Tracking your time

Thank you all for attending and for continuing to work on your business plans. Kudos to Juan for turning in a draft of the budget for his business plan, to Magdalena for furthering her catering experience by organizing this event, and to others for sharing treats and camaraderie.

We were honored by the excellent, practical and openhearted advice given by Veronica LaCrue, our speaker. One of her key points is the importance of tracking how you spend your time so that you will know how many hours you have to devote to growing your business, and so you will be able to answer questions from a potential investor about what you do and what results you produce. You need to know what the categories are on which you spend time, e.g., management, training, sales, performing a service, etc., and to think about whether you should reduce the time in one area and increase it in another. She also advised that an entrepreneur needs to know this information regarding employees; there are many uses for this information, such as making sure your resources are being spent properly, understanding where an employee needs more training, and being able to estimate and bill a job correctly.

One of Veronica's earliest jobs was as a telemarketer, where she learned from experience that success is to a large extent a numbers game. If you want more sales, you must make more calls, even though it may be hard to do. She and others in business understand that, for example, if you need more clients and make 50 calls, perhaps you will have a chance to talk with 25 of them. perhaps 7 or 8 will be interested in what you have to say and 2-3 of these will give you an appointment and possibly even a sale. You have to avoid getting discouraged and just go on to the next call.

One of her best abilities is recognizing her own skills and building upon them. Despite lacking a formal higher education when she first started her business, she had learned that she was good at telemarketing and knew what it took to become a success in that business. So she contacted small businesses and offered to help them set up telemarketing programs. She parlayed a relatively low-wage position into the role of a highly paid marketing and management consultant. To do this required confidence and determination, as well as constant evolution of her business to meet the changing needs of the marketplace.

We are grateful that Veronica included our class in the time she volunteers to help the community.

During the class, we also did a role play in which everyone acted as if we were friends and potential investors as Efrain presented a case to the rest of us as to why giving him money would be wise. Knowing the market, which competitors are successful and which are not (and why), deciding whether to focus on improving service to existing customers or to risk buying expensive new equipment to move into a new area, and budgeting for immediate and future needs were some of the important topics discussed.

We have only three classes left and we have speakers scheduled between 8 and 9 pm for each. Please make the best use of your time by contacting your mentors or me between classes, and bring written elements of your business plans to discuss with your classmates.

Cinco de Mayo celebration!

photo by Magdalena

The ESL for Professional Life class enjoyed delicious Nepalese treats, as well as those favorite Mexican dishes, pizza and cheesecake! Each student had completed part of a life plan or business plan and was thus eligible to compete for a prize. Four tickets to the Longmont Symphony's mariachi night May 10 were awarded, thanks to Longmont Sister Cities and Dan Benavidez. As you can see from the photo, this is an active group, hardly standing still for a moment. (That's why they succeed!)

Three students have already consulted with their mentors and some have begun their market research with onsite visits.

Class space is generously provided by Intercambio and Casa de la Esperanza.

Tasks and resources for class May 12

Hello, everyone! These links will help you see how much you can learn by using the Internet and the library. Please follow up by contacting at least two of these organizations and send me a note about what you learned. We will discuss it in class next Monday night as we practice English.

I have contacted the Latino Chamber of Commerce, the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, and the Boulder/Longmont Small Business Association seeking assistance, including mentors.

At 8:00 pm, Dan Benavidez, a Longmont leader, will join us to talk about his experience in the community as a businessperson and environmental activist. He founded an export-import business and is on the boards of EcoCycle and the Longmont Symphony. His sister is active in Longmont Sister Cities, a nonprofit that brings teens from a Japanese city and a Mexican city to Longmont and takes Longmont teens there to foster intercultural communication. Dan and Lee generously obtained the tickets to the mariachi event this Saturday night that were awarded in class.

Mary

----------------------------------


Boulder business license:
I Googled "Boulder business license" and found this site: www.ci.boulder.co.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=
view&id=3214&Itemid=1494

Colorado state regulations:
You will also find information at www.revenue.state.co.us/main/home.asp.

Have you been to the Boulder Chamber of Commerce office yet on Folsom? It would probably be a good idea for you to look into their business training program (contact Sharon King at sharon@boulderchamber.com), and also stop by and pick up any information they have for those interested in opening a business in Boulder.
www.boulderchamber.com.

You can also find business data at:

www.longmontchamber.org
www.longmontsba.org
www.infolongmont.com/business/bresources.html

You will find contact information for city, state and federal business-related offices at:
www.infolongmont.com/business/bresources.html#Important

Longmont Economic Gardening Initiative: Any business in Longmont is eligible to participate through a combination of peer counseling, access to research data, data analysis, market analysis, plus competitive and industry intelligence. The initial interview, counseling, research data, and data analysis are free. (Keep trying if you don't get a call back.)
www.ci.longmont.co.us/legi/

Here is a list of businesses that are members of the Latino Chamber of Commerce. Call someone who has the kind of business you are interested in and ask them about it. You might find a mentor!
www.latinochamberbc.org/adm/adming/
listamiembros.php

Here are some more sites found by Googling "export import business":

www.importexporthelp.com/
(see links at bottom of page)

www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/businessideas/
startupkits/article41846.html

Export-Import Bank of the U.S.
www.exim.gov/

The Boulder Public Library has books on the subject:
http://nell.boulder.lib.co.us/search/X?SEARCH=export+import+
business&SORT=D&searchscope=11

Find books on starting a business at the Longmont Public Library. You can Google "Longmont Public Library" and search the catalog for "start a business":
http://library.ci.longmont.co.us

The Boulder County Business Report is an excellent source of information, at the library or online:
www.bcbr.com/

Also see the Boulder Economic Council site at www.boulderbusiness.org/

I Googled "popcorn business" and found several sites, including one about a business plan at www.smallbusinesspoint.com/sbppopcorn.aspx

I found an interview about Doc Popcorn at www.newwest.net/topic/article/an_interview_with_a_colorado_
popcorn_maven/C65/L36/

www.docpopcorn.com/ (franchise opportunities available)

I hope this gives you more to move forward. You really contribute a lot to the class.

Thanks!

Mary

Read everything on this blog and practice word stress

1. By reading the blog, including the archives, you will have a better idea of what will be most helpful to you personally. Call me or Magdalena if you have questions.

2. Practice English every day. Write a note on your Action Steps Chart describing what you did.

• Use the YouTube word stress practice video link on the blog. You can go on to the next sections of the word stress lesson once you feel comfortable. You can search for other ESL (and starting a business) videos at www.youtube.com.
  

• Start conversations with customers, people at the gas station, work, wherever you are -- including at home.

• Ask people about their work. Listen to their word choices and add them to your business vocabulary. Write down useful words on your own word list. Look them up in a dictionary. Write practice sentences. Repeat them three times. Use them in your own conversations.

• Listen to native English speakers closely, whether you are talking to them yourself or you overhear them talking to others. Pay attention to phrasing, word stress and pronunciation. Notice how they use their jaws, tongues, lips and even their eyes and the way they position their heads and bodies to communicate. Make notes to yourself.
  

• Practice with friends and family. Use hand gestures as memory aids for word stress (louder/softer, longer/shorter, higher/lower).

• Do the exercises on the blog.

The Basics of Customer Service

Rule #1: Keep your customers!

In today’s economy—local and national—demand is going down and competing for customers is getting harder.

The most efficient and cost-effective action you can take is to retain the customers you have, and make them so happy with you that they will refer others to you. Reducing customer attrition (loss) “by 5 to 10 percent can increase annual profits by as much as 75 percent, according to a study by The Wharton School.” (The Wharton School is one of the best business institutions in the country, if not the world.)

Customer satisfaction starts when you offer both a trouble-free shopping experience and a smooth business transaction. But you also have to anticipate and meet your customers' wants, not just needs. People often want more than they need, and will not be happy if only their needs are satisfied and not their wants.

Your customers are interested in benefits, not features.

Although you may have the occasional customer who wants to know the details of your new machine or chemistry of your product, most of them are happy if you focus just on what you can do for them. They want to know that their premises will be spotless or that your products, repairs or designs will be guaranteed, not how you will make this happen. The story about your business may be useful as backup to build confidence, but they really want to know the answer to this question: What can you do for me to make my life / business / home better? When a customer doesn’t know and trust you, cost is a major consideration. When a customer truly believes you will deliver the desired benefits, cost is less important—especially if you’ve shown how you will save them money in the long run. (See examples in paragraph #4 at the end of today's post.)

Keep accurate and timely records and review them regularly. Every time you have an interaction with a customer—on the phone, in person, via email—write down the key points about their home or business, their personalities and what they want and need. Really listen! Many businesses lose customers because they don’t listen to their customers. Keep it in a file where you can easily find it, either on your computer or on paper.

• What did the customer ask for?
• What was the customer’s attitude?
• What did you say and do?
• What could you have done better?
• What do you need to do to follow up?
• When?
• Did you ask for a sale or a referral?
• What ideas do you have for offering more services or products to this customer?

The more you increase your customer knowledge and centralize it into customer profiles, the better positioned you'll be to deliver a satisfying customer experience each time you interact with a customer, be it on the Web, face to face, by e-mail or telephone.

Make this customer data easily available to you and to your employees. You can do this by putting it on a paper worksheet that you design, with blank space for notes.

• You can also put it on a website. Employees can input, update and view information about your customers. Mobile workers can stay connected to customers and customer data, no matter where they are. When customers call, you'll know who they are. You can set up your system so that you can see vital customer details right away. You'll save time for your customers and employees and make a better impression. You'll be able to easily collaborate with customers more effectively.

You will reduce costs and improve the bottom line (profits). By offering a better customer experience, you'll be able to retain the customers you have and attract new ones. The end result: You'll reduce costs associated with attracting new customers and boost revenues.


Things to Consider: How to Plan for Better Customer Service

1. What do your customers want? While it may be tempting to buy equipment or products that seem good to you, you may be throwing away your money if these don’t solve your company’s particular customer service problems. How do you find out what these problems are?

• Ask them. Talk to them. Send out surveys asking what improvements they’d like to see.
• Talk to others in your industry to see what’s working and what’s not.
• Ask your employees.

2. Make your employees feel valued and improve morale. Employees who feel good about themselves and the work they do perform better. They excel when they have the tools and training necessary to do the job correctly. Improved employee morale is reflected in every customer contact made.

The people who work with your customers every day have a good idea of what’s working and what’s not. Involve them from the very beginning in creating solutions designed to meet everyone’s needs. Treat them with respect so they won’t be afraid to tell you the truth. Don’t immediately say yes or no to their ideas. Think about them and thank them for sharing their thoughts with you, whether you later implement them or not. Reward them appropriately and let other employees know about it, so they too will be encouraged to go beyond the limits of their daily tasks and use their minds to help you improve your business. Always prepare them beforehand for a significant change in your business and work with them during a transition. Be flexible.

3. Get help from the organizations that offer it. These include business groups you can find in our resource list such as MBD, the Chambers of Commerce and the Small Business Development Association. There are free talks every week in the community about different aspects of business. You don't have to go it alone.


Down the Road: Even More Ways to Serve Your Customers Better

In today's interconnected and knowledge-based economy, your business's survival depends on how quickly and securely you can respond to customer needs. To do this, you need to collect, organize, analyze, and disseminate information about customers to your employees, including purchases and returns, buying habits, past inquiries, and service contracts. As soon as you can afford it, do this with a computer. Numerous studies have shown that appropriate technology boosts your business to a new level and increases profits.

Some people say there is an 80/20 rule: 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers. You need to track performance of services and employees to help make your business more effective at handling customers profitably. You want to know how much time and money a customer costs you and focus most of your efforts on the most profitable customers.

• You want to know the average call duration, i.e., how long do you spend setting up a new client on the phone or during site visits?

• When are the peak and low times of calls? Of services? How often are problems resolved with one call or one visit?

• Knowing what your customers want and need enables you to better focus your production and service efforts. Understanding which customers have the most sales potential enables you to focus on them. You can also determine which customers are the least profitable. You'll also be able to easily identify which customers are your strongest advocates and are willing to serve as references or new product or service testers.

• Continually modify and customize your customer service efforts. Every company regardless of size, must track the performance of people, processes and workflows to determine how well they are delivering a satisfying customer experience. Continually modify your policies, processes and operations to enhance customer interactions, from first contact to most recent.

Prepare for success. Is your company growing rapidly? Expanding locations? You may eventually need software that allows you to easily and cost-effectively extend your operations as business conditions change. Keep in mind that growth includes indirect costs such as new technology and equipment, maintenance, training, support, additional staff (if needed) and other factors. Research firm Gartner estimates such indirect costs account for up to 60% of an organization's total technology expenditures. Your business will be better positioned to stay a step ahead of competitors and offer new services to customers—both of which will help you continue to grow.


Top 5 Questions To Answer for Your Customers

Here are five key questions your customers may have about you.

1. Do you specialize in working with people or businesses like them? Do you understand the challenges they face and the goals they have in mind? What are your qualifications? What training do you provide to your employees? What support do you give your employees? Do you stay up to date on the latest developments in your industry in terms of working smarter and improving your products? How?

2. What type of service and support do you offer after the sale? For example: Do you offer after-hours or emergency support? If so, during what hours is that support available?

3. How will your services integrate into their existing environment? Are you flexible in accommodating their schedule, or do they have to adapt to your schedule and methods? Is your business growing so that you can meet their needs not only today, but as their needs grow over time, and fit within their budget requirements?

4. How will your services help them save money and control their costs? If they can count on you for all related services, it is easier for them than having to deal with multiple vendors. Examples:

• If you are offering maintenance or food services, customers have more time to earn money from their own jobs.
• Realtors have statistics on how attractive landscaping or a remodeled kitchen increases the value of a home.
• If you are providing preventive auto maintenance, you will save them from expensive repairs later.
• If you are teaching Spanish, you may help them to expand their own customer base and to develop another marketable skill.
• Architectural drawings help builders avoid costly errors.

5. What do your customers need to do to prepare so they can make the best use of your products or services? Before you arrive, what do they need to do to make your work go as smoothly as possible? Who is providing materials? Does anything need to be moved? How do you expect to be paid?


Some of the above information was adapted for this class from the following website:
http://www.cisco.com/web/solutions/smb/need_to/
serve_customer_better_primer.html

Welcome to the Spring 2008 ESL Pro Class!

The mission of ESL for Professional Life is to help U.S. immigrants improve their English skills, advance in their careers, make friends and contribute to the life of the community. In doing so, they will naturally share with others what is wonderful about their own native cultures and languages and enhance appreciation for the diversity of this nation. As individuals who are working toward bettering their lives through innovation and entrepreneurship, they are the essence of the American dream.

The dynamic content of ESL Pro arises from the lives of students. Materials, exercises and assignments are co-developed and updated with volunteers and students throughout the course of the program to meet participants’ stated goals.

ESL Pro values the unique contributions of each individual's native language and culture and seeks to enrich each student's life through the mutual sharing of experiences. Students are expected to be proactive in helping each other to progress, in modeling self-directed and lifelong learning, and in sharing their skills by volunteering in the community.

The program, based in Longmont, Colorado, is offered for entrepreneurs in 2007 and 2008 through Intercambio de Comunidades with the support of Micro Business Development.

www.intercambioweb.org
www.microbusiness.org

All materials are copyrighted by Mary Golden or the source cited. For further information, email tesolgold@yahoo.com.

Tips on practicing pronunciation

Bookmark the following site on your computer and visit it daily to listen to pronunciation and copy the speaker's sounds as closely as you can. You will also see an animated diagram that shows you what parts of your mouth are used to make different sounds. http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#


EXERCISES

We will go over these in class, so please don't be intimidated if you cannot understand them just by reading. Frequent practice using the audiovisual pronunciation practice site (click link on left) will also be quite helpful. Be patient--you will get it!

In the meantime, get out of your comfort zone! Engage in simple, casual communication with native English speakers every single day. This can occur at your child's school, in the park, in a store, at a bus stop, at the library, while waiting to see a doctor or get a haircut, and anywhere you go.

• You will find that most sounds in English occur in your native language. (This may not be true of "th," however, so you may have to work harder on this sound, making sure the tip of your tongue is between your teeth.) For example, some Asian immigrants have trouble distinguishing "r" from "l" sounds when they read them in English, e.g., "yellow" may come out "yeh-ro." Native Spanish speakers may say "jeh-ro" or "jeh-lo." But the "l" sound and the "y" sound occur as other letters or characters in their native languages, and if they remember to make that same sound in such words when they see "l" or "y" in English, they no longer have this problem. The same solution can be applied by native Spanish speakers with English sounds such as "j" and "g." Write in your notebook or journal some of the words you think of that will help you in this way, and practice them until they are easy for you.
  

• Fricative sounds. Hold a feather in front of your lips and watch your breath move it when you pronounce the fricative sounds b, p, f, v, th, s, z, ch, zh and h. "Fricative" sounds continue as long as air is coming out of your lungs.

• Voiced sounds. Hold two fingers against your throat to feel the vibration of your vocal cords when you pronounce the voiced sounds b, d, dg (as in bridge), g, j, l, m, n, ng (as in ring), r, th (as in those [thoz], not in this), v, w, z and zh. When the vocal cords vibrate, the sound is called "voiced."

• Articulation. Hold a mirror in front of your lips to see if you articulate words in the same manner as the actor in the video on the Iowa website. "Articulate" refers to where the sound is made and how the airflow is affected.

• Record your voice. If you don't have a recorder, leave yourself voice mails. Play it back repeatedly, comparing how you sound with the speaker on this website.

• Practice the most common sounds. Spend a lot of time practicing the "i" in "it, in, win, with, give, fish" and similar words. To mispronounce one of the most common vowel sounds in English can be very confusing to your listeners. This short "i" sound does NOT rhyme with the "i" in "ring." English has relatively few words in which "i" sounds like "ee" as it does in "ring." Examples of the right way and wrong way to pronounce this sound are:
  

bit, not beat or beet
fit, not feat or feet
hit, not heat
it, not eat
mitt, not meat or meet
nit, not neat
pit, not peat
sit, not seat

• Speak slowly, and carefully pronounce the final consonant in each syllable and word. Example: "The worD breaD is (iz) SHorT and has (haz) only THree leT-ters (turz)." If you do not do this, your words can run together and be impossible to understand. You will notice, however, that native English speakers often omit some of these final consonants. You will be able to do this, too, once you have mastered rhythm and other English language patterns, just as you do in your native language.
  

• Practice "th" with a mirror. When you say a word with "th" in it, the tip of your tongue must be between your teeth. Practice saying and listening to these words: "teeth, that, those, with, three, there, throw, feather, weather." You can feel your breath come out of your mouth with more force than when you say "t" and "d" because your tongue stops the flow of air of these consonants.

• Practice "t." When you say "t," the tip of your tongue touches the alveolar ridge, which is on the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth: "today, tall, two, tough (tuf), tone (tohn), tobacco, twist, tear (tehr or teer)," and so on.

• Practice "d." When you say "d," the tip of your tongue curls to touch a farther-back part of the roof of your mouth: "Monday, doll, dew, doughnut, done (dun), drag, dairy, dear," and so on.

• Practice "y." Practice saying "yes," not "jes." Repeat other "y" words such as "yellow, young, you, yesterday, egg yolk."

• Practice using the "sh" and "ch" sounds correctly. For example: "share" and "chair" do NOT start with the same sound. "Sh" is the fricative sound you might use to tell someone to be quiet when a baby is sleeping. "Ch" is the affricative sound heard at the beginning and the end of "church," at the end of "Ouch!" and at the beginning of "choose" and "chew." You can feel more air come out of your mouth when you say "sh" than when you say "ch."
  

• Listen for and practice the two types of "s" sounds, voiceless and voiced:

voiceless "s", as in "sad" or "bus"
(a soft sound like the hiss of a snake)

voiced "s" as in "is, was, choose"
(like the "zzzzz" sound of a snore or the buzz of a bee;
touch your throat to feel the vibration from your vocal cords)

Read this rhyme aloud to practice the voiced "s" in "was":

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he?

PRONUNCIATION RULES FOR PAST TENSES OF VERBS

Review these pronunciation rules for past tense from the book Teaching Pronunciation by Celce-Murcia, et al.:

• When the present tense of a verb ends in "d" or "t," the past tense sounds like "ed" or "id" (as in "did," not "deed") and is a separate syllable. Examples: "chat-ted, wad-ed, add-ed, need-ed, wait-ed."

• When the verb ends in a "voiced" sound other than "d," the final "d" sounds like "d" and does not result in an extra syllable at the end of the word. Examples: "cried, grabbed (not grab-bed), moved (not mov-ed), viewed (vyood not vyoo-ed), robbed (not rob-bed)."

• When the verb ends in a "voiceless" consonant other than "t," it is pronounced as "t" and does not result in an extra syllable at the end of the word. Examples: "walked, passed, kissed, laughed, stopped" sound like "walkt, past, kist, laft, stopt."

TIPS ON THE RHYTHM OF WORDS AND SENTENCES

In any language, rhythm is very important. English is considered a musical language because of its varying pitch and pacing. Japanese, for example, shows little variation in pitch and pacing. How does your native language differ from English in its rhythm and tone (pitch)?

In 80 percent of English words, the major stress is on the first syllable. Examples: ENG-lish, BER-ry, TAX-i, REG-u-lar, SEN-tence, EI-ther, PAT-tern.

Stressed syllables occur at relatively regular intervals in sentences, often in either a 4-beat or an 8-beat pattern. Example: More im-por-tant WORDS and syl-la-bles oc-CUR at rel-a-tive-ly REG-u-lar in-ter-vals in SEN-ten-ces.

More important words and syllables are stressed while others are quickly glided over, sometimes becoming hard to hear or completely inaudible.

Clear English pronunciation requires attention to stress, articulation, pitch, intonation, pace and volume.

• Stress refers to how strongly a syllable or a word is emphasized compared to others.

• Articulation refers to how the lips, tongue and teeth are used to shape the sound.

• Pitch refers to how high (like a soprano) or low (like a bass) the sound is.

• Intonation refers to variations in pitch and rhythm.

• Pace refers to how fast or slow the language is spoken.

• Volume refers to how loud or soft the sound is.