The story is quite similar for CPA’s, architects, medical doctors, or any securities representative such as stock brokers, financial planners, etc. Much of the behavioral track these professionals run on is pretty well spelled out for them. Not that the members of these groups need to be led or coerced into good professional behavior. It’s just that, when in doubt, they have published guidelines with which to refer.

Small business owners operate in the same marketplace as the so-called professionals. Indeed, they are often our clients and customers. We serve the same businesses and consumers as other professionals, plus we enter into similar relationships, contracts and agreements. And we often find ourselves perched precariously on the same horns-of-a-dilemma as other professionals. But here’s the difference: The Universal Small Business Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics doesn’t exist.

Small business owners, like all humans, ultimately behave according to their own moral compass, sense of fair play and inclination to deal in good faith. When we find ourselves in a quandary over how to respond to a difficult situation with a customer that is in the gray area of a contract, we’re on our own. When we are faced with an ethical issue that would challenge King Solomon, there is no sanctioning body or support group to dial up, or to whom we can email a “scenario.”

There are many ancient codes small business owners can turn to for behavioral guidance in the marketplace, such as the last three of the Ten Commandments. But in terms of a handy guide, I think philosopher and 1957 Nobel Prize winner for literature, Albert Camus, may have given us the best ethical vector when he wrote, “Integrity has no need of rules.”

Wise small business owners know that life is much simpler, and exceedingly more rewarding, when we just do the right thing.

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Back in September I wrote about the Small Business Code of Ethics and received great feedback from colleagues and small business owners. Check out the article below and let me know what you think.

Observing the Small Business Code of Ethics

You’ll never hear me minimize doing due diligence on your entrepreneurial dream. Indeed, an entrepreneur’s hunch without some foundation is like a belt without belt loops. Still, there will come a time when an entrepreneur must take action without all the answers.

And in the not knowing, but going forward anyway, we find the quark of entrepreneurship and the paradoxical twin emotions, apprehension and exhilaration.

These emotions presage possibility: Might be good, might not be; might be successful, might be a train wreck. And contemplating either possibility produces the headrush entrepreneurs get the moment they risk what they know for what they might learn.

The best way to manage these emotions is a two-step process. First, believe in your own ability to take the next step. This confidence comes from gaining knowledge and experience, plus the perspectives of others – like a mentor – who have already been where you want to go.

If you’re having difficulty finding this confidence perhaps your subconscious is sending a message that you have more work to do before you take that next step. But if your credentials and preparation are reasonable and you’re still lacking confidence, perhaps it’s time to risk what you know for what you might learn. And that leads us to the second step, which is about faith.

Faith is defined as a belief in something unseen. You must have faith in yourself to handle future plans. You must have faith that your plans will be flexible enough to deal with the unknown. And you must also have faith in one more thing which may surprise you – serendipity.

My friend, Jim Ballard, author of “Mind Like Water,” says serendipity is “a meaningful coincidence.” Jim thinks the more we expect serendipity the more of it we will find. I think business serendipity is good fortune that happens when you show up in the marketplace with your plan, preparation and faith – every day.

Always research the risk you’re taking, believe in yourself and what you’re creating, and have faith that something good will come from your commitment. But when you take the next risk, be prepared for the possibility that what you get for your efforts might not be what you expect, and for the possibility that this is a good thing.

Expect serendipity whenever you risk what you know for what you might learn.

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Be sure to check out Jim Ballard’s page linked below. Jim Ballard is a management consultant, leadership trainer, motivational speaker, and consulting partner with the Ken Blanchard Companies, and author of What’s the Rush? He founded Maudala Press, a direct-mail educational publishing firm, and wrote a series of children’s books and books for teachers on humanistic education.

Click here to see Jim Ballard’s latest interviews and books

Recently we asked our online audience if they were financially prepared for an interruption with this question: “Could your business handle the financial impact of a business interruption?” Almost one-fifth said they, “… have cash and business interruption insurance if we need it,” and a little more than one-third reported they had “…cash and credit if we need it.” The other half admitted, “We would be hurting if it lasted more than a few days.”

There are three kinds of interruption preparation to focus on: operational, financial and digital. Here are examples of how to manage all three:

Operational
What would you do if your building became unavailable to you or your customers?

1. Use laptops that allow key employees to work and connect remotely, both internally and with customers. And make sure they have high-speed Internet connections at home.
2. Identify and become proficient with cloud-based applications that serve as an alternative for any installed programs that may be lost.

Financial
A significant part of the working capital of most small businesses is from cash flow. What would happen if your cash flow was interrupted?

1. Purchase a “business interruption” rider on your property and casualty policy to pay you cash upon the acceptance of a claim. Read the fine print; all policies are not created equal.
2. Maintain a close working relationship with your banker so you won’t have to introduce yourself to the person you might ask for a disaster loan.

Digital
Small businesses are increasingly using digital assets more and physical assets less. Are you prepared to protect your data as diligently as you do your building, equipment and inventory?

1. Assign one person to be in charge of keeping all computers enabled with a proven firewall and anti-malware program, and keep them current.
2. Regularly copy critical data from your hard drives and store it offsite. Better yet, backup your date with one of the cloud-based backup and recovery firms. Search for “online data backup.”

Business interruption – it’s a matter of when, not if.

38% - We’re seeing an improving economy for the next few months.

50% - We expecting our economy to maintain the current level this summer.

3% - We’re forecasting a sales decline from recent business conditions.

9% - Our business has been down and we don’t see improvement soon.

My Comments:
As you can see, less than four of ten of the respondents to our poll last week are expecting the economy to pick up over the summer. The rest, 62%, think business through the summer will be no better or worse than the recent past.

It’s almost four years since the technical end of the Great Recession and the U.S. Main Street economy is still limping along. When considering the awesome entrepreneurial energy that is pent up in America today, one has to wonder what could cause this. In an upcoming Feature Article I’ll answer this question and challenge those who can solve the problem. Stay tuned.

Someone once told me that you can’t be an effective leader without first knowing how to follow. In his book, Moses: CEO, my friend, Robert Dilenschneider says, “Leading and following are opposite sides of the same coin.” What an interesting paradoxical metaphor: Opposites indeed, but one can’t exist without the other. Being a leader takes more than just wanting to lead. In the marketplace, you can only be a leader if you can get others to follow you.

No matter the size of a small business, there will always be more things to do than people to do them; everyone must wear several hats. You can’t drive people to wear extra hats, but you can lead them to do it. This means that leadership is an especially essential characteristic for a small business owner to have.

Napoleon once said, “A soldier will fight long and hard for a piece of colored ribbon.” But only a leader who understands the heart of a follower can convince the soldier that the ribbon is worth fighting for.

If you want to be a successful small business owner, make sure you know and understand both sides of the leadership “coin”. Then line up your troops, put your ribbon out in front and lead them into battle.

What’s the difference between success and achieve? Webster is unable to define either word without the other.

If there’s no difference, why don’t we use achieve more to describe wealth, fame, status, credentials, etc.? Perhaps it’s because success is a noun and achieve is a verb, and nouns are handier than verbs.

But grammar isn’t the only reason success is more popular. Even achievement, the noun cousin of achieve, isn’t as preferred when describing accomplishment.

Perhaps early on, success just had better PR than achievement. Today success is synonymous with celebrating at the finish line, holding the trophy or the check, while achievement has more of a work and effort connotation. But don’t you have more memories of the journey of work and effort toward your goals than of the high fives at the end?

Legendary actress, Helen Hayes (1900-1993), said, “Always strive for achievement; forget about success.” But are there benefits to focusing more on the virtues of achievement? My friend, Dr. Gene Griessman says there are.

In his audiotape, “The Path to High Achievement,” Griessman identifies common characteristics of high achievement and how they’re in evidence long before anyone flourishes a checkered flag. Here are five of those characteristics, each followed by my thoughts.

1. The power of self-knowledge.
Knowing your strengths and weaknesses may be the most important characteristic to seeking excellence. High achievers regularly critique themselves and make adjustments.

2. Time consciousness.
Like soybeans or gold, time is a commodity. And although not traded in any market, any billionaire will tell you that time is more precious than gold. High achievers don’t waste time.

3. Persistence.
Stick-to-itiveness is a real word and a handy noun coined in 1884, meaning dogged perseverance. High achievers personify stick-to-itiveness.

4. The power of decision.
Indecision is the Kryptonite of achievement. History has shown that an army with a poor battle plan boldly executed can defeat a greater force tentatively deployed.

5. Learn from mistakes.
No one likes failure, but high achievers recognize the value of setbacks and actually leverage them in the quest for excellence. Failure is the abiding harness mate of achievement, and high-achievers expect to always be hitched to both.

No one lives their life in the winner’s circle. Strive for success, but focus on achievement.

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Check out my latest segment on The Small Business Advocate® Show about why achievement isn’t used to describe accomplishment more than success? I talk about the similarity and differences between success and achievement, and to recommend thinking more about the latter. Click the link below to listen!

Offering evidence in praise of achievement

Billy Joel is a pretty fair musician and singer, but he’s a world-class songwriter. He and I wereborn on the same day, so perhaps that’s why I like his words. One of my favorite Joel lyrics is from the song, “Second Wind,” “You’re not the only one who’s made mistakes, but they’re the only things that you can truly call your own.”

We’re not likely to learn much when we succeed because we think it’s a result of our being so smart. Who wants to think about lessons when there’s so much self-congratulating to do, right?

When we fail, we have more time to reflect on what happened because there’s less celebrating. Use the time wisely; don’t wallow around feeling sorry for yourself. Claim your failures. Remember what Billy said, “… they’re the only thing that you can truly call your own.”

All of the great minds of history were well acquainted with failure. There are so many examples of world-changing discoveries that resulted from perseverance in the ace of bitter, demoralizing failures. Thomas Edison is said to have observed that, “Failure is successfully identifying what doesn’t work.” What if your last failure is actually a discovery of something that no one else knows?

In one of my favorite books, The Words Lincoln Lived By, by my friend, Gene Griessman, I found this Lincoln quote on adversity, “I find quite as much materials for a lecture in those points wherein I have failed, as in those wherein I have been moderately successful.”

So, it’s official: You learn more from your failures than from your successes. And if you don’t believe me and Billy, you have to believe Honest Abe.

I’ll leave you with the chorus to Billy’s song. “Don’t forget your second wind. Sooner or later you’ll feel that momentum kick in.” Think of these words next time you fail.

The Question:
How much outsourcing of tasks (payroll, accounting, web development, etc.) do you do?

24% - We outsource anything we can that isn’t our core competency.

39% - We do some outsourcing and expect to do more.

17% - We haven’t done any outsourcing but probably should.

20% - We don’t outsource and don’t plan to.

My Comments:
One of the most powerful and important small business management practices of the past generation is outsourcing: contracting with another person or company to perform certain tasks your business needs but is not good at. You should focus on your core competencies - usually whatever touches customers - and let someone else perform the non-core competency tasks.

As you can see from our responses to this week’s online poll, 63% are doing at least some outsourcing. I’m extremely pleased to see these numbers, but more than one-third are still MIA as outsourcers. This will change in time.

I’ll have more to say about outsourcing in an upcoming Feature Article, including the difference between internal and external outsourcing. Stay tuned and thanks for participating.

During a recent segment on The Small Business Advocate® Show I explain how outsourcing could help make you business run more efficiently. Click the link below to listen.

Use outsourcing to get that last drop of operating efficiency

18% - We have cash and business interruption insurance if we need it.

35% - We have cash and credit if we need it.

47% - We would be hurting if it lasted more than a few days.

0% - We could not survive a multiple day business interruption.

My Comments:
Last week, in light of the essential lockdown of Boston due to the Marathon bombings, we asked our online audience about their emergency financial preparedness. As you can see above, over half of our respondents felt they would have the financial foundation to weather an interruption. Even the rest were only worried about a prolonged interruption of more than a few days. And I’m happy to report, no one said they could not survive a multiple day business interruption.

There are two kinds of business interruption preparedness to work on: physical and financial. I’m going to have more to say on this topic in my Feature Article next week, including preparation suggestions. Thanks for your participation.

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Be sure to check out two interviews from The Small Business Advocate® Show with Jeff Zbar about emergency preparedness within your small business. Jeff and I discuss things you and your business need to do in case of emergencies.

Is your small business prepared for a disaster? with Jeff Zbar

Small business emergency plan. with Jeff Zbar

It simply is not in an entrepreneur’s DNA to wait for the world to bring him or her things. Entrepreneurs bring things to the world.

But having said this, entrepreneurs who enjoy long-term success have learned entrepreneurial patience. Even the most impatient entrepreneurial farmer understands that a corn harvest doesn’t take place until after the seeds are planted, the plants nurtured and a certain amount of time has passed.

Having entrepreneurial patience means knowing the difference between wasting time and energy and investing time and energy. Successful entrepreneurs are impatient about steps in a process — getting the seed, planting the seed, cultivating the plants, etc. — but not about accomplishing the ultimate goal of harvesting the result of the process.

One of the most prominent guarantees of failure in business is not understanding the simple wisdom of Renaissance author and father of deductive reasoning, Sir Francis Bacon, who said, “In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business and so ripen it by degrees.”

When you see someone trying to “sow and reap at once,” you’re witnessing failure waiting to happen. The only thing left to be determined is whether this failure will become a valuable lesson in entrepreneurial patience, or a bitter experience.

Whether in the field or in the marketplace, all endeavors are subject to natural laws, like the time it takes for a seed, or a project, to germinate and produce fruit. Successful entrepreneurs understand this and have learned how to employ their impatience prudently, as leverage for success.

Impatience is often synonymous with failure; entrepreneurial patience is usually synonymous with success.

One of the most intuitive ways to think about the experience of small business owners as they start, run and grow their businesses is to compare it to raising a teenager.

A small business is like a teenager in two ways: 1) You always love it, but you don’t always like it;and 2) it always has its hand out for more money. And never is the second example truer than when you should be funding a retirement plan separate from future expectations from company assets.

As in the past, we recently polled small business owners again about retirement planning with this question: “Will you contribute to a qualified retirement plan this year?” We learned that 42% of our respondents are funding a plan, but the other 58% either aren’t able to fund their plan or don’t have one. By the way, these percentages have not improved since the last survey.

There are three reasons why small business owners don’t fund a retirement plan:

1. The business never achieves the financial critical mass necessary for the owner to carve out the income to fund a plan. This is true for too many small businesses.
2. They convince themselves that the business will provide for them in retirement, which is handy when you’re trying to justify paying the business first. Sometimes this works out, but sadly, most of the time it doesn’t.
3. They never get started budgeting for a retirement contribution.

There are many ways the federal government hinders small businesses, but providing pre-tax retirement programs is not one of them. Indeed, there are several qualified plans that allow a small business owner to provide for their own retirement with tax-deferred contributions. Plus several include setting employees up on the same plan for their benefit while helping you attract better employees and keep them.

Here’s a partial list of prominent plans that cover most small businesses: The traditional Individual Retirement Account (IRA) is about to turn 40. The Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) and the Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE) both include employee participation, as does the traditional 401k.

Be sure to check with a qualified retirement advisor to see which one is best for you. Also, IRS.gov has extensive resources that will educate you.

You might sell your business for a lot of money one day, but just in case, take advantage of one of the tax-deferred retirement plans.

Make the commitment; budget for and start funding a retirement plan this year.

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This week on The Small Business Advocate Show® I reveal even more challenges that small business owners face when planning for retirement. Click the link below to listen to the segment.

Three reasons small business owners don’t plan for retirement

Cogito ergo sum. French philosopher Rene Descartes proposed this idea in 1637, which translates to “I think, therefore I am.” Certainly the power of abstract thought is what separates humans from other animals.

Anthropologists now believe Homo sapiens succeeded, unlike other members of the genus Homo, Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon for example, because our brains had a greater capacity for speech and language. Today Descartes might have modified his philosophy to “I think and speak, therefore I am.”

In “Wealth of Nations,” Adam Smith proposed the written word as one of the three great human inventions. But long before humans were writing we were telling stories. And these stories – told, memorized and retold over millennia – became the headwaters of human development. We humans love to tell stories almost as much as we love to listen to them.

Another thing that’s older than writing is the marketplace. Long before Madison Avenue ad copy, merchants were verbalizing the value and benefits of their wares. Surely early business storytelling was the origin of modern selling skills.

In 1965, Intel’s co-founder Gordon Moore made an observation that became Moore’s Law: “Computer processing power doubles every two years.” But in his 1982 watershed book “Megatrends,” futurist John Naisbitt posed this paradoxical prophecy: “The more high tech we create, the more high touch we will want.”

So what does all of this mean? It means that in a time of rapidly compounding technology generations, the most successful businesses will consistently deliver high touch to customers with one of our oldest traits – the telling of a story. Here is Blasingame’s Three Cs of Business Storytelling:

Connect – Use stories to connect with prospects and convert them into customers.

Convey – Use stories to convey your expertise, relevance, humanity and values.

Create – Use stories to create customer memories that compel them to come back.

Storytelling is humanity in words. And since small businesses are the face and voice of humanity in the marketplace, we have a great advantage in the Age of the Customer. No market sector can execute the Three Cs of Business Storytelling to evoke powerful human feelings more than small businesses.

And regardless of how they’re delivered, stories don’t have to be long. I just told you five different ones in the first half of this article.

The Holy Grail of storytelling is when someone else tells your business’s story to others.

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On The Small Business Advocate® Show I recently talked about growing your small business with the power of storytelling. My segment dives deeper into the topic of maximizing the growth of your business. Click the link below to listen.

Grow your business with the power of storytelling - with Jim Blasingame

But the marketplace isn’t a comfortable, lumbering vessel anymore, rolling along like a single screw trawler. It’s become more like a vibrant starship capable of warp speed. Indeed, it takes a much more knowledgeable person to successfully operate a business in today’s marketplace than it did even 10 years ago.

The great American revolutionary and legendary wordsmith, Thomas Paine, said, “I have seldompassed five minutes of my life, however circumstanced, in which I did not acquire some knowledge.” This from a corset maker who dropped out of school at 13.

You can’t anticipate everything, so react when you must. The business of the day, obviously, must be attended to. And what will you have tomorrow if you don’t plan for it?

But however circumstanced, before you succumb to the human tendency to rest on your laurels, make it part of your daily tasks to acquire some knowledge.

Make it your daily intention to learn something new that might help you react more effectively, operate more profitably, and plan more intelligently.

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My website www.SmallBusinessAdvocate.com was created for small business owners just like you. With daily articles and interviews with my Brain Trust members you are sure to find effective ways to help your small business grow.

24% - I have funded an IRA for the 2012 tax year

18% - I have, or will contribute to, a 401K, Simple Plan, SEP, etc.

15% - I have established a plan, but can’t fund it for the 2012 tax year

42% - I don’t have a qualified plan, nor can I fund one right now

My Comments:
In past years we’ve polled small business owners about their retirement funding ability, as we did again last week with this question: “Will you fund a contribution to a qualified retirement plan that’s deductible on your 2012 tax return?” As you can see, unfortunately more than half of small business owners are not able to fund a retirement plan outside of the business.

In next week’s Feature Article, I’m going to have more to say about this and reveal some of the ways the government encourages and actually contributes to retirement planning. Stay tuned.

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Check out my recent interviews on The Small Business Advocate® Show with John Graves about small business retirement tools and the Baby Boomer generation?

What are the best small business retirement tools?

Are Baby Boomers really good savers?

30% - Already filed our 2012 return

31% - Will file by the April 15 deadline

39% - Will file an extension

My Comments:
When you’re an employee filing an individual tax return, most people get theirs done within a few days of receiving their W-2, 1099s and possibly K-1s.

When you become a business owner - especially as your business becomes larger - the tax preparation and filing process becomes more complicated, and therefore takes longer. Consequently, the ability to file an extension to push your personal tax filing date to October 15 can come in handy.

We wanted to know how small business owners are handling the April 15 tax-filing deadline. (Actually, it should be called a softline, since you can get automatic permission to extend for six months.) As you can see from the poll results below, a little more than 60% have met, or plan to meet, the Ides of April filing date, with the rest filing an extension.

Frankly, I’m surprised the extension filers were not more. I can’t remember when I didn’t file an extension. Unlike in the old days, when you had to write in and ask for permission, today you just go to IRS.gov, fill out form 4868 online, hit enter and ba-da-bing ba-da-bam, the new tax filing date for your personal income tax return is October 15.

But remember, this extension is only for filing, not for paying taxes. If you owe taxes for last year - even if you don’t know how much - you have to make a good-faith estimate and send it in by April 15.

Finally, I recommend you do what I do: Talk to a tax professional and let them advise you on any filing and tax paying.

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Listen to my latest interviews with Peter Sepp on The Small Business Advocate Show. Peter is the Vice President for Communications of the National Taxpayers Union.

The tax code is requiring more time from small businesses with Peter Sepp

U.S. income tax compliance costs businesses 6.7 billion hours with Peter Sepp

Looking forward to Tax Freedom Day with Peter Sepp