How Do You Manage Business Resources? - Australian Businesswomen's Network

Published: 6 November 2009

How Do You Manage Business Resources?

Suzi Dafnis

Managing resources is hard for many businesses, especially for small business. How do you manage business resources?

e.g. What tools do you employ, Is there software you'd recommend? What do you outsource etc?

We asked our LinkedIn community for their thoughts. Here is what they said.

Want to contribute to the conversation? Add your own resources to this list, comment on our blog.

Managing resources is hard for many businesses, especially for small business. How do you manage business resources?

Hi Suzi - my top tools are below and I blog about online tools for small business at web2tools.biz.

Free tools:

Twitter - for my own professional learning & to gain profile. (See more in blog post here)
Survey Monkey - online surveys. We use this for feedback after events but also to survey topics of interest in the industry & then share this across our networks.
Skype - free calls. With a distributed team working from wherever they might be at any point in time, Skype is our office. We can IM, talk & video conference with the click of a button for free. We also use it for low cost international calls.
Wikis - we use for planning projects, sharing documents & to present learning materials. There's a blog post on this here.
Blogs - we use blogs to share resources, have a voice in the industry & for profile. We also use them for free and easily set up temporary websites. Favourite blog software is Wordpress and we use Blogger for the quick and easy websites.

Paid - but low cost:

Aweber manages our e-marketing campaigns.
EventBrite is a great tool for registering and taking payments for events.

There are at least a dozen more that we use for specific aspects of our business, but these are the main ones that could be used by any business.

Carol Skyring
Founder & CEO, LearnTel Pty Ltd

Hi Suzi,

Your question is very broad, but one small suggestion that may be of interest/assistance, relates to managing critical contract dates.

As small business owners/operators, we all get very caught up in managing, promoting, and expanding our business, with many goals in mind, not the least of which, is to increase profits. As a result we can become entrenched in �the doing� and can take our eyes of certain other balls than can detrimentally impact on our businesses. I personally suffered this by missing a critical date in a lease contract and was forced to renegotiate (to remain in the premises) at less than attractive terms as my negotiating position was very weak.

I learnt very quickly that I could no longer rely on 'Outlook', or an Excel spreadsheet to manage such dates, so I developed a business called Tistime.com

Tistime is a critical date reminder system for many forms of typical contracts such as finance contracts, leases, patents and trademarks.
For as little as AUD $12.95 (plus GST) per annum, clients can load the base details of a contract and Tistime's system will automatically monitor the critical dates, such as leases expiries, rental reviews, date windows to exercise options to renew etc etc etc.

The Tistime system will send multiple emails and or SMS's in the lead up to the critical date(s) to remind of the required pending action. The system can send the same alerts to multiple people within an organisation.

Also available (free of charge) to Tistime members is a Birthday and Wedding anniversary reminder alert service. Members can load as many of their familys, friends, work colleagues or employees Birthday's and/or Wedding Anniversary's and Tistime will send, free of charge, two emails, the first five days before the birthday/WA and the second on the day of the persons birthday/WA to remind the Tistime Member of the event.

For further information, please feel free to visit www.tistime.com.

Nicholas Masters
www.tistime.com

Constant Contact is a tool that saves small businesses time, money and effort and is environmentally friendly as well. I have used it for years to create and distribute my e-newsletters and I love it. It's aneasy and affordable way for small business to create and maintain a professional online presence!

Lisa Marie Dias
www.LisaMarieDiasDesigns.com

I recently have came across and am using a great SAAS CRM system called Javelin, with sales opportunity management with a beautiful interface. It is simple and not at all complicated.

The second find is my online accounting system an Australian SAAS product called Saasu. I actually love entering my invoices.

Freshtel VOIP Telephone Service that includes unlimited National and Local calls is my third choice.

Leah Gibbs
Business Manager/Founder at Lifestyle Recruitment

As a CPA, I have seen many small businesses surviving this recession and a few that haven't. The most difficult part of owning a business is reinvesting in the business. In short, business owners need more discipline when it comes to cash flow management.

When times are good, you have to be realistic about what is a reasonable amount to take from the business. Many people are religious about contributing to retirement plans that earn 11% in good times and bomb miserably in times like these, but don't leave profit in the business, that if effectively used for growth can generate returns of 20% to 100%.

It is very difficult for a small business owner to maintain the discipline to only draw a salary of $60,000 per year, when their business is earning $100,000 per year. Many business owners see the Company's cash as their own. Rather than taking the money out and buying a bigger house or a boat when times are good, they should be banking the profit and looking for ways to grow the business, whether through marketing, acquisitions (either vertical or horizontal), buying more efficient equipment to cut production costs, etc. Long-term strategic planning is key here.

As a rule of thumb, I suggest that every small business owner take no more than 70% of the cash flow as salary and leave the other 30% in the business for future growth. (For capital intensive businesses, that may be closer to 50/50). Set your salary conservatively low, and learn to live on that low amount. As you continue to invest in the business, it will continue to grow and you will consistently get 70% of a larger and larger amount.

When times are bad, you will have a "war chest" to use to grow your business while others are failing. All small business owners should ask themselves, "If I had an extra (name a large amount of cash), how could I invest it now to grow my business?" Many small business owners could come up with three or four ways to do so. Alternatively, ask yourself, if I did not have this (line of credit, long-term debt, lease payment), because I was more aggressive in paying it down when times were good, would I have the same problems I do now? It all comes down to the old adage, "You can't have your cake and eat it too".

Sorry, no magic software ,etc. The key is to live on as little as possible, and consult with an experienced CPA every year regarding your strategic planning ideas. From dealing with others who have tried and failed, you learn quickly what works and what doesn't.

Christopher Bilotti
CPA - Audit, Tax, Consulting and Business Valuations

One Page Business Plan
Outlook 2007
Xenu
HTML Kit
CSE Light
Quickbooks Pro
HARO
Pitch Rate

And I recommend the business checklist that I give subscribers to my ezine. 47 areas of business to rate for strengths and weaknesses; as well as assessment for rating your profits and ideal client profile.

Maria Marsala
Profitability Expert helping women business owners

As an internet-based business there are so many tools that I adore to make SPROUT run like clockwork. Here is a list of services I love:

WEBSITE : I use Square Space to maintain stylistic control over my brand.

EMAIL MARKETING: www.aweber.com

SHOPPING CART: www.e-junkie.com - It's only $5 per month!!

TWITTER MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE: www.tweetadder.com

AMAZING TWITTER APP : TwitCleaner - this tool will clean your tweetstream of spammers etc.

IMAGES TO USE : I use Fotolia for inexpensive stock images.

FONTS : Confession time, I am a font addict. I use www.myfonts.com.

DOMAINS : Forget GoDaddy - I use a service called www.1and1.com to nurture my growing collection of business domains.

These services all form part of the essential framework of SPROUT PUBLISHING.

With Entrepreneurial Sparkle,

Sarah Prout
SPROUT Publishing

Marketing/Advertising
Twitter, Craigslist, Facebook and of course any free resource that doesn't take a lot of time or send me spam. Local Chamber of Commerce meetings. Participating in blogs or answering questions is a great way to get your info out in the spotlight.

Communication
Blackberry phone/email/text/IM very important to stay in contact with clients. They appreciate the availability - call it "insurance". Outlook is still the best "contact" manager I could use. It's Personal, can create groups and your clients expect you to stay in contact in a personalised way.

Technology
QuickBooks Pro/Premier/Enterprise, Microsoft Office Suite, Dreamweaver, TweetDeck, MSN Instant Messenger, Facebook Messenger.

Membership
National association of "everything" I am qualified to do. Seems like we need more badges these days to prove we know our stuff. Take advantage of the resources provided by the memberships and use them to upgrade skillsets and stay current on topics of interest to you and your clients.

LeAnn Markowski
Certified QuickBooks Advisor, Bookkeeper, Notary Public

Below are the tools I use most often to help me run my business:

Email: Gmail

CRM: Home Grown - I find most CRM in the market too slow, overly complex and bloated, so I have simplified it, and made mine faster.

Web Analytics: Google Analytics

Backend productivity tools: I toggle between Google Docs and OpenOffice

Design and image manipulation: Gimp

Phone and Voicemail: Google Voice

Email Marketing: InfoBureau (disclosure - I am principal of the business)

Backend productivity tools: I toggle between Google Docs and OpenOffice

Design and image manipulation: Gimp

I hope this helps.

Marlon Bermas
Experienced IT professional with extensive background in Web Development, Systems Design, Management and Consulting

Manage by impact before urgency.
Impact: healthy cash flow must remain at the top of the list to sustain a business.
Urgency: the common response is to manage by urgency, but assessing genuine urgency is very difficult. If you manage by impact first then actual urgency will be easier to recognise.

Hollis McGuire
Nashua Area Regional Director, Small Business Development Center

When I started out in business I did absolutely everything myself. Over time, I've gradually outsourced more and more. The main areas where I do this are for things that are outside my area of core expertise, where I know that someone else can do a better job, more quickly and more efficiently. Having the job done properly ultimately saves me money and frees up my time to focus on running the business.

These include: working with a freelance PA, which is a fantastic way to free up time from administrative tasks; hiring a professional graphic designer and web developer, where previously I used 'do it yourself' sites, and working with a copywriter for my web content; also outsourcing design and printing of marketing materials (I used to design and print all my own brochures, business cards, Christmas cards, and even calendars); having my accountant prepare all my tax documentation; having a financial adviser actively manage my investments; shopping with a stylist for my corporate wardrobe, which means that I don't waste time searching in vain for the right outfit or waste money buying things I'll never wear. I also outsource household tasks, such as mowing, grocery shopping, and catering for social functions. These all help to free up time so that I can focus on what's important for me. I sometimes wonder how I managed when I did all these things myself!

Monique Beedles
Teak Yew Pty Ltd

I recommend using SAASU accounting softwware (saasu.com) it is fabulous for the non- numerate, non-accounting minded small business owner. It is very intuitive and you don't need to know anything about book keeping. The data is all kept on line so you don't need to worry about back-ups and you can access your info any time, any where. I think it's useful for small business owners to give this a go as it will encourage them to keep up to date with their financial records. I haven't yet met anyone who found SAASU overwhelming!

Julia Bickerstaff
Director, Butterfly Coaching

Have the product your customers are willing to spend their money for.
Have the best people to serve the customers.
Don't spend all your money. Spend only what is necessary to serve the customer.

Everything will fall in place. Just honestly address the three situations above. Lastly - don't over analyse.

Mike Anders
HR Executive and Operations Management

Excellent question. As I see it, it is crucial to clearly identify the resources which require managing and attach relevant measures to them. The key to any management system is up-front preparation. What is to be managed? How will we measure how well we manage it? How will we deploy this management?

I suggest using a process-by-process approach. Resource needs can be identified specifically for each activity within each process. Resource needs are varied and can include energy, raw materials, secondary materials and so many others.

The process approach enables you to aggregate resource needs across processes. The approach also enables prioritizing resource needs by linking them with associated process priorities.

Within a quality management system (i.e. ISO 9001:2008) measurable quality objectives are established company-wide and selectively for each process. Resource objectives can be established in a similar manner. This knowledge when deployed throughout the company provides a unified and visible approach to resource management.

Arthur Gold
Consortia Specialist Able to Facilitate Synergistic Management Solutions

There are numerous hosted Business Resource systems that provide you with a variety of features and services which may provide a full solution or a partial solution for every business.

What most business are looking for is a CRM application that can manage their complex B2B (business to business) / B2C (business to customer) transaction / internal process from start to finish. From suspect to prospect to HOT and so forth.

A CRM technology which integrates Business Process Management (BPM) through easy to define automated engine should be a serious consideration when looking for a solution. It's your definition and allows you collaborate with decision makers in the process ie. customers, partners, affiliates, investors, etc.

More importantly you build the process and the application does the work and keeps you and your team on track.

What else I found was that to be a great CRM / technology it needs to have Productivity Methodology applied to it. You have to have good proven Methodology with Technology for your team to know what their highest priorities are for the day, week and month without having to ask :)

With that said, you should look @ FranklinCovey 's CRM PlanPlusOnline for businesses.

You combine that with typical CRM applications such as Sales, Support, Marketing, and Projects, and you end up with a solid online application that is customizable for any business process, including non-profit companies.

The following link will allow you to create a VIP account for a test drive without having to enter a credit card.

Mike Morgan
Co-Founder / CSO @ COMPLETExRM

My name is Tara and I work with the Microsoft Office Outreach Team. Microsoft Office has a whole range of services that can help you manage your business resources. For example, you could employ MS Project Management Software to manage your clients and employee resources. Also, using templates in both Word and Excel help you standardize your documents from time sheets to inventory to standard forms. Another great tool is MS OneNote which enables your team to save working documents and share valuable information, making collaboration more effective. To learn more about the great resources MS Office offers and download free 60-day trials check out the Microsoft Office homepage.

Learn more about how Microsoft Office can help you manage your work by joining the MS Office LinkedIn Discussion group. The purpose of this discussion group is for users to learn more about how to use products, contribute to solutions based discussions and be eligible for new software previews and unique opportunities. This is a great place to get special previews as we reveal more about the Microsoft Office 2010 Release. This is an open group and we encourage your participation on leading discussions.

Tara Sharp
Outreach team at Microsoft

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