Here at the-Coaching Chronicle-run by Gerard O’Donovan, our aim is to constantly bring value to those seeking to improve their lives. Therefore we have a policy of publishing articles and materials by guest authors whom we value and appreciate.
Today’s guest author is from Time Doctor.

ODesk, Elance, Vworker, Freelancer.com and Guru are freelancing sites that facilitate and streamline the process of hiring virtual (or remote workers). Each of these sites have their own approach, but in essence, all of these companies allow you to do more or less the same thing;

You can post a job description, have people bid on the work, negotiate on price, and look at previous ratings and work history before settling on either a contract rate, or a pay-per hour agreement. Generally, money is escrowed (or held) by each of the websites and they release the payment to the worker when the work is complete (skimming a neat profit at the same time – typically 10-15% of money that changes hands).

So why outsource?

Vworker argues that it makes workers “More accountable”: According to Gallup Research, 54% of traditional U.S. workers “sleepwalk through their day” and an additional 18% actively sabotage other workers. Ian Ippolito (the founder of Vworker) believes that “in today’s competitive environment, that’s simply unacceptable”.

Odesk tow a similar line: “Guaranteed work. Guaranteed payment”.

In a recent interview, Ian Ippolito made the following comment: “When I hire a traditional employee, I can’t be sure they’ll do the job right, spending time at the water cooler or playing solitaire instead. But in our virtual environment, we’re proud to guarantee performance”.

The added flexibility of having to hire staff only when you need them is another reason why many businesses are turning to outsourcing. You also can get access to top quality people at a much lower rate than if you were hiring in your own country and the cost savings can be very significant….

To hire a quality programmer in California is probably going to set you back $80-$120 per hour. Using outsourced web sites you can find quality programmers in the US for $30-$40 per hour, or in India, the Philippines or Russia for $10-$15 per hour.

TIP: For more tips on how to managing a  remote worker, take a look at these 7 useful strategies for managing virtual staff – see also the 8 best collaboration tools for virtual teams

Getting started

Outsourcing  can be overwhelming at first – each of these sites uses a different system, have a different layout, and in the case of Vworker, can take days to get used to (although they’ve recently improved their website usability). Deciding on which site to use while striking the balance between competitive rates and effective results can be like walking a virtual tight rope.

As mentioned above, all of these sites will require you to:
1. Post your job.
2. Start receiving proposals from candidates.
3. Compare profiles, reviews, ratings, credentials, portfolios and price to select the best fit.  Methods of payment and working together generally vary from site to site (explained in more detail below).

We’ve outsourced work for over 10 years and our virtual team extends to several countries around the world. We’ve used these sites many times for many different projects (small and large). Here’s what we know.

Elance vs Odesk vs Vworker vs Guru vs Freelancer.com and Scriptlance

Based on Compete.com rankings these six sites are the top outsourcing sites on the Internet (at least in terms of traffic). From most to least popular:

1. Elance – Hire Online Workers. Get the Job Done.

How it works: You can hire by the hour or by the project and then track progress in your “Workroom” where you can “View and manage work-in-progress online instead of on-site. Messages, screenshots, files and completed work are automatically saved here”. One nifty feature is the ability to Invite co-workers to join your Workroom as needed.
Payments: Approve milestones or time sheets prior to making payment.
Fees: Elance deducts between 6.75% and 8.75% from each payment (depending on the project budget), transferring the remaining amount directly to the service provider’s Elance account.  In addition, there is a one-time $10 account activation fee to set up an Employer account.
Our experience: Generally higher quality providers that are bit more expensive. Probably the best option for larger jobs where you need to hire a team with strong technical skills, or if you don’t want to be bothered with mediocre providers.

2. Freelancer – Outsourcing for Small Business.

How it works: When you hire a worker you need to create payment milestones, as milestones are completed, payment is released.
Payments: based on milestones, or completed work.
Fees: Here’s where it gets messy.
Posting a project US$5 (refundable) Fully refunded on selecting a Service Provider.
Selecting a Service Provider US$3 or 3%, whatever is higher
Posting a Featured Project US$19
Hide Project from Search Engines US$3
Optional Hide Bids from Other Users US$3
Gold Membership US$24.95 per month  (0% project commissions)
Posting a Full Time Project US$99.95
Our experience: Better for project based work (one off jobs). Easy to use, and suited to smaller jobs – “The average job is under US$200, making outsourcing for the first time extremely cost effective for small businesses.

3. oDesk – Changing how the World Works.

How it works: Pay only for verified time spent working for you – Odesk’s Team Room feature allows you to see each of team members activity levels (keyboard and mouse activity), and feedback (Work diary), as well as web cams and screenshots of their computer to make workers more accountable.
Payments: based on hours worked, or completed jobs.
Fees: The oDesk fee is 10% of the employer’s payment to oDesk which equates to 11.11% on top of the amount paid to the contractor.
Our experience: great for when you have a task where you’d prefer to pay by the hour.

4. Guru – Find Freelancers at the World’s Largest Online Marketplace.

how it works: Pay for completed work.
Fees: Memberships are available from $29.95 to $99.95 per quarter.
Project Fee – Either 5 or 10% of the Invoice or Escrow amount, depending on your membership level.
Escrow Fee – 2% of the escrowed amount. Only charged when SafePay Escrow is used.
Employer Payment Method Fees – Up to 4% for a credit card payment and 2.5% for  Withdraw Method Fees – $3 to receive funds by check and $9 to receive funds by wire transfer.
Our experience: caters more to US based freelancers (182,000 workers in the US vs 51,242 in India, and only 1,887 in the Russian Federation). Working with a native English speaker is sometimes a good option when you need to be able to verbally communicate project requirements. Guru is also a good option if you are looking to work with a US based provider.

5. Vworker – More capable, accountable and affordable. Guaranteed.

How it works: pay for work  (“deliverables”) or pay for time using the AccuTime Card system which takes screenshots of the workers screens and webcams (if available).
Payments: can be made for hours completed, or can be released for milestones or as work is completed.
Fees: At the top end of the spectrum (although it’s free join and post jobs). Paying for deliverables slugs the worker with a 15% fee, although paying for time a is charged at 9%  (although this can be less when using a preferred payment method). A full list of fees is available here.
Our experience: Our preferred option – we’ve posted over 500 projects at vworker.com (formally rentacoder.com) and had mostly great results using workers in many different countries for all sorts of projects.

6. Scriptlance – Connecting business with programmers.

How it works: pay for work
Fees: Buyers can post projects and receive bids/quotes for free. Once the buyer selects a winning bid their account will be charged a flat fee of $5, which must be paid within 30 days.  Programmers are charged a $5 or 5% fee (whichever is greater) when their bid is selected as the winner for a project
Our experience: it’s ugly as hell but it’s okay when you need a script developed on the cheap. It’s mostly an Indian (and developing country) base of workers. It’s cheaper than the other sites, but we don’t use this site very often (see below – Which country to hire in).

Which site is best?

In short, it depends on the type of work that you are doing. For hourly work, oDesk is possibly the best option. For one off project based work vWorker, Guru and freelancer.com are great options as they have a process where you upload funds into escrow (giving the provider and reassurance). Disputes over completed work are usually handled swiftly – although it’s important to have a clear job description (see below – Tips for posting jobs). In our experience vWorker is best for getting project based work completed.

Guru is great if you are looking for a US based provider. With Elance the providers need to pay to be listed. This provides a bar that eliminates some of the lower quality providers. The result is that you are more likely to pay a little more, but you are also more likely to get a good end result. Scriptlance is not really recommended unless you have a small budget.

Another outsourcing site that is worth mentioning is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Strange name, but it has some great funcionality. MTurk is based on the idea of taking a job and separating it out for many different people to work on (in pieces). An interesting approach and worth checking it out if that approach fits your project requirements.

If you aren’t happy with our recommendations, you can always check out http://whichlance.com/reviews which has full list of outsourcing portals, including websites like 99designs.com where you can run design competitions and have numerous suppliers pitching for your job.

Comparing the software used to monitor paid by the hour work

If you are hiring on an hourly basis you’ll want to monitor how many hours are worked (and confirm they were actually worked). If you develop trust in someone you might not need to do this, but generally it’s hard to trust a new person that you are paying on a hourly basis that they will deliver the results you want (and /or that they aren’t just sitting around fiddling with their mouse).

Odesk has the “oDesk Team Tool” which takes screenshots of the person’s computer at regular intervals. vWorker has similar software (AccuTime Card) which records hours, screen images and takes a camera image at regular intervals using their web cam.  Both systems work well.

Time Doctor software (that’s us!) is another alternative which can be used to monitor paid by the hour workers. It’s a much more comprehensive and a more effective tool for working with remote teams and has many advantages including automated reports, time usage reports (for application and internet usage) and it doesn’t attract an ongoing fee (as the Team Tool and AccueTime Card would).

Project based work versus paying an hourly rate

Generally, you can hire either on a project basis, paying for a completed project, or on an hourly basis. Project work is generally safer for you as there is a fixed amount you need to pay to get the task complete. When you hire on an hourly rate you don’t have any reassurance of the maximum amount that you will spend. An hourly rate is more appropriate for longer term work or where you have a variety of different tasks for the person.

Tips for project based work

If you hire on a project basis make sure that you do complete and detailed specifications of the project. Exactly what do you want to happen, how will you know when it is complete. List the requirements in detail. Be careful that you select someone who has experience doing projects of a similar level of complexity. It is easy for freelancers to say yes to a project without thinking through how difficult it might be to complete (particularly if they are desperate for work).

Having someone quit halfway through a project is the worst possible outcome (and an experience we’ve have had many times). Having to start over means you lose time and money. Learn from our mistakes – see below.

Hiring an individual versus a team

On all of these sites, there are generally 2 types of workers – individuals and teams. The advantage of hiring an individual is that you know exactly who you are working with and you can get familiar with the working style of that person. If you are working long term on an hourly rate, you can negotiate lower rates if you are working directly.

You will also have more control if you are hiring a person rather than you hiring a company which has a number of employees. On the other hand a company might bring more training, synergy and an environment where people can ask for advice and direction. In our experience working with an individual is a better move especially if you are working together in the long term.

Which country should you hire in?

About 5 years ago, we worked with an online researcher and programmer based in Mumbai. Things were going so well that we asked him to set up an office for us. We paid for computers, office space, etc and wrote up some contracts for 2-3 new staff who would work under his supervision. 5 weeks later we received an email that went something like this “Hi, I am the younger cousin of ________ and he is forcing me to do work and doesn’t pay me. He threatened to stab me with a knife if I talk to you”.

Our Mumbai contact had forged receipts for office equipment, falsified personal documentation and was sitting between 2 computers pretending to be 3 different people.

In general most of our experiences with workers from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan have been negative. In our experience, it’s common for freelancers to ask for bonuses before work is completed, complain that the work is taking longer than expected, ask for money, and will often create really poor excuses for not reaching milestones: rare diseases, non-existent floods, house fires and everything in between have been used to excuse under-performance.

As always, it really depends on the person. There are extremely talented people in India, however it is sometimes difficult for you to get access to them on freelance sites. We work with a designer who is Indian – he’s an illustrator and does great work and has never missed a deadline.

It’s important to look at work history carefully to make sure that past performances matches would you’d expect from a worker (and make sure their experience is in the right area). If they have multiple very high ratings on the freelance site you are more likely to be pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed.

Other Locations

Former Soviet Union (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine etc) – a good place to find low cost, technically superb coders. Usually not the clearest communicators (or the best designers), and you’ll have more luck if you have a detailed blueprint at the beginning of a project – However,  they are generally hard workers and honest in answers to any questions you have.

Philippines – incredibily diligent workers in all areas. It’s possible to find good writers, marketers, researchers and programmers. One of the cheaper places to hire great staff.

USA / Canada / UK – excellent if you are looking for skills in a particular area, but it’s important to look at work history. We’ve had bad experiences hiring people who are new to freelancing. In general hiring someone in these places is more likely to get you a better result but is also more likely to be 2-10 times more expensive.

Graphic / Web design – don’t hire designers from South East Asia if you expect a western looking result.  South America seems to have good illustrators and Flash programmers.

Expats – hiring someone from the US or UK living in Thailand for example can be a great way to get very talented people at a lower hourly rate. Their living costs are lower and they might not find it easy to get a high paying job in their place of residence – freelancing might be an extremely appealing option. Try advertising on expat forums.

Note: In each country be aware of natural disasters, for example Typhoons can wipe out power to entire cities for a number of days in the Philippines. Political turmoil or severe heat waves can also create problems in some countries.

Tips for selecting the right worker

A common struggle with outsourcing is ending up with people that can’t get the job done or leave half way through a project. One way to overcome this problem is to hire people that have good feedback and ratings. If we are posting a complex job, we never hire anyone with less than 30 completed jobs and they must have ratings of higher than 90% (or 9 out of 10).

Another way to dissect your applicants is to avoid any generic responses. If someone hasn’t addressed your criteria in a clear and simple way, it’s probably not worth looking at their work history. You can even put a simple test in your job description like “mention the word elephant when you are replying so that I know you’ve read our job description in full”.

Kick the Tires

Although it takes a little longer, if the job is important, you should create a small test that can evaluate a person’s skills. For example when hiring a writer for my web site, I asked them to write 3 sentences for a specific page on my site. “Please look at this web page, evaluate the current content and then add another paragraph of 3-5 sentences that you think are missing on the page, and that fits with the current style of the content”.

Here’s a very good example of a short job advertisement / test by Jason Fried from 37 Signals they used to hire customer support representatives for their business.

Alternatively (especially for larger projects), hiring someone for a small-project they can do in their spare time is a lot easier for both sides to swallow. “Kick the Tires” in Getting Real talks about this:
Before we hire anyone we give them a small project to chew on first. We see how they handle the project, how they communicate, how they work, etc. Working with someone as they design or code a few screens will give you a ton of insight. You’ll learn pretty quickly whether or not the right vibe is there. Scheduling can be tough for this sort of thing but even if it’s for just 20 or 40 hours, it’s better than nothing. If it’s a good or bad fit, it will be obvious.

It’s also a good idea to think hard about what you’re offering and how you can make your situation as attractive as possible – Flexible hours, bonuses for work complete before deadlines and any other sweeteners will help attract a great pool of workers to select from.

The most common frustration is in not getting the output that you desire out of the contractor. Another potential problem is needing to spend a lot of time back and forth training the person or fixing issues with their work. Here are a few pointers for overcoming these and other challenges:

• Hire people with a lot of great feedback.
• Test many different people, possibly using several different outsourcing sites.
• After testing, select the best few people and hire all of them. Then start working with these few different people on test projects and continue working long term with the ones that produce the best results.

Really it’s a matter of trial and error to a large degree, and once you work with dozens of people you will find a few who always come through for you and whom you can depend on. Over time you’ll develop a list of preferred contractors that you can contact for work that you know they can deliver.

What can you outsource with these sites?

Theoretically you can outsource anything. Looking at the types of work listed in Odesk for example there is: programming, web design, writing, sales, customer support even legal work or accounting. VWorker has over 50 categories ranging from “Travel Plans” to “Order processing” and “Business plans and marketing strategy”. In practice the more specialized and complex the task, the more difficult it is to find the right person on one of these sites.

Hiring staff directly vs Using an outsourcing site

Outsourcing sites are best for finding people to do project based work. If you want a longer term full time person you might want to try hiring them directly. Target the country or area where you are most likely to find the right staff. Then use a multi-pronged recruitment method including: posting in job sites, linked in, posting in relevant forums and referrals from people in your network.

Recruiting remote staff (in your own country or abroad) is really no different to recruiting locally. All of the same hiring and firing principles apply.

In the US, Craigslist, Linkedin, Monster are good ways to advertise for people. Sometimes you can get better results from word of month, from advertising on Facebook or from advertising or relevant forums or industry specific web sites. For example if you are recruiting Java programmers, there are a number of Java forum web sites where you can advertise for free or for a small fee. This helps you to go direct to the place where your target employees are hanging out. You can do the same thing with Linked in.
Recruiting overseas in the Philippines, Russia, India etc is similar. You can use Facebook, Linked in or local job websites to recruit in all of these places. For example to recruit in the Philippines you can use: http://www.gopinoy.com, http://www.bestjobs.ph – in Romania, there are English language job websites like http://www.bestjobs.ro. In general it’s not hard to find popular job sites any country and posting a job add is usually $50 to $100.
In other developed countries you will find sites like http://www.gumtree.com.au (Australia) where you can advertise jobs for free (or find people looking for work). Similarly, in the U.K. Where the job market is tight you can find highly skilled travelers who might be interested in any sort of work (try the jobs section in http://www.tntmagazine.com/).

10 Tips for posting projects requirements

1. Write your description as if you are explaining them to a 10 year old child
2. Set clear milestones if you want use them for payments
3. Ask someone else to read your project description before uploading it – sometimes things that make sense to you will make no sense at all to someone who has no involvement with your project or company
4. Invite workers who have matching experience. For instance, if you are looking for Joomla help, search for workers with Joomla experience and good ratings. Sort them by the by the last sign in date and then invite them to your project.
5. If you are worried about protecting your intellectual property or idea, create an NDA and make sure you are exchanging it with a real entity. Make your terms and conditions reasonable (most of these sites have a standard NDA you can modify).
6. If you don’t want to draw attention to what you are doing, keep your job description vague and discuss details only with parties you are interested in working with.
7. Post the majority of your job description in an attachment and leave a small “test” to make sure the person has read the description (for example, mentioning a particular word or asking them to address 2-3 key criteria).
8. Use a service like gomockingbird.com to clearly outline your ideas in a visual medium
9. Make your project sound exciting and include that it will look good in any portfolio
10. Post your job to specific geographic regions depending upon the sort of worker you are looking for

Update: Staff.com for hiring long term full time workers

Staff.com is a new site with the same owners as Time Doctor. We are launching in early 2012 and are focussed on finding top quality talented people at reasonable salaries, and only for long term work (not for projects or short term work). Check us out and send any feedback you have.

Credit Source: Time Doctor

Here at the-Coaching Chronicle-run by Gerard O’Donovan, our aim is to constantly bring value to those seeking to improve their lives. Therefore we have a policy of publishing articles and materials by guest authors whom we value and appreciate.
Today’s guest author is Jay Snider.

Ever wonder why you don’t get more done every day? You might be trying to do too much, and competing demands in the office aren’t making it any easier to accomplish what you set out to do. One interesting study showed that after an interruption, it took office workers an average of more than 23 minutes to get back to the original task they were working on. With multiple projects, open offices, and smartphone and desktop notifications popping up all over the place, it’s amazing that anything actually gets done in the office anymore.

The good news is that there are ways to make life easier. I’ve you’ve ever thought “how am I supposed to do all of this??” this list is for you.

1. The email just keeps on coming. It seems like every minute of every day, there’s another email in your inbox.
Solution: Turn off desktop notifications of incoming email. Just turn them off! The email will be there when you’re ready for it, but that little box popping up won’t continually remind you of everything you’re not getting to. If you share an inbox with other people (like a lot of sales or customer service teams do), a tool like Email Center Pro can help you handle your email more efficiently so it doesn’t take up half your day.

2. Too many meetings. When you spend all your time sitting in meetings talking about new projects, when are you ever supposed to actually do the work?
Solution: If you and your colleagues use shared calendars for meetings, schedule yourself blocks of time that you’ll simply be unavailable. In Google calendars you can mark events as private (your co-workers will just see that you’re busy). Tada! Now you have the time you need to concentrate on tasks you have to accomplish.

3. It’s hard to keep track of everything. It’s easy for projects to drop off your radar when you’re juggling a lot of work.
Solution: A task list. I use Wunderlist, which is a free service you can either download to your desktop, use online, or on your smartphone (they sync automatically, so you can use all three!). Wunderlist lets you create multiple lists, quickly enter in tasks or projects you need to work on, and assign dates. When you finish a task, cross it off and watch your list get a little smaller. You can also share lists with anyone who needs to know what you’re working on. Other similar free apps include Remember The Milk,  Tadalist, and Google Tasks.

4. Your to-do list is so long, you’re practically immoblized. Great, now that you’ve got a task list you’re more overwhelmed by the work you have in front of you and don’t know where to start.
Solution: Be SMART when you schedule your tasks. SMART stands for  Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timely. Typically used for behavior modification goal setting, it’s useful for getting yourself on track. Each morning, really think about what you can achieve in the day. “Work on X project” isn’t specific or measurable or timely, for instance, but  “Spend two hours on the preliminary report for X” is all three. Use the SMART criteria to figure out what should take top priority (those would be the Timely items), what is reasonable to set out to achieve, and get to work. This will help you set deadlines, stick to deadlines, or realize ahead of time if you’re not going to make a deadline.

5. Constant interruptions. A co-worker stops by with a quick question. Then the phone rings. You get off the phone and decide to check your email. All of a sudden it’s lunch time and you haven’t gotten back to whatever you were originally working on.
Solution: Ignore ignore ignore. Okay, you can’t ignore the person standing next to you. But you can encourage your office to start using instant messaging (if you’re not already) and then set your status as “away” so people won’t bother you while you’re trying to work on something. There are tons of chat and instant message clients to chose from – Trillian and  Yahoo! Messenger are two free downloadable applications, and if your office uses Gmail, you can use Google Chat that’s right in your inbox.  And you definitely can ignore the phone or even turn off the ringer during times you need to really concentrate.

6. Trying to do too many things all at once. A recent article on the Harvard Business Review blog says between 25-50% of people feel burned out work because they spend too many hours juggling too many tasks at the same time.
Solution: Multi-tasking sounds like a good idea, but know when to say when. If you are checking email during a conference call, eating lunch at your desk while trying to work, or catching up on your blog reading during meetings, everything you do takes longer, the quality of your work suffers, and your stress level rises. Every task you do deserves your full attention – if it doesn’t, then you might want to consider whether that task is even necessary in the first place.

7. The little things keep getting in the way of the big things. As a copy writer, I frequently get random requests from coworkers for “just a few sentences” about this or that. If I have a bunch of bigger things to work on, it can be easier to just bang out those few sentences first, then dig into the big project. The problem is that the little things add up, and suddenly I’m wayyyy behind on the big things.
Solution: Do the big stuff first. I get into work about an hour earlier than the rest of the office and get a jump on the major things I need to work on. I know I’ll be able to work uninterrupted until my office mates show up, so I use the time wisely. When the office starts buzzing, I often will switch over to smaller tasks that won’t get derailed by a frequent distractions.

What other problems keep you from getting everything done? What solutions have you found to be more productive? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.

Credit Source: Written by Jay Snider

About Jay Snider

I came off my motorbike on Saturday, and it caused me to reflect on a number of things and strangely enough to look at my business. So I would like to briefly cover what happened.

Quite often when I am at home and not travelling, I take my bike out for a ride on a Saturday or Sunday morning. This Saturday I decided to go to a place called West Bay near the town of Bridport in Dorset, it’s about 20 miles from where I live and is a beautiful ride along the coast and through very scenic countryside. There is a beautiful cafe there where I usually have a cappuccino staring out to Sea and engaging in my favourite hobby – People Watching -on the way there I made a detour towards  a little village called Little Cheny.

Gerard with his mortorbike

However, as I was going down some very narrow country lanes and farm tracks the conditions got progressively worse, the tracks were covered in mud which had been washed on to the road from the fields nearby from rain earlier in the day, and on the conditions got worse and worse and more treacherous. Things started to look quite dodgy !!! I slowed down considerably however when the  bike started to lose the backend and weave about a lot !!!

I stopped to take stock of the situation and realised that I could see dry road about a mile up ahead, but there was at least  2 miles of bad road behind me so it was easier to carry on than turn back – I was, beyond the point of no return.

I started off again, much slower this time – so the good news is I wasn’t actually going very fast when the accident happened, probably about 15 miles an hour.

Gerard after the accident

Then It Happened – one minute I was riding the bike, the next minute I was under the bike lying in the middle of the mud covered road with a very heavy BMW lying half on top of me with the engine still going. Luckily I didn’t do too much damage, I hurt my back a little bit but not too much.

My Motorbike

Anyway, to cut a long story short what did I learn. And how does it relate to business ???

Being Prepared

Although I’ve been riding motorcycles for  many years when I bought this bike last year it was the first bike that had the capability of going off road  that I had ever purchased. Therefore one of the first things I did was to pay to go on an extra off road training course. So that I learned the proper techniques and methods for riding a bike such as this on difficult or fro terrain, we can and, although the course costs a little bit of extra money and took some of my precious time. It has paid for itself many times over.
It has meant that I have been able to ride my bike over ground and terrain that I would never have dreams of in the previous 10 years. It has given me more experience, excitement and pleasure and has also increased my opportunities for where I  ride.

The same is exactly true in business, it is all very well having a great and exciting idea about launching a new business or service but without the right preparation, knowledge and most definitely training then to be quite frank statistics show that you are on the road to failure. Something in the region of 70% of all businesses fail in the first five years !!! And when we look at the reasons why, invariably it’s usually down to lack of preparation upfront and not putting in place the right foundations and principles.
It takes very little time and in proportion very little cost, yet it is something that many businesses and entrepreneurs especially forget to do. Many businesses take the attitude of   Ready – Fire  -Aim when we all know it should be  Ready- Aim- Fire.

Having the Right Equipment

When I did come crashing to the ground the good news is that apart from twisting my back a little bit I sustained no injury, not even any bruising and this was because I was wearing the right equipment. Proper motorcycle boots,full leather trousers with padding and a decent jacket with armour built in the shoulders and elbows and back.

The same principles are just as valid when it comes to setting up and launching a business. Without investing ( and by the way, it does not have to be much at all) in the right foundations and infrastructure then you really are not only getting off to a bad start but are really going to be injured in the event of a business collapse.

So, what do you need ?
Well in terms of protection you need to have insurance, data protection ,contracts for any staff that you may be employing, contracts for any partners or clients that you work with and at least a simple business plan. Also good reliable IT systems both hardware and software and excellent backup systems to protect your data.

Not relying Only on Yourself

Eventually when I managed to extract myself from under the bike and switch the engine off I realised that I was in the difficult position of not being able to lift the bike up.

I took off all of the panniers and the top box, and yet still because of the extensive amount of mud on the road I found that every time I tried to lift the bike I kept slipping. I just could not get it back on its feet on my own. It was then, about 20 minutes into this scenario that a local farmer, came over, he had seen my predicament, and he very kindly came over to see if I was OK and to offer his assistance. Between us we got the bike back upright again.
This is absolutely true also for all those of us in business. The truth is we need to learn is that we all need help and we are not going to make it on our own. Every one of us need other people around us to offer help and support, encouragement and motivation, and sometimes a well needed a helping hand.

When in Doubt

When I was in the Marines one of the things that we learned was when you are not sure of the situation the golden rule is. STOP – LOOK  -LISTEN. And that is what I did. I stopped, I assessed the situation and then made the decision that it was better to go forward than back. I then carried on at a much slower pace. Which probably saved me when the crash came.

This is something that is crucial for us to do in business. So often we take the contrary road.
When things are going wrong in our business, or when things are tough, many of us actually think that the answer is to work longer and harder and to do more. When actually the opposite is true. When in doubt, when things are not going as you really want them to be, the first thing we should do is  STOP – LOOK  -LISTEN.
That is, take a full and complete stock of the situation. Get a good clear and crystal picture of exactly what is going on.
On our Goal Achievement course we teach a technique called     W I G O  -it means  “What Is Going on”
and that is exactly what we should be doing in our business.

So what is the overall lesson here ? Time spent planning is time well spent. Brian Tracy once told me many years ago that every hour in planning saves four hours in execution.

Author: Gerard O’Donovan

Here at the-  Coaching Chronicle -run by Gerard O’Donovan, our aim is to constantly bring value to those seeking to improve their lives. Therefore we have a policy of publishing articles and materials by guest authors whom we value and appreciate. Today’s guest author is Martin Haworth.

The traditional view of micro-management is where a manager is so neurotic about the delivery of results that he or she cannot leave individuals to their own devices.

Micro-managers sabotage success simply because they are so close to what their people do that they stifle performance, thereby making the achievements of the desired results even more unlikely.

By failing to give responsibility to each individual to deliver what’s required, micro-managers very nearly do their job for them. This can be very demanding for the manager, who has to keep many more plates spinning than their role allows for, leading to not only exhaustion, but also to actual underperformance as they spread themselves too thinly to ensure quality outputs.

Employees find this sort of micro-management behavior incredibly frustrating. They feel watched, which diminishes their confidence. They feel that they are not trusted, so they tend to play safe and take few risks. They also find that they get nervous too, when they expect their boss to pop up at any moment to interfere and give them the guidance they clearly don’t need.

So micro-management is regarded by employees as a bad thing.

Smart managers micro-manage differently.

By seeking to interact with their people much less directly, they can understand the different motivators that every individual needs specially personalised to them. Getting to know their people, these particularly effective managers not only get to know what’s going on, they build strong, supportive and focused relationships that deliver.

Micro-managing relationships in this way, means that instead of getting close to the activities their people as tasked to deliver, they simply get close to the people themselves.

And it’s a set of skills that are easy to learn. Instead of being clever and knowing what’s best in the approach to tasks, savvy managers ask their people easy question, let them talk – and then listen, a lot. They let their people feel they are the success, because when employees talk, these exceptional managers recognise that what works is simply listening to them with focused attention and then asking them some more.

Micro-managing relationships is so much more valuable than micro-managing tasks. The accountability for team success clearly lies with a manager. Responsibility for delivering the component tasks that make up the big-picture result lies with individuals. Then each is doing what their individual roles requires.

Creating the sort of relationships that enable this dynamic and productive interaction is what defines the very best of management behaviors; management behaviors and attitudes.

Employees feel valued, heard, capable and confident and go on to contribute more; be pro-active; show their creativity; take on more. Managers make time for their people and, with clear expectations of each and every one of their people defined, step back from getting in the way.

Micromanaging relationships works very effectively indeed. A long way from micro-managing tasks, for which it’s much better to leave to the valuable resource of the employees they lead.

Credit Source: http://www.evancarmichael.com/Business-Coach/158/Special-Secrets-to-MicroManaging-Employee-Performance.html

(c) 2010 Martin Haworth is a business and management coach and trainer. He is the author of Super Successful Manager!, an easy to use, step-by-step weekly development program for managers of EVERY skill level and a leadership and management trainer and coach at Coach Train Learn!

Click here to visit Martin’s website

Our special feature guest author is Richard Norris.

The body of the article:

Your business has the power to change lives. To do that it must become remarkable.

With the speed, volume and format of messages we’re bombarded with each day (easily more than 30,000 per day), it is even more important that you and your organisation be able to cut through the “white noise” to stand out from the crowd and be noticed. It’s the only way to facilitate your growth and longevity.

This is in addition to and integral to your USP. Your USP is not what you think. It is not your Unique Selling Point. Few people, if any, like being sold to and if your organisation is dependent on a point to differentiate yourself in your market you are in trouble. More on that as we go along.

So…how are you and your organisation remarkable or how could you become remarkable?

Seth Godin, best-selling author and futurist thinker has a great take on standing out in his book Purple Cow. Paul Dunn, a marketing whizz and chair of Buy 1 Give 1*, has shared some insights on being remarkable via TEDx.

Actually, Paul recently expanded on this further. He co-created a new and remarkable phenomenon centred on embedded giving in business. The title of the presentation – REMARKABLE: Adding SPEED, Adding PURPOSE, Changing LIVES. Paul challenged the audience of leaders, executives and influencers of businesses and organizations to explore, examine and assimilate practical insights around these essential concepts. The correlations that Paul drew for organisations, regardless of size, were:

1. Adding speed equals your WOW.
2. Adding purpose is your WHY.
3. Changing lives is uniquely named as your WOOW.

Paul has kindly allowed me to expand on his presentation based on some further insights that have arisen as this concept has burrowed deep into my thinking.

So here goes…

WOW

How do you add WOW?

Good question.

This relates to the little things that create huge differences in perception (and in reality) in your organisation. These transcend logic. They ‘cut through’. In effect, they add speed to who you are, what you do and your reputation. This little thing is often the last thing you do as seen by your team, clients and customers. It is this little thing that is the most remarkable. It could be the artwork on the foam of your latte that takes 6 seconds and a toothpick or, after an interview with a candidate for a position at your organisation, sending the next day a hand-written thank you on a card hand-crafted by your daughter. Often this has a high perceived value for the recipient but is actually a minimal investment to you. This little thing is not a cost; this little thing will help differentiate you in your market and attract new business and retain and build existing business.

Your WOW is centred around the value you deliver. Please note here that I did not say the value you offer. Why? Because what you offer and what you deliver can differ. It is essential that in practice these are the same – you deliver what you offer. However, your organization may intend to offer value but actually deliver less than was expected by the recipient of your product, service or interaction.

For clarity, the Oxford Dictionary defines value as:

n. the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something; the material or monetary worth of something:

In the recipient’s eyes it delivers a significant benefit. This applies internally within your organization to your people – from your cleaner to your administration team to your accounts department to your board. It also applies externally to your customers, clients, suppliers and other stakeholders.

Your WOW makes you profoundly and strategically different and adds to your USP – your Unique Strategic Promise.

On this concept please consider these questions:

• What value are you currently delivering?
• What can you do that will truly WOW your clients?
• How could you add even more value that is truly WOW?
• What makes you WOWnique?

WHY

Why do we do what we do? Why am I here? What is our purpose?

All are good questions. All are relevant questions in the uncertainty of today. This is about adding purpose, true meaning, to everything that you are and do for your organisation and for your market. Your WHY is centred on your values.

Again for clarity, the Oxford Dictionary defines values as:

Adj. principles or standards of behaviour; one’s judgement of what is important in life:

Your values are integral to who you are and will help define your purpose. Your values are a compass that will ensure you align with your purpose.

Keep in mind that people and organisations buy who you are and what you believe – your values and your purpose. Such people and organisations will, importantly, be the right people for you and your organisation whether as clients, investors, shareholders, employees or suppliers.

Knowing your purpose provides a sense of certainty, clarity, focus and impetus for your progress, growth, development and, yes, success – whether as an organization, team or individual. When your organisation, for example, has a WHY of bringing VISION to people’s lives through its exceptional high definition television sets AND, through its socially responsible embedded giving to a charity which brings VISION to blind people, you get this concept.

Regrettably, many people and organisations have yet to fully address this question of their purpose and, for that matter, their values. Both are not meant to be just something on your website and your wall to which lip-service is given by one and/or all in your organisation. These are what you are meant to be known for and make up your reputation and your credibility. They mean something!

Without your WHY you will be relegated to the crowd losing market share and possibly going bust or you will be redundant uncertain what to do next – lost and purposeless.

Today never has it been more important to really understand your purpose. It is a tough question and an unforgiving one when you face up to it and seek the answer. When you truly know, understand and live your WHY you perpetually ignite your organisation and you.**

Your WHY enhances your organisation’s significance and is integral to your USP – your Unique Significant Purpose.

So what are your answers to these questions:

• What is your WHY?
• Why do you do what you do?
• Why do you get up each morning?
• How are you adding purpose?
• What are your values?
• What makes you WHYnique?

WOOW

WOOW?

WOOW is deeper than WOW (just say it out loud and you’ll hear it!) It’s a transcendent concept centred around people and relationships. Your organisation’s success and significance is determined by the quality of relationships inside and outside your organisation.

This is about making true connections with people; it goes beyond transacting and beyond communicating. It is much deeper.  It locks into the value you deliver and your values. When you connect you truly change lives. In fact you transform them. When you change you can change back; when you transform you cannot. When you connect people are being valued; they transform and so do you and your organisation. Remember the example of the high definition television business?

According to Oxford Dictionary again when you are valued you are:

Adj. considered to be important or beneficial; cherished.

You matter.

You can create amazing opportunities when you deliver value from your values. When you add connection with people and organisations where they feel and are valued that’s when WOOW happens and we go beyond creating amazing opportunities – that’s where we create potentially infinite opportunities of amazing significance. You evolve to a higher level of success, influence and significance.

Your WOOW creates synergy where connections and relationships are interdependent with your USP – your Unique Synergistic Partnerships.

Regarding your WOOW:

• How are you changing lives?
• How are you WOOW-ing your clients?
• Who do you need to be and what do you need to do to ensure all your stakeholders are truly valued?
• What makes you WOOWnique?

USP

A few further points on your USP. To be remarkable:

• You must add speed with your WOW delivered via your Unique Simplified Process.
• You must add purpose with your WHY that is fuelled by your Unique Spurring Passion.
• You must change lives with your WOOW applying your Unique Significant Persona.

SUMMARY

Together your WOW, your WHY and your WOOW make you REMARKABLE, make you unique and, thereby, make your organization very attractive to your market. Your USP is so much more that a selling point.

To be REMARKABLE you must deliver VALUE from your VALUES to your VALUED clients. When you do that you will grow in VALUE, be known for your VALUES and be VALUED.

What makes your organisation REMARKABLE is your legacy that you leave in your market, in your clients and customers and in your people.

So…

Be REMARKABLE!

Copyright 2011

Dr Richard Norris is a speaker, author and leadership coach with a focus on transformational self-leadership. To contact him about this article and/or on his services please email rnorris@ypncompanies.com and visit his website www.drrichardnorris.com .

Update from Gerard : A Month Of Firsts

I am writing this from my hotel room in Bucharest in Romania. The weather here is absolutely beautiful.  I flew in from Warsaw a couple of days ago because I was there to do two important jobs

One was to deliver a keynote speech for the world HR Congress, which I do believe went down very well, based on the fantastic feedback. This was the second time I’ve delivered a speech at this wonderful international gathering. Such an efficient and well-run organisation, very impressive indeed.

The other main job in Warsaw  was to oversee the first ever Noble Manhattan residential coach program that we have run in Poland and not only that but it was also run in Polish two firsts !!

I am here in Bucharest with  my great lifelong friend Scott Milway to deliver our first-ever “Quantum Goal Achievement Course” in Romania.

We have deliberately kept this first cause very small and exclusive with only 13 people. (http://www.achievemygoals.net) it seems to be going down incredibly well, already we are seeing that it is changing people’s lives.

In the middle of next week I then travel with Vali, our European  development manager to Sofia in Bulgaria where we run our very first ever

“ Introduction to Coaching” event in that country. That is going to be our official launch meeting into Bulgaria.

And, I have to say a huge thank you to our strategic partner team of  Katrin,Lavinia and Brian who have been working so hard over the last four months to make this a reality. All of their hard work will come to fruition within the week. J

I guess it’s only to be expected, May, a month of joy and well-being, a month of new life and growth not only in nature but it would seem also in business.

I shall be at the mind body spirit festival at the end of this month for a couple of days as our company have our usual annual exhibition stand there.

So if any of you are in the area it would be lovely to touch base.

Then it’s back to Poland for two days followed by a week in France. The French bit isn’t work. I’m taking a break with my wife, actually that is another first. Because for the first time ever we are both going away together on my motorbike !!!!!!!!!! she has never agreed to do that in the 10 years that I have owned a bike !

Got to go now, and prepare for day 2 of the goal achievement course.

OH, I almost forgot - my latest book was also published this month. “A Coach’s Story” is quite unique in that it tells the story of 20 different and diverse coaches.

Purchase This Book

We have created a simple website at  http://www.a-coaches-story.com/ which explains more about the book. Although it is not yet possible to purchase the book directly from this site. (That will happen within a few days). If you would in the meantime like to purchase the book simply send an e-mail to  info@noble-manhattan.com and the office will post one to you immediately, price £15

All my love,

Gerard

Recommendation for an Extraordinary Book

I’m going to take the rather unusual step of very deliberately recommending a product. A book in fact.

A colleague and friend of mine called Andy Shaw who has made millions over the years in building and growing businesses has written a most wonderful book called “ A Bug Free Mind” he was kind enough to send me a complimentary copy which I have taken with me on my travels around Europe. I have not been able to put it down.

You know I have been heavily involved in the personal development industry for well over 20 years, I have read so many books and listened to so many audio programs I really have lost track.

This wonderful book that Andy has produced  (actually it’s two books, the main book and a user’s guide) encapsulates all of the teachings of the Masters, and he explains it in such an easy to read and down to earth style that it becomes simple to understand and apply.

Because he has such a strong desire to get this message out to the world he has set up a system of affiliates, and I have been very happy to become one.

To get full information about this special book, just go here http://www.abugfreemind.com/cmd.php?af=1347609

I would be really interested in receiving feedback once you have had a chance to review this book.

Warmest,

Gerard

Words from Gerard

April, for me -  always a special month ,in my mind it always signifies  the beginning, the start, a new opportunity, I guess it’s because it’s the month that I have my birthday, but also I think it’s because Spring is really under way at this point and there’s a whole feeling of rejuvenation and newness and freshness in the air. A special time of new growth, new life, ( all the newborn  lambs in the fields roundabout where I live)

So for me it is the perfect time to look ahead and plan and think about the future. Both on a personal and business front.

On the personal side it is my aim that by the end of this year I will have changed my role completely into that  of a virtual CEO. Now, that does not in any way mean stepping away from my businesses, it does however mean that I will only engage in the parts of my business that truly empower me and give me Joy. It also means that I need to have the business in a shape that does not require any input from me at all. So, how am I doing?

Well, I’m getting there  I think I’m probably about 75% of the way to achieving this. There are one or two little sticking points that I am having difficulty overcoming, such as, the barrage of e-mails that seem to come in every day, and some of our high profile public events like our ” Introduction to Coaching” days that we run in many parts of the world.

I just need to find a clone !!  Any offers  ????

On the Business Side, things are going rather well at the moment. The aim for the next 12 months is to concentrate a lot of energy and resources on our current international offerings and to develop quite a bit more internationally.

We are so pleased with our wonderful new partners in Poland the IRB, ( Instytut Rozwoju Biznesu  – Institute for Business Development ) http://www.irb.pl/

We really could not have wished for a better relationship or nicer people.

We are now casting our eyes in the direction of Bulgaria, USA, Kenya, Nigeria and Italy .

And also the Ukraine and Belarus together with our new Polish partners.

We have already appointed development teams And Strategic Partners  to start to work on developing a launch plan for each of those countries.

If any of you reading this would like to be involved in any of those particular countries then certainly get in touch, we have room for everyone

We have our first public ” Introduction to Coaching” event in Sofia in Bulgaria  on Friday, 20 May.

Full details are here

http://www.introductiontocoaching.com/

We have also created separate Facebook pages for each of those countries. Please feel free to engage with us here as friends

Bulgaria http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_199573326741507#!/home.php?sk=group_106756122738932

Nigeria   http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_199573326741507#!/home.php?sk=group_148420891886730

Kenya  http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_199573326741507#!/home.php?sk=group_140767652655332

Italy   http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_199573326741507

For those people who want to develop a lucrative business within the corporate world we are launching a very wonderful opportunity in conjunction with a great company called People  Alchemy.

Full details can be found here.

http://noble-manhattan.com/alchemy2.php

I am also planning my next motorbike adventure. As you may know once every year my wife is kind enough to let me go on my own, on my motorbike for a trip somewhere exotic. I usually do this with one or two friends who like to come along.

Two years ago we went down through Spain into Morocco and back again. In the middle of winter !!!

Last year we went all the way across Europe to the Ukraine and Romania and then back again covering 17 countries and 4000 miles.

Now I’m turning my thoughts to this October and trying to work out where to go exactly.

If anyone would like to come, just let me know it will be from approximately 10 October until about 28th of October, the destination is still a little bit up in the air, the original plan had been to start in Romania and go around the Black Sea.But I’m having some logistical problems working out how to get the motorbikes to Romania and back again  !!  Any ideas?

If that doesn’t work, it doesn’t really matter we will still go for a wonderful adventure somewhere else in Europe.

I am also taking a week off at the beginning of June and going on my motorbike to a beautiful villa in France, and this time my wife is actually coming with me as a pillion  !!! The first time ever !!

We also have some sad news, we are losing our beautiful Stacey. Stacey, as many of you know has been a key part of our company for the last seven years and has taken personal responsibility for a large part of the administration division.

For the last couple of years she has been training to be an accountant and is now ready to follow her passion. She has found a position within a local company in that role.

We are on the one hand so sorry to lose her but on the other hand really happy for her.

So, we are now in the wonderful position of starting on the recruitment path to find someone to fill her position.

We are also now about to start recruiting some more full-time IT people to join our existing and quite large IT team.

So all in all a wonderful time of change and growth and excitement.

Lots of love,

Gerard

PS. I forgot to mention my new book gets launched this week.Read the section below to find out all about it. I am really excited 

Attend a Spring  Introduction to Coaching Event

Do you want to find out all about coaching, find out how it can transform lives and experience coaching techniques from our qualified coaches?

Our Introduction to Life Coaching Events are a great way to find out everything to do with coaching and training to be a Life Coach. Gerard is a really inspirational speaker and we know you’ll enjoy listening to him, so do come along and attend! Why not bring a friend or relative as well?

You will learn:

• What is a Life Coach?
• What is an executive coach? What do they do?
• Learn how Life Coaching can transform people’s lives
• The benefits of applying Life Coaching Skills in the home and work place.
• Learn the four pillars on coaching
• Take part in a highly interactive and informative coaching workshop where you will get hands on real coaching techniques.
• Learn how to build your client base.
• Plus much more

Please click here to find out all about this day + book your place securely online now!

Event One
Saturday 7th May – 9.30am-5.00pm – London – Columbia Hotel

Event Two
Saturday 20^th May – 9.30am – 5.00pm – Bulgaria

Event Three
Saturday 4^th June – 9.30am-5.00pm – London – Columbia Hotel

Event Four
Saturday 9th July – 9.30am-5.00pm – London – Columbia Hotel

Event Five
Saturday 3^rd September – 9.30am-5.00pm – London – Columbia Hotel

If you would like to attend an event please visit www.introductiontocoaching.com and we will send you a booking confirmation and a map to you. Places are limited.

Colour Coaching Teleclass

Find out everything that you have ever wanted to know about Colour Coaching!

Have you ever wanted to find out all about Colour Coaching, how it works and how it can dramatically transform people’s lives?

Becoming a colour coach will impact your life and will dramatically transform the lives of others. It is extremely fulfilling to help others build amazing new confidence and self-esteem through the use of colour cosmetics and colour analysis!

Attend our 30 minute live teleclass with top trainer and world-class consultant and coach Mandy Ellesmere.

Colour Coaching Live Teleclass
Date: Monday 11^th April
Time: 4.00pm (UK) time

Please contact the office NOW to reserve your place by e-mailing emmasmith@noble-manhattan.com

If you would like to attend the call there is absolutely no obligation to go on the program.

Build Your Profile by Helping at an Exhibition

Would you like to have the opportunity to build your profile by working with us at a show?

Mind Body Spirit – 25th and 30th May 2011  London, Horticultural Halls

We are looking for people to help out on the stand. This is a great opportunity for you to network and meet new, interesting people. Helping out on the stand is always good fun and would involve handing out brochures, speaking to people who are enquiring about coaching and sharing your own coaching experiences and helping us gain new prospects. You will of course get free entry into the show. You will have plenty of time to look round the event too as we usually work it hour on/hour off so you’ll only be working about 4 hours during the day.

Please visit details of the Mind Body Spirit Show http://www.mindbodyspirit.co.uk

If anyone is interested in helping at this event please send an e-mail to me on emmasmith@noble-manhattan.com stating the day/s you’d like to volunteer.

I only have space available on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday.

Letters to use after your name for NM Qualification

This is really a quick overview and reminder to all of the students and coaches who have trained with noble Manhattan worldwide all 7, 000 +  of you .

As a qualified practitioner coach trained by our organisation you are entitled to put the appropriate letter is after your name on your business cards, websites, literature etc here as a reminder are the details.

If you have done the following courses then you can use these letters.

Certificate courses, to include “Practitioner Coach Certificate”

,”Certificate Foundation Course” Certificate in “Workplace Coaching”

NMP Cert

Practitioner Coach Diploma Course

NMP Dip

Executive and Corporate Certificate Courses

NMC Cert

Executive and Corporate Diploma Courses

NMC Dip

You are also entitled to use the Noble Manhattan logo on your website, literature  etc.

To receive a copy of our logo simply send an e-mail to

info@noble-manhattan.com

Volunteers for IIC