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Is the role of your support companies clear? If it isn’t it can cost you not only success, but potentially your company’s survival. Fortune small business recently wrote about a company strained by the current economy. Her accountant suggested cutting expenses, but the entrepreneur from the article suggested a different price point. Who’s more correct isn’t our focus here, but what is of great concern is that a review of her financial statements reveals that the company has lost money for the past eight years and it only comes into focus when reserves are low and sales are down.

Information and analysis are missing from her strategy. More damaging is that it seems as though she never realized it was missing. I think it’s important to note that the accountant’s reports are probably correct and done thoroughly, but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t gaps.

When was the last time that you went through your business and made sure that nothing was falling through the cracks? Here are some points to consider about how support companies affect strategy:

• Which support companies have information and insight that is important for setting strategy?
• Are you preserving important information?
• Is that information being analysed by the right people?
• Is it getting to the decision makers?

If you believe that every business has something special that it does really well, as we do, it would be really easy to decide that you should simply focus on that and have other people do everything else. For most businesses, however, that isn’t feasible, and isn’t smart. You have to do some of it yourself. And with the numerous aspects of doing business, you’re likely out of your comfort zone.

I was reading a Cat’s Eye Marketing post about doing what you think you can’t, and thinking about how we can be of help to the companies that are doing it themselves. I thought of three things that can help with those scary moments.

First is courage, that drive within us to do something even though we are uncomfortable, and I think that entrepreneurs have quite a bit just to be who they are, even if it takes some coaxing. Second is knowledge. Often our nerves come from not knowing what to expect, and that the concern that someone else will know it. Lastly, support from those around you, especially those who have first hand experience.

If you can bring those three elements together, then it is much easier to do it yourself.

A recent post at Salespodder discussed how sales and negotiation are very different skills. If you think of the skills that it takes to be successful as a small business, negotiation isn’t the first thing to come to mind. But it is connected with many of the traits that do come to mind, such as relationships, closing sales, and repeat business.

Developing negotiation skills not only leads to getting what your business needs, but perhaps more importantly, without sacrificing the relationship to get there. The benefits of skilled negotiation can include better understanding of needs, both theirs and yours, moving from adversarial to problem solving, and a result that is more satisfying from a long term perspective.

This isn’t to say that a skilled negotiator can solve any disagreement or make it less challenging. It isn’t magic after all. If things  can’t be worked out, you can at least do your part to minimize the damage to the relationship.

Going Further

• Harvard Negotiation Project: 5 Lasting Rules
• Negotiation Tips
• Negotiation Skills from Mind Tools

You don’t need to know how to do everything in your business, but you do need to know how to buy it. At least, that’s the argument from Duck Tape Marketing in a recent post, and I couldn’t agree more. In trying to grow or become more efficient it is often essential for companies to get help from others.

How do we make these decisions? What should be considered? Here are some ideas to get you started.

• How does this relate to my core business?
  How does it affect your product? Quality control, lead time, personal touch. Would it affect you information flow? Communicating your passion to the customer, tracking growth, customer feedback.
• Do I have the knowledge to buy and manage this?
  Do you know what to expect? Would you be able to tell if they aren’t doing a good job?
• How much time does it actually save?
  An accountant can save time and offer invaluable advice, but receipts still have to be collected. An office assistant may require checking and feedback until you are both on the same page.

The questioning tone of the questions isn’t to discourage you. The purpose is to help you look at problem from different perspectives, so you can make a decision that is more productive for your business and easier on you.

What do you consider (or wish you had considered) when choosing to outsource tasks?

For small businesses, offloading work is important, if not essential for success. Whether it is because of time constraints or skill weaknesses, knowing how to approach these relationships can give your business an advantage. A relationship that is working smoothly is not only less stressful, but usually more productive as well.

Small Business Branding posted 5 Tips for a Better Outsourcing Experience. It’s has some great guidelines, and with a little tweaking can be applied most of your relationships, both external and internal.

Why should you care? There is nothing wrong with trying to rank higher with your keywords, but there are people and companies that will try to game the system in order to get a better result. If found out by a search engine, your site rankings can be punished severely. Most people that knowingly use bad SEO, also called “black hat”, don’t care if they lose any one domain. but for most business websites your domain is very important to your web presence.

Small Business Trends has a nice article on this called Five Tips for Avoiding Deceptive SEO Companies. Probably one of the easiest things to do is to ask questions. While there is a lot of art that goes into SEO, the general actions aren’t difficult to understand. Don’t be afraid to press if something doesn’t seem right.

Going Beyond

• Matt Cutts from Google gave a presentation that’s a good introduction to webspam. There is also a lot of SEO discussion on his blog.
• SEOmoz.org is more into the nitty gritty of SEO, but has lots of tools and articles. Good place to go if you want to try it yourself.

Trunex is here to help businesses, especially small to medium businesses. Businesses don’t exist in a vacuum, they rely on services and products of other companies. We want to help your company connect with the right services and products. We want to help you know what to expect and get the most out of those providers.

We’re still in the early stages, but here is a preview of what we’re working on:

• Directory
  Your business is unique. Shouldn’t you find services that fit you best?
• Blog
  Information on best practices, industry trends, and law changes.
• Articles
  Answers to your questions, right from the experts. Presented clearly.