As my year-end consumption of ‘top ten lists‘ continues, I came across one on Chicago Now called “The Top 10 Small Business Trends of the Decade” by Barry Moltz.  In the list he mentions several things that have all dovetailed together to define the changing nature of work — most centered around the pros and cons of mobility.

While I certainly wouldn’t argue that his list is wrong, it is very similar to several others I have seen, and I continue to think these lists are only peeling back the first layer of the onion.  Barry’s list includes items in three basic, separate categories:

Mobility:

• The internet allows geographic independent sales and marketing.
• The movement to reduce costs and commuting by working at home.
• Mashing of work and home spaces.

Social web:

• We are more easily able to network and keep in touch with people from our past.
• Size no longer matters.
• Customer Service makes a comeback.
• You are your own brand.

New economy:

• Less credit, more cash is king.
• Less benefits, higher deductibles.
• A new class of employee appears.

The details that Barry highlights in each of his bullets just grazes the surface of these bigger buckets.  And, even more significantly, these are revolutionary social changes that effect all business, not just small business.  What I find more interesting is their unique influence on small business versus their broader social impact.

Mobility
Obviously there is no one who has to be convinced that the second generation of the internet, with it’s capacity for permanent mobility, has changed everything.  Socially it means that states and municipalities have to pass new laws about using cell phones while driving; large business has to implement both policies and infrastructure to support workforces that are increasingly likely to be conducting work outside the corporate firewall; and small businesses can get up and running without having to see their opportunities limited by where they prefer to live.

But the bigger implication about mobility for small business is, I would argue, “the cloud.” Cloud computing (in its broadest definition), and specifically Softward as a Service (such as WorkingPoint, VerticalResponse and Business Online Payroll), is a double-edged sword in the world of small business.  Not only has it made tools and resources that used to only be available to big companies financially accessible to small businesses, but many of these companies are themselves small businesses.

The fact that a couple of developers with a great idea and some solid experience, can now leverage enormous outsourced technology infrastructure to build, host, manage and ultimately distribute their product to anyone in the world is revolutionary.  The cloud has extended everyone’s reach and has eliminated several of the biggest barriers to entry that existed when I started working on the technology space back in 1996.

The Social Web
This, of course, is this year’s hottest topic.  The social web went from being an outlier, specifically and uniquely for either early adopter tech geeks or Gen Y young’ins, to being super hip mainstream, ‘cutting edge’ mass media.  As Barry notes in his list, this has made a huge impact on how brands need to function in order to maintain their integrity — both on a personal and a business level (re: his points about customer service and company size).  But what’s the real seismic shift here?

The true impact of the social web is privacy.  Or, more accurately, the line between private and public.  Never before has it been more blurred, and it’s going to get more confusing before it gets less so.  Therapists will often point out that it only takes one person in a relationship to change the entire relationship dynamic: if you change your behavior, then it forces the other person’s behavior to change as well.  This principle is seen daily on the social web.

When customers change their behavior, it forces business to change.  Hence changes we see in the realm of customer service: a person can complain about a brand experience they had on Twitter, and see anything from immediate resolution to a lawsuit, depending on how the brand in question decides to handle things.

When employees change their behavior, it forces employers to change.  Businesses cannot reasonably ask their employees not to participate in the social web.  So how do they handle react when one of their employees becomes a bit of a social media celebrity, whose personal brand radically out-shines the company brand?

When citizens change their behavior, it forces the government to change.  “Transparent government” and “Gov2.0” are two other key watchwords from 2009 that were nearly unheard of a year ago.  But now that individuals have come to expect to know things about the companies they deal with by virtue of online information, that expectation has transfered to government activities as well. Two years ago, who would have thought that Congress would have it’s own YouTube channel?  Or that a presidential candidate’s success could have been largely impacted by the use of Twitter?

Where is the line between private and public?  Tools that started out as personal use tools (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) are now platforms for business innovation.  The line between the two is different for everyone, and that creates a challenge, because the choices that one person makes will impact other people, whether those other people like it or not.  How many times have you seen someone post a picture to Facebook or Flickr that includes other people who may not have wanted the picture posted?

There is a certain amount of privacy that a social web automatically steals from us.  The questions are how much is necessary, and then how much is comfortable.  The tricky part is that depending on the application and the person, those answsers change.  And only being in the first generation of the social web, we are a long way from sorting out those pesky little details.

New Economy
My favorite topic of all, is the new economy (which I would define as the economic realities inherent to our modern lives as a result of, among others, the two factors above: mobility and social web).  But this is also the one that is routinely most difficult for people to get their heads around, because the ripple effect is pervasive, throughout every facet of our lives.

Old definitions no longer apply: “conservative” versus “liberal” are ill-fitting labels in a world of updated economic and social conditions that re-draw the political lines without even trying.  Words like “stability” and “security” are no longer applicable to the job market, after three decades of being considered the corporate Holy Grail.  And in a nation that was spurred to global dominance on the back of an Industrial Age economic engine, a nation of “knowledge workers” now routinely offshores work to less expensive parts of the world on a daily basis.

There are some pretty enormous downsides to the new economy — no more pensions, no more covered healthcare, no more job security.  But there are also some amazing opportunities in it — no more being stuck having to live someplace you don’t want simply because of its proximity to your job, no more expectation of having to let someone else define your rise up the corporate ladder on their terms and timelines, no more wistfully dreaming of being your own boss because it costs too much to start your own business.  Think of it like sky-diving: for some people it represents the most terrifying nightmare imaginable; for other people it is the single biggest thrill they could ask for.

As with most change, the pros can be just as compelling as the cons, depending on your point of view.  Socially speaking, the new economy means that goods and services that used to be out of reach for the average person are now vastly more affordable — everything from international travel to high tech toys.  For large enterprises, the ability to offshore entire divisions of your business means huge cost savings, and leaner in-house talent able to focus on the most high-value added functions.  For small business, the ability to dynamically pull together freelance, geographically distributed teams to execute on projects as needed, means being able to compete with larger firms without having to take on the overhead of formal staff.

So, yes, Barry’s list of small business trends is technically accurate.  But the reality is that the changes his list represents are even bigger.  And the reason they have such an enormous impact on small business is that these factors have already fundamentally shifted the social foundations on which small business is built.

Alora Chistiakoff is an entrepreneur, content strategist and project manager who has been developing online business and technology for startups for more than a decade.  She co-owns The Indigo Heron Group, Inc., a content strategy firm in Austin, Texas.

The WorkingPoint office will be closed on Friday, December 25, 2009.

If you need to reach customer support, please email support@workingpoint.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible but most likely Monday.

The WorkingPoint Community is made up of small business owners, like yourself, and we want you to get to know each other. We’d like to introduce you to Lamar Davis at Comprehensive Service Solutions:

Comprehensive Services Solutions, LLC offers a complete accounting and busniess solutions for the home healthcare industry.

Don’t have a profile for your small business? Learn more or Sign up for an account and create your free company profile today!

The WorkingPoint Community is made up of small business owners, like yourself, and we want you to get to know each other. We’d like to introduce you to Jean Harrison at EasyKeeper:

Easykeeper is a web-based herd management application specifically designed for goats. Easykeeper allows the herdsman to easily and efficiently track all aspects of their animal data, including vital statistics, milk records, show records and medical history.

Don’t have a profile for your small business? Learn more or Sign up for an account and create your free company profile today!

If you have been thinking about switching to a payroll service for payroll processing but aren’t quit sure of the benefits, VendorSeek.com has a great article on why you should make the switch.

There’s more to payroll than cutting checks. Payroll covers the accounting and administration of paying employees, in compliance with a range of legal requirements. Businesses can save time, hassle, and money by outsourcing payroll to a payroll preparation service…To ensure efficient and accurate payroll administration, many businesses are turning to professional payroll services. Payroll services have the resources and expertise to get the job done right, empowering clients to focus on their core business.

They go on to list the benefits of letting the payroll professionals handle your payroll, including:

• Convenience – how nice is it to just call in your hours and any other deductions or better yet input them online and have the service take care of the rest!
• Accuracy – employs account specialists with expertise in payroll tax and regulatory requirements. Their accuracy and professionalism helps clients avoid fines due to accounting errors or late tax deposits.
• Reduction of Legal Risk –Most payroll companies assume partial or full responsibility for their work, reducing the clients liability in case of accounting errors
• Scalability – A payroll company has the capacity to scale administrative services instantly, enabling growing businesses to bring new employees on board quickly

If you are thinking about using a payroll service or switching to a new service, now it the perfect time to make the move and WorkingPoint can help! We’ve partnered with Business Online Payroll to relieve you of the payroll burden and get you back working on what you love to do.

For more information on Business Online Payroll, visit our accounts plan page.

My love of lists (must be a project manager thing!) gets me again.  The Vaynerchuck brothers at VaynerMedia have offered up what they consider the Top 10 Top 10 Lists for Entrepreneurs.

Part of what makes the list a great one, though, is that it got me thinking about all of the things that entrepreneurs have to be good at in order to be successful.  Some of us approach owning our own business as freelancers, who just want some flexibility.  Others of us approach it as starry-eyed captains of industry looking to build something earth shattering.  Others simply want to build a business that allows them to have a life that they can spend with the people they love.

Their list covers things like:

• Books
• Social Media
• Start-up Pitches
• Email Writing Tips
• VC Questions
• Online Tools

And more.

But each of those entrepreneurial goals means being good at different things.

The Freelancer has to be good at scheduling, juggling and building in a sales pipeline that is not too big.  They need to save money to get them through dry spells, and they need to build a network of other freelancers they can share leads and jobs with when the need arises.

The Mogul needs to know how to inspire, delegate and lead.  He needs to be ready to build an organization that can function without him, and how to spot strong talent and convince everyone to row in the same direction.

The Lifestyler needs to know how to outsource and scale, and get out of the dollars-for-hours time-trap as quickly as possible.  Part of that requires focusing on a fine-tuned niche, being as commoditizable as possible, and then building out a network that can support those objectives.

Each of those is so different, and so most of the entrepreneurial advice out there doesn’t fit everyone, because too many things have to change, depending on your objective.

So, my question is: based on the type of entrepreneur that you want to be, what is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

Tim Berry has a recent post on MyVenturePad that is highly worth reading.  He takes issue with a VentureBeat post that essentially recommends to entrepreneurs that they sacrifice their life until they get their business successfully built.

Tim hits the nail on the head right out of the gate: the absurdity of that recommendation is the idea that once a business is successful, it is somehow going to miraculously be easier for an entrepreneur to walk away from it to start building a life.  He gives a list of very useful things to do to avoid falling into this trap.

For me, though, the real problem with this advice is the assumption that it is only business that it hard — having a life is easy.  Anyone who says that has never tried to shift gears and go from being a workaholic to being a romantic partner.  As someone who has spent five years working on that transition, I’ll tell you: it’s much harder than it sounds.

If you spend your twenties — and worse yet, also your thirties — focusing on building your business while neglecting your life, why would anyone assume that suddenly starting to focus on having a life at 40 is going to be a cake walk?  There are days when I am convinced the reason we live so long is because that’s how long it takes to practice to even start getting our lives right.  If we don’t even begin until it’s half over, then we’re out of time before we begin.

One of my favorite bloggers, Penelope Trunk, writes about this regularly: as a serial entrepreneur, she moved her family from New York City to Madison, WI for their life.  She founded a tech startup in a city with virtual no tech industry because that was where it made sense for her family to live.  Has it been a struggle?  Sure.  Was there reasoning in her logic?  Absolutely.

Everyone wants to know that their legacy has an impact — for some people having kids is enough.  For others, leaving behind impressive business accomplishments is enough.  But if what you want is both, then you can’t delude yourself into thinking that you can ignore one for half your life and suddenly make up for it in the second half.  Time doesn’t work that way.

So many entrepreneurs I know start their own business because they want a lifestyle that allows them what working for someone else never has: opportunity and flexibility.  And most of the reasons they want those things are because they have, or want to have, a life.

I’m with Tim: waiting until your business is successful to start building a life is asking to have a lop-sided legacy.  And that may be fine for you, but make sure you know that going in.  In business these days we spend so much time discussing how hard it is to build the necessary relationships to be successful.  Does anyone really think it’s easier to build successful relationships in the rest of your life?

Alora Chistiakoff is an entrepreneur, content strategist and project manager who has been developing online business and technology for startups for more than a decade.  She co-owns The Indigo Heron Group, Inc., a content strategy firm in Austin, Texas.

More and more shopping is done online. The vast reach of the internet is spurring online, home-based and niche businesses that didn’t exist before. This is all a wonderful thing as it’s truly the democratization of incredibly advanced technology. But along with great power comes great risks. You can never get rid of all the risks but you can – and should – minimize them. Here’s a simple way you can protect yourself: judicious use of the https protocol.

Our application requires every page transfer to be secure between you and our servers. We do this by forcing your browser to encrypt the page (and especially your data) before sending it to us. This protects you from the interception of your sensitive data. Why do you care? Do you ever work via wifi on someone else’s network? Do you work from your customer’s sites? Ever work from Starbuck’s? Someone could intercept your unencrypted web pages and extract your login information. If they can do that for your webmail they can get every other password that has been emailed to you. You need to protect yourself. It takes a bit if effort but is pretty easy.

As I said before, WorkingPoint forces a secure protocol (https) on every page submission that protects your data from interception. Other sites aren’t always so secure because it costs more for their servers to decrypt https pages than http ones. But you can force the use of https.

When shopping, please make sure that when you go to check out and especially before entering credit card information that you have an https (secure) connection:

The lock showing in the browser and the “https:” before the URL let you know this page will be transmitted securely. You can click on the image to see an article about secure shopping.

Do You Use WebMail?

If you do, please make sure your email carrier is capable of https. If not, switch to one that is (gmail for instance.) With gmail you can go to settings and select the option below to require https on every page load:

By making sure your data is secure while it’s being transmitted, you’re making it much harder for the bad guys to take advantage of you. Keep in mind that this only protects your data while it’s being transmitted. If you have all your passwords written next to your computer or they are all your middle name or phone number…well, that’s a topic for another day.

One of my favorite things about the information economy is the extent to which a highly commoditized, social web lowers the barrier to entry for prospective entrepreneurs.  While some of us elect to dive into owning our own business head-first with little or no safety net, that’s not the best way for some people.  Many people need to ease their way into entrepreneurship, and one of the ways I most enjoy watching is through their hobbies.

Daniel Kehrer of Business.com recently wrote about the new trends of hobbyists-turned-entrepreneurs, and their increasingly noteworthy impact on the small business space.  In reading the six reasons he lists as catalysts for this phenomenon, it makes me think of three different friends of mine who have spent years dancing on the edges of entrepreneurship with hobbies they enjoy.

The Painter
For years The Painter has paid the bills by being a project manager leading development teams in web application environments (which, naturally, is how we met).  She is smart, creative, a great integrator of complex project solutions and very well-respected by her peers.  But her love is painting.  So, as a side business, she not only sells her paintings, but she also does commission artwork: she paints customized pet portraits.

The Engineer
Ironically, “the engineer” is a double-entendre for my second friend: while we used to work together when he was a system engineer for the ecommerce site I worked on, his hobby is an online model train community that includes an ecommerce business.  What started out strictly as an enjoyable past-time has, over time, become an increasingly viable business in its own right.

The Event Planner
Did you ever have a friend who was the go-to person for something for everyone they knew?  My friend is the go-to person if you want an event planned.  Whether it’s one of her best friend’s weddings, my 30th birthday, or the company Christmas party, if there is an event to be planned, she is the person you want to draft.  Not only does she know how to get it all done, but she can even make sure it comes in on budget.

While all of her friends have spent years telling her that we’d love to see her own her own business to do this professionally, it wasn’t until she got laid off and started volunteering for local non-profits that her decade-old hobby started to morph itself into an actual business.

What I love about each of these three examples is that none of them went out looking to start a business, first and foremost.  What they started with was something they simply loved to do.  Over time, the business aspect evolved.

The six reasons that Dan lists are things that, in essence, amount to much of what “the long tail” is all about, and it’s at the heart of the opportunity that the information economy provides.  So while not everyone is going to see the type of run-away success that passionate entrepreneurs like Gary Vaynerchuck experience, what this trend does is remind us that the age-old saying has a modern day variation: “Where there is a passion, there is a way.”

As entrepreneurs in a new era, that’s an exciting opportunity.

Alora Chistiakoff is an entrepreneur, content strategist and project manager who has been developing online business and technology for startups for more than a decade.  She co-owns The Indigo Heron Group, Inc., a content strategy firm in Austin, Texas.

If you’re like most small business owners, there’s no such thing as “in between” and your next few weeks can be either described as chaotic or quiet.

If you’re in the service business, the year-end can be the chaotic, flat-out finish of one or more big client projects, or the quiet wait for new projects to begin.  If you’re selling products, you’re either trying to sell everything in your stock or planning purchases for next year.

Whichever position you’re in, there’s still time to think about starting next year.  What can you do now to make sure your business get’s off to a good start?

My last few posts have explained how to create, simple, high-level business plans, so you’ve identified your goals and the associated requisite activities you need to do to accomplish them.  All that remains is for you to do is understand how to measure your success.

As we’ve discussed, you’ve established a quantitative or qualitative measurement for each one of the activities that drive you towards your goals.  How often should you review your progress?  What is the right measurement interval?  Is it best to monitor progress on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis?

While there’s no single, “right” answer, there absolutely IS a guiding principle:

Always adopt the shortest meaningful interval.

To use a sporting analogy, does it make sense to gauge your progress during a game by reading about the final score in a magazine?  Of course not!  You can only change your strategy and tactics while the game is in progress, and the earlier in the game, the more flexibility you have to affect the outcome.

My advice is simple: don’t wait until halftime, or even the end of the first quarter, to track your progress. Check the scoreboard – and short-term measurements –often.