Why Did I Rebrand?

Ta Da!  Akamai Consulting is now Trish Thomas Consulting.  A new name and a new look.

Let's discuss.

As my close friends and associates know well, I've been mulling over this wacky rebranding idea for a LONG TIME.  Some of them have probably grown weary of being a sounding board for conceptual names, logos, color schemes and taglines.  (Thank you, my dears!)  For all the rest of you to whom my new identity may come as a surprise, I 'd like to share why I elected to rebrand my consulting firm and hopefully you can glean a few nuggets from my journey to help you in building your own brand.

Let's begin with Branding 101: What is a brand?  Your brand is the emotional and psychological connection you have with your customers.  It certainly involves your mission, your logo and your name... but it's much deeper than that.  Those elements of your identity are the entry point and the shortcut to the brand in someone's mind. Brands are not concrete: they are the thoughts, feelings, and psychological relationships between a business and a customer. And a brand becomes the foundation of all your marketing activities.

The process of forming a brand is the result of "unrelenting passion, not unending spin."
John Moore

Why did I rebrand?

Few of you are aware (it was years ago), but I started Akamai Consulting with a business partner.  We had a very different vision at that time of what the firm would become than what has actually unfolded over the past 5 years.  The original intent was to build a boutique multi-location firm with a dozen or more consultants working across several core service lines.  Once I was operating the firm on my own and began to follow the ebb of the tide and the shifting of the wind, the practicality and appeal of that business model evaporated.  My intent today is to personally anchor a consulting firm that does leverage project team members to serve clients, but in which I am the sole promotional face and account manager for the business.  That new paradigm changed the branding game entirely.

To add another layer to my quandry, the word Akamai was problematic.  Coming from a marketing background I was well aware of the possible difficulties when we selected the name.  (We always assume that the rules won't apply to us if we really like something!)  In theory, Akamai was a perfect name for my firm.  My husband is Hawaiian and it is a great island term that sops up a miasma of wisdom, creativity, tangible skill and street smarts.  Anyone from Polynesia immediately got it.  My clients and friends who understood the history and meaning behind the term loved Akamai, and some are very sad to see it go.

But here's the kicker - and there's really no way around it... Akamai stood as an unnecessary layer between myself and my audience.  It's an unknown, unspellable, unpronounceable word.  People only bonded with the name once they had bonded with me - and that, my friends, is the tail wagging the dog.  Your brand should act as an immediate introduction to your business that begins to draw people in and inform them about who you are before they are even aware of it.  Akamai had the opposite effect, and because the firm will never have the bandwidth to educate the public at large about the meaning of specific terminology, that one word became a barrier to business.

The next factor that influenced my decision is that I am my brand.  People never made a referral to Akamai Consulting, they said "you need to call Trish - here's her number."  My clients work with me because they have faith in my own unique personality and abilities and character, not belief that a collective will deliver.

This profound distinction became painfully clear to me early last year when a long-time marketing partner moved away in the middle of a project that I had had very little to do with.  I was concerned that the client might take Julie's absence mid-project as a negative sign.  When she returned from meeting with the client to tell him about the change, she calmly explained that no one cared about her (her perspective - not mine).  My customer's reaction was that as long as I was at the helm he wasn't concerned at all about who came and went on the project.  He believed in me, and knew that the job would be completed with excellence no matter what.  As Julie said, "we're just nameless, faceless people who can come and go as long as you're behind the scenes."  Hmmmm.

That conversation, along with the fact that Akamai was seldom mentioned except by me, highlighted the need to bring my business identity into alignment with the natural connection between myself and my customers.  I only delayed as long as I did because a. rebranding is a huge pain in the butt and b. I was praying over what to morph into.  If not Akamai WHAT?

The new color scheme, minimalist fonts, and more modern feel simply reflect my personality.  Since the company is now me I can pick whatever tone and look I want to, right?

Remember, branding isn't about the name or the logo itself, it's about accurately reflecting the emotional and psychological bond that customers feel for your company.  Within the business, your brand serves as an internal compass. By clearly branding yourself, you gain an understanding of what you are really about. You gain a self awareness that dictates your actions.  My clients trust me... as a human being.  They rely on my unique instincts and skills and education and relationships to get a project done.  My brand desperately needed to reflect that reality and now I feel that it does.

And thus Trish Thomas (the brand) was born.  It always feels a bit surreal when you rebrand and definitely requires some time to fully adopt the new identity.  It's also incredibly time consuming and expensive.  But I love what I've created.  In a sense, I feel like the company has come full circle and is arriving at a place where it already was.

I never pass up an opportunity to use narrative to teach a lesson, so here comes the application of my tale to your world:  How do you know if you need to makeover your own brand?

The decision to rebrand is a serious one and can effect how customers see your company, good or bad. Ask yourself these questions and you'll get a pretty good idea of whether or not it's time to reassess your identity:

Are you experiencing a decrease in sales and customers?  If so, it may be time to rebrand. If you see that more of your customers are going to your competition, you have to look at your entire business and ask yourself, "What is my visual identity saying to people. Am I attracting people or repelling them?”

Do your look and function match?  From a cosmetic point of view, if you look outdated or your looks don’t reflect what you are or what you deliver, it may be time to rebrand.”  It is absolutely critical to match your external presence to who you really are.

Are you attracting the wrong customers?  If your company is no longer attracting the customers you want, it may be time to rebrand.  Rebranding isn't just a face lift, it's about switching your focus to reach your target audience and appealing to the right crowd.

Have you undergone a major change?  When companies bring in new management with a different set of values, or they adopt a new philosophy, or establish a new direction it may be a good time to think about rebranding.  A fresh new look or a catchy new name can shine a light on positive transformation.

Are you sick of your old brand?  This shouldn't always be a catalyst for a rebrand.  I have friends in marketing who would roll out a new logo every 3-6 months if they could get away with it just because they like design and innovation.  Brands are a serious business, and it's costly to revamp your entire image, but if you truly have deep-seated issues with your old brand you may want to make the investment in reinvention.

Thanks for taking the time to understand how my professional journey and vision is coming to life in my new brand.  Visit www.trishthomas.com to see the whole new face of the firm!

Why Best Practices are Losers

by Michael W. McLaughlin on January 28, 2010

(I completely agree with this blog post about the drawbacks of over-reliance on best practices. Just because a method worked in one situation does not guarantee that it will applicable to another scenario. Innovation and creative thinking will always help you blend historical successes with new approaches to find the unique mix of solutions that are best for your company.)

If you spend any time with a service provider, it won’t be long before you hear how the use of so-called “best practices” will pave the way to client success.

Using the best practices developed by other organizations, you’ll hear, will accelerate the design of a solution to most any problem. Listening to this, you’d think best practices were silver bullets.

The problem with the best practices approach is that it usually doesn’t work.

Starting any project with a canned solution narrows your focus to how you will implement that solution, instead of broadening your thinking about what should be done. I’m not suggesting that professionals blindly use the best practices of others without some consideration of the client’s situation. What can (and does) happen, though, is that teams begin with an analysis of how to make someone else’s answer work when they should devise innovations for the situation they face.

What makes the use of best practices even more dangerous is that it’s a follower’s strategy. By leaning on the well-worn solutions of others, you’re dooming your client to a future of following the pack, not leading it.

Of course, there is value in learning from the experience of others. If another organization has addressed a similar issue, it’s helpful to know what they did. And best practices can jog your thoughts and maybe even inspire you.

But as a tool for guiding strategic initiatives, it’s a real loser. Remember, one company’s best practice can too easily become another’s sunk cost.

5,800 Soaring Silpada Reps make for a Fun Weekend!

All that glitters is not gold, and that’s fine with Silpada Designs, one of the largest sterling silver jewelry distributors in North America. The company's annual conference was held this past weekend at the Kansas City Convention Center and Akamai client Wendy Booker was the keynote speaker.

You simply cannot imagine the energy of 5,800 wives, mothers and daughters turned loose on Kansas City! The meeting ranks as the seventh-largest Kansas City convention this year and Silpada saw a huge increase in attendance despite the rough economy. These women were jazzed!

Wendy and I had an absolutely wonderful time and I cannot say enough about this amazing group of jewelry reps. Their passion for their job is touching, and seeing them pour into the exhibit hall Friday night to view the new line for 2009 was like watching little girls play in their mother's jewelry box.

Wendy did a fabulous job on her speech (of course), and I think she had so much fun that she was ready to do it again immediately. Thanks to Silpada for welcoming us into your corporate family with open arms - it was a truly fantastic experience!

* If you're interested in learning more about the Silpada story visit the website at www.silpada.com/public/aboutSilpada and meet Bonnie and Teresa, the founders (who might be two of the sweetest women on the face of the earth!). Also, you can learn more about Wendy Booker's speaking services at www.wendybooker.net/speaking.

Is Twitter, well... Twitterific? Or just a waste of time?

Thanks to Erin at Voco Creative for sharing this viewpoint on the Twitter phenomenon! www.vococreative.com

Twitter: who cares?
It's on the tongue of every pundit and next-big-thing preacher. Twitter has hit big over the past several months, and the statistics are staggering...the service is averaging 131% growth every month, and it's estimated that 9 million unique visitors visit every month.

With those kinds of numbers, you're probably asking why you can benefit from Twitter. In lieu of offering a thesis on the subject, I'll instead present the top three reasons you should care about Twitter:

It’s all about conversation. If you aren’t having a conversation with your potential clients and colleagues via social media, you’re missing the boat. Twitter doesn’t just give you an unprecedented chance to engage with your base…it allows you to start, shape, and exert a degree of control over the conversation that just can’t be achieved by a press release, a sound bite, or an advertorial. And the options are endless: you can talk directly to your base, ask them questions, gauge their opinions, solicit their feedback, be helpful and offer advice.

It’s happening. Whether or not you like it, Twitter has taken off in a big way. Does every business need Twitter? No way. But don’t dismiss it because it’s new, trendy, and admittedly over-hyped. The amount of creativity and excitement generated by Twitter is truly energizing and engaging if you know how to use it properly.

It’s opportunity. Opportunity to find out what your customers and your colleagues care about. Opportunity to make mistakes, hone that brand, and get deep into voice and vision. Opportunity to dip your toe into a huge conversation and watch it morph before your eyes. Opportunity to be on the cutting edge before it changes into something else (just look at the evolution of hashtags over the past few months). And, yes, opportunity to get business.

Follow my tweets at http://twitter.com/trishatakamai
Connect with VOCO at http://twitter.com/vococreative

Cash Flow Management 101

Most small businesses don’t rise and fall on their profits – what affects them the most is CASH FLOW. Cash is your business's lifeblood. Managed well, cash keeps your company strong. Managed poorly, your company tanks.

Knowing what affects your cash flow is the first step to avoiding a cash crisis. Most business owners believe their cash flow is defined as the revenues they generate less the expenses they have to pay. Not true.

The accounting rules that govern the creation of financial statements are not about tracking the actual flow of cash through your business. They are focused on measuring profit or loss at the end of the period - not cash flow.

The "bottom line" of your P&L is net income. And net income does not tell you what happened to your cash balance during the period. Meaning you can show a profit at the end of the month, but have had difficulty meeting payroll on the 15th and paid some bills late along the way. Your statements may show profit but your cash flow stinks!

Cash flow is made up of more than just profit and loss. It also is affected by: Accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable, capital expenditures, borrowing and changing debt service, the timing of all these activities.

That's why you can't look at your income statement and see what happened to your cash during the month.

Luckily, the first step to improved cash management isn't exactly brain surgery: just start maximizing cash flow. There are many ways for companies to improve their cash position simply by making certain that their billing, collections, and payables systems are operating as efficiently as possible. Try to bring cash into the company as quickly as possible: bill promptly, aggressively follow up on overdue invoices, and, if possible, require up-front deposits when making sales. Then hold onto your cash as long as possible by managing your payables. That means, quite simply, take as long as you're allowed (without incurring late fees or interest charges) to pay your bills.

For more elaborate cash flow management, you must accurately assess your current cash position and make fairly reliable projections at key intervals about how much you'll need to meet expenses in the future.

If you're interested in delving deeper into cash management - shoot me an email at trish@akamai-consulting.com and I'll send you an Excel spreadsheet that will help you make easy cash flow projections for a full 12 months!

Developing Action Plans

So, what are action plans really?

Action planning typically includes deciding who is going to do what and by when and in what order for a whole company to reach its strategic goals. Now, if you're a sole proprietor you might be saying, “I AM THE WHOLE COMPANY!” And that’s OK. The design and implementation of your action plan will depend on the nature and needs of your unique business.

Actions plans specify the smaller tasks needed to achieve each of the core strategic planning issues your business faces. They become a bridge across the chasm between where you are and where you want to be. They outline measures of success so that you know when you reach each of the associated goals. They create accountability for follow through by spelling out who will tackle each action, what they need to complete the job, and what time line is acceptable.

"We think in generalities, but we live in detail." Very true.

Here is a quick guide to help you understand how to create an action plan and what elements should be included.

You need someone to take responsibility for each bold step within the action plan. Remember, if you don't reduce the steps to work assignments, they won't happen. And you've got to put someone's name on each one!

I’m working with a client right now who is extremely capable in his field of specialization, but has one huge managerial flaw. He fails to assign specific responsibilities to individuals. Instead, he constantly brainstorms ideas or suggests "we really ought to...,"you should think about..." And that's as close to organizing work as he'll get. Does he have problems? Oh, you bet! His staff comes out of meetings not knowing what to actually implement. They don’t know who is supposed to do what. No wonder the firm suffers from gridlock and chaos.

Let’s look at the elements of a good action plan one at a time:
Strategy: State exactly what strategy you are relying upon to guide the action plan.

Desired Results: Why bother at all? State upfront what will define success (your DESIRED STATE!)

Bold Action Steps: The real action plan should start as a list of the required action steps (or tactics) listed in chronological order so that they flow into each other and nothing crucial is skipped. These steps, taken together, will accomplish the intended strategy. Think about all the activities that must take place and in what order they make sense. What should be done first? What tasks will take a long time? How will the project logically unfold? List the steps in chronological order and by priority.

Assign Accountability: Write someone’s name down as responsible for each step on the list.

What is required?: Without creating a complete project plan for the responsible person, give them the framework to succeed by laying out your expectations of how the action step will unfold and your requirements of their work product. (This gives them the start of their own action plan with more detail!)

Resources and Investments: Naturally, you're going to employ resources to accomplish each action step. These resources may include money, space, equipment, people and information. List the specific resources required to complete each task. Go ahead and plan for allocating the resources to the responsible person as soon as they are needed. And while money is important, don’t discount the need for extra hands or knowledge you don’t currently possess. The resource which turns up scarce more often than any other is the human resource. Time and talent are priceless!

Measure of Success: What will be the key indicators that the action step is complete and has been a success? Lay out several critical factors that you will use to evaluate performance. These could be numbers, ratios, ratings, system changes, a new manual, etc…

Deadline: Things don’t tend to get done without a pressing date on the horizon. Even though you have to be flexible as a manager and allow the strategic plan to unfold in the best way, accountability is necessary to see results. Put down clear dates and set expectations for when each action step will be completed.

Be Your Brand

We’re surrounded by brands everyday… the pen with your bank’s logo, the designer handbag, the cross-trainers with a tell-tale swoop on the side, the McDonald’s wrappers in your backseat. We see brands, we respond to brands, we buy brands - but how well do we excel at creating a brand for ourselves or our companies?

In business today branding is everything. If you are a small business owner your products, services, ads, promotional materials, facility and staff all have to project a uniform image that speaks to a target audience. If you are a career woman and want to climb the corporate ladder, you have to master the art of personal branding and learn to view yourself not as an employee, but rather as the President of Me, Inc.

What is a brand? A brand is a collection of symbols, experiences and associations connected with a product, a service, a person or an organization. People experience a brand through every point of contact with the product, service, company or person in question. People translate their experiences, expectations and sensory perceptions into a psychological, symbolic framework that becomes the brand’s image in their mind. I won’t kid you, developing a strong and appealing brand takes time, money and effort. And once a consumer has formed an opinion about a brand it’s incredibly difficult to change it – so devise your brand wisely and adhere to it religiously.

Why does branding matter? I get this question all the time from entrepreneurs who feel that investing in branding strategies is a waste of time since they don’t aspire to achieve iconic Nike, Coke or Wal-Mart status anyway. I’ll tell you why. Branding builds trust. And without trust a business can’t succeed. A brand is simply a promise of the value that customers will infallibly receive from you.

On a corporate level, consider the power of branding as we make buying decisions. Right now I own a VW Beetle convertible and I love my car. I’ve already decided that in a few years I will pass on my current car to my teenage daughter and purchase a new vehicle for myself. What car will I buy? That’s right… another VW Beetle convertible! Why will I re-purchase a Beetle? Because Volkswagen is a strong brand that represents top-quality German engineering, affordability, reliability and fuel efficiency, as well as a car that’s fun to drive. I trust that if a buy another Beetle I will have the same great experience that I have had with my current car. Volkswagen’s brand image, customer loyalty and profitability are dependent upon on upholding the company’s promise on a daily basis.

On a personal level, consider email. Everybody has email and anybody can send you a message, so when you scan your Inbox in the morning how do you decide whose messages you're going to read and respond to first? Whose messages are you going to send to the Trash unopened? The answer relates directly to personal branding. The name of the email sender represents a personal brand. It's a promise of the value you'll receive for taking the time to read the message. If you have a friend who forwards every silly chain letter and cartoon they receive, you probably won’t regard messages from them very highly, but if a business associate regularly contacts you with leads, referrals or relevant news you will regard messages from them as extremely important.

What can branding do for you? People engaged in branding seek to develop or align the expectations behind the brand experience with the thing being sold, creating the impression that a brand associated with a product or service has certain characteristics that make it unique and desirable. A brand is one of the most valuable elements in an advertising campaign, because it demonstrates what the product or service being sold is able to offer in the marketplace. In a job search, your personal brand is often more valuable than your resume or references, because it showcases the actual capabilities, power and presence you will bring to the workplace.
Good branding offers several benefits:

1. Premium prices. Careful brand management, supported by a clever marketing campaign, can be highly successful in convincing consumers to pay high prices for products which are extremely cheap to make. By manipulating the projected image of your product or service, you can move customers beyond a logical valuation of the cost. This is why t-shirts at Madonna concerts are $50 when they only cost .50 to make – good branding!

2. Trust and loyalty. When people have a positive experience with a brand, they're more likely to buy that product or service again. People who closely bond with a brand are not only more likely to re-purchase, but also to buy related items, to recommend the brand to others and to resist the lure of a competitor's low price. ‘Harley Davidson’ is tattooed on more bodies than any other brand – can you earn and anchor such loyalty in your own customers?

3. Memorability. A brand serves as a container for your reputation and good will. It's hard for customers to go back to "that store on 28th street" or to refer business to "some plumber named Dan." Memorability can come from using and sticking with an unusual color combination/logo (Target), distinctive behavior (Home Depot’s greeters), a catchy name (Google, anyone?), or with an individual, even a style of clothing (Hillary Clinton’s pantsuits). Develop your own identifiers and nail them to your name in the minds of the public.

4. Lower expenses. It takes money, time and passion to create a brand, but once it's created you can maintain it without having to tell the whole story about your product or service over and over again. For instance, a jingle people get stuck in their head continues to promote the company when it’s not on the air. Levi’s jeans continue to fly off the shelves even though you seldom see them advertised on TV anymore – that’s because generations of people love Levi’s and the company can afford to relax a little.

I certainly can’t go into all the nuances of how to engage in branding in a short article, but I hope that you have developed a deep respect for the process of branding, and that you understand how the strength of your professional or personal brand will impact your success.

Align your entire business behind a strong brand that resonates with potential customers, and commit yourself to delivering on your promises, and sales will naturally rise.

Think BIG!

One of the things that most small business owners struggle with is thinking big enough. We all have to consciously work to expand our horizons and mentally move beyond what we know. But growing a business is not an accidental endeavor, so planning ahead and preparing your company to increase is size is a huge step in seeing your dreams become a reality.

Last month we addressed clarity of vision, which provides the foundation upon which your company is built. That vision will be the driving force behind step number two – thinking bigger than you are. You should have an idealized image in your mind of what you are working toward… what your company can look like five or ten or twenty years into the future. Although you naturally have to deal with lots of little day-to-day issues surrounding the organization you currently have, you should never lose sight of what you ultimately want to become.

Are you willing to make some changes today to transform into something magical tomorrow? Can you sacrifice what you are for what you can be?

If so, then begin to practice the following five principles that will help you think bigger:

1. Stop seeking external validation. While historical data, statistics and industry standards can be helpful, they shouldn’t be the bar by which you measure your present or your future. Ultimately the most successful companies break through barriers and forge pathways into uncharted territories, so if you need to see logical external validation for every move you make, you simply won’t be on the cutting edge of achieving rapid growth.

2. Always act on your intuition. Michael Burke said that, “Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out.” I completely agree. How many times do we all look back and say, “Ach, I had a gut feeling about that and I didn’t act on it!” Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of safety in your business. If you play it too safe and can’t make a decision without a perfect case for WHY, then your company won’t be adaptable and competitive in today’s ever-shifting marketplace.

3. Plan ahead for MORE. I can’t stress this point enough when it comes to driving growth. In every decision, every task, every purchase you must think beyond the current size of your business and ask yourself, “Will this be big enough later on?” Companies waste billions of dollars annually scaling up systems that they just put in place to accommodate growth. Your goal should be to plan ahead and design systems that are capable of expanding, serving more customers, integrating more staff and lasting through the next phase of your organization’s life cycle.

4. Make big, bold promises. Promises are different from targets or goals or ideals. If you are an individual of integrity, promises are things that you are willing to commit to in stone. I see many business owners shirk from making lofty promises. They are willing to try, to work towards objectives and to dream - but they are not willing to simply commit to making something happen come ‘hell or high water’. Some of the greatest triumphs in the history of business have come because leaders made a rash promise that seemed unattainable and then found a way to miraculously follow through. As Epictetus sagely advised, “First say what you will be; and then do what you have to do.”

5. Take action now. Vision and planning and promises are great, but your business won’t grow if you don’t take action in the present moment. I urge you to translate your big dreams into small action steps that you can begin working on immediately. A walk of a thousand miles begins with a single step… so take the baby step today that will launch your epic journey of growth and success.

In closing, I want to acknowledge how very difficult it can be to hold an imaginary image of your company as a thriving conglomerate in your head, but that is what it takes to design processes and make long view decisions that will take you to the top. By always thinking beyond your present reality you can continually take the small steps required to thrive in the future.

Reduce your Taxes at Year's End

Last Ditch Tax Tips for the Year's End

Most of my clients call at some point in December and ask, "What can we do to reduce our tax liability?" I'm always happy to hear that question, because it means they've made enough during the year to be worried! So what can you do in the last days of December to reduce your tax bill?

Revisit your 2008 accounting BEFORE the year ends. Most companies don't really examine their books until well into the following year as the tax crunch begins to loom large. It's important as part of your year-end business strategy to have a good understanding of your company's financial situation before the year is over. That way you not only ensure that your books are accurate, you also have the information you need to 'guesstimate' your tax liability and make last minute decisions about spending, giving and deposits.

Examine your inventory. Inventory write-offs can be significant. The drop in market value of any inventory you have on hand can potentially provide your company with deductions. Depending on your accounting methods, you may also want to track any goods that have been damaged or have become obsolete.

Put money into a retirement plan. This is the time of year to make payments into your retirement plan or set up a final contribution before the end of the year to reduce your income. You'll have to check the contribution limits for your type of plan and decide what your budget will allow. 401(k)s, KEOGH plans, Roth IRAs or SEPs are all great places to shelter some funds for future years. As always, you need to discuss the best strategy with your financial planner or accountant.

Defer income into 2009. Any payments your business can receive during the first week of January as opposed to December will cut your tax bill. Every cent deferred until January 2009 will not owe taxes until April 2010. Your specific deferral strategy should be driven by your projected annual profits and legal structure (LLC, partnership, corporation, etc). Depending on your income tax rates in the foreseeable new year, deferral of income can make good sense for many sole proprietors, partnerships, LLC's, and S corporations.

Give a little bit away. Charities are hurting right now, and companies that are doing well can benefit from making last minute donations. Think about donations you may have planned for 2009 and push them back into 2008. Make sure you get a receipt for all tax deductible gifts.

Boost your Expenses. This sounds nutty, but if your cash flow allows you to spend at the end of the year you can save a bundle on your taxes. Purchase items your business will require in the immediate future to maximize deductions for this year. If you can see a need for goods and services in the first quarter of the new year, pay for them now and let those expenses count for 2008. Consider stocking up on paper, printer cartridges and other office items. Order promotional materials like flyers and business cards. Pay your January bills before the new year in areas such as phone services, subscriptions, insurance, rent and utilities. Get repairs made and book 2009 travel early. Buy any new office equipment or furniture you need. (You do have to weigh whether or not it is best to take a write off now or spread out the depreciation over years, but buying fixed assets can be a great tax reduction strategy.)

Every situation is unique, and each business owner has to decide whether or not it makes sense to reduce tax liability in the current year. Sometimes if you are projecting increasing sales it's a better call to just pay your tax bill and not make future tax burdens heavier, but if you are concerned about your tax liability for 2008 these are some great tips that can help you save money!

Accept Mess for Lower Stress

Learning to tolerate an acceptable level of mess and chaos in life can help you feel happier, reduce stress, make breakthrough discoveries, and even earn more!

I grew up with an amazingly neat and organized mom (probably so neat and organized that she should have gotten some therapy along the way). So mess tends to stir up anxiety and guilt... making me feel like my life is an out-of-control train wreck, especially when it creeps beyond my cluttered desk to the kitchen, living room, bathroom floor and bed. Sometimes I gaze around at it all and waver between complete overwhelm and jumping up in a panic to clean until I collapse.

Magazines and TV don’t help at all. Homes and offices are supposed to be color coordinated, meticulously furnished and Spartan to the point of sterility. Does anyone really have nothing but a computer monitor and a potted plant on their desk? According to Consumer Reports, Americans spent more than $2 billion in 2004 to impose external order on their life. Filing systems, shelving, stackable bins and professional organizing services… whatever will make them feel more ‘put together’.

For most of us, our never-ending quest to be neat has less to do with our stuff than the state of our lives. When life events, finances and family issues feel ‘messy’, we strive to master the one thing we can be truly in control of – our surroundings. But although it's possible to impose neatness (at least temporarily) exerting control over life is not so simple. And perfection is as illusive as a ghost… it never lasts for long.

Contentment has been proven to be a common trait of the happiest people on the planet. Joy and inner peace are not so much achieved by orchestrating every detail of our lives to suit our preferences, as they are about accepting that which we cannot change and keeping our priorities in order. While we all have a ‘mess threshold’ that we are miserable below, we also have to be realistic about how much time, money and effort we want to expend in an endless quest for perfect tidiness. Isn’t a certain level of mess OK if it gives us time to work, play, be with our families and enjoy life?

Hyper-organization and compulsive neatness take a huge amount of time. So ask yourself, is it really more efficient to painstakingly file every single scrap of paper immediately into a complex filing system - or is it more reasonable to have a few general files and update things every few days or weeks? Letting the paper accumulate a bit and making one trip to the file cabinet is truly much more efficient. Is it worthwhile to clean the whole house on Friday if your kids are having a sleepover that night - or does it make more sense to do it Saturday after everyone leaves? Although you might be inclined to have things in order before company comes, the kids don’t care and they’re going to dirty up your nice clean house anyway – so why bother!

Besides allocating our time wisely, mess can also spark creativity. When you're looking at a variety of things spread out in front of you, your mind naturally starts making connections and leaping to intriguing places. The same thing happens when you mix diverse types of people. Companies tend to cluster staff members who do the same things together, and that isolation actually stifles creativity and prevents the new ideas from flowing freely. This is certainly not to say that we shouldn’t care whether or not we can find things… or let dust coat the entire house… or allow grimy dishes to pile up. The point is to find the level of dirt and clutter and diversity that feels optimal for your lifestyle, work habits and peace of mind.

For some folks a lot of mess might be OK, for others it will drive them crazy and become a roadblock to success. The trick is to make an honest assessment based on your own values and style – not based on what a book, TV show or magazine says you should be.

Disorder can open you up for more random moments of beauty. Within reason, don’t castigate yourself for your lack of focus, your disorganization, or your sloppy house. When you let go of the need to be perfect, ideas can flow and you can enjoy life fully. The Japanese tradition of wabi-sabi is about the beauty of imperfection - appreciating the beauty that can be found in a chipped bowl, a wilted flower or weathered rocking chair. Our western craze for consumerism and material wealth has made us a throw away society, obsessed with new trends and always chasing the unattainable.

To be honest, a minimalist, perfectly clean, ultra-organized house may be beautiful in a photograph, but it's also cold, generic and sterile. If you feel empty and unfulfilled, do you truly believe that a cha-cha house will make everything better? If you hate your work, do you truly believe that a neat desk will cure the void in your soul? Accepting human frailty and the inequities in the world is a lot saner than constantly seeking perfection!

So, what of your professional success and earning potential? Don’t you have to be neat and organized to get ahead? Albert Einstein was probably the most brilliant human being to ever to walk the earth, and this genius was an advocate of messiness. He once said, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk?” A 2005 survey actually revealed that people who call themselves neat freaks are likely to earn less than individuals who don't describe themselves that way. Another great example of the value of mess is Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin. The man was a great thinker but his laboratory was filthy. He made his life-saving discovery after he left for vacation without cleaning cultures out of some Petri dishes. When he returned, he found that there were some interesting fuzzy growths that bacteria couldn’t live with, and that mess-driven breakthrough has since saved many millions of lives. In a funny aside… years later Fleming was given a tour of a pristine, well-organized lab, and a fellow scientist gloated, “Imagine what you could have discovered here!” The sage Fleming dryly replied, “Not penicillin.”

Be a little forgiving of your mess and disorganization, both internal and external. Not much in life is of eternal significance, and I certainly don’t believe that God will be giving out awards in heaven for the shiniest floor or the best organized office. Instead of belaboring bad habits and normal clutter, focus on the things that will truly improve your life at its core. Chances are you’re quite organized enough to make those things happen in good time. In the movie City Slickers Jack Palance plays a gritty trail boss with an excellent grip on what really matters. He wisely says, “You city folk… you worry about a lot of s**t. Do you know what the meaning of life is? One thing. And that’s what you’ve got to figure out.”

What’s your ‘one thing’? Probably not a stack of post-it notes.

10 Ways to Respond to Any Event

My friend, Cheri Ruskus, just shared these 10 great pointers from Thomas Leonard's book 'The Portable Coach'. I think they are simple, practical and profound techniques for incorporating conscious change and wise choices into even the toughest situations. Enjoy!

1. Every time you're surprised, make a significant personal change. When you are surprised, you usually react. And react some more. Then overreact. Then react to the intensity and consequences of your overreactions. What if every time something surprising happened in your life - whether good or bad - you made a big change of some kind, even bigger than what that surprise event seemed to call for?
2. Look for the five choices you have, in every single circumstance. When faced with a difficult situation, most of us look for two or three options. But there are at least five options in every situation.
3. Never decide, rather, let your body choose for you. There are a lot more cells in your body than in your brain. They know more about you, as a totality, than your brain does. They work in simpler and more direct ways. All you need is enough trust in your feelings, as expressed through your body to let them guide you.
4. Become extremely curious about your reactions. The last time you got frightened or angry did you ask yourself, "Why did I get so scared or ticked off?"
5. Make over responding a personal strategy. If you are alive, creativity interests you. Especially your own creativity. Become creative in how you over respond. In other words make it your personal strategy and, as such, work it.
6. Stop spending time with reactors or nonresponders. Some people are an emotional meltdown waiting to happen. Others are numb and could hardly care less. People who strike you as falling into either of these categories are people who are stuck.
7. Turn every problem into a nonrecurring event. Here's a way to flex your new muscle: One, identify a problem in your life; two take up to ten steps to make sure that it, or anything remotely like it never happens to you again for the rest of your life.
8. Experiment as you over respond. When you are over responding to an event, you'll start by doing the obvious things that comes to mind. But why not over respond in very different ways as well?
9. Evolve, don't just improve. When you improve, you do somthing smarter or better. Not bad! But when you evolve, you fundamentally and permanently change a part of who you are. Improving is good, evolving is better.
10. Over respond immediately, not gradually. This is the trickiest part of this principle - over responding in the moment instead of later.

Synapse3Di - A New Twist on Speaker's Bureaus

I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to partner with Synapse3Di - an organization providing live speakers, subject matter experts and virtual training to corporations and private groups around the globe. This is a great new model for infusing exciting speakers, cool presentation formats and new life into the tired world of traditional speaker's bureaus!

Synapse 3Di connects industry and topical experts with employees in a way unlike any other organization. They can put on incredible events that will dazzle, engage and create long lasting results that positively impact organizations. But, they also go beyond the live event to share information and transfer knowledge with digital media and within virtual environments. This eliminates the typical barriers that challenge organizational communication. Synapse3Di can be a bridge to connect physical locations across the globe and generational gaps within a company. Training sessions and events can be transformed into wildly successful and popular educational summits.

All programs are followed up with on-demand knowledge sharing resources that dramatically raise retention and encourage ongoing education. In fact, everything is designed to make teaching, learning, and communicating more cost-effective, efficient, and eco-friendly for corporations, groups, and individuals. Welcome to the world of limitless learning.

Visit the website at www.synapse3di.com.