Poor management of cash flow is said to be the prime reason for the failure of small firms. In Management Today, Steve Lodge presents the following tips for boosting your overall cash flow position:

• Bill promptly: It's easy to get distracted by the next job, but important to issue invoices promptly once work is done. Consider having a system that sends invoices out within, say, 24 hours of a chargeable event.
  
  
• Agree on terms upfront: Getting paid quickly may not always be possible but at the very least you should know when it is and when it isn't. Advise the customer of your normal credit policies early and find out when they expect to pay. For big projects, agree on a regular payment schedule rather than letting the full amount build up until completion of the job.
  
  
• Stalk those payments: Chase the money as soon as payment becomes overdue, and even consider sending a reminder two weeks before the due date. "Maintaining timely collection practices and regular communication with your customers can help avoid problems snowballing, and it is worth planning to accommodate some collection activity time every week," he suggests.
  
  
• Offer early payment incentives: Even a discount of 1 per cent to 2 per cent might make a major difference.
  
  
• Avoid slow or non-paying customers: Do your homework, particularly with significant customers, checking credit references and talking to other businesses that have the same client.
  
  
• Charge interest on late payments: This may be a last resort, since it could mean losing a client or risking a dispute, but if other businesses in your industry charge interest for late payments, you should consider it as well.
  
  

Do you put things off until the last minute (or later)? Consultant Ann Gomez, in her Clear Concept newsletter, says the root cause of procrastination can be uncovered and addressed simply by asking yourself why you WAIT:

• Worth: Ask whether this piece of work provides value? When you perceive that it doesn't, she suggests deleting it, delegating it, or trying to understand its worth from the perspective of your customer, colleague, or boss so you'll be more inclined to tackle it.
  
  
• Accountability: Have you committed fully to this task? If you haven't, it's easy to delay.
  
  
• Imperfection: Are you comfortable with good enough, or does the work have to be perfect? "In most cases, good is more than good enough. Striving for more simply results in needless delays," she warns.
  
  
• Too big: Have you broken the task down into small, do-able chunks, or are you overwhelmed by its scope? When you break it down, the task becomes more tolerable (and perhaps even enjoyable).

If you live in a world where you are constantly making proposals to clients, either through sales presentations or formal Request for Proposal (RFP) responses, the Service Business Smarts newsletter suggests you take time at least once or twice a year to review your results. The analysis should look at who the clients were, what the pricing was, and how the proposal was written.

If there are companies always asking you to submit but never awarding you business, you should "red flag" them. They could be asking for a quote to meet multiple bid requirements, and may not be worth your effort in future.

If you suspect you lose bids in some situations because of pricing, study your proposals to consider how they could be more competitive in future. If they can't, maybe you should avoid making proposals in those types of situations.

The key is to understand what was different in the winning proposals from the losing efforts, and how to extend the framework of the best ones to other presentation situations.

Leaders must motivate their staff, and traditionally vision is lauded as a prime motivator. "Leadership is about going somewhere," Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One-Minute manager, told Entrepreneur.

But Marty Linsky, co-founder of Cambridge Leadership Associates, disagrees: "Vision is as much a constraint as a resource. In my observation, CEOs get invested in their vision, and they don't like contrary data.

Instead, Linsky says, leaders must have a strong sense of purpose that they can express to workers -- a compelling reason for everyone to come to work. "It's about building the world's best automobiles or enabling people to be safe in their homes. It's a purpose outside of yourself, which is very different from vision," he stresses.

• The magic question to ask customers about your firm's service is not "How was everything?" but "Is there anything we could do to improve our service?"
  (Source: Influence With Ease newsletter)



• Resistance is considered a bad thing, something to avoid, but consultant Kevin Eikenberry counters that resistance promotes growth (we wouldn't strengthen our muscles, for example, without resistance) and is a sign of energy. Resistance allows better ideas and better products to be created, and the admission of problems (resistance) allows relationships and teams to be revitalized.
  (Source: Unleash Your Potential newsletter)



• Instead of looking at the proverbial glass being half full or half empty, acknowledge both the good points and bad points in a situation and concentrate on what you can do to fill the glass -- to make things better despite the imperfections.
  (Source: Pause newsletter)



• Be professional when using your cell phone. Don't call from areas with dodgy reception, and warn the other party you are on a cell phone. Control your volume, as well: You may be talking loud to be overheard over the traffic, but to the other person it will seem you are shouting.
  (Source: Management Today)



• David Kirk, chief executive of Australia's John Fairfax Holdings, not only tries to avoid telling his subordinates what to do because that would stifle creativity, but also deliberately puts individuals in positions where they don't know what is going on so that creativity can come out.
  (Source: Business Review Weekly)

Nobody is quite sure, including Tim O'Reilly, the publisher of books and web sites, who first coined the phrase in 2003. It refers to what is perceived as a second generation on the World Wide Web, where social-networking sites, wikis, and blogs take centre stage, facilitating collaboration and sharing between users.

"Like many important concepts, Web 2.0 doesn't have a hard boundary, but rather, a gravitational core. You can visualize Web 2.0 as a set of principles and practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all of those principles, at a varying distance from that core," he writes.

Web 2.0 has been a focus for web developers and other techies -- and young people -- so the corollary question is: What does it mean for the average small business, social agency, or local government?

At this point, it may seem far from your priorities. But if you remember the early days of the Internet, you probably thought e-mail and web sites were peripheral stuff, and today they are central to our everyday work world. So you need to be aware of the latest trends on the web, looking for what might help you get an edge today and what might be standard fare tomorrow.

Wikis might be something to start with. Essentially, these are web sites with content produced by anybody in a group, like a collective whiteboard. I thought they were esoteric, but recently a non-profit group I know has been using them to co-ordinate a major event involving people around the world and to hold a Silent Auction in cyberspace. In a world of collaboration, wikis may be something you can benefit from.

Blogs, and their aural complement, podcasts, are also tools some small organizations are finding useful, allowing them to connect with their clients. Government might think about using them as a different way to connect with interested citizens directly. But they must fit your marketing strategy and audience, not be simply an expression of ego.

When the Web started, interactivity was considered important -- and Web 2.0 is about interactivity. I'm sceptical about how many visitors want to spend time interacting on a web site -- research shows many people get on and off them very quickly -- but offering online reviews, user tips, and even a spot for customers to connect with each other might embellish your site. If you deal with young people, the way they flock to Facebook and MySpace to connect is something to ponder.

At this point, the Web 2.0 is still fuzzy and your options may be too. But at the least, you need to monitor these trends, remembering that when you strip away the techno-talk, there's value in collaboration and interactivity.

While it's always interesting to learn about your own personality profile, understanding different personality types can also be useful when you need to connect with clients, prospects or partners who prefer other working styles.

Often it's important to shift your style to communicate effectively. Emotion and interaction may mean little to a client focused on facts and perfection. A prospect adept at preserving interpersonal harmony may be put off by behaviour driven by goals and bottom results. Style-shifting can help close the gap.

We draw from the framework of various assessment tools -- the Personal Style Indicator, Myers-Briggs and DiSC, among others -- to help our clients learn how they can style-shift to improve their interpersonal communications. 8020Info would be pleased to discuss your requirements. We welcome your enquiries at (613) 542-8020, or by email at watercooler@8020info.com.