Famed head coach Phil Jackson rightly asserted, “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” Depending on the situation, you only need two people to make a team. So, if you are running your business with two or more people involved, think of each member as an individual and a team member. In doing so, you’ll want to determine your team’s skills, available time, and your resources, which requires capacity planning. In this post, we’ll discuss team capacity planning, what it is and why you need it.

WHAT IS TEAM CAPACITY PLANNING?

Simply put, team capacity planning is a process to help you determine if your company supply meets the demands of your customers. Understanding your team’s capacity can help you decide when to accept or turn down projects and increase or decrease your number of team members. It’s important to take team members’ capabilities into consideration with any potential project. How much time does each member spend on each task? Which tasks best suit each team member, and which ones are most important? Answering these kinds of questions will enable the team to work at full capacity.

WHY IS TEAM CAPACITY PLANNING IMPORTANT?

Are some team members working overtime while others are hardly working at all? Do you find your team buried in projects, or are you wondering if you could be doing more? Team capacity planning guides you through the maze of running your team. The fact of the matter is that time is a limited resource. There are only so many hours in a day, and only so many that are available for your team to work. Using those hours to their full potential is essential for your team to have the best possible quality product or service for your customers as well as maximizing your bottom line.

TIPS TO PLAN AND BUILD TEAM CAPACITY

• Assess your strengths. Part of knowing your team’s capacity is understanding each member’s strengths and weaknesses, including your own. One way to discover those strengths and weaknesses is to look back at past projects and recall who did what well. Maybe you’re someone who is good at focusing on the logistics, while another member of your team is better at looking at projects with a creative angle. Assign tasks according to those strengths to take advantage of your team members’ areas of expertise. It will be easier to identify which types of projects your team can take on based on your assessment of the team’s strengths.

• Track time. Knowing how long projects take to complete will give you a baseline for figuring capacity for team members. Record the number of hours spent on each task so that you know how long projects usually take. Then as projects come in, estimate each person’s projected hours to see if they are at, over, or under capacity. In the example below, the graphic designer has no more time for projects during the week. In fact, when lunches and breaks are factored into the weekly estimate, this individual is over capacity.

• Evaluate your projects. If you’ve discovered that your team’s skill set isn’t a match for certain types of projects that are available to you, then it may be time to consider adding a member with the expertise in the area that your team is missing. Similarly, if you have underutilized team members, you may want to find clients with projects that will require their areas of expertise.

• Use software to help. Keeping track of projects, their effect on cash flow and the amount of time you need to delegate for each part within that project is a lot of work. When projects start and stop, it’s cumbersome and time consuming to track the details in spreadsheets. Look into software that will manage the chaos for you, save you time, and help you see when a busy month is coming up.

FuelGauge, a cash forecasting software, can help you keep track of all your upcoming projects in one place, giving insight to when it’s time to think about capacity planning or finding some extra help. Try a free 45-day trial today.

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I hate to admit I was a little taken aback the first time one of my clients asked me how to make clients feel special. Apparently, they felt that way with me and wanted some intel. While the first thing that came to mind is “don’t be a jerk,” I knew there were actionable insights I could provide. It was and is an important aspect of growing a business. Customer retention is way cheaper than customer attainment. At a time when we get less in-person time with clients, we have to be more than just decent people, so besides that, try on some of these BE-attitudes.

1. 1. Be a good customer, and refer your clients. It’s no secret that referrals are the best source of new clients. According to a Wharton School of Business study,  Referred customers are more profitable (25% higher profit margins than non-referred customers), less likely to leave (18% less likely to defect than non-referred customers), and they have higher lifetime value (16% higher than the average customer). Model the behavior you want to see. Become a customer and show them how special they are by making referrals to them.
   2. Be a good listener. Never assume you have it in the bag. You may have a great relationship with your clients, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they feel special. When you are on the phone with them or in their presence, do you give them 100 percent of your attention? Make sure to turn off all device notifications that may distract you when you are with a client. Everyone else can wait their turn.
   3. Be grateful. In his book, “How to Win Customers and Keep them for Life”, Michael LeBoeuf, quotes a study showing that 68% of customers leave a business relationship because of a perceived attitude of indifference on the part of an owner, manager or some employee. Thank you emails are certainly in order, but you should bring back a little old-fashioned etiquette and send hand-written notes on occasions you know may be meaningful to them. If you were a good listener, you probably know a few of their goals. As you grow and scale your company, use a software to keep track of special occasions, so you can continue to add that personal touch.
   4. Be responsive. With so many ways to communicate, it may seem like you are constantly switching between social media, email and the phone to answer questions or follow-up in some manner with your clients. Be communicative early on in your relationship to let your clients know the best way to reach you. And make it a rule of thumb to respond to all forms of contact within 24 hours. Remember we are talking about how to make clients feel special, so the less time that passes before responding, the better. Better yet, be proactive and call them!
   5. Be a feedback freak. Sometimes, you won’t need to solicit feedback. Your customers will give it to you, like it or not. Don’t ignore it. In an American Express study, Americans tell more people about poor service (15 people on average) than about good experiences. Unfortunately, while they are telling other people about their experiences with you, they may not have told you anything. Create a process for obtaining customer feedback on a regular basis. You may choose to make a phone call, or you may send an email or simple survey with Google Forms.
   6. Be humble and face the music. Nobody’s perfect, and your clients most likely don’t expect you to be perfect. (If they do, you might consider firing them). Clients deserve and expect you to address their concerns. In fact, in a study published on Moz, 64 percent of customers willingly reversed their negative reviews because the owner, manager or staff member proactively reached out to them with a remedy.

Making clients feel special may require some extra time on your part, but it’s time well spent.

Managing project chaos is not the best use of your time though, so get a handle on your projects and get a picture of your cash flow with a free trial of FuelGauge today.

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While marketing can bring awareness and add credibility to your services, there is more to growing your business that all comes down to you. Scary thought? Shouldn’t be. After all, you went into business for yourself because you believed in you. And you don’t need a sales or marketing background to make others believe in you. So, let’s talk about how to convince a client to use your services.

TIPS TO PREPARE FOR ENGAGING CLIENTS

Get to know the client. Everyone is not your client. Everyone doesn’t need your services. So instead of casting a wide net, zero in on clients who align with your business. Here’s how:

• Connect with them on, or at least examine, their social media to get a feel for their personality. Are they super buttoned up and serious? Are they laid back and casual?
• Check out their website. What are they doing for their customers? Can you help them better reach or engage their customers in some way?
• View their customers’ reviews and feedback. Customer feedback is a good indicator of  their pain points. Can you help them improve their customers’ experience with your services?
• Use their services or buy their product to get a firsthand experience of being their customer. Think of ways you can help improve their customer experience.

Get to know the competition. But don’t bash them to clients. You shouldn’t need to do that to convince a client to use your services instead of a competitor’s. Instead do this:

• Look at their website. By checking out your competitors, you will know what their selling points are and possibly find some opportunities to differentiate yourself from them.
• Check out their ads. What do you think they are doing right? Are you also doing/saying those things? If you look at enough competitors, you just might find that some traits are “table stakes” and that you have to mention them somewhere if everyone else is.
• Look into their social media. Are they posting “thought leadership” content that is aimed at helping customers alleviate their pain points? Could you speak to these points better on your own social media or website?

TIPS FOR WHEN YOU’RE ENGAGING CLIENTS

Listen instead of being a talking head. The big moment arises when you get the chance to meet over the phone, internet, or in person. Time to tell them what they need? No. Here’s what you should do instead:

• Ask them what they need. Create a series of questions that will help your customers tell you what they’re looking for and what problems they have that you can solve. For example, if the problem the client has is that they want to use your services, but they feel they don’t have the time to hire you for the work, what options can you give the client? Are you willing to work evenings and weekends instead?
• When you get a chance to talk, be a trusted guide. Using your experience, how have you seen other clients overcome their objections. You may have no way to alleviate their pain points, but you may know it’s better to “rip off the band-aid” and get your services.

Let your work sell itself. Marketing genius and bestselling author Seth Godin says, “People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves.”

• Sometimes when you are in business for yourself, you don’t take the time to gather examples of your work. If it’s conducive to being a visual aid, make sure to take a photo of before and after.
• If your services are complicated, create a piece of collateral that explains your offerings in a simple (but not simplistic) way. Thinking of Seth Godin’s quote, your goal is for clients to talk themselves into buying from you.

AFTER YOU HAVE ENGAGED THEM AS CLIENTS

Mind your manners. Thank your clients, don’t forget them, and don’t let them forget you. Here are some things you can do:

• Send an official “thank you”. First things first. Whether it’s a handwritten note or a short email, make sure they know that you appreciate that they trusted you with their business. And make sure your contact information is noticeable so that they may have it in case they want to use you again or refer you.
• Keep them in mind. Did you find out something about them in the process of working with them? If you see something online that would interest them, why not share it with them and deepen your relationship?
• Don’t let them forget you. You don’t have to inundate them with communications, but an electronic newsletter containing a note from you and some helpful blog posts and a video may be a great way to keep top of mind.

Convincing a client to use your services does require some thinking and effort on your part, but it doesn’t require you to be a sales pro. That said, you may have to get a handle on other aspects of your business so that you have the time needed to set yourself up for growth. Are you treading water, not sinking or swimming? Try managing your projects and cash flow forecasting with FuelGauge, and free up the time you need to work on your business.

The post How to Convince a Client to Use Your Services appeared first on FuelGauge.

When you first decided to start your own business, you may have chosen to try to handle most things on your own and use some freelance help to fill in the gaps. You would not be alone. A lot of small businesses start as solo acts. While you’re bound to make mistakes, some of them can be more costly than others. And hiring at the wrong time is one of them. In this post, we’ll discuss when to hire your first employee.

Here are some indicators that you may be ready to hire an employee:

1. Despite using freelancers, you have more work than you can do on a consistent basis, so you are turning down work. And most of us realize that turning down work means that you could lose the client, even if it’s just because they assume you are always too busy. Keeping in mind that you don’t want to run out of cash, you have to balance losing customers with the cost of the employee. According to an article by American Express, it costs six to seven times more to get a new customer than to retain a current customer.
2. You can’t do all your necessary work and keep clients happy. Is your response time down because you simply can’t get to it? Or are your other duties getting neglected? You can’t be everything to everyone, including yourself. And losing clients or skipping over other important customer acquisition initiatives or daily financial activities will likely cost more than hiring the right person.
3. You can increase revenue by offering expertise you don’t currently have or don’t have time to cultivate. Perhaps hiring someone will allow you to do more of what you are really good at. Perhaps someone else is really good at something you’re not. Whatever the case, if you can bring in more cash flow on a consistent basis, it’s a good bet.
4. You have checked your financial forecast, and your projected revenue will be able to cover costs of an employee. Using a software such as FuelGauge can really give you insight into both historical and upcoming billing. Simply by looking at your FuelGauge Dashboard, you can see spikes in anticipated revenue a few months down the line. There’s nothing better than having real data at your fingertips to be sure you are making a sound decision.
   

Here are some reasons NOT to hire an employee just yet:

1. You are desperate and in a pinch. Don’t have a knee jerk reaction. You may only need to get by a few weeks or months, then will have nothing for your new employee to do. Really consider whether this uptick in business is long term enough.
2. You don’t have a clearly defined position for the employee. If you don’t know exactly what your employee will be responsible for and how long his or her daily duties should take, you are setting both of you up to fail. You need clear expectations, and you should carefully interview several people before deciding who is the best for the position (no matter how much you may like him or her).
3. A friend or family member needs a job. Unless your friend can increase revenue with a skillset that you need in your business, don’t risk your friendship or your business. Anyone who you consider hiring should help take you to the next level, not drain you of your resources.

All told, it’s not that easy to predict when to hire your first employee. However, following these tips and investing in a software that gives you visibility into your financial forecast can greatly improve your odds of succeeding. See how FuelGauge can give you that visibility without the risk. Try it for free for 45 days with no credit card needed.

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Congratulations on becoming your own boss. At some point, you decided to make a go of it. You already had some experience and expertise in your industry, and you may have already lined up a few clients or customers to boot. But if you haven’t already discovered it, you can’t count on a steady stream of business coming your way unless you continue to build awareness about your offerings and keep prospects and customers engaged. So, let’s talk about marketing. In this blog post, we’ll show you how marketing your freelance business can still be kind to your budget.

Step One in Marketing Your Freelance Business: Create your website (If you have already done this, skip to the next step)

Your website should be at the center of all your marketing efforts. It gives people a place to go and see for themselves exactly what you want them to see. Seriously, if you don’t have a website, create one. If you can’t afford a marketing agency, consider taking a stab at it yourself. There are a lot of templates in a variety of industry themes that you can use to plug and play. Let’s take a look at some website builder options.

Weebly is quick and easy to set up and use, but not as customizable as others. Plus, they own the code. You only own your text and pics. The only reason this is a problem is if you want to move your website off their platform, it’s difficult. Top features include:

• It’s very easy to use, requiring no technical knowledge.
• There are a variety of Weebly templates that are free to use.
• Weebly offers free and paid photos that you can use on your website.
• You get the drag and drop website builder, website hosting, unlimited pages, and online storage space.
• Weebly allows you to connect your own domain or website address.
• Managing an online store is simple, and eCommerce is powered through Square.

 Find out more about Weebly

Wix is also quick and easy to set up and use. But like Weebly, they own the code. Top features include:

• No technical knowledge is required.
• There are over 800 templates in multiple categories to choose from, so you can get something that “looks like” your industry.
• Wix offers over 250 apps that you can use to enhance your site.
• You get a drag and drop website builder, website hosting, webpages, blogging, invoices, online scheduling, and online storage space all in one.
• Wix also allows you to connect your own domain or website address.

Find out more about Wix

Squarespace setup is pretty simple and you can export your website to WordPress if you want to leave the platform for a more customizable, robust one. Top features include:

• It’s easy to use, requiring no technical knowledge for a basic website.
• Originally for artists, the templates are beautifully designed, minimalistic and modern. You can even use more than one template on your website.
• Squarespace has great customer support. If you find yourself not able to figure something out, they are really responsive.
• You get a drag and drop builder, but if you know HTML code, you can enhance the site with it.
• They have low monthly packages that start at $5 per month for a one-page site. Hosting and a custom domain are included.

Find out more about Squarespace

Step Two in Marketing Your Freelance Business: Make sure your website is optimized for both your audience and search engines

• Check your content
  • Is it obvious what you do?
  • Do you tell your prospects what they get, not just what you have?
  • Is your content relevant?
• Check your keyword use
  • Answer questions that your audience would ask in a Google search.
  • Use part or all of the keyword/phrase in the page URL.
  • Use part or all of the keyword/phrase in the page title.
  • Use part or all of the keyword/phrase in page headings and subheadings.
• Check the small details for Google and screen reader (for those with disabilities) friendliness
  • Use descriptive alt tags on every picture. 
  • Use descriptive links instead of “click here.” And where possible, link keywords for improved Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Step Three in Marketing Your Freelance Business: Ask for reviews or testimonials 

If you haven’t set up your Google My Business profile, do it. Some business owners don’t set up their accounts because they don’t want to manage negative reviews. This is a mistake because not only can your Google business listing improve your ranking with Google, but it also gives you the opportunity to turn a negative review into a positive one.

Studies have shown that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Once your Google business listing has been created, you’ll want to populate it with reviews. To ensure your success, follow these tips:

• Ask for a review. The number one reason that people don’t leave reviews is that no one asks them to do so.
• Overcome the awkwardness by asking your happiest customers first so that you get used to asking. Eventually, you will see it’s not a risky move and will have no problem doing it. Ask often. Some times that are appropriate are: after you complete a job, in your email signature, on your invoices, and at the conclusion of a phone call. People forget. It’s that simple. So, don’t feel bad about asking more than once.
• Don’t assume they know how to do it. Make it easy for them to review you by linking to simple “how-to” instructions or linking a video that explains the process. 

Step Four in Marketing Your Freelance Business: Get connected and stay connected with your social media network

Chances are that your audience is on one or more social networks daily. Deciding where you should get social really depends on your audience and industry type. For example, if you are a graphic designer, you may want to focus your efforts on a visual platform such as Instagram or Pinterest. If you are interested in the demographics of social media users, check out Pew Research’s social media fact sheet. Here are some tips on getting the most out of your social media:

• If you choose more than one platform, keep your username as consistent (and closely related to your business name) as possible across all platforms.
• Don’t try to be everywhere. It’s important to work your social media accounts regularly, and if you are trying to be active on every social media channel, you are likely to fail.
• Be sure you have a branded profile. You want your audience to instantly recognize you across platforms, so your website and social media should look like the same business.
• Complete your entire profile. Fill in all the information possible when creating a profile. Always include your website, contact information, and a brief description of your offerings.
• Take part in the conversation. Comment on other people’s posts that are relevant to your industry and audience. Write your own content. And share others’ content.
• Be consistent with post frequency. People skip around to a lot of sites and posts daily, so having a regular schedule helps your audience know what days to expect your posts and helps make you become part of their regular schedule.
• If you have a little bit of a budget, consider advertising on social media. Sometimes the awareness is the push you need to help your business take off.

As small business champions, FuelGauge is committed to providing you with helpful resources, and we hope you find value here. Check out our most helpful resource, our cloud-based cash flow projection software that puts your past, present, and future revenues and expenses at your fingertips. With 24/7 online, on-the-go access to revenue forecasting and project capacity planning, you will be able to grow and scale your business confidently.

The post How to Market Your Freelance Business appeared first on FuelGauge.

TIP ONE FOR HOW TO FIND CLIENTS: GET COMFORTABLE ASKING FOR REFERRALS.

The thought of asking for a referral may make you squeamish at first, but “referral marketing generates three to five times higher conversion rates than any other channel.” And there are a wealth of statistics supporting the power of and the willingness of people to give referrals. It’s one of the easiest ways to build your business fast, so here are some tips to help you get comfortable.

1. 1. Offer them options. You’ll both feel more comfortable if they have choices on how to sing your praises. Some people would rather give you contacts; others would rather write a testimonial. And still some are fans of star ratings.
   2. Partner with other small businesses that do what you do. It may sound a little weird at first, but asking people in your niche to let you help out when their project load is more t
      han they can handle can be a win-win. And of course, you should reciprocate.
   3. Refer your clients/customers. Refer your clients to people you know that may be interested in their products and services. Comment on their social media and share their posts to show your commitment to them and stay top of mind.
   4. Use your email signature to call them to action. Your email signature is a great place for a call to action button to make referrals easy for your contacts. Plus, it will be a gentle reminder in every email.

TIP TWO FOR HOW TO FIND CLIENTS: GET LEADS BY CREATING WEBSITE CONTENT.

Remember the line in the movie Field of Dreams, “If you build it, he will come.”? It’s not always quite that easy with small business marketing. You likely won’t see overnight higher ranking in Google search results, but you can use email campaigns or paid ads to drive traffic to your site. And, your engaging, high quality content will immediately give your site visitors a better impression.
When you build website content, it gives you something to talk about while establishing credibility for your area of expertise. It can also increase your search engine optimization. Consider blogging, and creating videos, case studies, eBooks and downloadable content that will interest prospective clients by helping them personally or professionally.

TIP THREE FOR HOW TO FIND CLIENTS: GET THE INSIDE SCOOP ON JOB BOARDS.

You can harvest prospects from job postings. While you need to be upfront that you are not applying for the position, many companies are wasting money on staffing needs that might be better met with a freelance/small business. Here are some places to check out:

Indeed

Monster

Glassdoor

LinkedIn

LinkUp

Authentic Jobs

Reddit For Hire

Krop

AngelList

We Work Remotely

GrowthHackers

Product Hunt

TIP FOUR FOR HOW TO FIND CLIENTS: GET SOCIAL.

Social media is a great place to find connections and network. Here are a few things you might try using social media.

1. Use Twitter search to find tweets where people are looking for services. Type “looking for a [your keyword]” in the search bar. In the example below, we searched for graphic design work.
2. Find questions that you can answer on Quora that relate to your industry. Most questions are indexed by Google, so you can get discovered by being an expert at what you do. In the example below, we searched “home renovation” and clicked on the “answer” link.
3. LinkedIn gives some good advice on getting clients using its platform in six steps.

1. 1. First, they instruct you to complete your profile so that it’s professional, search-optimized, and client-focused.
   2. Second, they tell you to prospect by searching Groups or using LinkedIn’s Advanced Search, making sure to target people that fit your ideal customer profile.
   3. Third, they want you to simply send a “thank you” message to people who have accepted your request (but don’t try to pitch anything to them).
   4. Fourth, start to send relationship-building messages on a regular basis. These messages are a good use of the content you’ve created for your website that we mentioned in our tip above.
   5. Fifth, check what groups they are in, and join those groups. Get involved, show your expertise and engage your prospects there.
   6. Sixth, convert prospects to customers offline. Get them to talk to you outside of the social media platform once you have built a rapport.

Do you have a favorite tip? Connect with us on Facebook or LinkedIn to share your thoughts. Then, manage your clients better by making sure you can keep track of all the projects that start and stop and move around by signing up for a free trial of  FuelGauge’s cash forecasting software for project-based businesses.

The post How to Find Clients: Four Tips for Future Success appeared first on FuelGauge.

Pricing is a common thorn in the side of freelancers and small business owners. You don’t want to price yourself too high, but you don’t want to leave money on the table either. How many times have you quoted a project, and your customer immediately jumped to approve it? I hate it when that happens. And have you ever been forced into a price war because someone else will do it for less? Not fun either. When you own a small business, even if it is project-based, there are a number of ways you can deal with these issues. In this post, we’ll give you some ideas on how to set prices for your small business.

Step 1: Know your fixed costs.

You should take into account the fact that you have fixed expenses. Calculate all of them for each month of the year, so you have an idea of what you absolutely need to cover and when there may be spikes. In the image below, FuelGauge provides a central location to record fixed expenses as well as an easy-to-digest snapshot of them.

Step 2: Get a handle on project costs.

Sometimes called your cost of goods sold or cost of sales, your project costs include all the costs you incur to complete the job. By keeping a record of these, you will get a better idea of how much each type of project costs you. With this information, you’ll have a better understanding of how to set your prices.

Step 3: Check out competitor pricing.

Do a little research to find out what others charge in your industry. Here are a few ways to gather intel:

• During the bidding process, you might offer to help your prospective customers make sure they are comparing apples to apples and ask to see other bids.
• After being awarded or not awarded a project, you can ask about where your pricing landed among the competition.
• At times, you can find pricing information right on your competitors’ websites.
• While review sites vary by industry, check out sites such as Google My Business, Quora, G2, and HomeAdvisor and look at what their customers are saying. In some instances, the review sites may also provide pricing information upfront.

Step 4: Understand markup vs. margin, and use margins.

You want to set your prices based on the profit you need to make. To better understand how profit percentages change depending on whether you use markup or margin formulas, let’s take a look at what these formulas are.

The margin formula measures how much money you keep after paying expenses.

And markup measures how much more you sell something than the amount you pay for it.

If these sound similar, it’s because they are correlated. However, you need to know that when you mark up your projects, the market is a factor. The market drives costs up or down and may not take into account some indirect costs associated with the project. That’s why setting prices based on a certain markup can result in you leaving money on the table. Consider the relationship between markups and margins as shown in the table below. If you decide to mark up your project by 15%, you are actually only making a 13% profit margin on the project.

Step 5: Gather data and tweak pricing accordingly.

You need to gather data to get benchmarks. It’s especially important to see trends so that you can create economies of scale. If costs are trending up, you’ll likely want to raise pricing. You need to see if you have the capacity to take on new projects or if your business can survive projects being put on hold, and then adjust your pricing accordingly. Having one place to see and predict your cash flow can be extremely helpful with these key business decisions. FuelGauge cash forecasting software in the cloud, is just that. You can get the big picture and the details you need to set or adjust your pricing in one convenient, easy-to-use software, 24/7 from your internet-enabled device.

Managing your costs is key to several of the pricing steps in this post. And knowing your value is crucial to getting it right. How to set prices is one of the most important questions you will encounter in your business and it’s one that you may revisit often. Stay tuned for more, and check out our other small business resources.

The post How to Set Prices for Your Small Business in 5 Easy Steps appeared first on FuelGauge.

Managing your own project-based business, especially with a small team, can be somewhat chaotic. Sometimes when it rains, it pours, and that can make it difficult to keep up or even out the workflow. Knowing how to prioritize business projects and sticking to your strategy can help you through those times when you have more projects than you can take on at once. In this blog post, we’ll discuss our top four tips on how to prioritize business projects.

TIP ONE: RANK THEIR VALUE

Assess what each project is worth and order them according to highest to least value. Here are some things to consider about each project to determine its ranking on the list:

• How much revenue will it bring in? Sometimes more revenue does not mean it should be a priority, but you have to start here.
• How much will it cost you to do? What are all the expenses associated with the project? Subtract them from the revenue for a net profit
• What are the outside factors? Certain factors may bump the project up or down on the list. If the project will add any kind of stress for you or your team, it may not be as valuable.

TIP TWO: KNOW YOUR CAPACITY

Understanding how to figure your capacity to complete projects will let you decide if you have the time now, or later for your projects, and if you need to hire someone else. Simply put, capacity planning seeks to match available employee hours against available project hours. Let’s say you have planned projects that will total 160 hours for the month. You alone work 40 hours per week. If all your time was billable, you would exactly have the capacity to complete the projects yourself. Unfortunately, you have lunch, meetings, time tracking and any number of other non-billable hours in that time frame. So either you will be working over your capacity, or you may need some help on some of the projects.

TIP THREE: JUST SAY “NO”

What happens when you say, “no” to a project? Does it give the impression that you are always busy and don’t want more work? Does it say that you are bad with time management? Do you risk future repeat business? Forbes Business article quotes powerful men who consider “no” to be a sign of success, not weakness. Tony Blair said, “The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.” And Steve Jobs is quoted as saying, “Focusing is about saying no.” If you take on a project and others suffer, you cut corners, or deliver late, everyone involved will wish you had said, “no”. Here is some advice from Harvard Business Review on declining a project:

TIP FOUR: GET A GAUGE ON YOUR BUSINESS

While you could accomplish some of the previously suggested tips with a spreadsheet, it would be much easier to do it with an app. Designed by a project-based business owner for project-based businesses, FuelGauge allows you to keep your fingers on the pulse of your business at all times. With a single dashboard, you can get the big picture of your workload at a glance, move your projects easily from one month to another, and organize your projects with drag-and-drop simplicity. You’ll know what projects are worth, whether you have capacity, and whether you need to say, “no.” Mighty in power, but simple to use you will no longer have to wonder how to prioritize business projects with FuelGauge.

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Get Ready with Some Inspiration

The right attitude is essential. Setting goals may be a thorn in your side, so get inspired and learn the value of goal setting by reading quotes or a motivational book. Here are a few quotes that helped me prepare myself for the task:

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” -Tony Robbins

“A goal is a dream with a deadline.” – Napoleon Hill

“Don’t become a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific.” – Zig Ziglar

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain

Get Set with the Right Mindset

While S.M.A.R.T. goals are a staple of so many business development team’s goal setting strategies, all the elements are not necessarily right for a new entrepreneur or startup. Let’s take a look at the makeup of a S.M.A.R.T. goal to better understand.

It is SPECIFIC. A general goal such as “increase revenue” or “make a lot of money” is not specific enough for goal setting for any purpose. It doesn’t provide any parameters to ensure the goal’s success. Answer these questions to make sure your goal is specific enough:

1. What exactly do you want to achieve?
2. Why? Give the reasons you have for accomplishing the goal. How will the company benefit? What’s the purpose of the goal?
3. Who will be responsible for achieving the goal? Is it an individual or team effort? What is each person’s role?
4. Which barriers must you hurdle to achieve the goals? What weaknesses exist that you will need to overcome?

It is MEASURABLE. It’s important to know at any point in time whether you are on track or not, so you can make adjustments to your efforts. But you can’t improve what you don’t measure. A measurable goal can incorporate almost any data set, but should definitely answer: How much or how many? Your goal needs to be quantifiable to be objective and easy to measure. Additionally you need to decide how you will know when you have accomplished the goal and how you will determine if you are on or off track.

It is ACHIEVABLE. The idea behind this tenet is that if you make a goal too lofty, you will give up. However, that’s not how successful entrepreneurs operate. Meeting goals by lowering your expectations will not reflect your true capabilities. Setting your goals higher than you think is possible forces you to innovate. While you might not meet your goals 100 percent of the time, you will still be more likely to exceed what you thought was simply “achievable.” In a letter to shareholders, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos stresses how important it is to aim high, saying, “Working backwards from customer needs often demands that we acquire new competencies and exercise new muscles, never mind how uncomfortable and awkward-feeling those first steps might be.”

It is RELEVANT. Celebrated Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl rightly said, “Those who have a ‘why’ can bear with almost any ‘how.’” A relevant goal has a clear “why.” For a goal to be relevant, it needs to align with your values and support your long

term goals. And, it should be the right time for it. Otherwise, it’s all too easy to give up on the goal before fruition.

It is TIME-BOUND. Robert Herjavec, investor and star on Shark Tank, is known to say “A goal without a timeline is a dream.” Any goal should have an end timeframe and milestones along the way. That way, you will be more likely to dedicate time you need to work on your business and not get caught up in the day-to-day whirlwind of activities. Some things to consider when you are setting your timeframe are:

• Is it a short, medium or long-term goal? You don’t want to give yourself too much time to complete a shorter goal or not enough time to complete longer ones.
• Is the goal difficult? If you have to learn something new, it will probably take longer to achieve the goal.
• Will you have to change your habits? That can make a difference in how long your goal will take to achieve. The oft repeated statistic that it takes 21 days to establish a habit originated in the 1960s has been replaced by a newer study that revealed it actually takes anywhere from 18 to 254 days, or an average of 66 days.

Goal Setting with the Right Tools

Using technology can speed your time to achieve goals. Whether you use them to spend less time managing your goals or other tasks, there are tools that can help you be more efficient as an entrepreneur.

As I mentioned in the intro to this post, I went through a lot of trial and error to find what worked for me … actually, I ended up creating a software platform because everything I tried was either too robust or did not do enough of what I wanted. Here’s why FuelGauge is the right tool for project-based businesses:

EASY-TO-READ DASHBOARD TELLS THE STORY

Whether your goals include expanding your facility, hiring new team members or launching a new product, it all comes down to having the cash flow to make it happen. Your monthly revenue goal is always clearly visible at the top of your Dashboard. Your variance (plus or minus) from your monthly goal is calculated automatically. Plus, you’ll have the peace of mind of knowing exactly where you stand at any time of the month.

DRAG AND DROP SIMPLICITY SAVES HOURS TRACKING PROJECTS

Projects start and stop, get canceled and move. Keeping track of them can be time consuming. With FuelGauge, you can drag and drop projects into another month or simply put it in the Ice Box to chill until it’s ready to go. Keep track of all the project details you’ve already started, and never worry about a project falling off your radar.

FINANCIAL GOAL SETTING IS BUILT-IN

You can easily set and manage your revenue goals for multiple years in one place. With the ability to have a different amount for each month, you can take into account variances to your schedule. For example, if you are taking a vacation, you may not expect to make the same revenue that month. You can also monitor your progress and see exactly how close you are to reaching those goals anytime with a quick peek at your Dashboard.

I hope that this post gave you a little fuel for thought on goal setting for business development. When you are ready to set your goals, get the power of FuelGauge with a FREE 45-day trial.

About FuelGauge

FuelGauge is a simple, easy-to-use, cloud-based cash forecasting software created BY a small business owner, FOR small business owners. FuelGauge is an affordable business planning tool with nimble drag-and-drop functionality that helps you tame the chaos of projects starting, stopping and starting again, as projects often do.

Committed to helping owners of project-based businesses succeed

At FuelGauge, we’re committed to helping small business owners succeed. So, in addition to our awesome cash flow software program, we continually create content that offers small business owner tips and small business marketing ideas that have worked for us, and we KNOW will work for you.

If you’re ready for a new way to gauge your project-based business, plan with confidence and achieve the goals you’ve set for your small business, get the power of FuelGauge today, with a FREE 45-day trial. You don’t even have to provide a credit card number. If, after 45 days, FuelGauge hasn’t rocked your world, you can simply walk away.

With FuelGauge, you’ll have your past, present and future revenues and expenses at your fingertips, anytime of the day or night.

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