The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) is about measuring success not by the balance sheet alone but according to “people, planet, profit”. The idea is that a successful business has economic, ecological and social milestones to meet.

You can only be successful if you’ve made progress in all three areas. You treat your employees and consultants fairly, operate in an environmentally sustainable way and of course, make money doing what you do. It’s a concept that has taken the large corporate world by storm, even though I must confess many small business owners I meet today have never even heard of it.

One way of making your small business look big is by setting up milestones and metrics for achieving a healthy Triple Bottom Line. Why should small businesses be subject to diminished expectations? We expect corporations to shell out millions in donations (knowing they’ll get a tax cut) but if a small business plows all of its revenues back into the company (or the owner’s family vacation), it’s not seen as such a big issue. But corporate responsibility isn’t something that magically appears after your business earns its first $5 million or $10 million.

If you want to go big, it can’t all be about receivables and expenditures.

You’ll need to tackle this in an organized way. Sustainable Living Coach Sally Lever has some practical tips for how small businesses can get started:

People

Think about all of the people who are involved with your business. Even if you don’t directly employ anyone else at present, who else do your actions affect? Who else does your business depend on? Your answer might well include your suppliers, your clients, your associates and colleagues. A sustainable business treats all of these people in a way that’s in keeping with its business purpose and sustainability, for example, by employing staff who live locally and sourcing from local suppliers. You could reduce your clients’ needs to travel by providing your products and services local to them rather than centralized wherever possible.

Planet

Many of you will be familiar with the term “Reduce, Re-Use, Re-cycle”. Maybe you are not aware that those instructions are stated in order of priority. That is, it is more important for us to reduce our consumption than it is to re-use items and re-using items is more important than re-cycling our waste. So, uppermost in the sustainable business owner’s mind will be minimizing the negative impact on the planet of running that business by reducing consumption of energy, fuel, water and toxic substances.

Profit

Just because profit has now been relegated to one of three in the business’s bottom line does not make it any less important as a concept. For a business to be sustainable in the sense of growing and surviving long term it will need to generate a profit (unless it was set up as a not-for-profit organization.) What the triple bottom line does is to remind us to keep profit generation in perspective with the other elements. With our business accounts as with our personal finances, if we keep our costs to a minimum and minimize our consumption, the income we need to generate to cover our costs and pay ourselves is reduced.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

Do you show business leadership in challenging times through a robot-like focus on your own work (and an expectation that your members team will do the same)? Or can you get better results from your team with honesty and a bit of emotional intelligence? I’m for the latter.

My recommended reading for this week includes a column by Rick Spence in the Financial Post called “You Can Still Win in a Slow Economy”. One of his suggestions:

“Keep it real: employees will rarely go the extra mile for leaders who are all logic and no emotion. Share what the new economic realities mean for you personally. Let your guard down; be human.”

I totally agree. While many of us are seeing a turnaround in 2010, memories of 2009’s economic troubles are not far from my thoughts. It was a tough time for many of us, and our teams of employees, subcontractors and partners were not immune to fear and confusion about the future. They needed leadership more than ever at that time.

I’ve always been an emotionally intuitive person and the crisis brought that out even more. I was very up-front and honest with the people I worked with. I reassured them as best I could. I told them the plan we had for getting through the tough times. 

I felt I had to be honest and let them know that there were no guarantees, and even the experts weren’t sure where the overall business climate was going long-term. But I was honest about the risks we were facing – and I was facing personally, as the owner of my business. I answered questions about the steps we were taking to maintain and potentially even grow the business in difficult times. 

My colleagues and partners understood the situation, felt I understood their perspective and knew that I was doing everything I could to keep things on an even keel. They felt appreciated and “in the loop” – and seemed to be able to focus better on their work.

Particularly in tough times, leaders need to be able to reassure their people. But show you’re human and share their concerns. Help them understand that you’re just as motivated as they are to solve the challenges you face together.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

Some say leadership is about being able to motivate. Others say it’s about being decisive. But the one thing that all leaders need is the strength of confidence. How do you get that confidence? Well, having a sense of structure helps.

How do you get that structure? It’s not rocket science (Though maintaining good habits can be tricky). Here a few suggestions you can implement today:

1. Use a calendar. I’m still amazed by the number of entrepreneurs I meet who can’t consistently track their appointments and routines. Don’t be like that.

2. Track your time. Use a basic spreadsheet to track how you’ve used your time over at least a two-week period. When you review it, you’ll have a better idea of how to structure your efforts and where some activities might be made more efficient.

3. Use and record processes. Whether you’re working with contracts, budgets, or more creative projects, having repeatable processes boosts long-term productivity.

4. Use agendas for every meeting. Adding a sense of structure to meetings will help you get more accomplished and your clients will appreciate it.

5. Keep your work-space free of clutter. Processes and good habits help you get your mind straight, but having a physical sense of structure will augment that.

One organizing system I teach my entrepreneurial clients to get structure in their work and their lives is the GO System. People around you will notice when you are organized and structured. That’s not all that it takes to be a leader (I’ve known plenty of receptionists and assistants in non-leadership roles who used all of the habits described above), but without it, it’s harder to be taken seriously as the head of the pack.

Taking the time to implement this system allows for fewer details to be trifled with daily and allows you more time, energy and concentration to deal with problems as they arise.

Give the gift of confidence to yourself and others.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

Cooking shows are as addictive to watch as they are tantalizing. What’s easily missed, among the chopping, dicing and slicing is the constant clean up and maintenance of the workspace. They’re always moving! By taking a few moments during the preparation of a dish to re-sharpen knives, or clear away clutter, the chef is focused and prepared to get into the action with less hassle.

This is also a best practice for owners and employees, whether you are doing at your office (or home office, for that matter). Stay organized and keep moving and you’ll get better results.

In Twyla Harp’s landmark book The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life, she discusses a writer who believed there was a mental correlation between cleaning his room, and arranging his brain. While possible, Harp was convinced it was not just the idea of organizing that helped him focus but rather the physical movement and action involved that helped direct his efforts.

Fitting in three to five minutes to focus on your breath and fill up with nourishing oxygen, helps feed muscles tensed under the strain of thinking, and allows your brain to take a minute to replenish its focus for a fresh return to the task at hand. When you take breaks, stand and stretch while you organize your space or deal with files. Or perhaps take a walk over the lunch break while you strategize a business initiative. The idea is to keep moving.

There are innumerable websites with effective office exercises to be perused and sampled until you find a set that works for you. In your off-time, take meditation classes, yoga instruction or even arts like Tai Chi, that are very portable and only require a little space and a bit of privacy.

One last thing: encourage your employees to keep moving at work. Joining a friend, or starting a little group at the office, can open up more than just your mind to working harder, it can help develop better relationships.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

What do air traffic controllers, pilots, surgeons, real estate agents and many successful business owners all have in common? They all use checklists to ensure that they do the job right every single time.

As a means of ensuring quality control, reducing errors and improving productivity, there are few best practices that match the results of adopting the humble checklist.

I use checklists to keep track of tasks that need to be completed throughout the day. I use them in meetings to ensure that I cover everything and don’t have to follow up unnecessarily. I use them when I’m delivering consulting services. And I use them a lot when I’m preparing to deliver a presentation, since nothing gives you confidence like knowing you’re prepared.

Checklists aren’t just great for personal productivity. Put a checklist up on a big white board at the office and remind the team of objectives they need to accomplish as an organization. Or keep checklists by pieces of equipment that employees may only use once in a while and reduce wait times as they follow the simple list to get stuff done faster.

Now, for your first checklist, make a list of three things you’ve been avoiding doing in order of business priority (not order of difficulty). Commit yourself to following through and get them done today.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

If you see your customers’ tastes changing, you have to adapt your product to the market – and do it quickly.

Small businesses with small budgets are often a lot better than billion-dollar big businesses at adapting to changing market tastes. Partly, that’s because large corporations sometimes find it easier to tell customers what they really want through expensive PR campaigns. This only lasts so long, though.

For an example of this is the Ford motor company. I was reading an article today entitled Ford targets Vancouver with smaller cars, describing how the world’s most famous motor company has enthusiastically started catering to today’s tastes for smaller, more cost-effective vehicles.

It sounds like a smart move, until you realize that their competitors were already doing this 10 years ago. In the meantime, Ford racked up tens of billions in debt and risked going out of business entirely during the recent recession.

Entrepreneurs must make sure they have a way of listening to their customers. Whether that’s through face-to-face contact, surveys or reliable statistics about your own sales as well as how the competition is doing, you must have “listening stations” in place. Listen, analyze and adapt to give your customers what they want.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

I’m always inspired by business success stories, but to tell you the truth, stories about business failures can be very instructive. One common problem that a lot of entrepreneurs seem to have is staying focused on what’s important. You have to follow your passion, but channel your efforts to where it’s needed.

I came across this story the other day of Internet startup Kiko, that offered an online calendar. After the owner called it a day and sold all of his assets on eBay. He followed up that dramatic action with a few thoughts about what went wrong and lessons learned:

Stay Focused. Most entrepreneurs have lots of ideas. Often times, many of them may be really good. I don’t know about you, but my favorite part about startups is talking about new products and new business ideas. If you’re a creative person, it’s very easy to get side-tracked on side ideas when you really should be working on your main one. This is bad. Bad, bad, bad. We did this a lot with Kiko, and it caused many delays in getting the product out the door.

I also found his advice about work-life balance close to my heart. I’ve often written about the importance of organizing your space, but seeing what happens when things aren’t optimized can be a wake-up call:

Make an environment where you will be productive. Working from home can be convenient, but often times will be much less productive than a separate space. Also its a good idea to have separate spaces so you’ll have some work/life balance.

Passion will get you started and help you get through rough periods, but the lesson here is to channel that energy to the business needs of the time.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

I’ve often talked about the importance of outsourcing tasks that you can’t do on your own to make sure you have time to focus on what you love about your business. But how do you do that? Many business owners have only a basic understanding of best practices when it comes to hiring good people.

A little while back, I got some great tips in this area from Vertical Bridge Corporate Consulting managing partner Sandra Reder. She had these ideas for how to conduct an effective hiring process:

1. Placing the advertisement on various job boards, website and possibly in print media

2. Receiving resumes (these days it can be anywhere from 75 to 150 resumes for one position)

3. Screening resumes to the job description and short-listing the suitable candidates

 4. Pre-qualifying calls to the short-listed candidates to see how they communicate, as well as to confirm some basic details about them

5. Possibly doing a more in-depth pre-screen on the phone to find out more about their past work experience before bringing them in for face-to-face interviews

My good friends at Clear HR Consulting also had some good advice about hiring, particularly in developing job descriptions and matching qualifications to your requirements, in one of their recent newsletters. I really liked this bit:

 Be specific about the qualifications, skills and experience required.

 * Consider requirements for education, work experience, technical skills and soft skills.

* Be specific about what qualifications the successful candidate must have. One of the biggest job description mistakes is listing vague & non-specific qualifications.

* Specify to what degree the candidate needs to possess the skills you require. For instance, if you need someone who needs to be able to do heavy lifting, specify the weight they need to be able to comfortably lift.

 * Include the level of education that needs to have been attained (e.g. grade 12, undergraduate degree in Science, P. Eng).

 * For “soft” skills that you require (e.g. organizational skills, communication skills), specify how strong their skills need to be or what they need to apply their skills towards. For example, “Good communication skills” can be improved by saying “Proven communication skills resolving customer complaints”.

 Remember, channeling your passion for business isn’t just about focusing your own activities. Hiring right and delegating will let you out-task certain responsibilities while you can concentrate on your own area of interest.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

A lot of the web tools we use for marketing purposes or just for fun can also be used to help us collaborate better in our work.

For instance, if you’ve ever tried drafting a document with two or more people, you’ll understand the frustrations of using email to send drafts back and forth. Is this the latest draft? Who made these changes? How do I get rid of all of this markup?

One alternative is Google Docs, which allows all invited users access to the same document, which they can look at and edit all at the same time.

Cell phones are also rapidly becoming mobile computing devices with tons of capabilities. If you’ve got an iPhone or a device with recording capabilities, consider recording a voice memo and sending the recording off to your teammates with just two more clicks.

Apps like Tweetdeck can also act as mobile group messaging devices on the fly. Take five minutes to create Twitter accounts (if you don’t already have them), create a work group on Tweetdeck and download the application to your phone. Now you’ve got a quick messaging platform that can also be used to share links and pictures.

With more teams working remotely than ever before, technology is awfully useful for helping people collaborate in new and practical ways. Experiment a little and you’ll find even more tools and tricks to keep your group in sync.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

We don’t always appreciate what we have, whether at home or at work. That angst that fights against complacency is actually a good thing – the sense that the grass is always greener on the other side is what makes us jump into new opportunities. That said, making a team work together with real synergy is not an everyday feat. Learn to spot the successes in your collaborations, so you can replicate that synergy elsewhere.

Does your team actually seem to enjoy working with each other? Happy people are productive people. If you find yourself actually looking forward to seeing the people at your office every day – well, that’s no small thing.

Then there’s the skill set. With an optimal balance where everyone is assigned tasks and workload according to their talents rather than which person has the smallest stack of projects on their desk, you’ll get real productivity.

Next, look at how your group talks to each other. If discussions are fluid, with plenty of back and forth, engaging ideas, and everybody listening to what other team members are saying, you’ve got something special. Far too many groups are dominated by someone with a forceful personality rather than expertise in all areas that the team has to work in. Freedom of speech and thought are not just good for civil society – they make businesses work better.

If you do recognize your team is functioning very well, analyze what it is about this group that works well. Often, it is based on good habits rather than some innate ability to work well with others. Try to transfer these habits to your other collaborative activities and watch your successes add up.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca