Last time in this space, I wrote about how one should not overlook seeking referrals as a way to gain new clients and how clients, both old and new, can be serve as trusted sources and therefore are great ways to sell your services to those they know. The people you already work with, however, are not the only way to get yourself out there, though. And this is an idea that many may have forgotten over the last two-plus years when in-person networking became impossible at times.

One of the best ways to get your name out there to new people can be through fellow professionals. This can even be true if you are in a group consisting of other people in the same industry. You may have a certain area of interest and/or expertise that others do not possess. When this is something that others do not share, you can position yourself as the expert in that certain area, the person others send potential clients to when they have an issue there.

There is also value in joining professional organizations that go beyond a single industry, such as chambers of commerce. Now obviously everyone involved in these groups will not need your services – be it a service they simply never need to utilize or maybe they already have relationships that satisfy those needs. But of course, others might. And even if they are not actively in the market for what you do, you will be making relationships with other people who think with a business-owner mindset.  They can be more prone to see issues that others have and more prone to sell services that can fix those. And if you can become known as someone with the skills to solve those problems, they could be sending people your way.

I want to talk about one other set of potential referrals here, and that is people who used to work with your business. Granted, some of these people move on to similar positions in similar organizations and will not be interested in steering potential business your way.  Others, however, will have left for other reasons – be it retirement, spending more time at home, moving into another industry – and you can remain a go-to for them when they, or others they know, have a need for your services. In those situations, it can prove lucrative to continue relationships with those people after they leave.

No matter where these referrals come from, though, they all start in the same place. You must believe that you can help others with their issues. You must position and sell yourself as that type of problem solver. Don’t be afraid to keep that mindset no matter where you are and then let the idea of referrals snowball from there.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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​A couple times over this summer, I have written about how it’s a good time for business owners to take stock of what they do in their business with an aim to shifting things toward securing more time off. Although I do firmly believe that this is something that virtually every business owner can do no matter their situation, at some point you reach a point where you need more clients to make more money to pay people to do the work you no longer are doing. A lot of attention is paid nowadays to how to do this through the new digital and social media landscapes, and although that is valuable, I think many people also lose the view of how important an old-fashioned referral can be. After all, what better advertising is there ever than a first-hand account from a trusted friend?

Most businesses see at least some referrals naturally. If your clients are pleased with your services, and they know of someone seeking similar services, it is natural for them to bring up your name. It is possible to coax out more of them, though.

First, when you have discussions with clients, make asking for referrals part of the conversation. It is one thing to wait for them to have serendipitous moments when someone they know brings up what you do, it is another to push them toward thinking about what you do. If you frame different ways to discuss what you do and what you can offer, you can make them think about who could use your services without needing that direct ask from someone else.

The best way to do this can be discussing what types of problems you can solve. For example, it’s one thing for us to say “Oh, we do accounting and bookkeeping,” and another to say, ”We get you time back to focus on the parts of your business you enjoy.”

​Secondly, do not neglect new clients when seeking referrals, as well. These are the people who have one of those problems that you solved. Ideally, they are very excited that you helped them with it. This type of exuberance can be of great value when trying to sell others on your services, too. So again, this is just another place where if you make referrals part of your general conversation with clients, you can have these new people help spread your word. 

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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We often hear people who think that business owners get to make some vast number of deductions on their tax returns. We also sometimes hear about businesspeople who think they can make a vast number of deductions. In both cases, the vision they have is larger than the truth.

One of the places where this can be blown out of proportion the most is when it comes to travel. For example, an owner doesn’t get to go to a conference somewhere, attend for two days, put up their family in a hotel while there, then stay for five more days of vacation.  At the same point, though, you can also be steered wrong even when staying close to home, for you don’t get to deduct driving to your regular office or expense your lunch during a regular day of work.

So to be an eligible expense, first, travel expenses must be ordinary and necessary – not lavish, extravagant, or for personal reasons. Business travel deductions are available when one must be away from your tax home or main place of work for business reasons. The rule is that this must be for substantially longer than an ordinary day’s work and require sleep or rest to meet the work demands happening there.

Once you are engaging in eligible travel, though, there are a good number of expenses that could become deductions. This includes the actual cost of the travel (be it planes, trains, or automobiles), as well as necessary fares for transportation such as between an airport/train station to a hotel or from a hotel to the actual work location. There is also the actual lodging while there, meal costs during the trip, any shipping needed to get material to the work location, and any tips paid during the trip for any of these expenses.

The lines for all this should not be overly difficult – essentially if it is necessary for the operation of your work tasks, then it is probably an allowable expense. If it is just for your comfort or entertainment, then it is not. But since a lot can still be involved there, be sure to keep good records (and hold onto receipts) while traveling for work. That $10 sandwich may not seem like a lot at the time, but if you do that 10 times in year, those types of things do add up, and keeping track as it happens is worth that small time investment instead of trying to recreate everything at the end of the year.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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Last week I wrote about how the July 4th weekend could serve as a good motivator for some business owners to start looking at how they may want to work in ways that have an aim of having more time off. And then this week, I came across an article speaking about how more businesses are embracing a four-day work week.

Granted, this is not something that is possible for everyone, and the article itself even acknowledges that. I do think, however, it gives good ideas to continue this conversation of exactly how much one needs to work. The idea of a 40-hour work week, after all, is just that, an idea. There is nothing inherently magical in that number.

And of course, there are people who can fruitfully work that much. If you are in manufacturing, spending all your time turning out a product, and then selling all those products, that can be a good use of your time.  I am sure that most reading these words, however, have had time at work (and quite possibly a lot of it) where you sit around without much to do, wondering why the clock demands you must remain at your station.

This then is a push for business owners to think about not only when you can take time off (and what is necessary to make that happen) but to also think about how you work during the week. Are you forcing yourself to do stuff when you are no longer productive? Are you forcing yourself to work in hours when you don’t work best?  Are you stuck in what you have been told are the ways you should work when you now have the freedom to give different answers?

The nature of these questions speaks to how there is not one answer for everyone. What works best for you is your own, personal answer. But are you someone with employees where you could help them to find their best answers, too? I am not going to pretend to be able to give definite answers here, but I think many can agree that we could accomplish about the same amount in a preferred, self-chosen six-hour window as we will in an eight-hour window proclaimed by someone else. And if you do have ways to give a worker a little more freedom with their time, then there is goodwill earned through that which also comes with value.

So when it comes to time, keep being unafraid to not think outside those proclaimed boxes. 

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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As we come off the July 4th weekend, hopefully you got some time to enjoy the season in whatever way felt best for you (as in, didn’t work all the time). Beyond that, I hope it’s not the only downtime you got to enjoy so far this summer and that it’s not the last bit of it you will enjoy before it’s over.  After all, what else is the season for?

But what if we could take such things beyond the summer …

That’s the idea I want to talk about today for you small business owners because shouldn’t part of the dream of owning a small business be getting that type of control over your time?

I’ll go ahead and not leave that question as rhetorical – yes, it should be.

Granted, this is very difficult when you start your business because so many of the tasks fall on your shoulders. After all, who else is there to do it? From there, it is easy to feel ownership over every aspect of your business and it then a new thing becomes difficult _ giving up the work and claiming back your time.

So that’s why I thought this could be a good time to bring up such ideas, because so much of what feels like “summer” is taking that time to step away, to enjoy more what you want to do (and not what you have to do), embrace the weather, and recharge ourselves. This is so tied in with the season and becomes so much of what we look forward to with it because of how important it is.

And when something is all about feeling good, you should grab more of it. Of course, I understand that not every business owner can afford to hire an employee or send some of their work outside the business to be taken care of elsewhere. But those who need these types of vacation break the most are probably the ones who can afford it the most because they’re the ones who are doing too much.

When you think of this, this doesn’t have to be that you need to have enough profit to afford this 100%, full stop. You are giving up some of the things you are doing so that you have time to do something else – you know, the tasks that you enjoy doing more and the parts that tend to bring more revenue into your business.

I know this is all vague in a way, but I thought it was still important to bring up and try to catch those of you who needed the break, needed more of them in the future, and say that we are happy to discuss with you if there is any way we can help you achieve that.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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