Management Measures

I was brought up on this in my second job.
Quantify!
There are four basic quantifiers, we were taught: numeric, date/time, Boolean and geographic.
As much as possible my writing, and especially my proposals, bear all of these four quantifiers peppered throughout the document.
A classic ending is “Cost $500.00 plus applicable taxes. Chris Greaves can begin the study on receipt of a 50% deposit at 4340 Bloor Street West; Suite 401; Toronto; Ontario; CANADA M9C 2A6 by 5:00 p.m. Monday, 19 October 2009”.
Today I hit on a new quantifier: COLOR!
I have a modest proposal to put before the networking group at our meeting tonight.
I’ve printed it off an a sheet of blue paper.
I figure if the executive are showing interest in it (for example, reading it during the speaker’s presentation), it will be easy to spot.
I may even be able to record who has read it by the end of the evening.

No Excuses!

I haven’t owned a car for several years. I rent a car when needed, or cadge a lift off someone I know going to the same function, tossing in some cash for gas money.
Tonight’s networking meeting is, annoyingly, about 10 KM to the east of me, but is not accessible by public transit. A cab fare is going to set me back about $20 + tip each way. Add in the entrance fee and it starts to add up.
My attitude towards life is “No Excuses!”. In this case I can hear the excuse starting up at 9:00 a.m., a full ten hours before the meeting. “I don’t have a car”, “It’s too far”, ‘It’s too expensive”, “The bus doesn’t go anywhere near there”, and so on.
Enter a brainwave!
A colleague, a self-employed technical writer lives a mile west of me.
I invite Paul to come along and tell him part of the deal is that he has a car, and I’ll pay his entrance fee and gas money. Together they aren’t going to come anywhere near $40.
I save some cash AND have some conversation AND look good in the eyes of the networking group, because I’m introducing a guest to the event.
Paul gets an opportunity to network in a group he has not met before.
The networking group has another opportunity to shine in front of a newcomer.
That’s not a win-win situation; it’s a win-win-win situation!

How Not to Do Business

I am arguably the smallest client of any laser toner cartridge supplier. While not paper-less, I am definitely frugal in my use of the printer.
I left a message for my supplier, asking them to call me so that I could place an order. The message was not returned. A subsequent call was interrupted with “I have a supplier on the other line. I’ll call you back”. Two days later I received an email “I do apologize for not getting back to you any sooner as I am running out the door once more!”.
I don’t know, but I am inclined to think that my days of being the smallest client at my supplier are over. My orders truly are not in the Global League.
Off to the world wide web and I locate a promising supplier, based in Vancouver BC but proudly boasting warehouses in both Toronto and Mississauga. I live on the border between those two cities.
I dial the 1-866 number, and no matter whether I opt for Sales, Customer Support, Technical or even the “Zero” operator, I am greeted with the same recorded message “Please leave your number”.
I’m not inclined to spray my number around with anyone with whom I’m not (yet) doing business, so I fire off an email asking for a number, and receive by reply “Sorry all lines were busy. Please send your Phone Number by this email and we will contact you shortly.”.
I don’t believe that all their lines are always busy. I believe that they don’t speak directly with potential clients (or, I now realize, existing clients for that matter!).
Back to the web.
Around mid-day Wednesday, June 24, 2009 I locate Precision Toner of Concord, just off the Northern Boundary of Toronto.
Yes they carry those cartridges.
Yes they can deliver them.
Yes the price is right.
And YES! I’m talking to a real-live human being who answers all my questions and promises me that the cartridges will be delivered next day.
I am, by now, flat out of Magenta; my printer is dying grayishly.
I write this testimonial to customer service at 15:30 Thursday, June 25, 2009.
The carton of cartridges was dropped off by UPS fifteen minutes ago.
I am back in business.
As, arguably the smallest client of Precision Toner.

Post Cards

Flushed with my success with Ken King (http://www.sourceimaging.ca/), I decided that a set of postcards would be a good idea. My colleague Michael Belfry is a master at this. I can’t reach his level, but I can come close.
I figured on a dozen sets of cards, one for each of 12 topics, to be mailed out at monthly or bi-monthly intervals.
The Canada Post web site tells me minimum and maximum dimensions for a post card within the allowable range for regular letter rates.
I decide to go with the minimum size - 9 cm x 14 cm. I figure I’ll get more cards per sheet that way.
A simple spreadsheet tells me that I can get the most small cards per page (4!) by using a legal size sheet in Landscape mode.
A call to Ken reveals that his sheets go as big as 46 cm x 31 cm or thereabouts.
I recalculate and find that I can for 2x5=10 small cards per sheet.
(In typing this I now realize that I don’t have to go to the smallest allowable; I can expand my size until I reach the limit for 10 cards per sheet. I stretched to 9.13 cm x 15.22 cm).
Ready to roll, I email the specifications - full color, glossy both sides, images etc. I issue a sample document showing my return address in the top-left corner (Canada Post tells you which parts of the card you may/not use), and ken calls me.
In passing we discuss that return address. Do I want it black?
I realize that that side is my mass-mailing side, and it had better be printable; certainly not full gloss!
Saved by communication, drafts, “measure twice cut once” my carpentry teacher taught me.

Business Cards

It’s not what it used to be.
Twenty years ago I ordered business cards, it took two weeks and a box of 1,000 cards cost me a small fortune.
On Sunday I emailed a word-processing document with my mockup to a printer.
On Monday afternoon I could have checked the proofs, but had another appointment.
Tuesday morning I checked the proofs for a small order of 250 cards.
They will be available for pickup Wednesday morning.
$65 (includes all taxes).
The speed and cost reduction seems to be the result of digital printing technology. Film or plates do not have to be set up.
In fact, I could probably do the job myself if I had a suitably calibrated guillotine. Assuming that’s what they use to trim them down to size!
(Tuesday, June 23, 2009 4:00 p.m)
“We got lucky” says Ken King (http://www.sourceimaging.ca/), as he drops them off at my door six hours later.

Volunteering for Profit

No, it is not about dollars, at least, not immediately, and it is about doing something for free. But it will be profitable.
I’ve recently joined a networking group, paid the annual fee, attended my first meeting, and waddyaknow? They were asking for volunteers.
Well in my experience volunteering is a great way to meet people, so since I joined the networking group to meet people, why not volunteer, right?
Bonus! The task at hand is to telephone a dozen or so members prior to each meeting, to remind them to come to the meeting.
I can be painfully shy on the telephone, but here is a good reason/excuse to call some people I don’t know, introduce myself by name, and perhaps strike up a short conversation with them.
Life just gets better.
I’m not sure whether I’ll be calling the same dozen people each month, or whether the grouping will change.
If the group remains the same, it is a chance to foster deeper relationships.
If the group changes it’s a chance to make contact with each member of the group.
I just can’t lose!
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
What about the case where a volunteer organization wants you to contribute the service that you charge your paying clients for (accounting, marketing, technology, etc.) With paying clients you can give them as much service as they are willing to pay for. With paying clients, I don't say no. I say, "It will cost this much," and let them decide yes or no. With volunteering, you run into, "If it's free, I'll take 10." Drew Mathers www.almost-painless.com/index.html
True.
If the AIC (a special-interest group of which I am a member) wants me to spend an hour a month doing what I do best ("Hitting the phones"), then I'll do that, even 'though it is something I could get paid for by client. If the AIC wants me to clean up a couple of dozen documents to a consistent format, I'll do that too, even 'though I can get paid big bucks for doing 80,000 documents at a time for a law firm (these are unashamed plugs for my business!).
Donating my time and/or services is by definition a give-away.
It is when the load on this "volunteer" exceeds some well-defined number of hours or dollars that I should dig in my heels.
In the article above I was trying to convey the impression that rolling up one's sleeves was a lot more fun that sitting in a chair, and I feel sure that you know that.
I have been approached by non-profit organizations who, on the basis of their non-profit status think that I should donate my services. I say no, because I reason that they have enough cash to rent a large office and pay a salaried staff of four. They have an operating budget. I have no separate office and no salaried staff. I feel that the money should flow towards me in these cases, not away from me.

A Doomed Project

The telephone call is unexpected and to the point: “I need an MS Office 2007 Trainer for six months to train 500 people for a Real Estate Organization Corporate.”
That’s it!
I ask for more details, there are none. “But surely your client sent you a bit more than that?”, I query the agent on the other end of the telephone.
No.
That’s It!
Now either the client has much more data and is not supplying it to their agent, or the client has no data. You can’t have it both ways. (I am assuming that the agent is not lying to me!)
If the client has much more data and is not supplying it to their agent, then the client is not playing fair with their agent, and that suggests that they will continue to play unfair; neither I nor the agent can come out of this looking good.
If the client has no data, then the client is basing decisions on bad data, and decisions based on bad data are always bad decisions; neither I nor the agent can come out of this looking good.
Six-months of training involving 500 people in a new version of Microsoft Office is a major undertaking, contract or not. Here are some of the questions that a true professional would ask:
· What is the current level of expertise in each of your 500 staff members?
· What applications of Microsoft Office 2007 need to be taught?
· Which of your 500 staff need training in which applications?
· To what level should each staff member be brought?
· What channels best suit your staff? Classroom, one-on-one, web-conferencing, self-paced study?
· What acceptance tests do you have in place?
· How will you decide or know when the training has been successful for each and every one of the 500 staff members?
· What realistic corporate data and problems can be established to make the training meaningful to your 500 staff members?
· What follow-up (“booster”) training will be required?
· Do you have an established technical channel, such as a newsletter, that will allow staff members to pool their knowledge after the formal training is ended?
· What provision will you make for after-hours technical help in the delivered areas of Microsoft Office 2007?
· What Microsoft Office 2007 course material do your possess?
· What Microsoft Office 2007 course material can you provide?
· Will the instructor be required to develop specialized material for specific areas of interest?
· How much time will be set aside for the instructor to develop such material?
· How much time will be set aside for the instructor to respond to out-of-course questions?
· How do you plan to deal with questions from your 500 staff members which are not covered under the broad umbrella of “using Microsoft Office 2007”?
· Will you need a set of tests or follow-up questions prepared to asses your 500 staff members new level of knowledge?
The true professional needs to know whereabouts on the spectrum the work is sited. Will the trainer be required merely to read-from-the-book and assist students as they work through the exercises, or at the other end, will the trainer be required to analyze the needs of the 500 students and develop training materials suitable for each grade of student?
At the lower end of the spectrum, which I call “Walk in whistling, with my hands in my pockets”, I would be prepared to charge a low rate; after all, I’m not being asked to do much more than show up in a clean shirt and nudge people along.
At the higher end of the spectrum, which I call “Slave long nights developing stuff”, I would charge a high rate; after all, I’m being asked to do much more than show up in a clean shirt and nudge people along; I am being asked to draw on my 40 years of training experience to develop material ideally matched to this particular client.
The overriding question that should be asked, but never gets asked is “How did you come up with a figure of six months?”. Has a survey been done to find out how many people need a session with how many programs in the Microsoft Office Suite? If not, on what measured facts do you base your figure of six months?
I thought so!
I just checked this out with my buddy Bill who is a “mechanical drawer” and he agrees with me. He would feel the same way if someone asked him to make up drawings for air-conditioning ducts for a twelve-story building, without telling if each floor was identical in layout, the number of rooms, required temperature gradients, and so on.
Doomed from the start.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Chris, This exposes one of the myths sincerely held by the technologically naive. The belief is that technology and related services can be purchased as a commodity, like a bag of sand or a toaster. This is expressed in your example as the belief that there is a Microsoft Office course, delivered by a single method, suitable for all students in all situations. From this point of view, the client can see their request as perfectly rational. Drew Mathers www.almost-painless.com/index.html

The Toronto Entrepreneur

Business Development
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
An occasional muse on some event along the path of developing and nurturing my business.