The Pareto Principle

Firstly, my apologies for taking so long to post! There have been quite a few life changes in the last couple of months for Carly and myself- times are busy sisters!

About a month ago, I stumbled upon something called The Pareto Principle while I was studying marketing techniques. Wikipedia describes The Pareto Principle as this:

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Business management thinker Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.[3] It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., "80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients."

They go on to say (for perspective):

The Pareto Principle also applies to a variety of more mundane matters: one might guess approximately that we wear our 20% most favored clothes about 80% of the time, perhaps we spend 80% of the time with 20% of our acquaintances, etc.

The Pareto principle has many applications in quality control.[citation needed] It is the basis for the Pareto chart, one of the key tools used in total quality control and six sigma. The Pareto principle serves as a baseline for ABC-analysis and XYZ-analysis, widely used in logistics and procurement for the purpose of optimizing stock of goods, as well as costs of keeping and replenishing that stock (Rushton et al. 2000, pp. 107-108).

In computer science and engineering control theory such as for electromechanical energy converters, the Pareto principle can be applied to optimization efforts. (M. Gen & R. Cheng, Generic Algorithms and Engineering Optimization. New York, Wiley, 2002)

Microsoft also noted that by fixing the top 20% of the most reported bugs, 80% percent of the errors and crashes would be eliminated.

The Pareto principle was a prominent part of the 2007 bestseller The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. Ferriss recommended focusing one's activities to those 20% that contribute to 80% of the income. More notably, he also recommends firing the 20% customers who take up the majority of one's time and cause most trouble.

(On a side note: Four Hour Work Week will be our next give away on March 15th- you must be a follower by the 1st to be in the drawing).

So what does this mean? How can we use this to make our business more efficient? Let's put it to the test (Keep in mind please that this is a VERY basic scope of how this can work for you.)! This is going to be different for every business out there. Carly and I spoke about the 20% of clients that bring each of us the most income. To get to that conclusion, you must first make a list of the types of clients you receive. Be as specific as possible. For example (using our tree business- your list may be completely different):

1. Clients in urban and suburban areas

2. Clients in rural areas

3. Men clients

4. Women clients

5. Clients who find us from Craigslist

6. Clients who find us through fliering

7. Clients who find us through our website

8. Clients who find us through word of mouth

9. Homeowners

10. Land developers

Now in practice, you should be literally writing down every client you've ever had and where you've found them. We will use my ten above as a test- though we get clients from more than 10 sources.

From the ten sources above, the principle states that two of them deliver 80% of our clients. The top two on that list for us are clients in rural areas, and clients through word of mouth (very specific word of mouth/ generally professionals in the tree business that do not do quite what we do, and therefore send clients our way).

So now we have a starting place. We need to focus more of our energy and advertising dollars on clients in rural areas and clients through word of mouth. We have to start getting creative about how this can work. Off the top of my head- we can take out an ad in rural newspapers. We can do fliering in rural areas (where so far our fliering has been in suburban areas). I have a very specific idea for how to create more word of mouth leads: cold calling tree businesses that I know don't do what we do. Then we can offer a finders fee for any leads they send our way, or offer to send the clients that contact us regarding what they do their way. I am leaning towards the former, because I will hopefully end up with quite a few professionals offering to send clients our way. If that's the case, I can't in good conscience promise them each that we'll send clients their way since there'll be more than one of them.

Another spin off from the Pareto Principle is Six Sigma. Six Sigma is process improvement for the sake of your business.



From Wikipedia:

Six Sigma is a business management strategy, originally developed by Motorola, that today enjoys widespread application in many sectors of industry.

Six Sigma seeks to identify and remove the causes of defects and errors in manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization ("Black Belts" etc.) who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified financial targets (cost reduction or profit increase).

Read more in depth here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sigma

I have also come across an online book called "Six Sigma For Small Business" that you can download for more in depth learning.


So now you have an idea of how you can use process improvement to advance your business. This is a topic that a gajillion books have been written on, so I feel almost silly posting something so remedial, but my hope is that it will make your thirst for more information grow and you'll get out there and figure out how to make this work for you!!!!


Godspeed ladies!

Mission Statement

We've been posting a couple of months now, but haven't had a chance to post our mission statement. We both feel it's truly important that you all know the passion that we have for what we do and for what you do.

The Accomplished Mommy Mission Statement

We are here to assist fellow mothers and women in following their life's path and destiny. In a world where mothers have less of a choice between working their lives away at a job they don't enjoy or keeping the focus on raising amazing people, we want to show you there's a third choice; Putting your brilliant ideas to work for you, raking in the prosperity, AND raising amazing people. The first step is defining your passion. It can be as specific as you want it to be. Maybe you just want to be a business owner, but you don't know of what sort of company. Perhaps you want to be a freelance make up artist. Perhaps you want to write novels. The second step is faith. Believe that you have a path in this lifetime that involves you prospering (whatever that means to you), as well as being blissful in what you do. I don't believe we were meant to suffer day in and day out doing something we don't enjoy for money. It's not a fair exchange of energy. Third is execution. We want to help you find ideas to make your dreams a reality. If it's your true path, I believe it will work out, with a little faith and execution.

We promise to stick on the topic of helping you and your children flourish. We want to hear your ideas and feedback, as we're learning too. If you want more information on a specific topic, please don't hesitate to contact us at TheAccomplishedMommy@hotmail.com.

Here's to your success, and happiness!

The Importance of Setting Goals

It's become quite obvious to someone of my sort, that if you don't set goals you'll never get anything done. When I say my sort, I mean Carly's sort also- maybe even your sort! You know us, the kind that has five trillion great ideas but no execution. I wonder if any of you noticed we haven't posted in about...oh two weeks or so?

This is where goals come in. Write them down somewhere you will see them (please note the much earlier post about my yahoo). If you give yourself due dates for the things you'd like to complete (and tell other people that will help hold you to it!), you might complete one of those five trillion amazing ideas! Maybe one of them is your million dollar idea... you never know.

Look! You could be this guy!



Ahahaha. But really. If you find this hard to do, start small. Start making daily to do lists. Stick to them. When I'm feeling like I'm not accomplishing much, I write down something I've already done and cross it off! (Can we say denial?) Move on to setting goals for particular projects. For example, let's say you're a writer. Set a date that you want to be finished with chapter one. You can then set the next date, or you can schedule it out for the entire book. Join an online forum of writers (or whatever it is that you do- start a yahoo group if nothing exists), and share the same due dates with a buddy or a team. Hold yourself accountable.

As far as your long term goals (once you feel brave), you need to take some time and write out a 5-10 year plan. Lucky for you, Carly has grandtastic fantastic google-ing and/or web perusing skills and do we have a treat for you!

Working With Your Power


This is from last year (we've had it stashed back awhile), so add in the appropriate dates of course.

Fill this out, share it with your close confidants as well as your husband/partner! You need to make sure they're either on board with your plans or that you can find a way to convince them (if you need convincing techniques, feel free to post in comments. Carly and myself are both Geminis and I promise we know how to talk anybody into anything).

And for inspiration:

Billionaire Women

(And Carly- they talk about women in there that took over a construction business and are billionaires! Just sayin ladies, if you think your trade wont make you a billionaire, you haven't thought about it hard enough ;)

Happy Business Building!

Registering Your Business with Washington State

(I apologize for the rushed tone of this post. Today is a busy day for me!)

In Washington, these are the basic steps to registering your business:

Master Business License: Quick, easy to do online, application costs $15 plus $5 per trade name. Be sure to select the right business structure. Sole proprietorships are a good place to start for one person or a married couple, but you may consider becoming an LLC later, which has its pros and cons. We'll discuss that in another post.

The MBL will automatically register you with the DOR, to whom you'll be sending the sales tax you collect. Filing the returns is simple once you've figured it out the first time, especially if you take one of the free seminars they offer. There are also online tutorials, and they also offer to come to you and help you check that you're doing it right.

If you're an LLC, corporation, or non profit you'll need to register your trade name with the Secretary of State.

Register with the IRS and get your Employer Identification Number. Helpful guide here.

Register with the city you'll do business in.

If you have employees, register with Labor and Industries. Get your specialty license with Labor and Industries, if required for your industry.

Find the requirements for specific business activities here.

Don't hesitate to call the agencies with questions. They're always helpful and friendly, and it's better to take the time to ask than to get nasty fines for noncompliance!

Marketing Tips Part 1

The key to having a successful business is Marketing Marketing Marketing! With starting up a business, the money you invest in marketing may be less then you'd like, but you can still make it work! I came across some information indicating that the best way to keep your marketing rolling, is to occassionally splurge on those things that are more costly, and in between to do the less costly marketing tricks.

First tip- Always leave a business card. Always. Give them to your friends to give away, give them to your family members, leave them on cork boards (and another idea that Carly mentioned to me for those left on cork boards, is to get business cards made in post card size!!! Draws the eye right to them!) Put them in all outgoing mail. Leave them with the tip at a restaurant (assuming you didn't tick off the waiter for any reason). Leave them with past clients. A new idea I've just had- offer clients a rebate for passing along business cards to those who buy from you. A referral fee. Get it printed on that back of your business card. Or even offer a discount/coupon on your the back of your business card.

Example:

Redeem this business card before (enter date here) and receive a 15% off of your services/goods!


Second Tip- ALWAYS HAVE A WEBSITE! For the love of Pete, if you don't have a website, get one. It doesn't have to be elaborate, but it does have to be out there for people to find. Everyone and their monkey uses the internet to find businesses anymore, and if you're not available, you're missing out on a whole lotta business! You can do this for a relatively low cost. Microsoft Office Live offers free web hosting and they charge $15 a year for the domain name. Your first year is free. There are many other web hosts out there to assist you in building your website. Be sure to add Meta Tags to your site, and to add it to search engines (see the post below). Send it to everyone you know, link it anywhere you can.


Third Tip- Buy Leads. This wont be applicable to all businesses, but there are some that it will. Service Magic offers lead buying for many businesses that offer home improvement services (this is near and dear to our hearts since I run Peterson Tree Services and Carly runs Hayden Transformations). The company charges a set up fee (I believe service magic is $100), and then you buy leads from them. You can buy as much or as little as you'd like and you can set a budget. The leads vary in price (Tree Service leads for instance run around $10 each, while contracting leads run higher). The leads you receive are customers that are ready to buy what you have to offer. Check to see if there's a lead buying service for your business!






Please post your marketing tips in our comments box!

Can Search Engines Find Your Website?

If you haven't indexed your sites with the major search engines (or even know what the hell I'm talking about- ha!), your site may not be getting as many hits as it could be! To index your sites, follow these simple steps:

Go to each of the links below:

http://www.google.com/addurl/

http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx

http://addurl.altavista.com/

You then enter your site and sometimes a captcha (??? I may have spelled that wrong but you know what I mean- those annoying mixed up words with lines and blurriness that you can hardly read, much less solve and move on with your life. Those things.)

Voila! It takes until they crawl the web next to be added, but you'll be receiving more hits in no time!

Using Time Wisely

Whether you telecommute to an employer, are an entrepreness, or just make a little cash on the side selling knitted hats on Etsy, time management is the ultimate tool. It can make you or break you (or drive you insane!).

Some days you get to the end and go, “What happened?!” Or your husband asks the most irritating question you can ask a WAHM, “What did you do all day?” “I survived, alright!?!”

Other days you get to the end and say, “I took you DOWN, to-do list! Take that! I own you!!! Boo-yah!!!” (What, boo-yah isn't part of your vernacular? Maybe it should be, because you kick serious ass!).

Working from home while enjoying your children and managing all the aspects of your life and home can feel impossible sometimes. Things can get out of control really easily. By staying focused, you can get what you want from your day!

Setting an alarm, getting up at the same reasonable time each day, and directly showering and dressing as though you were going to a regular job is essential. I’m sure you’ve heard this advice before, but it is the cornerstone of taking control of your day. You ARE going to work, so act like it. Just because you do your work while breastfeeding or in between loads of laundry doesn’t make it any less of a priority.

Write out a daily schedule for yourself (and your children – structure makes them feel secure). Leave room for organized chaos and spontaneity, but give yourself plenty of time to take care of business. Include a real lunch break to hang with your kids and rest your "business brain".

Involve your kids when you can. They’re curious about what you’re doing and want to be with you. My daughter is still tiny, but while she nurses I catch up on my business reading by reading it out loud to her. Maybe she doesn’t need to know about trends in kitchen cabinets or the right insurance plans for small businesses, but she likes to hear my voice and be part of what I’m doing. I have a tiny extra desk in my office which I’ll set up with art supplies and a play laptop when she’s bigger. She can be my “coworker”. I’m not delusional enough to expect her to sit there for long periods, but it will buy a little time.

Set timers. This is especially helpful for distractable types (ahem, me), or when first learning how to manage a work at home atmosphere. Say you expect that responding to business emails will take 30 minutes of focused work. Set a timer, and remembering you're on the clock will help you stay on task. Timers are even more helpful when you're choosing to take a little "playtime" or when telling children what to expect. "Mommy will help you find Barbie's shoes as soon as the timer goes off." "Okay, Mommy's taking a break until the timer buzzes!"

Keep a Must Do and Want To Do List. Even numbering them by priority can help in focusing your efforts. Write it at night so first thing in the morning you can get straight to it. Include time estimates for each task (and note how long it actually took so you can have a better estimate next time). Be realistic in your expectations of yourself. Yes, you are Wonder Woman, but that doesn’t mean you need to wear yourself out and leave no time for fun!

Beware of Time Vampires! Surfing the net, chatting on the phone, meeting friends for lunch, obsessively checking your MySpace, clicking around Etsy glorious Etsy, getting sidetracked by unimportant projects… It all seems harmless bit by bit, but things like this can swallow your whole day if you’re not careful (social upkeep is very important to your sanity, though, and we’ll discuss that in an upcoming post). Keep focused and remember your purpose. If you attack your work right away and kill your to-do list, then you’ll have time to go play with your kids or lunch with a friend.

Set “office hours”. When the "office" is closed, don't answer the phone, don't check emails. Your business is very important, but your children are what really matters in life. Give them your undivided attention for a set time every day.

The best system I've seen is the Entrepreneurial Time System. Basically, you select Free Days to do as you please; then Focus Days, which are days where you really put on your work boots and kick some serious booty! Then you choose your Buffer Days, where you take care of the little tasks that would distract you on Focus Days (cleaning, making phone calls, etc.).

Be ready to spot stagnation. If your brain starts to get fuzzy and you're sitting there going "think...think...work...come on brain", step away for a short time (this is a break, not giving up! Come right back!). Crank up the music and dance around the living room with the kids, take a walk, take a yoga break, whatever gets your blood pumping and your brain creating. Then tackle your tasks with new enthusiasm!

Those of us who are fortunate (or badassly talented and driven) enough to work from home should count our blessings every day. It is such a privilege to spend your days with your children and be a career woman at the same time!

Want more time management tips? Here are great articles from Entrepreneur.com, smallbusinessessentials.info, and carrieanddanielle.com.

Welcome!

Welcome to our new blog- The Accomplished Mommy! We're happy to have you here with us. Please feel free to add yourself to our followers off to the right. This blog is for moms of all sorts. We all work hard to be successful in our lives, and at the same time make sure that our children are flourishing and prospering. My name is Danielle, and I am a new work at home mom. I have a beautiful 2 1/2 year old and 8 month old. I run a doula business (www.holistic-doula.com) that I'm planning to grow into a photography and childbirth education business as well in the immediate future.

Here are the reasons I strive to succeed:






The Co-Author of this blog happens to be my best friend and very successful business woman/ wahm Carly. Her and her husband own Hayden Transformations, a general contracting business. She does all of the office work, lead development, payroll for employees, and the Universe knows what else! I know she's a busy bee and she's good at what she does. This is in conjunction with taking care of her very sweet baby girl (born last June- and yes, I was her doula ;)

Carly's reason for striving to succeed:





So we welcome you, mama's from all walks of life. Join us, follow us, read us. Hopefully you can find a few tips and tricks along the way to help you get organized and be more successful every day!

If you have any questions or suggestions you'd like answered, please feel free to shoot us an email at TheAccomplishedMommy@hotmail.com