Top 3 Reasons Why Your Word is NOT Your Bond

How often have you heard this familiar - and borderline cliche' saying?

How many of you follow this rule? The words you speak (or type) should be as good as gold. In a world where accountability is not on the forefront, though, we often struggle with this. Businesses don't do what they say they will. Customers don't do what they say they will. This leads to an enormous circle of distrust among all parties involved.

So, why do we say these words but neglect to follow through on our "promises"?

1. We run out of time. We're all busy professionals and live busy lives. More often than not, we don't have the time to "make good" on our promises.
2. The dog ate our homework - aka - we forgot. We're all human, and we all have a tendency to forget to do the things we said we would. We said we'd add it to our calendar, but, umm...we forgot... :-)
3. We never meant what we said. Most people are genuinely good people and don't fall into this category. However, there are a select few that promise you something while you're "in the moment" but never intend on following through on these "empty promises".

While we're busy, forgetting, or simply not caring, we often forget about the person on the other end of our promise. That person can be left hurt, confused, and let down because we didn't do what we said we would.

How do you make sure your word is as good as gold?

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My 30 by 30 List (And Why You Need One Too!)

This is personal in nature but there is a moral to this story...

A few other bloggers have posted 40 by 40 lists. Well, 40 is 15 years away for me, so I have to cut it down a bit to the 30 by 30 list. I have five years to go, and I want to prioritize some of the things I would like to do.

So here's my 30 by 30 list (in no particular order):

1. Post to this blog at least 2-3 times per week regularly
2. Audition for a play at the St. Louis Black Rep Done 10/15/11
3. Complete my B.S. degree program
4. Get a full-tuition+stipend fellowship to attend Grad School
5. Renew my wedding vows in a destination ceremony
6. Build up at least a six month emergency fund
7. Get into a size 10/12 pants
8. Learn to put off procrastination and manage time better (no pun intended)
9. Earn a six figures so that my hubby can stop working
10. Get into a regular sleeping schedule (I need a bedtime!)
11. Empower at least 10 people to start their own businesses
12. Comment on at least 5 other blog posts per day to increase my blog's exposure
13. Pay off my car (and don't buy another one)
14. Donate eggs (have to get healthy for this)
15. Go jet skiing
16. Swim with the dolphins
17. Visit Las Vegas
18. Start a business with my hubby
19. Purchase a vacation home
20. Go skydiving
21. See Whoopi Goldberg live
22. Go to the Essence Music Festival
23. Visit NYC (though I'm scared of this place)
24. Join Toastmasters
25. Become a keynote speaker
26. Finish writing and publish my book on customer service
27. Pay off all credit cards (and only use them if they can be paid in full every month)
28. Become a Big Sister (with Big Brothers/Big Sisters - not from my mom having more kids)
29. Go to church regularly again
30. Give 10% of ANY and ALL income to God

Wow, that was refreshing - sharing my goals with you in the form of this list makes everything concrete. I will be updating this list as I complete each task. Now, why do you care? Well, this should inspire you to create your own list. You don't have to publish it online, but you should have one. You should share it with people who will hold you accountable. After all, if you don't have lists, how will you know if you've done everything you wanted to do?

Another thing I considered while writing my list is that each task/goal should be SMART. You've probably heard that acronym before - it stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timed.

Specific is what it is - you must be able to say exactly what you want to do. For instance, with #21, I didn't just say that I want to see a celebrity live, I specifically said that I want to see Whoopi Goldberg.

Measurable means that the goal must be something that can be quantified or tracked. Some of my goals are rather vague - for example #29 - I said that I want to go to church "regularly". What is regularly? That won't mean the same thing to everyone. However, I couldn't go much further with that. I didn't want to say every Sunday or every Wednesday because I don't know when I will go.

If something is attainable, that means that it's possible. All of the things I've listed here are within reach. I may have to work hard to make them happen, but they are all within reach.

Relevancy is subjective. What's relevant to me may not be relevant to you. However, all of my goals are VERY relevant to me.

Timed goals are set into a time box of sorts. All of these goals, I want to achieve by the age of 30. There's my timebox.

So, what's on your list? How are you holding yourself accountable?

P.S. - you can view some of the other bloggers here:

Uncommon Chick

The Cubicle Chick

MELISASource

Glamazini

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Outsourcing to Expand Your Service Offering 101

You are a freelance business consultant, and you are experiencing high demand for web design services. However, you don't have the skills to take on this work yourself. Until now, you've been referring this work to a fellow freelancer. However, you feel a web design offering would be a good complement to your existing line of service. What do you do?

You have a few options:

1. You can take courses, read material, etc. to "brush up" on your web design skills.

2. You can continue to refer clients on to your fellow freelancer.

3. You can offer web design services and outsource the work to another provider - keeping the profit for your business.

Option 1 is "doable". This will take time, however. Do you have time? Possibly. Is it worth the time required? Maybe but not likely.

Option 2 is "typical". You can refer clients to another provider. They may or may not pay you a finder's fee. You normally don't get anything else from this situation - other than a "thank you" from the other freelancer.

Option 3 is "smart". You can wrap these services under your business and provide them to your client. You can markup the cost you are quoted by the freelancer and keep the difference for yourself.

Options 1 (if the time investment makes sense) and 3 are the best moves for growing your business. Your clients already know and trust you, so the purchase will be much easier for them and require less "selling" from you. After all, you exist to service your clients and increase your profits - not serve as a referral source for other freelancers. Outsourcing the work normally makes the most sense (both time-wise and money-wise) for freelancers - especially if they are operating as a one man band.

How do you find a person/company to outsource the work to?

• One way is to use a "bidding site", such as Elance, Freelance.com, Guru, etc. With these sites, you are able to post the work you need help with and receive bids from a variety of contractors who are interested in doing the work. You compare the bids/workers and decide who to hire.
• The other way is to use your favorite search engine and find companies that do the work you need help with. You can contact the individual companies, meet with them (either in person or via phone), get a price quote, and make a decision between the companies you are considering.

Either way, you may want to ask for references and samples of their work (depending on what type of project you need help with).

Finally, once you've made the decision to outsource your work and have chosen a provider, you have to decide whether you want to provide your services as an agent for the company you're sending work out to or if you want to hide your relationship and white label the services. The choice you make here will determine how you will interface with the client on these services and ultimately how you will price this new offering.

Now that you've figured out all of these details, it's time to start letting your clients know about your new offering. All that's left is this point is ensuring all of the logistics work well and waiting for the money to start rolling in...

What has been your experience with outsourcing some of your freelance work?

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I need your help with a quick survey...

I need your help. I want to capture some statistical data for an upcoming blog post, and I need your feedback. If you can answer just a few questions for me, I'd really appreciate it. :-)

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Liability Insurance & Accountability in Freelancing

You know something that really irritates me about freelancers/independent contractors/whatever you call yourselves? The lack of accountability in your work...

Allow me to explain - when you are working on a specific project for a client, you should be responsible for the work you do (and don't do). That means - if you make a mistake that costs your client anything (their own clients or money), you should be willing to take responsibility for your actions. Normally that is in the form of financial reimbursement. However, there are other ways that you can "repay" your client.

Either way, if it was your mistake that caused the issue, you should be willing to take fault for it. Taking fault doesn't mean merely apologizing. No, there's much more to it than that. There should be some sort of consequence. Leaders step up to the plate without being asked. Followers wait to be confronted about the issue. Are you a leader or a follower?

That brings me to my next issue - the importance of liability insurance when you are working as a freelancer. In case you "mess something up" while working on a client's project, you need to have the peace of mind to repair what you did. Sometimes you can't afford to make things right with your client using your own money. Say for instance you build a shopping cart for a client and you don't configure it correctly. You set all of the products to sell at 50% of their true retail cost. This causes the client a loss of $50,000 over a 7-day period. What do you do when the client sues you for your gross negligence (you may have caught the error if you had some quality assurance mechanisms in place)? If you have no insurance, you may be forced to pay that cost out of your own money.

What type of insurance do you need? For that, it may be best to talk with an insurance agent. Overall, though, you should have some sort of umbrella coverage that protects you from a certain amount of damage. Many finance and insurance professionals carry at least $1 million worth of coverage. Again, talking to an insurance agent will let you know what will best suit your business.

How do you deal with accountability issues when working with clients?

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