Managing a Satellite Staff

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Mergers and acquisitions, plus flexible time and multiple work sites, have created the need for alternative work situations--and in many cases this means offsite teams. In the electronic age, employees at different sites can be connected by e-mail, fax, telephone and web conferencing. Whether your employees are working at a different plant, factory, office building or simply from home, addressing the issue of satellite staffs is vital to your business’s success.

What type of employee is best suited for off-site work? Specifically, employees must be independent self-starters who do not need an on-site supervisor. They need to be assertive enough to speak up, state views and ask for assistance before situations become critical. In addition, they must be self-critical workers who can evaluate their own work and know when input from others is needed. They must voluntarily seek advice and counsel from others without fear of appearing inadequate, unconfident or unprofessional. And most importantly, they must be able to create their own work day and schedule without the structure of a formal, eight-hour day.

But what problems can arise in a satellite or home office? First, off-siters sometimes complain that they don’t feel like part of the team, that an esprit de corps doesn’t exist because of the physical separation between offices. Also, developing a rapport between supervisee and supervisor can be difficult since the latter isn’t on-site. As a result, it’s easy for milestones and deadlines to go unmet. Unsupervised work can become distracted, off-course and less than optimal. A related issue is “out of sight, out of mind”: An off-siter’s work may not be considered or valued as highly as that of on-siters. And finally, without an externally imposed structured day, work performance can suffer.

So what can you do to ensure that your offsite employees’ productivity and success don’t falter? First, you must clearly communicate your expectations of remote workers, including key milestones and deadlines. The milestones should be firm and short term to ensure that work is acceptable, timely and coordinated with on-site employees. Feedback on progress should be specific, measurable, timely and action-oriented. Above all, your remote workers should feel that they can easily seek out a supervisor for advice, counsel and input.

To further ensure accountability, goals must be clearly stated and written to guarantee agreement between all parties. An oft-stated truism applies here: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else.” Starting off on the wrong foot or in an inappropriate direction can spell disaster, especially when working at different sites. In addition to goals, agreed-upon standards and level of quality will help eliminate any doubt about what’s required. Reporting relationships also should be outlined; each employee must clearly understand to whom he or she reports. Having the line of authority and responsibility clear greatly improves the intensity, effectiveness and quality of the reporting relationship.

The final aspect of off-site management to consider is communication. Often, e-mail is the easiest and the quickest way to communicate, but it can make expressing emotion difficult and can lead to misinterpretation. Someone who is always succinct in e-mails may come across as rude to a friendlier co-worker, while a good-natured joke might lose its intended humor and be read as an insult by the recipient.

The most effective means of sending and receiving messages is a combination of e-mail, faxes, regularly scheduled telephone conference calls, and video and web conferencing. The latter are particularly important since they contain the all-important aspect of seeing the people with whom you are speaking. While this visual component can help facilitate personal relationships, nothing can replace the quality of a face-to-face meeting. To maximize interpersonal interaction, create rapport between employees, and improve working and personal relationships, in-person meetings should be scheduled at least quarterly.

David G. Javitch, Ph.D., is Entrepreneur.com's "Employee Management" columnist and an organizational psychologist and president of Javitch Associates, an organizational consulting firm in Newton, Massachusetts. With more than 20 years of experience working with executives in various industries, he's an internationally recognized author, keynote speaker and consultant on key management and leadership issues.

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Startup Business Advice: 9 Ways to Leverage the Internet

Twain the entrepreneur drifted toward disaster

Dear StartupNation: I'm convinced that the internet will be vital to my startup business in more ways than one. My website, although on a limited budget, needs to stand out. I also want e-commerce and interactive features. And I plan to use the web myself for researching, purchasing and other purposes. Can you help me get the most for the least cost?

With every passing day, entrepreneurs are finding ways to leverage the power of the internet to help them build profits, save money and operate more efficiently. Businesses just starting out have an edge in this regard because they can use these features from day one.

Established small businesses must sometimes work harder to adopt what the web has to offer and replace methods of doing business that worked well in the past. Here's our startup business advice on a few things small companies, or even solo entrepreneurs, can do to leverage the web for their internet startup business:

1. Make your website more interactive. Add surveys, guest books, auto responders, downloadable documents and maybe a newsletter. Your current web host may offer some of these.
2. Add a simple shopping cart feature to your website and take orders online. A couple of popular options include PrestoCart and MyCart.
3. Submit invoices by e-mail. Sending invoices over the internet is fast becoming accepted practice for many small businesses. It's easy and cheap. No money spent on postage. The two primary methods include creating your invoice in a standard Microsoft Word document, and sending it that way as an e-mail attachment; or create the invoice in any software format and convert it to a PDF file that anyone can read. Both methods work. In all cases, ask for confirmation of receipt.
4. Research your competition. The web offers tremendous potential for researching your markets and competitors. A few top resources - some free, others fee based - include Business.com for general business research, KnowX.com for public records research, and Hoovers.com for company profiles, among others.
5. Get proactive about driving visitors to your site. Make sure your website is listed in search engines and get more out of your listings. You'll find just about all the search engine submission help you need at a site called Search Engine Watch. This premier site for search engine marketing, part of the JupiterWeb network, offers search engine submission tips, searching tips, search engine reviews and resources.
6. Add interesting and timely content to your site. This is something you may need to do yourself. Consider hiring a freelance writer to produce original news, features and how-to articles for your site that are related to your small business. Look for someone locally or post your needs at a web-based service such as eLance. Putting fresh content up monthly could cost as little as a few hundred dollars.
7. Order supplies online for huge time and money savings . Whether it's basic office items, bulk shipping supplies or maintenance products, you can get great prices, quick delivery and excellent service.
8. If you don't already have one, get a high speed internet connection. This is a must for making better use of the web. Call your cable TV company, phone service provider or national long distance firm to inquire about a cable modem connection or DSL service.

Our bottom line:

The internet isn't a "separate" technology any more - today it's an integrated part of business. And the opportunities the web presents for most small businesses are truly extraordinary. So whether you're just starting out or years into the life of your internet startup business, our business advice is that now's the time to put the web to work for you!

StartupNation provides expert advice, community forums and resources for entrepreneurs starting a small business, from business plan and life plan development to marketing and sales techniques.

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Finding her niche

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As a cabinet layout designer for KraftMaid Cabinetry, Lori Mittelstadt has designed many a stellar kitchen.

Recently, however, her kitchens have had a closer brush with the stars as she took on projects for "Extreme Makeover - Home Edition" in Dundee and a "Holmes on Homes" project in Pasadena.

It's all in a day's work for the woman who as specialized in kitchen and bath design for the past 24 years.

"I've enjoyed it," she said. "I never wanted to do anything else."

Mittelstadt grew up in Beaver Dam and pursued her passion of interior design at UW-Madison. After graduating she worked as a kitchen designer and then as an interior designer for two companies in Madison.

Eventually she had the opportunity to work for KraftMaid, which meant a move to Cleveland. Her job was to design cabinet displays for home centers such as Menard's, Lowe's and Home Depot.

"I said, 'why not,' " said Mittelstadt, who enjoyed the work, but decided to move closer to home during her father's illness. Although her father passed away, her mother is still living in Beaver Dam.

Even though she was far from the company headquarters, KraftMaid still wanted her expertise. Ever since her return to Wisconsin in 1999, she has been able to continue her work using e-mail and express delivery service.

"I'm spoiled because I get to work out of the house," she said.

The work is similar to what she did in Cleveland, but has changed in dramatic ways.

"I was always designing for the big box stores, and there were a lot of them going up at that time," Mittelstadt said. "That has all evolved over time. Now instead of the four designers in Cleveland, there are also myself and a woman in Chicago. The woman in Chicago does all of the Extreme Makeover designs, and I had the chance to act as the local contact for the program in Dundee. I met with all the designers and really enjoyed the experience."

The adventure included a visit to the site, where she had a chance to meet the stars, to see the finished product, and to represent her company.

An endorsement for their product came when craftsman Ed Sanders chose KraftMaid to produce the cabinets for his own home.

"It's quite an honor for us," Mittelstadt said. "He was very impressed with what we have to offer."

She is no stranger to being in the forefront, with many of her designs regularly featured in magazines such as "Traditional Home," "Country Home," "Better Homes and Gardens" and "Midwest Living."

"Meredith Publishing handles all of those magazines and I have a good relationship with them," Mittelstadt said.

Other design experiences include consulting on several rooms for an "idea house" in Door County, room designs for home show booths in Chicago, and work for many clients throughout the Midwest.

One of her latest experiences was working with a couple who had been abandoned by their contractor in Pasadena. Ellen Degeneres paired with Mike Holmes, a Canadian home improvement star much like America's Ti Pennington, to rescue the Tiu family. The Tius had been abandoned by their contractor after they had spent $200,000 on their renovation. With the help of Holmes and Degeneres, contractors were recruited to do the work and donors were sought to help reduce the cost of materials. KraftMaid offered cabinets and design expertise.

Mittelstadt quickly volunteered to accept the assignment.

Walls were removed to open up the space to the back deck, and Mittelstadt suggested transitional cabinetry to match the family's contemporary decorating scheme. Using her advice the couple selected black appliances — to minimize children's fingerprints.

She most often designs kitchens from a distance, but still has important input suggesting the mood of a space by recommending finishes and hardware options.

Mittelstadt has kept track of the project by watching periodic updates on the Ellen show on ABC.

"Mike Homes is going to be back on in mid-March," Mittelstadt said.

Such high profile projects are not the norm, but they do add something extra to an already interesting career.

"It's pretty exciting to be in one of these projects," Mittelstadt said. "It's really more rewarding than exciting, because it's all done on the computer. You see it in your head, but to see it in reality is always a thrill."

An example of her own work is the cabinetry installed in the home that she shares with her husband, Frank Mittelstadt. Their manufactured home has areas for both to work, with spectacular views of the landscape and the wildlife on Beaver Dam Lake.

Such a setting and such a job suit her perfectly.

"It's really neat," she said. "I enjoy this kind of design. I haven't been bored yet."

[via wiscnews.com]
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Stix figures throw opportunity at entrepreneur - Business

Aries Spears Stand-Up Comedy

Anyone with opposable thumbs and a pencil can draw a stick figure, but not many people would turn that simple drawing into a lucrative clothing line; but one exists. Stix Bristol, a native New Yorker, began vending his clothing line, Stix-N-Phrases, out of the trunk of his car nearly four years ago. Currently, Bristol owns three stores in Maryland, one in Gaithersburg, VA, and sells everything from hats to sweat suits and socks.

The idea came about in a casual conversation one night some time after he had been laid off. "My wife and I were sitting in the living room one night, and I told her how tired I was of going back and forth to New York to find clothes I like. She said, 'why don't you just start your own clothing line,'" he recalled. "And I said, 'how? I can't draw anything but stick figures.'"

"And there you have it,"replied his wife. Stix called a friend who was more artistic, and together, they came up with the concept for Stix-n-Phrases -T-Shirts with a stick-figure illustration of a theme, coupled with a catchy "Stic" phrase. They made a few shirts, found a receptive audience at Howard University's Homecoming, and with that, began selling right out of the trunk of his car.

Then he made the biggest sale of all - Clinton Portis, runningback for the Washington Redskins, loved his shirts, and before he knew it the Redskins were sporting Stix-n-Phrases. He quit his job to concentrate on making Stix-N-Phrases T-shirts.

"The hardest part was trying to fill up the store!" Bristol said, surprised. "I didn't have as much stuff as I thought I did, and then you have to find companies that give top quality supplies" at an affordable rate. And then there was the problem of visibility. Although Bristol already had a fan base where the store was located, his store's entrance was in the back of the building.

"I would stand on the street and have to walk people to my store through this alleyway," he said, remembering customers' awkward apprehension on this walk. "But people know where I am now. I have been blessed to be so successful," he said.
The success has eliminated the thought of quitting from his mind. Just two months ago, he turned down a job offer from MCI in the IT department. "I just can't see myself going back to that rat race," he reasoned.

Bristol credits the success to the combination of a great team - his wife Lanetta, airbrush artist Kevin Malone, and the artist who brings Stix's visions to life, Siaka Hines. "You've got to stay focused, and stick to it," Bristol asserted, quoting one of his T-shirt phrases. "Anything you do is going to take time."

His business has afforded him the opportunity to serve his community. He engages with every customer like an old friend and will even forgo profit in the name of helping out. Oftentimes, he has given newly released inmates clothes for free, and even sent a shipment of clothes to an orphanage in Africa that one of his customers had visited.

"I want to be there and open stores in the black community," he said. "It's the best feeling in the world when customers come in and say, 'thank you, we needed this.'"

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Nervous About Writing Your Business Plan?

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I recently received this message in an e-mail. I’ve edited it to hide the writer’s personal details, but here’s some of what it says:

I'm currently in the process of starting my own business. I have extensive knowledge of and experience in…

I have the necessary resources for my startup and all of the necessary partners for the business to start…

Unfortunately, I'm not a writer. This is my Achilles' heel. I have this great business concept I'd like to put on paper and have been challenged every step of the way. My startup began two weeks ago, and I've consulted with several CPAs, but to no avail. They either don't have the time, charge too much or aren't interested in assisting me with my business plan. I just couldn't believe how neglected this area of business planning is when their profession deals with financial management and, to a greater extent, consulting.

My response starts with an emphatic “No, please, no!” You're missing the point of business planning--getting caught in the trap of the plan as a document--and making your life and your planning process far more difficult than they should be.

Notice how this e-mail puts the problem into perspective. The guy's starting his business, feels quite confident in the business concept and has “extensive knowledge and experience” in the specific type of business, but can’t go further because he’s “not a writer.” That’s crazy, right?

What’s wrong with this picture? Why do people assume a business plan is about quality of writing? Hey, I was a literature major years ago in college; I was a journalist before I was an MBA and a planner; and I love good writing as much as the next person. But being a writer has nothing to do with writing a business plan.

This is really important: A business plan is about content, not writing, formatting or pictures. I've listed some of the things your business plan needs to do below. Notice how none of them have anything to do with quality of writing.

1. Define your strategy. Strategy requires focus. Figure out what you’re really selling, who wants it, why they want it and how your business provides something different from the competition.
   
   
2. Control your destiny. Determine where you want to go and break that down into specific, concrete steps with dates, deadlines and budgets. Don’t merely react to events; be proactive and set a roadmap to follow and revise it as things change--and they will change.
   
   
3. Plan your cash. You’ve got to make a good, educated guess, then manage your planned cash flow vs. actual cash flow very carefully. Growth costs money, and profits don’t necessarily mean cash, so lay this out in detail. The math isn’t hard, but getting your financials organized takes some time and effort (see "The Numbers in Your Business Plan" for more information).
   
   
4. Allocate resources realistically. This doesn't just have to do with cash, but also with know-how and responsibility. Who's in charge?
   
   
5. Communicate your plan. The business plan is the standard tool for communicating the main points of a business to a spouse, partner, boss, banker, investor, manager or other interested person. This is where we get confused, I think, about the plan as a document.
   
   First, we have to recognize that not all business plans are about communicating to outsiders. In planning, form follows function, so if you aren’t communicating to outsiders, then lighten up! Make the plan useful to you in as simple a format as possible. Maybe it’s a cash plan and a presentation, or a cash plan and notes, but nobody's saying your success depends on the document itself.
   
   Furthermore, if you're in a situation in which you have to communicate to bankers or investors, stay calm--and stay focused on business. If investors want a presentation more than a plan document, focus on the presentation. If bankers want financial projections more than an extensive look into your company's mission, focus on that.

We’re afraid our plan has to be well written because it represents us and stands for our intelligence, experience or ability to run a business. Get over it. It isn’t a writing contest; it’s a business. Tell your story. Keep it simple. Bullet points are fine.

Also, don't confuse your plan for the kind a business student would turn in. In business school, the plan is a teaching tool. When I give students a grade for a business plan, I look at writing. I judge the quality of the document in part based on spelling and grammar and, more important, completeness. That’s a special case, though, that shouldn't apply to you out there in the real world.

The bottom line is, well, the bottom line--not the editor’s pencil. A good business plan is about results, not writing. Don’t wait an extra minute for that “writer.” Get working on your plan. And never forget, the real value is in implementation. Prepare to track results, compare those results to your plan, revise, correct course and manage your business better because of your plan.

---

Tim Berry is the "Business Plans" coach at Entrepreneur.com and is president of Palo Alto Software Inc., which produces the industry's leading business planning software, Business Plan Pro, as well as other popular planning applications for businesses.
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The new niche: Hair care for men without

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The same week a Los Angeles salon owner was pleading with Britney Spears not to buzz her head, barbers were laying tracks across the scalps of all sorts of men at the Aidan Gill for Men salon in New Orleans.

“We have at least one man coming in for a head shave every day,” Gill said. “Had Britney come here, we’d have shaved her all the way down. She’d have looked incandescent.”

For most of recent grooming history, having a totally bald pate was a look most likely found among men with formidable personalities and names to match — Kojak, Yul, Ike, Warbucks, Clean. It wasn’t a look for John over in accounting.

But in the late 1980s, Michael Jordan shaved it all off. Soon, the world was examining the scalps of Bruce Willis, Andre Agassi, Moby and just about one token character on every TV show — not to mention a swarm of Oscar nominees and presenters this year, including Jack Nicholson (who had shaved his head for a role).

The response is a booming market of products being developed and sold specifically to the unhirsute — a new front in the nearly $5 billion onslaught of male grooming products in the United States.

There are gels and ointments to help with the shave, to enhance the shine, to reduce the glare, to help with dryness or oiliness, to block the sun. There’s even a rolling razor to make the daily upkeep less stressful.

“I’m a former comb-over wearer,” confessed Howard Brauner, founder of the two-year-old company Bald Guyz, based in Manalapan, N.J. “I would spend half an hour in the morning making it look right, and then finally I just realized it was ridiculous. Once I decided to really go bald, my wife would get annoyed at me for using her expensive shampoos. But I had to use something to clean my head.”

For that particular ablution, Brauner now uses a head wash that’s part of the line of products he developed in response to his wife’s complaints. Bald Guyz also puts out pocket-size individual head wipes, for use on the go. And there is a conditioner, to be used twice a week. “Your skin up there is either dry or irritated or oily,” he said.

Men also complain about oily sunscreens that run into their eyes. Instead, there are scalp-specific blocks, like Bald Guyz’s SPF 30 sunblock gel. (About 2 percent of skin cancers occur on the scalp.) For men who have forgotten to block, there is an aloe-and-green-tea moisture gel for burns.

There is also Mission: Control Bald Head Balm, a creamy, nongreasy SPF 15 sunscreen, introduced last year by Sharps (one of the first non-scalp-specific toiletry companies to market a product for bald heads in the same line as products for hair care), and an SPF 25 Complete Head Care Lotion from the new scalp-care brand Matte for Men. HeadShade SPF 15 is a sunblock spritz by HeadBlade, a California-based company that sells products at CVS and Kmart, among other stores.

HeadBlade made its name developing a razor designed for head shaving. A yellow plastic-and-rubber handle loops onto the middle finger and is held in the palm. It resembles a snowmobile, with a razor on the front and two small wheels on the back, which ride on the scalp, keeping it steady.

There are two types of hairless men buying these products: those who do it as a simple antidote to hair erosion and those more diehard types for whom hairlessness is a way of life. Those in the latter group, who have not experienced hair loss at all, call themselves BBC or Bald by Choice. (There’s even a Web site, BaldlyGo.com, that allows visitors to send in their photos to be retouched for a preview before they slather their heads with Barbasol.) The goods are being marketed accordingly.

Bald Guyz targets the average guy who’s made a choice to adopt this look, either because it’s easier than creating the illusion of hair (if he doesn’t have it) or dealing with hair at all (if he does).

The products’ packages feature photos and mini-bios of “real bald guys.” The Head Wipes box shows Shawn, a goatee-wearing researcher from Texas who enjoys jazz and R&B, and Keith, a toothy Long Island firefighter who “puts his life on the line every day, making him a very special bald guy.”

“We’re for the guy who is saying, ‘This is just what nature handed me. This is who I am,’” Brauner said.

[via naplesnews.com]

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