Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
by Beth Ewen Steve McFarland runs a technology consulting firm, Orbit Systems Inc. in Eagan, which will hit about $6.5 million in sales this year, up from $5 million last year. So it was surprising to hear him talk at first about etiquette — not software, tools and gizmos — when the subject was how small companies can handle their flood of e-mail. Simple, low-tech steps can help, he says. Oh, and he eventually described some neat gadgets to boost personal productivity, too.
Upsize: Is e-mail overload causing problems at your small-business clients?
Steve McFarland: It’s affecting them a lot. Remember when we were in school they taught us about what proper phone etiquette is? In some businesses e-mail is the primary way to communicate. It’s a huge problem from the basics of etiquette, to dealing with the firehose of information that’s coming in your office.
Upsize: The problem is e-mail etiquette?
McFarland: I don’t think people have thought about etiquette. They talk about the Internet as being open and free. There is a proper way to use e-mail. There should be a proper greeting, a proper close, a proper structure. People should use spell-check before they send.
Upsize: Do those things really matter?
McFarland: It’s different when you’re in a conversation on the phone. There’s no record of your conversation. You can make faux pas on the phone. With e-mail there’s a written record. What you write could be around forever.
Upsize: So what can companies do about this?
McFarland: You have so much e-mail coming at you. You have to look at, one, getting rid of all the stuff that’s junk, and two, how do you act on what you need to act on?
Clients don’t understand how to file things. It’s not unusual for people to have 1,000 or 2,000 things in their in box.
Upsize: Oh, no. Have you been looking at my in box?
McFarland: Let’s say you have just 10 things in your in box. You’re going to keep opening up that, and looking at the subject line. Now multiply that by 100. First we teach them how to process information and how to file it.
We show them how to set up electronic folders the same way as they set up other folders. Everyone thinks of things differently. If you go in my office and pull out a cabinet drawer, it’s the same folder setup as my electronic system. It’s natural to me.
So, when I get an e-mail, do I take action or do I file it into Task? We use Microsoft Outlook, and it’s a positive tool. There are a lot of other programs, of course, but the Task function is helpful with Outlook. Every time you open an e-mail you can assign the task. You can think, who can I delegate this to? When they update a task you’re automatically notified.
I can always keep my in box to a minimum so I can stop churning.
Upsize: The solutions can’t all be this low-tech and simple.
McFarland: The other part of survival is technical, to have really good spam filters, anti-virus protection, spyware protection. It’s an advantage you get by outsourcing.
Upsize: I would expect you to recommend outsourcing, because that’s what your company does. How should a business owner decide the best option, when there are so many choices to deal with spam and viruses?
McFarland: Look at it in simple business terms. Everybody has e-mail now, and it’s becoming more of a distraction. What business are you in, and how critical is e-mail to your business, and is it so critical that outsourcing it would eliminate a competitive advantage? If the answer is yes, don’t outsource. Otherwise, it’s a mathematical equation. The soft benefit is if I can get that monkey off my back, how much more productive can we be?
E-mail is more widely accepted for outsourcing now. It’s less expensive to outsource than before and the headaches grow all the time.
A couple other survival techniques: One, shutting off your e-mail notification. Every time they hear the ding, employees check. Two, not having your default be your e-mail page. You’ll focus on e-mail … and it creates an unproductive culture.
Upsize: It’s interesting that you mention culture. E-mail has changed how I deal with story pitches, which is like a vendor calling me. I used to go through the mail once a day; now I find myself reading those as they come in and feeling the need to respond right then.
McFarland: It’s a bad habit to get into, and a bad expectation to set. People respond right away and go back and forth.
Upsize: And congratulate themselves on how responsive they are.
McFarland: They’re fooling themselves in thinking they’re being productive. Your job is a perfect example. When you’re in the flow of writing an article, if someone shows up and interrupts, how hard is it to get the flow back?
How often do you get snail mail? Once a day. Deal with e-mail once or twice a day. Our clients see their productivity go way up when they do this.
Upsize: Well, this is all very low-tech and simple. There must be more.
McFarland: Now let’s look at personal productivity. We’re having clients come in now for demos on unified messaging, using IP telephony, which is voice and data integration.
When someone leaves me a voice-mail now, it goes in my data box. When I’m on the road, I can call on my cell phone. It will say, do I want to get the message in e-mail or voice-mail? I can have the e-mails read to me; I can respond with voice and it will go to you in an e-mail. It allows you to put all your messages in one place.
Upsize: How does that help increase productivity?
McFarland: I can now process my e-mail without having my tablet with me, my laptop with me, or if I’m stuck in an airport.
The other way it helps, if you’re in your office, and you have your phone send all the messages, I don’t get interrupted. Using my caller ID, I can tell who called. I can see Beth called, and I take that. Or, I get a lot of calls right now from people who want us to buy real estate, so I can delete those.
Upsize: I’m glad to see you’ve got your call-taking priorities straight. How much does this cost?
McFarland: Unified messaging is typically less than what you’d pay for a new phone system.
Do you listen to Future Tense on public radio? They’re always demonstrating Voice-over-Internet Protocol, and the calls are always dropping or it’s not working. This is the same technology but it’s not over the Internet. The technology today, with IP telephony, is such that you can control it on your computer network.
Upsize: What you’re saying is exactly the problem for technology buyers. One person tells them Voice-over-Internet Protocol is great and they should buy it. You say it’s not quite there yet, and they should go the IP telephony route instead. How can a buyer decide?
McFarland: We say, let’s look at the benefits of the technology. This is what it costs to upgrade, and this is what it costs to stay. We’ll recommend that they stay with what they have if the benefits aren’t there.
Upsize: So buyers should do a simple cost/benefit analysis.
McFarland: Many business owners don’t look at IT as a key component of their business as much as a necessary evil. They might just throw money at something.
They don’t do that with their accountant. They don’t understand every tax implication of every transaction, but they don’t just go, ‘Here, spend whatever you want to take care of it.’ ”
[contact] Steve McFarland is president of Orbit Systems Inc. in Eagan: 651.767.3321; sj*********@****ts.net; www.orbits.net
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