Tina, Author at Tina Forsyth

Are you an Ostrich or a Control Freak?

by Tina | Aug 4, 2017 | General Biz

Originally posted on Jan 31st 2014

When it comes to running their business, Entrepreneurs will fall into one of 2 categories – Ostrich or Control Freak. This is especially important to understand when it comes to dealing with stress in the business (and growing a business is certainly stressful at times).

If you are an Ostrich, you default into avoidance mode, putting your head in the sand and crossing your fingers, hoping that someone else will swoop in and save the day. Ostriches generally don’t like, or understand, the “behind the scenes” stuff in business.

In fact, some of them may hate it. So they tend to rely too much on other people for the answers and to do the work that needs to be done. They will hire and blindly trust people on a whim, assuming that whoever they hired is doing it right, which isn’t always the case and can lead to big issues. This can lead to a lot of wasted time and money spent on hiring the wrong people, implementing the wrong systems and trying to fix mistakes down the road.

If you are a Control Freak you default into do-it-all-myself mode, where you keep everything on your plate, rarely delegate and end up working yourself to exhaustion. A Control Freak comes from a place of believing that they do it best and that no one else could possibly do the work as well as they could. Although this might be true to a degree, it’s a dangerous place to be in as a Control Freak will get caught in a trap of doing the wrong work. They will spend so much time and energy on all the “behind the scenes” stuff, that they don’t have time to actually grow their business and deliver their services. This leads to a lot of frustration, long working hours and ultimately, burnout.

What we are aiming for is to be in the middle – what I call being an Empowered Entrepreneur. When you come from an empowered place as a business owner, it means that you are:

aware of what it takes to run and grow your business (vs. putting your head in the sand) AND
you also have a team/systems in place that you trust to get the job done (vs. trying to do it all yourself.)

You own your responsibility in what it takes to run your business, and you won’t settle for less than the best for everyone concerned (including yourself!)

Now that you know your default mode for running a business, it’s important to know what kind of business you are building… we’ll talk about that next week. 😉

The 3 Ways You Can Pay your Team

by Tina | Jun 30, 2017 | Team & Hiring

Originally posted on Feb. 4th 2016.

Alright folks, this video is on the longer side… but it’s juicy stuff that I get asked about A LOT and I wanted to give you the goods.

When it comes to hiring outsourced/virtual support – ie: a virtual assistant, online business manager or other get-it-done experts – should you pay by the hour? A package rate? And what’s up with this incentive stuff?

There are 3 different ways you can be paying your team members, so let’s break them down here for you:

By the hour – paying someone an hourly rate for the TIME it takes them to do the work. This is the simplest arrangement as it’s the easiest to calculate, BUT the downside is that you have to keep track of hours (annoying!) and have no control over how long it takes someone to do the work. Some people are fast, some are slow, and you run the risk of getting a “surprise” bill from someone when work takes longer than expected. That being said, hourly is the best option for many ‘doer’ roles (ie: virtual assistant) or whenever there is uncertainty in the business (ie: when you have a new role and aren’t sure yet on the workload.) Always be sure to have strong agreements in place – especially around reporting weekly on their hours – along with expectations as to work being done within reasonable timeframes.

Pay for a package – this is paying someone a flat rate for a specific DELIVERABLE. For example, if you are hiring a web designer to create a new website for you and you have a clear agreement on what specifically they are going to deliver. The beauty of paying for a package is that you know exactly what you are getting, what you will be paying for it and it doesn’t matter how long it takes them to do the work. This arrangement is NOT ideal when there is not a clear deliverable or specific start/end to a project… any uncertainly will lead to challenges in a package agreement.

Incentive Based Compensation – this is when someone is paid a simple flat rate base (or retainer) amount with the option to earn more based on the RESULTS that they are helping to create in the business. This is ideal for the people on your team who help contribute to the overall growth and success of your business. A launch manager who is running a launch for you A to Z. An Online Business Manager who is responsible for setting the foundation for growth in your business. A sales person who is bringing new clients into your business.

The key to incentive is that the person has a bit of “skin in the game” – and that they don’t get paid more unless there is growth in the company (results). Again, hourly can be taken out of the equation here by giving the person a base/retainer that is enough to keep them engaged without having to track time and get caught up in the hours. Instead, they know they can truly make more money as the business grows and that the investment of time/energy on their part will pay off. Incentive can take the form of a percentage of revenue (5-10% or more in some cases), percentage of profits or a flat rate bonus based on reaching certain milestones.

Overdelivering vs. Overcompensating

by Tina | Dec 22, 2016 | Success Mindset

Originally posted on April 4, 2013.

Overdelivering is overrated in my opinion. This strategy of throwing in tons of bonuses and extra goodies for clients can actually set up some really skewed expectations that can ultimately get in the way of serving your clients.

How do you know if you are overdelivering or if you are overcompensating?

There is actually a very simple “test”…

Does it come from a place of joy or a place of fear?

Overdelivering comes from a place of joy – you know you are already providing great value to your clients and you want to give them something extra. For example, I love to send people in my Mentorship programs some of my favorite books… it is an unexpected gift, they love it and it makes me really happy to do so.

Overcompensating comes from a place of fear – when you wonder if you are giving enough value? Are you doing enough? They are paying you good money, so it should feel really hard and you need to bend over backwards right?

If you have any fear that the value of what you are offering may not match what people are paying, then overcompensation can sneak in… perpetually going over time on coaching calls, not billing for all the hours worked, letting clients break your boundaries, randomly throwing in other stuff along the way just to make sure they are happy.

Put simply, overcompensation will NOT feel good and in fact puts you in a highly stressful work environment.

If you aren’t sure that what you offer provides value then you need to either work on your mindset (to OWN your inherent value) or work on your packages (to ensure they are truly giving people what they want.)

Aim to keep it simple and deliver 100% on what you promised! That alone will be more than enough for most clients to be thrilled with you. Wow your clients with that FIRST and if it makes sense to throw an extra goodie in along the way and surprise your clients go for it – just make sure it brings you joy to do so.

Stop the chaos in your business and double your profits in the next 90 days! Check out my ‘From Solopreneur to CEO’ Profit Kit. Click Here to Get Immediate Access

3 Paths to Creating New Revenue Streams

by Tina | Nov 10, 2016 | General Biz

Originally published March 2014

Curious what kind of revenue streams could be created from what you do already? Let’s look at how you can leverage your talent, experience and desire into your next level of success.