Back in 2010, Greg wrote an article about his experience purchasing software from MacHeist, called “Build the Ark Before the Flood”. His experience with developers who sold their software through MacHeist had not always been great – mainly because they clearly weren’t prepared for the volume of support requests that were going to come their way.

A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to be on the other side of the MacHeist fence – our app, Clarify, was featured as part of the MacHeist NanoBundle 3. It was our chance to really put to test the support processes we have established over the last couple of years.

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I was looking at a recent bundle from StackSocial and was just about to purchase it so that I could get one product – but before I made the plunge, I wanted to read some reviews to see what others were saying.

Some reviews said that the program crashed all the time. Okay, that’s a problem, but it’s not a huge issue because bug fixes come out all of the time and that matter could quickly be resolved. But then I saw another review that sort of caught my attention – “Beware of any company that has this level of service (none).”

Oh my! Well, one review can be ignored, right? But then I saw another review – “You will never get any support.” And then another… and another.

Well… that did it for me. I don’t really have time to work with an application that doesn’t have any support.

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Somebody approached me the other day asking for some assistance with creating documentation for internal procedures and processes. I asked why they wanted to start documenting, and the answer was very interesting.

“I’ve already been burned twice – I don’t want to get burned again.”

After some explanation, I learned that on two occasions, key employees had left somewhat hastily – along with them went all of the operational knowledge for doing their job.

Hiring a replacement was almost impossible because nobody knew what the replacement would do – so before anybody could be hired, the individual I was speaking with had to figure it out from scratch… twice.

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Spring is in the air! The weather is warm, the flowers are in bloom, and my allergies are driving me nuts!

Despite my allergies, I love this time of year because it’s full of hours by the pool, food off the grill, and one or two vacations.

Although… you know what I’ve been noticing the last few years? More often than not, I end up having to do work during my time away from work!

And that’s no good. A vacation is no vacation if I’m accompanied by office tasks and responsibilities everywhere I go!

So even though the trend seems to be leaning more and more to making vacations workactions, I’m not accepting that fate. And frankly, neither should you! To help you take a real vacation this Spring or Summer, I’ve outlined 7 steps that will prepare you to make it happen.

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Nobody can build and grow a successful business alone – we all need help. But knowing that fact isn’t going to solve anything – you have to do something about it!

In my last article, I showed you how to get started with oDesk (one of many great websites for out-tasking). So now that you have your account, I’m going to help you start out-tasking and/or outsourcing your work.

Today’s article is going to show you 5 steps that will help you filter through your tasks and identify which activities need to be done by you, and which activities you can start delegating to somebody else.

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Feeling overwhelmed with work is an awful sensation. It’s that same feeling I got when I had a huge project at school due the next day, and I was just getting started the night before. Kind of sick to my stomach, light headed, ready to cry at any moment, etc.

But there’s a huge difference between feeling overwhelmed at work and feeling overwhelmed when you were in school – in school you had to push forward and do all your work yourself until it was done. Now – you can just pay somebody else to do your work for you!

So why don’t you?

Not only will you feel a huge sense of relief once you begin offloading jobs to somebody else, but you’ll be able to focus on doing the jobs that only you can do! And that’s the key to growing your business – handing off the mechanics so that you can focus on the core of your business.

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A few years ago, a professor of mine was driving down a country road, when all of a sudden a deer jumped out of nowhere, and landed right in front of the car.

And then lay motionless in front of the car.

My professor was puzzled why a deer would try to cross the road right at the moment he was passing – no cars in front of him, no cars behind him.

If only that deer had been a little more patient, it would still be alive today!

So my professor decided to do some research and figure out why the deer had such poor judgment when it came to crossing the road. What he found was very surprising – turns out that deer aren’t necessarily dumb creatures, they’re just creatures of habit. And that habit will save them in one situation, and kill them in another.

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Often times, when we’re not in the mood to deal with reality, we place ourselves in the imaginary situation of having a million dollars. But what if that became a reality? Do you know how you would spend it all?

The band, Barenaked Ladies, had some ideas – they would buy a fur coat, get some fancy furniture, build a tree-fort (fridge included), acquire a llama, eat Kraft dinners, and ride around in a limousine.

So, would your expenditure list look similar to their list – a bunch of random, non-essential luxuries? Or do you know exactly how you would use the money to reach your goals, complete your projects, and accomplish your strategy?

Do you have a plan?

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Thousands of organizations and teams use SharePoint to manage their knowledge bases – but that is a mistake.

It’s not a mistake because SharePoint is a bad tool; on the contrary, it can practically do everything! But, not everybody knows what they want it to do, or how they want to use it – so it just ends up being a shared drive where PDFs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations dwell – all the while, gathering cyber dust and not being helpful to anyone.

If you’re trying to build an actionable knowledge base, this just won’t cut it.

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For the past month I’ve been writing about how to create a turnkey business, emphasizing the benefits of being able to grow your business and expand your team. But I haven’t really highlighted how a turnkey business prepares your team for one of the biggest risks that your organization faces – employee turnover.

Many folks misunderstand the risk their teams and organizations face when it comes to employee turnover. I’ve spoken to some business owners who have the idea that they can “get by without so and so” and that “everybody is replaceable.” While it’s true that your employees are replaceable, your team will still incur a cost as a result of somebody’s departure.

Even when organizations understand the negative consequences of employee turnover, they tend to focus more of their attention on preventing employees from leaving instead of preparing for their departure.

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