Our Small Town Bank Locks it's Doors . . . and reminds me of a "road not taken" . . . and an Opportunity!!

The letter . . . For privacy reasons, the full letter is available to my email subscribers.

Our small-town bank locks it's doors . . . a road not travelled . . . and an opportunity!

A bank employee will now let you into the building . . . but only with the proper ID.

Our town only has a population of 2,000 . . . and it's in the middle of a rural area, in a state that has been referred to as "fly over country." So it's a bit shocking to get a letter like the one in the photo. I mean, this "ain't New York City!" to adapt the advertising slogan. We're used to leaving our doors unlocked, the keys in the vehicle, with the naive confidence that people generally "mean well" and can be trusted. No, this isn't "Mayberry" from the Andy Griffith show. But it's close. 

A quick side-note. Our site has grown over 60% this year. Thank you to everyone for visiting our site, recommending us to others, subscribing and and following our blog. We will continue to offer content through our blog, email list, and  our free eBooks in 2018!

Anyway, this letter reminded me of an event that happened about a decade ago. A bank President called me. She asked if I would be interested in setting up a state-wide Critical Incident Stress Debriefing network for her bank. At the time I was the Executive Director of a counseling center and had worked with bank leadership on a couple of her work-teams. 

I told her that we might be interested, but that I would have to find out more about what setting up and running a state-wide CISD network would require. My first call was to my professional "guru." He told me right away that the state operated a CISD team and that I should contact the head of that department. I did.

The result was disappointing . . . at best. It was clear that contact with this state-run program would be of no help what-so-ever. The program, to be fair, was designed to help "first-responders," an admirable ambition, and it was clear in the conversation with this bureaucrat that there was no room to provide this service to anyone outside the governmental system. To his credit, he was brutally clear; the legislative focus was on government and, as such, they would not provide advice, training, support, or even make available the names of counseling professionals they used across the state for their CISD services. It was a complete dead-end.

I called back the bank President. I described the experience with the state and informed her that, without being able to tap into existing resources, we simply would not be able to develop and provide this service. We were not equipped to identify, train, support, and provide the services state-wide as a small center with less than a dozen professionals on staff. It was not the right opportunity for that organization and my focus, at that time, was on building up the organization--not seizing on the opportunity to contract with the bank to develop and deliver this service.

But truth be told, it bugged me. I've never worked in government--but I have had a number of grants and contracts with legislative branches--and I am fully aware of the constraints under which they serve. What galled me was that here was a legitimate need and it went unmet. Being a problem-solver by nature it just didn't seem right to drop it. But we did.

This experience did teach me a few things that might be of use to you, my readers. Mostly, that their are unmet needs all around you and if you can uncover them, and find ways to help, you will never be without work to do and people who will pay you for the value of that work. But, more specifically . . . regarding this opportunity . . . 

1. Banks, fast-food restaurants, retailers have lots of attempted, and some completed, robberies that never make the news (in fact, in many cases, they work hard to make sure they don't!).

2. These events can cause significant turn-over and often negatively impact employee morale . . . directly impacting the "bottom line" of the bank.

3. There is no established system for addressing this need in the for-profit world. (at least not here or to the knowledge of many professionals I have asked in the past decade)  and despite training on what to do in such events and some education of the effects, there is no systematic follow up or support when the events occur.

4. There is no recognized standard way to recognize those that have expertise in helping these organizations (no state licensure or certification for CISD/M in general). Psychologists and counselors often get referrals for people who have been traumatized by these incidents and who are experiencing anxiety or other symptoms but it is rare (excepting, perhaps, public school settings) to provide this support at a group level.

Conclusions?

This is an untapped area for private practice consulting for professionals who want to get trained, develop expertise, and market these services.

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Winter Prep . . . and the lesson of doing . . . to learn you "can do!"

Winter Prep . . . and the lesson of doing . . . to learn you "can do!"

Three cords of Mulberry and Locust. Not the best, but pretty good stuff never-the-less! (3/4 cord per rack)  In the background you can see our chicken coop and the "high tunnel."

"I'm glad you said that!" exclaimed a recent trainee. We were talking about using our IMPACT Model to work with organizations, and I had just told the trainees that, far from being a typical entretreneural-type-ready to jump in with both feet, I tend to be a risk-avoider, cautious and tentative about what risks I take. 

No, the trainee wasn't glad I told them about my self-doubt and slow-adopting stance, what he was glad I said was that "sometimes you have to do something so that it is hard to deny that you can do it."  Which brings me to processing firewood . . . .

It's that time. Time to get everything buttoned down before the "snow flies" in my part of the world. This means, among other tasks, getting the firewood pre-positioned, stacked, and ready to feed the stoves and fireplace that helps heat our home. So yesterday, my 11 year old son and I stacked firewood onto our porch (see below).

For my son, stacking the rack full was a "can't do." He just couldn't imagine that we would be able to stack the entire rack full. Despite this, he hung in there until I released him with the job about 85% complete--and finished it up on my own. (Story of how a "power struggle" almost led to dire consequences.)

I can't blame him. This whole "wood thing" is a lesson in things I couldn't do at one time. 

Another cord under cover. Mack helped fill it. I topped it off. This is mostly Maple. Okay, but not great.

"Couldn't do," I say, because I didn't grow up in a home where running chain saws, log splitters, or stacking firewood was part of the culture. No, I grew up on a college campus, cloistered away from such folderol. It's not that it wasn't in my heritage, in fact, my Dad, felled, transported, cut up, split, and stacked 9 cords of wood - 9 cords! - to get his high school class ring--and he did it by hand with mules, chains, and an axe. Maybe, that's why I grew up on a college campus and why I had little experience with processing firewood.

Today, running my Stihl saws (story about a broken screw and getting a second saw) ) the log splitter, and processing the winter supply is routine. But there was a time where I didn't know it would be. That the thought of trying to use or maintain a chainsaw or splitter seemed daunting if not possible. What has changed? My experience. But that only comes after one musters the courage to try -- to do the thing before knowing you can do it. To take that leap of faith.

All Locust in the garage. Miserable to process because of the thorns but good wood--all ready for the snow!

So it is with becoming a consultant . . . and with each new project where you walk in an expert with experience in other organizations . . . but a complete novice with this new culture. You must move into the unknown, not knowing what you can do, then learning what you can achieve. The repetition of this process leads you to trust that even when you don't know what you can do in a given situation, this learning has taught you that you can do!

Want to help us develop new products?  As part of testing a new marketing platform we have temporarily lowered our prices . . . Check out our current sale . . .

Learn how to work with organizations and businesses applying your knowledge and skills as a therapist to meet the needs of a broader group and decrease your dependence on insurance, reduce your overhead . . . and find more the work you enjoy!

Continuing Education: Take Aways from Presenting at a National Conference

Take Aways from Presenting at a National Conference

Getting Started . . .

Just finished presenting "Beyond the Couch: Using MFT skills with Organizations" at the national conference for the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT). The presentation was delivered in a pre-conference, 5 hour, "institute" held in Atlanta at the Marriot Marquis.

This pre-conference institute requires attendees to come a day early, pay an additional $175, occur additional costs of an extra day in training, and be willing to commit from 9-3:30 to this training. We had good turnout with 35-40 attending.

As an educational endeavor, I am listing the learning I got from presenting this institute. Incidentally, If you are a member of our FONS group (a private Facebook group) or a subscriber to my email list then I will give you some more personal insights later that I won't share publicly.

A beautiful day in Atlanta.

Here a some of my take aways . . .

Things I kind of knew that were re-confirmed:

• Therapists are some of the nicest people to have in a presentation
• The interest in working on contract, avoiding the insurance market, and working with organizations is growing
• There is still little, or no, training in masters programs on business skills, contracting, or working with organizations
• There is a strong interest in learning the tools and techniques of developing contracts
• Therapists don't know where to find mentors when it comes to contracting and working with organizations
• Seasoned therapists get requests to help with organizational issues whether they are trained in this area or not

What should I have known, that i learned:

• Teaching people, even highly skilled therapists, how to do contracting takes more than 5 hours
• People are going to be interested in connecting personally with me for support
• I need a plan to capture the contact information of those who show interest in connecting
• People are going to want to buy my book, from me, right there at the conference
• There always is at least one attendee who already has extensive experience as a consultant who is present just to get new ideas
• There are decision makers present, often with funds, that may be looking for ways to enhance their program offerings.

What I still don't know . . . 

• Is it worth losing two days of revenue, paying for the cost of a plane ticket etc., the time to develop the presentation, and paying for the cost of the conference (really? the presenter has to PAY to attend their own presentation?!?!)
• As a corollary, to the point above, will I ever present at the AAMFT conference again?
• Will the institute have an impact? Will there be any follow through for attendees who expressed interest in developing their own contracts and consulting?
• Will the attendees who expressed an interest in coaching, training, connecting, follow through with contacting us?
• Did the institute give attendees enough to go out and develop their first contract?

We are finalizing our 2018 schedule for training, consulting, etc. The next opportunity to get in on learning about contracting and consulting is in the Interactive CE Training (ICET) Dr. Miller will be presenting on-line October 29th. I

To reserve time for a  presentation or coaching, contact Bryan directly.

For those interested, we also have two products to help therapists get started.

Beyond the Couch: Dr. Miller's seminal book on consulting with organizations.

Private Practice through Contracting: an eBook to reduce insurance dependency and help develop contracts as part of a private practice.

A little something for therapists who want to do "more" . . . or do "something else"

It was a pleasant surprise. Earlier this month, I got a message from a former student (see below) just to say, "Thanks!" "Thanks for what?" you ask. For introducing her to the idea that a professional, in the "world" of mental health, has developed a skill set that can be used for more than "just doing therapy."

The message came at the perfect time. Why? Because I had just decided--working with my graphic designer/social marketer expert--to offer, for a limited time, the book I wrote on the subject for free. This was the same content that students, like this one, told me I should put into a book. So, I did.

The book was published, used as a textbook for my course, and has been selling bit-by-bit for the last five years. (You can check it out, if you want--but don't buy it! I am going to give it to you free, remember? Here it is on Amazon)

Since publishing the book, a number of students and other professionals who read the book, have recognized the potential and have started contracting and working with organizations and businesses. For some it has been offering therapy services--such as an Employee Assistance Program--for others it has been business coaching or consulting. But "some" is not enough. There are so many organizations and businesses who could benefit from the support of a professional who understands complex human systems and who has "people skills". . . that I continue to doggedly "preach" to my colleagues the benefits of acting as a consultant.

Now, we are offering you this tool--a free tool--to help you jump start your thinking and consider what more you can do. Feel free to share it with other colleagues. (The book has paid for all it's publishing costs!) We want to see more and more organizations and businesses using professional "people experts" to help their work teams and organizations. We can't leave the role of "expert advisor" to business experts, accountants, and lawyers alone. They are very good at what they do--their areas of specialization. But so are we. They know business, we know people. Expertise in both is necessary for leaders and the organizations they lead, to be highly successful.

What is it? The book, Beyond the Couch, is over 200 pages of information, encouragement, and tools to help you begin to think and begin to engage in the role of a human systems consultant. It includes information on:

• identify potential clients

• develop proposals and get them funded

• decide how much to charge

• conduct and analyze projects

• utilize the skills you already have

• manage a consulting practice

• learn how organizations and leaders think about people

My student, as you will see below, decided to throw herself into full-time consulting work. Others have done the same. But most professionals have continued as therapists while adding contracts to their work. Either way, the book will give you a basic understanding of how to get your first contract and begin to help people Beyond the Couch.

One last thing. I will be hosting a video chat in the next month to tell you more about my experiences and answer questions for those who want a little more advice. When you enter your email to download the book you will be added to our list and we will let you know when the video chat will take place. This will also let you email any questions you would like me to address in the video chat.

Finally, here is the student's note (It is unedited except to protect confidentiality. Used with permission.):

Good evening, Dr. Miller, I was one of your students at _____ in the MA in Counseling program. I wanted to share something with you. By the time I took your class, I had already started my clinical internship and, to my dismay, I didn't like it. I spent most of my time doing paperwork and very little of my time actually helping people. Even when I was helping people, each hour felt like I was doing the same thing over and over. It was challenging, but only because I was so bored. The problems people faced were results of systems larger than themselves - and I wanted to tackle systemic problems. However, I was about to finish a degree in counseling; didn't that mean I should become a counselor? I was frustrated and a bit panicked. Then I took your class. In class, you discussed that you did consulting on the side. After class, you spent a little bit of time with me explaining the consulting work and it piqued my interest. I did a lot more research after speaking with you and tucked the idea in the back of my mind - mostly like wishful thinking. Fast forward. I have been working for a little over 3 years now for ______ with their Organizational Consulting unit. I work with an I/O psychologist and have consulted with NUMEROUS organizations - both public and private. The changing projects, brilliant colleagues, and constant challenge is a much better fit for me. I would even love to start my own consulting group some day. I say all of that to simply say thank you. I knew I wanted to help people and I knew I was skilled in understanding complex relationships, but I wouldn't have thought to use those skills in consulting had you not shared your experience with me. I wish you all the best.

Leadership Fail? . . . It's a communication problem

Wikipedia

Where did that go wrong?

"Employees recommend having insurance benefit meetings in the evenings," I said as we gave our report to the senior managers of a large manufacturing company.  We were finishing our consulting work with a company that had surveyed employees, found out some areas of concern, and asked us to come in and figure out how to help. "We already do!" the HR Director exclaimed, "I can show you!" he said, waving the company newsletter in the air. Sure enough, there in the newsletter was an announcement: Employee Benefit Meeting, Thursday, 7 pm. The date was the same week we were finishing up our interviews . . .

The classic 1953 skit "Who's on first" by Abbott and Costello is a delicious bit of miscommunication that often, sadly, is reminiscent of our business communications.  We think we are communicating but often we simply . . . are . . . not. Worse than a "Who;s on first? miscommunication--which at least gives the parties the change to discover that their message is not be received as intended--we often "swing and miss," failing to communicate at all. 

Take the senior management meeting I shared above. My colleague and I had spent six days working with employees in focus groups to follow up on the employee satisfaction survey that had identified some problem areas. One problem was "employee benefits." Our focus groups (Two three-hour meetings on this topic with 20 employees across 9 plants and all 3 shifts) focused on identifying what were the specific problems with employee benefits and creating recommendations for action plans for the senior management to follow up on.

One of the suggestions was that having benefit meetings in the evening would be helpful. This suggestion was particularly relevant because this company operated in a male-dominant industry (with fewer than 20% women employees) and the spouses were overwhelmingly the ones accessing the benefits. Employees explained that due to childcare, jobs, and other factors their spouses could not get away of attend meetings during the day and the employees, who could attend the meeting, did not because they did not "handle" the benefits.

So, a recommendation was crafted to ask for benefit meetings in the evenings. But, they already did have the meetings in the evenings. as the exasperated HR Director pointed out. He showed us the newsletter with the announcement. The air in the room was still with anticipation. What did this mean? How could employees not know this? Are the recommendations even valid?  I pointed out that although this particular recommendation was a moot point, "It is obvious that you are already doing this. However, the fact that 20 of your employees were involved in drafting this recommendation and no one said, 'Uh, guys? We already do this!' says we have a problem."

Diving In

This led to a discussion on the use of the company newsletter.  It turned out that the company was simply posting the newsletter on bulletin boards around the plants. However, employees only had time to read the newsletter before or after work with the result being that almost no one took the time to actually read them.

The problem? Communication.  Leadership thought they were communicating by creating the newsletter. Employees were not happy but their "voice" had not been heard. Everyone was aware of the tensions in the workplace but until the survey identified benefits as a problem no one was tasked with figuring out how to fix it. The key, often, lies in communication. How do we communicate, when do we communicate, who do we communicate to, what do we communicate, and why is it important should be important considerations for any leader.

But communication is complex. People often communicate through their actions rather than their words. To reach their own personal goals they may obscure their real thoughts and emotions. They may avoid communication that, although important to the success of the team, puts them in a situation where they will feel uncomfortable or fear their job might be threatened.. Aggressive, avoidant, or "freezing" at moments of high emotional stress--such as when conflict occurs in the workplace--may further block good communication. If you've been a leader for a few years you know.

What can be done?

But what can you do as a leader to mitigate the impact of poor communication?

1. Model a belief that the goal is to grow, be efficient, improve, or master your workflow . . . not simply avoid mistakes. Employees know what you really value. It oozes out of everything you do--what you pay attention to, what you reward, what makes you react--and they know it's in their best interest to "give the boss what he/she wants."

2. Learn about your own communication style and challenges. Are you aware that you have a tendency to get defensive?  Do you avoid the "hard" interactions with employees? Are you just tired of being a boss? Knowing where you are and how that effects your communication--and how it is effecting the organization--is critical to making adjustments.

3. Promote awareness of communication as an important business tool. One reason communication is often a problem is that no one focuses on it as a business concern. Yes, many are quick to not that it is a factor in the problems they experience but how many times have you hear of a company that has a "communication initiative" or a "communication program" for employees of managers? If you have, drop me an email. I'd love to hear that story.

4. Encourage the development of communication skills. Make communication one of the critical factors in evaluating your team, and each individual's, performance. Remind them that no successful team has ever been poor at communicating. If you want a practical, low-cost, and fun way of illustrating this check out the game "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes." It's a fun game (about $15) where one person tries to defuse a "bomb" while another person or several people use the bomb manual to assist--but neither participant can see what the other one is seeing/doing. It quickly illustrates the challenges of  communication. (We used it recently with a work team and it was the highlight of the workshop!)

5. Periodically and regularly use an external tool to identify and developing problems. Look, employees don't sit at home and ask themselves, "Is there anything I should be communicating to management that I haven't said?" Worse yet, they may know things that they would like to say but, like teenagers with parents, there are complex dynamics to actually having the courage to speak. "What will my boss think? How will other employees react? Will this influence who is promoted?" Employees need an "emotionally safe" space in order to give real accurate feedback. Anonymous surveys, external consultants, even Employee Assistance providers (if management focused) all can be independent sources of information and a "reality check" on what is really going on with employees.

6. Proactively address any issues identified. Communication is enhanced or diminished by what happens after the fact. People expect to see actions a result of their communication input. That action may be as simple as "thank you for your help" but often it needs to be something more. It needs to imply, at the least, that we really "heard what you told us" and, even more often should have an added element of "here is what is the result." Even if the result is negative it can meet this standard.  "We understand what you are telling us but because of X we are not changing this right now. But we will reconsider it if or when X happens," can be effective action even if the employee does not like the outcome.

7. Expect new communication glitches., Time, learning, growth . . . many things contribute to having new communication problems. The compliant 5 year old becomes a pushy 13 year old. They have grown and developed but now there are new issues. I mentioned using the game "Keep Talking" above. When we were using it with the group the results at first were quite bad . . . the "bomb" went off overtime before they could defuse it. However they were beginning to understand and anticipate some of the problems. One was that they needed to figure out how to communicate more effectively about the "wiring" on the bombs. For this round, I gave out 3 bomb manuals to team members to help defuse the bomb. They immediately set to work organizations how they could "attack" the problem of understanding the wiring and help the team member who was at the "bomb site" working on the devise itself. This would have been a great strategy . . . except . . . it was based on the assumption that the next bomb would be like the others they had already attempted! But the new bomb didn't even have any wires. All their communication and preparation was useless.

Leaders, communication is central to everything you do. Just like branding, marketing, public relations are elements you need to be aware of in order for your company to succeed communication is key to your leadership success.

 Free ebook Engaging Your Team: A framework for leading "difficult" people.

Consulting and the Cold Hard Truth

Statue of Veritas, Goddess of Truth, Wikipedia

Avoiding the Truth

How hard is it to ignore the obvious? Well, if you work in a field that causes you to work closely with people that are having problems you would know . . . it's not that hard. As an example, I remember working with a lady who was dealing with end of life issues with her 80-plus year old mother. As we talked, she repeatedly aid "if she dies" then . . . as a therapist I gently kept reminding her that it was not "if" but "when" she died . . . we have a remarkable ability to see, or not see, uncomfortable truths. As a consultant working with organizations you need to ruthlessly make yourself, and often your clients, deal with the reality of their situations . . . not the dream of how it could, or should, be . . . .

I once worked with an organization where the outside experts had worked for a year with leadership to bring them to a "path forward."  They had created an agreement. They had endured a great deal of conflict, the loss of several of their board of advisors, had their primary leader go through an evaluation and remediation process and finally to the construction of the "agreement.". They were ready to go forward. Except they weren't. An hour of listening to them talk about the history and the creation of the agreement told me, "this leadership team is still split into two camps . . . those for, and those against, the current executive."

Risking Change

So I said it. "It doesn't seem like this leadership team is on the same page." My next thought was, "I'm so fired!" You see it's my firm belief that many people do not appreciate those who tell them hard truths. I often underestimate people in that way. To there credit, they were able to say to me, "You're right!" The hierarchy of the corporate structure and local leadership supported the conclusion and we threw out the agreement plan. Instead, we worked on a time-limited plan to see if we could get the leadership team on the same page or separate amicably for the good of the organization.

Speaking Truth . . . Anyway

I am aware it does not always end well if you risk speaking the truth.  I've had one manager who, when given the results of interviews with her employees (which were a mix of positives and negatives) exploded with "What is my manager going to think? I promised to share the results with him!" While uncomfortable, these moments allow for you to continue to guide leaders into confronting the truth . . . "Did you think you would only hear positives? Wouldn't your supervisor want you aware to the challenges to your team's success? or if you are in a coaching situation with that leader maybe it is a more personal "What makes you afraid of what your boss is going to think?"

Truth is the Only path to Change

Many experts on business have noted that leaders have to have an accurate picture of where they are and a vision of where they want to go. It is consultant's responsibility to help leaders look at all the facts of where they are in the present--without distortion or fear--and enable them to focus on how to take realistic steps toward the preferred future. In this, consultants themselves must model a willingness to confront the truth of their own involvement with the leader or organization. This includes the fact that your own view of the "truth" may not match the of the leader or organization. Do not run from this! When these views collide you very well may be at the moment of peak effectiveness to make change happen. A non-anxious presence of someone speaking truth at that moment can be transformative!

Question for do-gooders, part 3

So when do you give away services?

Remember (in previous posts) we asked the question about what my welder should do about fixing my Father-in-law's twenty year old trailer. It is showing signs of deterioration and needs refurbishing. Should he charge full-price, half-price, or not at all.

On the business side, I made the argument that he should charge me the full-price.  Some of you, no . . . most of you seemed to think it should be a half-price job. I know it makes some of you do-good-ers uncomfortable to think that my welder is "due" the full price.  But, the need for the refurbishing, in my mind, is not a matter of negligence or quality on the welder's part.  Yes, maybe his work would be better now . . . but that is what comes with experience. So I stand by my full-price expectation.

 So once again, when do you give away services? 

But everything is not a simple business decision.  Plus sometimes business decisions are not about what is the financial short-term "best" for the health of the business. So, in fact, there may be many reasons why the welder might charge less.  But an over-socialized sense of guilt or fear of conflict should not be the reason.

What would be good reasons? I think there are a number of them. I will loosely divide them into two groups: one, for humanitarian reasons and two, for business reasons.

Humanitarian:

1. First, it should go without saying that if someone really has a critical need and you can provide them what they need to make a qualitative difference then we do it out of a sense of what is right.  We give the hungry food to eat.

2. We also provide to others with critical needs when we can do so without putting others, to whom you owe our primary responsibility (children, employees) in harm's way. Helping out a neighbor with a crisis for example.

3. We give when a gift will help improve the life of others or the community. A social responsibility such as in a time of natural disaster.

4. We give when that gift is a recognition of the another's contributions to others. "I know you serve on the town's volunteer fire department so I am going to give you 20% off."

5. We give when we have abundance and we are thankful for the gift's we have received. This may be a kin to number 3 . . . we give because we have received gifts from others.

Business:

6. On a less humanitarian note, we give when we want to demonstrate our skills to a new referral source. So we may offer something free at first to ease the ability of a "trial" of our new service.

7. We give when a new service is developed and we are unsure of its value. Pilot testing new ideas often is done "at no cost" to the participants. The value the organization or business receives is the learning and development of the service or product.

8. We give them away when charging might put the business at risk.  At times there is a grey area (at least in health care) where charging a client may carry some risk to the business . . . a service may not be covered by insurance for example.  Often the service is provided pro bono rather than engaging in some activity that could cause a legal problem.

9. We give away services at times to help build our market or brand.  Want to develop new connections, highlight your business, or establish your company as a good "citizen" within your community? Giving away your time and services can help with all of these.

Well, I'm only at 9 items so I've probably missed something critical.  What are some other reasons to "give it away?"

Available eBooks:

Private Practice through Contracting: Decreasing dependence on insurance.

Engaging Your Team: A framework for managing difficult people.

Family Legacy: Protecting family in family business.

Response to "Business question for do-gooders."

Okay, I've teased you long enough.  If you remember I asked in a previous post what the welder who built my father-in-law's trailer should do when I bring it to him for "refurbishing."  I told you it was twenty-plus years old and that it has been a great tool. I asked if he should do the repairs and charge me full-cost, half-price, or repair it for free.

Well, most of you seemed to lean toward the half-price option. Why?  Because it somehow seems fair or just? Perhaps I led you astray (purposely) by mentioning the welds and you assumed that there was some poor workmanship involved?  Far from it in my opinion. It is a quality job that has simply succumbed to the aging process (I can relate!).  

The key, therefore, in my estimation is in the question I asked. What should he do from a business perspective?  From a business perspective I think it is only fair that he charge the full cost of his services. After all if we assume that the job was done well in the building phase and the deterioration is simply due to time and use, then he holds no responsibility to discount his prices.

In fact, he should not discount the work because the cost of his labor and overhead (see my name plate . . . an overhead expense) have not diminished.

Uncomfortable yet Mr. Do-gooder?

I say he should not reduce the price from a business perspective and I believe this to be true.  However, that is not to say that he cannot reduce his price for some other reason. Many times those of us in business do this and for good reasons. We deliver services below our costs or even pro bono.

So, if you feel like the welder could "cut me a break" on the price what would be some valid reasons for deciding to offer a less than full-price option?

I guess on reflection I'm not yet quite done holding you in suspense.  Next, I'll tell you what I think some good reasons to give away services.

Bryan

Available eBooks:

Private Practice through Contracting: Decreasing dependence on insurance.

Engaging Your Team: A framework for managing difficult people.

Family Legacy: Protecting family in family business.

Business question for do-gooders . . .

I have a trailer . . . or rather my father-in-law has a trailer that he has "left" at our house for the past 15 years. It's not a bad thing. It's a generous thing. Or maybe a pity thing. I dunno. but either way it has been a very helpful tool to our little acreage. 

The trailer is showing its age however.  This summer I rewired it.  It needs a good paint job and to really restore it to its former state it needs to be taken back to the welder that built it for a "touch up" on the welds holding the box together. I've been contemplating how I would handle it if I were the welder so . . .

Here's a thought experiment for fellow do-gooders . . . 

If you were the welder and someone brought back a trailer you built twenty years ago to have the box rewelded, would you:

A. Do it for free.  Hey, the welds should have held.

B. Charge only half.  The welds should have held but its been twenty years.

C. Charge the full price to repair the trailer.

I'd love to hear what you think.  Later, in a separate post (don't want to give away anything!), I'll tell you what I would have done twenty years ago and why I would do something different today. Then we'll explore the ethical decision as a business owner versus being a reasonable, rationale, caring human being.

Bryan

Available eBooks:

Private Practice through Contracting: Decreasing dependence on insurance.

Engaging Your Team: A framework for managing difficult people.

Family Legacy: Protecting family in family business.

Taking your business on line.

First, I should tell you that I am not an IT expert.  However, I am fairly competent with IT (for my age). Although I the language I learned was "Basic" on a Wang magnetic-tape drive computer . . . I still have a basic handle on how computers and, simple, coding works.  Thus, in my own assessment, I'm not entirely without "an idea" but neither am I a professional.  I tell you this to help you put the following in context.

I am currently working to take much of my consulting services on line.  With the dramatic changes that continue to occur in IT it is at times overwhelming to try and sort through the "chaff" to get to the "grain" (Forgive the agricultural reference, but I am from the midwest . . .).  So here I want to tell you about the very best tools I have found. If you do any contracting (or want to) then I would encourage you to check these out.

If you are not very IT savvy, you can still go operate on line but you may need more "professional support." Once you get comfortable running, what I call a "team of teams" it becomes much easier to take on complex tasks outside your direct line of experience. This is critical in being a model leader, entrepreneur, or consultant.

All the best!

Bryan

The best tools I have found for taking business on line:

Squarespace:

For you website, I don't think you can do better than use this.  My IT son would probably disagree (but then again, he has had to spend a lot of time helping me transfer over information from the origin website we programmed together several years ago).  Why Squarespace?  Because it is a locked down version that allows a lot of flexibility.  

If you want to spend your time coding and creating your own very unique and specially designed website then Squarespace may not be for you.  Although you can introduce your own coding, it is purposely limited.  The upside? If you just want something easy to use, flexible, powerful, and professional looking then this is a great choice. After all do you want to spend your time building a website or building your business?

Trello

Trello is an awesome project management and organizational system. I use Trello to organize my operational tasks, as a marketing contact manager, to do project management, track my invoices and payment, create job-specific calendars for clients, share information and resources, and to promote and connect others to my products.

The primary reasons I use Trello are to build a strong brand for myself, develop products and processes that can be replicated (for myself and others), and connect clients with my business.  It truly is one of the most flexible and useful tools out there.

Gumroad

Have some products to sell?  Gumroad is a great place to set up shop and sell your physical and digital products.  Easy to use and connect to your website there is nothing out there that surpasses it as a vendor at this time.

Google Forms

Want to do a survey for a client?  Hope to set up a survey on your website to engage them and get people interested in your products and services?  Google Forms is a great way to create surveys, collect data, and display the results.

Join Me

For video conferencing (and sharing your desktop) I have found Join Me to be a friendly and useful tool.  They software is easy to learn and the basic services work very well.  The very first time I attempted to use Join Me . . . it worked with little or no struggles to "learn the software."  

I have other services and software that I use regularly but none of them live up to the satisfaction I have had with these five.  As I find other alternatives that are especially good, I'll share them here.  I hope you will share your "finds" here as well. A good recommendation is a great way to cut through the clutter and find the few jewels that will set you apart and make succeeding more likely.

Google Forms

I have used Google Forms for multiple purposes. Created my own on line surveys, signed up attendees for conferences and had the fill out a post-conference evaluation, created employee satisfaction surveys, and other sundry items.  It is user-friendly, intuitive, and can be shared with others easily.  Check it out!

If you have some on line tools you find very useful, please share them and we will check them out, and write about it as well!

Thanks, in advance, for sharing!

Available eBooks:

Private Practice through Contracting: Decreasing dependence on insurance.

Engaging Your Team: A framework for managing difficult people.

Family Legacy: Protecting family in family business.