

When you find good free food sources, add them to the map. As rural people, we know we depend on each other especially in tough times. That’s a good reason to share what you know.

You’re part of the Food Business Ecosystem

Gathering fruits and berries is just one part of a whole ecosystem of local food businesses. Find out more about creating a local food business ecosystem with this video we created with SaveYour.Town.

This is a short sample from the SaveYour.Town video “Refilling Your Business Pipeline” featuring Deb Brown and me.

Small towns and rural communities will need new business startups to revitalize their local economies, but not many people have the resources today to do a startup the way it’s traditionally been done.

Part of what holds your potential new entrepreneurs back is thinking that going into business has to be a big and difficult and long project.

Imagine all the work that “everyone knows” is part of starting a new business:

If you decided to open a retail store, you have decide on your specialty and what kind of merchandise to carry, deciding or guessing whether your town will support it, finding a location and remodeling it or even bringing it up to code, decorating, finding suppliers and getting started with them, getting your local banking established, securing financing, hiring staff, advertising and marketing, and all that before you even know whether your initial concept is actually sound.

In small towns, those problems can be magnified where you may face a shortage of usable buildings, long distances to suppliers who don’t pay attention to small accounts like yours, few local banks, no chance of local financing, few choices for potential workers, and a smaller potential market. It seems like it takes a lot of time, money and work just to get into business.

You have to get all your ducks in a row.

What if I told you there was a much easier way to get into business?

Just get one duck and go from there. 

Imagine building some steps in between. If you could buy just a few products and test them by running a temporary business inside another business for a month or two, you’d learn a lot about what sells in your local market right now. If that works, maybe you could rent a small booth in a shared retail building. If something doesn’t work, you can fix it and try again.

From there, jumping up to starting a traditional store doesn’t seem as hard. You’ve learned what people want to buy. You’ve established relationships with suppliers. You’ve gained a loyal following. All those smaller steps lift you up closer to jumping over that hurdle of starting a traditional business. And if you miss a jump at a smaller step, it’s easier to recover and try something new.

Why this works

That’s the purpose of the innovative rural business models. They put people in a much better position to succeed, or to fail in a manageable way. It cuts time and money off the process of getting into business. 

For economic developers, these give you an easy way to add entrepreneurship promotion to existing projects and activities. It’s not about starting new things from scratch. It’s about finding and building on the small steps that already exist in your area.

Get the full video

The entire 30 minute is available for purchase at SaveYour.Town: Refilling Your Business Pipeline.

Learn more

What’s the right way to get a microbrewery going? Start small.

Guest Post by Deb Brown

When I visited Decatur County, Iowa, several people said that wanted a brewery. They talked about the big barriers in their way: finding the right building, the right funding, the right people. The big idea seems really hard this way. Why not start smaller? Start by using the Idea Friendly Method: Gather Your Crowd, Build Connections, Take Small Steps.

Here are some of the questions I suggested they ask themselves and each other to help them start small.

Gather Your Crowd

• Who in the county already makes home brew?
• Who wants to talk about finding a place for adults to hang out?
• Who is interested in finding a way to bring a new business to town?

Invite them to come together, over a beer, and talk about the big idea of having a microbrewery. Talk to each other, think about all the ideas.

Build Connections

• Who knows who that already started a brewery? Go visit them. Find out what they had to do to get there.
• Start finding out the things you need to know: licensing, manufacturing laws, etc.
• What resources does your local community already have that you could use? Who do you talk to get access to those resources?
• Who knows other home brew clubs you could visit?

Take Small Steps

• Have your home brewers do a sampling. See if people really are interested in having a brewery.
• Maybe form a home brew club.
• Try things out. Test your market and your product.
• Could you offer free samples in an empty building downtown and then visit about some ways to use that building to bring adults together?
• Could you set up at a local event in a beer tent environment? Maybe use monies collected to support that event?

Again, bring people together, over a beer, to talk about the possibilities!

Apply this Idea Friendly Method to your own big idea

Any idea to make your town a better place can follow the Idea Friendly method. If you’d like some help to see how that would work in your town, check out the SaveYour.Town video Big Ideas? Small Steps!

Photo (CC) by Malin Andreassen, on Flickr

“If only” is a statement I hear often from small-business owners.

Sometimes the wishes are big and grandiose. But most of the time, the wishes are just what one might expect such as more customers, a big order, more space or more money to work with or in the bank at the end of the month.

Yes, often the wishes are just dreaming, yet I have also seen a them come true.

It is great when that happens but, when asked, business owners often reflect that this great positive showed weaknesses in their planning and preparation.

Issues that these owners have faced include: keeping customers happy once they start coming; getting and training an adequate level of staff, needing more space and equipment, finding where to get more raw materials, and, of course, needing more money. Even when things are going good and money is starting to come in, the demand for access to even more cash grows as well.

Business owners comment that they were looking at much larger loans or at new challenges as they considered raising equity capital or working with an angel or venture capitalists.

So should you, as the owner, give up on your wishes? Not at all. For most people, the wishing stage just gets us started thinking about the future. And those thoughts form the start of what all business owners should do, planning.

Wishing is a good lead for the next step, the “what if” statements. How might your business be impacted if a wish does happen? Are you ready to respond?

Being ready to respond will make achieving your wish feel so much better. It also may help direct what you wish for. For example, many people enjoy the creative process. If demand should skyrocket, he or she becomes a manager and loses any hands-on role. It’s something to think about and plan for to ensure that your small business continues to fulfill your dreams and desires.

Wishing or dreaming or whatever you want to call it is a huge motivator. It keeps us motivated. And that will build your business.

As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” The key to this story is do not let your wishes be the end of your dreams.

Photo (CC) by One Way Stock, on Flickr

As you probably know, if you are going into business, the odds your business will be around in five years are not good. But they aren’t as bad as you may think, either.

Approximately one-third of businesses close within two years. At the five-year mark, about one-half of all businesses have closed. We don’t approach the commonly cited numbers of 70 to 80 percent of businesses being closed until the 10-year mark.

Also remember that 15 to 20 percent of businesses that close are actually successful, they are breaking even or they are making money, but the owners closes the businesses for other reasons.

So your business chances may be better than you expected. But as an aspiring or startup business owner, what can you do to increase your odds of being one of those who remain in operation?

The first major task is to build a business that solves a problem. That seems simple, but lots of businesses are built because someone has something to sell.

And is your solution something that will last for some time, or will it have a quick burst of sales and then disappear?

Solving a problem is only the first step. People must be willing to pay for your solution. And what they pay must cover your costs and provide a profit.

Ask yourself if other people already are providing the solution. If so, is the market big enough to support another player, and how will you distinguish yourself from the competition? Plus, how easy will entering the field be for others? Answers to these questions will help you understand if you are selling something special or if it is simply a commodity.

As you can see, planning is a key to business continuity. You also need to have adequate cash reserves. When you hear that getting started will take twice as long and cost twice as much money as planned, don’t discount the warning. While these vary, the reminder that things won’t go as planned is very accurate.

Building a sustainable business requires sacrifice, planning, and the ability to pivot and change. Are you ready?

Photo (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Anna J. Lenabem, on Flickr

Well, here we are at the end of one year and the beginning of another. Welcome, 2016!

For many people, this is the day we make resolutions for the upcoming year. Often these hopes are for something in our personal life.

Do you also take time to make resolutions for managing your business? And for those of you who are still thinking about going into business, do you outline one or two steps that will help you come closer to achieving your dream? I would encourage you to do that along with your personal resolutions. These two types of resolutions may fit well together.

So let’s talk about making resolutions.

Of the people who make resolutions, only about eight percent actually follow-through. This low success rate can be attributed to many reasons but, at the core, understand we are creatures of habit. If we haven’t been taking steps towards this goal already, it is hard to break that habit and now take steps forward.

How can you improve those odds? Let me suggest a few ideas:

• Write it down. And then put it someplace you will see it every day. Our minds are full of keeping our daily life in order. Without a visual reminder, it gets easy to push our desire into a corner and then forget about it.
• Tell others. Writing it down is good. Having others know about your plans and be there for support increases your chances of success. Start by telling family and friends.
• Do some up-front thinking. Your goal may require several intermediate steps. Quite often we make the resolution without thinking of the “how.”  Your big idea will probably need to be broken down into several smaller chunks.
• Get a partner, mentor, coach, or what-ever you want to call the person who will keep you on task. That person can encourage, remind, and offer ideas on how you can move forward.
• Limit the list. Don’t plan on making ten or even five changes at once. Remember, this is changing our behavior and it won’t come easy. One or two changes, at most, offer you the best chances for success.
• Plan on hitting a hurdle. You will find yourself going off-track. That’s okay.  Know that the odds of this happening are high and put pieces into place to help you get back on track. This is where your support person/team, family and friends can help.
• Celebrate milestones. Don’t aim for one big party at the end. This is where chunking the task can give you some natural milestones. However, even chunking might not give you enough reinforcement points. Maybe you want to build your business network but find it hard to meet new people. Challenge yourself to add 12 new people to your network during the year, one per month. When you find that first contact, tell your support person/team. Tell them you want to meet for a cup of coffee and tell them how this new person can help your business. You might even invite your new network friend to the meeting as well.

Making changes in our business and in our personal lives takes work. That work starts with a resolution to do so.

What’s your resolution for 2016?

Good luck. 

For more statistics on New Year’s resolutions, go to: http://www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/

Photo (CC 2.0) by GotCredit, on Flickr

One of the most common requests I get is to help people access “free money” to help them start their business.

Regretfully, my response is there is little, if any, free money available. Instead business owners need to depend on their own personal funds, family and friends, or good bootstrapping.

At some point though, most small businesses need to access additional funds and that will usually come in the form of a loan.

While the reason for the loan may vary, from needing more raw materials to buying additional equipment to buying inventory to hiring more people to a cash flow issue, the early sources of business financing, bootstrapping or personal savings, just cannot cover the need.

So the next step typically is to get a small-business loan.

People are often concerned about their ability to get a loan. It really is not very different from getting a personal loan. The bank wants to know your credit history, what you have for collateral and your ability to repay the loan.

And when your business is new, the banker will want not only this information about the business but also from you, the owner.

There are several common mistakes small-business owners may make when applying for a loan:

• Having an incomplete or inaccurate application
• Not providing information in a timely manner
• Lack of a clear explanation of how much money they need and how the funds will be used
• Withholding personal guarantees (this is especially true for startups and smaller businesses)
• Not knowing their personal and business credit rating
• Not showing efforts to improve their credit ratings
• Not having a solid business plan with reasonable projections

Bankers understand that businesses often operate in cycles, with ups and downs. They also know the difficult in starting a business. So make your projections as accurate as possible and don’t hide any information. What the bankers want is realism and a clear path for building the business.

It is also important that the business owner do his or her homework in finding a bank for your loan. Find a bank and banker who understand small-business finance. Like finding other professionals such as your certified public accountant and attorney, it is important to research the bank you hope to use.

Finally, once you get your loan, stay in regular contact with your banker. He or she can provide reliable guidance and possible solutions to challenges that occur. They don’t like surprises. They are willing to work with you as you need to make adjustments.

Business loans are crucial in your growth. Learn early they work and on, what you hope to be a long-term relationship, with your banker.