Build Recurring Income

This is a guest-post by Chris Bowler.

With all the technology available to us today, no matter what your company’s setup is like, you most likely have a few virtual coworkers. Most corporations today are at the very least a heterogeneous environment — traditional offices mixed along with off-site coworkers or staff working from home. Some companies are completely virtual. And research suggests that the biggest challenge to having an effective team is trust amongst these coworkers.

Why is trust so vital to a successful, productive team? In the simplest terms, a team works together to be productive. And in order to work together, rather than work simultaneously, team members need a level of comfort with the abilities, competencies, and intentions of their teammates. Trust enables a team to focus on tasks at hand rather than protecting each member’s own interests. The interests of the group become the interest of each individual.

How to Build Trust

So how can a team build trust? Different tactics will work for different types of groups, but there are some general concepts that will work for any team.

Social Interaction

This is probably the most important idea. Getting team members to know each other is crucial, and meeting in person is generally the best way to do that. Even if a team is geographically dispersed, the benefit of meeting in person should be measured against the cost of getting a group together. Of course budget and scope of a project may dictate whether or not this is feasible, but it should be the first option considered.

Share Leadership

Another key factor for any employee is ownership. Why do small startups have such passionate team members? Because they have ownership in the product they are creating. And so it is with sharing leadership: give team members areas of responsibility to manage and they will ‘own’ a portion of the end goal the team is trying to meet.

Communication and Predictability

Communication on its own does not build trust. But it is the beginning of building that trust. Once enough communication occurs, teammates are able to learn the patterns of one another. This leads to predictability, which is where trust begins to form. Being confident in the type of response you will get from teammates allows you to focus on the content of a message instead of the recipients possible reaction.

Consistent Processes

Teams have particular bits of work that need to be performed repeatedly. Because of this we build processes (how to create a new account, submit a change request, commenting on code etc). And in order to be effective, processes need to be consistent. And communicated. When people know there is an overall ideal that should be adhered to but have never been given a logical, step-by-step plan for how to achieve that ideal, frustration will reign.

Build processes in a way that everyone on the team can at the very least be confident that all team members are performing these particular bits of work in the same manner. And a crucial element to laying the foundation for processes is ensuring that each team member is included in any communication about these processes. Which leads to…

Ensuring Inclusion

In a virtual or heterogeneous team, in order for all team members to feel a part of the team, they must feel included. This can be even harder for a team with a centralized office with outlying team members. All the points discussed so far are needed to ensure this feeling of inclusion exists.

All team members need to be a part of any significant communication and have avenues available to provide feedback.

Communicate

One last item that needs to be mentioned is miscommunication. This has been discussed plenty before but is important enough to warrant a mention.

With a virtual team there will always be incidences of mixed signals. When 90% of communication is body language, electronic communication will often result in messages being received in a manner not intended by the sender. Of course you want team members to be sensitive to this issue and proactive in resolving any misunderstanding that occurs. But there are also some good practices to keep in order to reduce the miscommunications:

1. Write your emails while thinking from the recipients point of view.
2. Keep messages short. Flowery prose will turn people off.
3. Hand in hand with point 1 – brevity. Get to the point.
4. Write a good subject line. Set the background for the message content.
5. Leave the jokes for other mediums. One person’s joke is another person’s insult and in an email there is just too much of a possible misunderstanding.

Awareness Is the Beginning

Building trust within a virtual team can be difficult, but it’s not impossible. It starts with being aware and making the issue a priority. By using a lot of these tips, teams can bond quickly no matter what their setup and learn to trust in one another. Once you have trust, the focus can wholly be placed on the goals of the group.

Chris enjoys entertaining his readers at theweeklyreview.ca where he writes about the thriving Mac community, GTD and the changes in the 21st century work force. Subscribe to his feed to enjoy more of the same.

At 18 years old I was ill-equipped for the future and struggling academically. I had been an A student in high school but managed to succeed only with the help of caffeine tobacco and by working every late night that preceded a big exam. It seemed to work and during my senior year I had been accepted into the United States Naval Academy.

Then life crashed. The regimented schedules set by the military instructors combined with my father’s diagnosis with cancer from Agent Orange and some immaturity on my part to cause my grades to plummet and, upon completing the difficult first year, I was given the boot.

To make matter’ worse the schools that happily accepted me in High School no longer were willing to return my calls. For the next 4 years I would be stuck going to SUNY Maritime College, a state run school for Merchant Mariners. Located in the Bronx and all but abandoned by the SUNY system (cadets didn’t even have internet access until 2001) the situation looked bleak.

Despite the myriad of problems and annoyances at the school, including the enormous Throgs Neck Bridge that hovers directly over the campus, it did offer one glimmer of hope. Each year, in preparation for a career as officer aboard the world’s largest vessels, the entire school packed aboard the S/S Empire State and traveled to Europe, stopping at as many as five ports along the way. I was in love. The sea was beautiful, the ports were exciting and I had found a job that fit my schedule of nocturnal productivity. The future suddenly was bright.

During my short presence at the Naval Academy a retired Admiral gave a speech in which he told the story of a young John McCain, a less than stellar midshipman who came in second place for the honored title of Anchorman, last in the class academically. The Admiral said he saw a bright future not for the graduates but for those who were kicked out. He predicted success not despite but because of failure. Out of desperation these seemingly ill-fated individuals discover their faults and upon their next success realize that failure rarely kills you.

Today, at age 30, I’m a licensed ship’s captain working on the world’s largest drillship. I’ve circumnavigated the globe, write a successful blog about ships, have seen more countries than I can list from memory and have had short articles published in the NY Times, Wall Street Journal (ok, it was the online edition) and the world’s longest running publication, Loyds List. Most of all I enjoy what I do.

I can’t recommend joining the military, getting kicked out and spending four years stuck under a noisy bridge in the country’s most infamous community as a path to blogging success but I can share a few Lessons Learned to help you find it.

1. Forget Risk

Risk is the Winter North Atlantic or a port call in Yemen, blogging is rarely a risk.

Take bold steps. Call an expert in your niche for an interview, write the inside story that traditional media is unwilling expose, become an LLC and take out a loan. Bold steps are needed if you want to stand out.

2. Be different

The world is filled with bloggers but it is the rare exception to find one doing something new.

I have gotten more publicity by telling people I blog via satellite from the ocean than all my writing, podcasting and hard work combined. Technologically it’s no more impressive than a blogger in Kansas using a Hughsnet satellite but it sound much cooler.

Find something that’s interesting about you and market it.

3. Do What others don’t want to do

My alma mater places 99% of graduates in jobs within three months of graduation at an average salary of ,000. Garbage men in New York City get better pay and benefits than fireman or school teachers. Why? Because no one wants these jobs.

While the sea may still not be for you, jobs like captain of a research vessel can be very rewarding, the Sanitation department has just as many interesting jobs.

Starting a gadget blog is like becoming an astronaut. Very cool but even the best qualified candidates will find it’s a difficult road to success.

4. Do what you love, do what you’re good at

The most frequent question I get when people learn of my profession is: Do you get sea sick? The second most frequent question is: I must be real difficult for you to navigate such a large ship? I find this ludicrous. Why would anyone take a job at sea if it made them sick? Why would you pursue a job that’s real difficult for you?

If you hate sitting in front of computers or find writing difficult then don’t become a blogger. Try podcasting, it can be just as rewarding.

5. Kill the Nice Guy

Being nice is critical to every blogger’s success. If you answer reader comments in a dismissive manner, be anything but gracious towards your competition or, worse yet, ignore those who wish to converse then you’re blog will quickly fail. It’s critically important to be nice and helpful. That being said you must be able to shut it off if needed.

On the ship we have fire drills every Sunday and I’m always choosing the most inexperienced but eager hands for the fire team. I spend time practicing with them, answer questions, I teach and put my guys up for company rewards when they do well. Late last year we had a real fire and as I approached the staging area found a new seaman suiting up to fight the fire. Being inexperienced I asked him to take a supporting role and, with tears in his eyes he asked me to give him a chance. He told me he could fight the fire, he wanted to prove himself. I ignored his pleas and ordered the guys to escort him from the scene. He was hurt and angry…. but alive the next day.

6. Don’t cave to the wrong type of pressure

Why did the Titanic sink? The company wanted to set a speed record and they were unwilling to wait for summer. Captains are often pressured to make deadlines, take too much cargo or travel shorter, unsafe routes. The rewards for doing so can include a performance bonus, promotion or plaque for the wall but doing so despite safety considerations is a gamble. Legally the captain has ultimate authority and retains the right to say no to his boss on shore, local experts and even the authorities. Granted he may get arrested or fired once reaching shore but it’s always his call.

You are the captain of your blog and are going to be the one who sinks with the ship if pressured into the wrong decisions. When the leading CPA for sailors called about a blog post I wrote exposing his recent IRS conviction he sounded really nice and offered me a free flight on his private jet and stake dinner to listen to how I could avoid future embarrassment by removing the post. It was a tempting offer and I naturally wanted to help but doing so would mean lying to my readers. I turned off the nice switch and said no.

7. Stay ahead of the ship.

It takes us miles to stop a ship which means we can’t rely on sight alone to predict a collision. We use radar to search miles out and tools to help predict a collision course. If something looks like it may cause a problem we address it early.

You’re blog should be use the same strategy. If a back-up fails, find out why. If a reader says your icons look ugly, don’t dismiss the comment, ask him what browser he’s using.

8. Find a pilot

When a large ship goes into port they pick-up a pilot. This person is a local expert who has spent years learning everything there is to know about one specific harbor and provides the captain with advice during the transit. The captain is still in command and his crew is still steering the ship but the advice is important.

If you’re starting an SEO campaign, blog redesign, platform transition or whatever. Get an expert’s advice. You may need to save money or want to retain control of the project so you decide to do it yourself. This is fine just make sure you have an expert helping you along the way. Don’t expect this service to be free either.

9. Take interesting assignments

At 24 I was the youngest person in my class to be promoted to chief officer but I have a secret to tell. I was not the best qualified or the most capable I simply was the only person willing to try something new. I took a job in Indonesia on foreign ship with an Indian crew and Dutch officers. Not only did no one want the job they all said I would be hurting my career for picking a rust bucket. They were wrong. By working with many nationalities I learned each of their secrets on ship handling. During that time I also worked with many different types of equipment, explored different ways to navigate and learned new ways of doing things I thought I had mastered.

Join a community blog based overseas, write for a foreign audience and try using different platforms and tools. You blog is not alone at sea and if it were you’d still need to know a little about the other blogs you meet.

10. Look The Part

I once boarded a ship that looked impressive. Fresh paint, no rust on deck, all the lines neatly stowed but after two days aboard I found out it was a smoke screen. To avoid hard work the crew had become masters at painting over rust but were incredibly lazy and didn’t maintain their equipment. When auditors arrived they were often so impressed they did no more than a cursory inspection. A year later the ship caught fire, a total loss.

This teaches us two things. First it’s a lot easier to get away with editorial mistakes and impress people of influence if your blog is visually impressive and of clean design. Just yesterday I received a very interesting question from a ship captain with over 30 years of experience currently working for the United Nations. He, like those inspectors, assumed we were experts just because we looked the part.

11. Find your readers’ specialties and ask for their help

Want to know my reply to that UN Captain? I sent him a reply stating “We have a reader with an impressive resume at the UN, let me ask him.” Then I sent a second email to him with his question attached. His response, to my surprise, was “Let me find out”. The next day he sent me a detailed answer and gave me permission to post it.

Your readers are looking to help but will not digg your story because you bug them to. They will tackle jobs that interest them, find out what these are and you suddenly have a team helping you.

12. “I don’t know” is a good answer. “I screwed up” is even better.

The above two replies I use on a daily basis both at work and in replies to my blog. Countless times in history ship captains have caused incidents because they made up answers to questions from their crew. Many more captains have caused incidents because they made mistakes and tried to cover them up. No incident is caused by any single action, it’s caused by thousands of small decisions dating back years that create an incident chain. It might be because you stayed up to watch a movie 2 days before and fell asleep at watch or it could be the cook who accidentally bought decaffeinated coffee or the person who, five years ago, decided to put a barkalounger on the bridge of the ship. The correct answer is it was all three.

You are building a chain of trust with your readers. If you make a mistake admit to it, if you don’t know the answer to a question tell them and then go find out.

13. People like to help

If you’ve ever been a tourist in New York City you may have been confused when one person flipped you off then the next spent 5 minutes helping you with directions. If you’re a pessimist the reason is because people are narcissistic, if you’re an optimist you may believe it’s nature’s way of spreading knowledge. Whatever the reason is, every New Yorker thinks he’s an expert at directions, every Captain thinks he’s a master shiphandler and every blogger is a social media guru.

Anyone who has spent years learning something is eager to share his knowledge. When the Cosco Busan hit San Francisco’s Bay bridge I called the president of the captain’s association, a marine investigation expert and the editor of the leading maritime trade show. I said “I run a blog and my readers are very interested in this event but I don’t have much experience with collisions, can you walk me through the facts?” Each one spent over an hour sharing their knowledge and I posted a great article one the collision. Two days later I was called by the San Francisco Chronicle and quoted on the next front page article with a link to my blog!

John Konrad writes at gCaptain.com — resources for maritime professionals.

This is a guest-post by personal finance blogger Jim who writes at Blueprint For Financial Prosperity.

With all the talk of Social Security becoming insolvent and our retirements lasting into the 80s and 90s, there’s no question that proper retirement planning is crucial for everyone.

If you have an employer, you probably have some sort of defined contribution plan (401k, 403b) and, if you’re lucky, might even have a defined benefit plan (pension). If you’re a freelancer, or an aspiring freelancer, you don’t, and won’t, have access to either of those great plans.

So, what’s a freelancer to do? Luckily America was built on the backs of small business and there are plenty of retirement programs available. I’ll go through the major ones today so you get a good feel for them and are able to research them further. For the purposes of today’s discussion, we’ll assume that you’re a sole proprietorship or pass-through LLC entity.

Disclaimer: Before you make any financial decisions of any kind, please consult your accountant or tax attorney first. There may be inaccuracies in this post but I have tried to be as accurate as possible. Just remember, I am not a professional tax attorney or financial adviser, I’m a freelance writer.

Roth and Traditional IRA

You may already be familiar with the Roth and Traditional IRAs as they’ve seen plenty of press lately. Both share the same contribution limits of ,000 a year, meaning your total contributions to Roth and Traditional IRAs must be less than or equal to ,000.

If you contribute ,000 to your Roth, you can only contribute ,000 to the Traditional. These limits are also based on your earned income, here is a listing of the contribution limits for both IRAs types.

The difference between the two is significant. A Roth IRA takes post-tax dollars but grows tax-free. The Traditional IRA tax pre-tax dollars but grows tax-deferred. When you contribute to your Traditional IRA, you are able to deduct from your taxes.

As the Traditional IRA grows, you will not be taxed on anything inside it, it’s tax-deferred. When you begin taking disbursements, or payments, in retirement, you will pay your tax rate on those earnings as income. With a Roth IRA, you do not deduct the contributions in the beginning but you are not taxed on the earnings when you begin taking payments in retirement.

SEP-IRA

A SEP IRA, the retirement plan I use, is a type of Traditional IRA. It was designed specifically for the self employed and small business. It’s a Traditional IRA from the employee perspective, sharing the ,000 contribution limit, and contributions are tax deductible.

It gets more interesting from the employer perspective. The 2008 employer contribution limit for a SEP IRA is ,000 or 25% of your net adjusted self employment income, whichever is smaller. This means that while you can only contribute ,000 as an employee, you can contribute far more as an employer. When you set up a brokerage account to handle a SEP IRA, you will have the opportunity to mark contributions as either employer or employee.

The downsides to the SEP IRA are for those business that have ‘eligible’ employees. An eligible employee is someone who is 21+ years old, has had 3 years of service in the last 5 years, and earned over 0 in compensation. The amount you contribute as an employer must be the same for all employees. If you say you are contributing 10% of income, you must contribute 10% to each and every employee.

Individual or Solo 401(k)

An Individual 401(k) is very much like a SEP IRA. The difference is that it comes with greater administrative rules but may allow for a bigger contribution and the ability to borrow (much like a regular 401k) against the funds.

The difference between the SEP IRA and Individual 401(k) is in the employee contribution. Participants can contribute, as an employee, 100% of the first ,500 of compensation, much like the regular 401(k). Then, the employer can kick in the same 25% SEP IRA calculation – meaning you could ontribute more towards your retirement with an Individual 401(k).

Other Plans

There are a lot of retirement plans out there but I feel the Individual 401(k), SEP IRA, and Roth IRA, capture the major pieces of the retirement puzzle for us freelancers. If you are interested in something like a pension or defined benefit plan, check out the Keogh Plan.

Jim is a personal finance blogger at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity and My Retirement Blog. He recently joined the ranks of freelancing and is loving every minute of it. He also feels awkward writing about himself in the third person.

Anyone who attempts to free themselves from the shackles of corporate slavery will undoubtedly meet with resistance from unlikely adversaries: friends and family.

As much as you know in your heart that you were born to be an entrepreneur, freelancer, or web worker, very often the people closest to you will be unsupportive.

It’s not that they don’t care about you, they just come from a different world. Employees are from Mars, entrepreneurs are from Venus. Because our friends and family often have a completely different perspective from us, sooner or later they’re bound to ask that question we all love to hear: “Why don’t you just get a job like a normal person?”

To survive as entrepreneurs, we need to vigorously defend our entrepreneurship against these formidable opponents, ideally without hurting our relationship with them. In doing so, many of us will take on one of the following personas.

Defense #1:

The jerk

Who they are:

Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. The jerk goes straight for the kill to preempt an attack.

What they say:

“I don’t want to waste my life at a job I hate just to be a total loser like you. If you had half a brain you’d understand.”

The pros:

It will quickly get people to leave you alone.

The cons:

It will quickly destroy most of your relationships.

Defense #2

The martyr

Who they are:

Entrepreneurship has its price. The martyr is quite verbal about the sacrifices they’re making, hoping to elicit sympathy.

What they say:

“I can’t hang out with you guys, I have way too much to do tonight. Poor me, I never get to do anything fun anymore. Bring me back something nice.”

The pros:

It might get people to do something nice for you.

The cons:

It drags everyone down.

Defense #3

The rationalizer

Who they are:

There are plenty of logical reasons for being an entrepreneur, and the rationalizer can put together an airtight argument to defend their case.

What they say:

“The first benefit of entrepreneurship can be traced back to ancient Egypt…”

The pros:

It shows that you’ve done your homework, thought this thing through, and made an informed decision.

The cons:

No one will care.

Defense #4

The kid in a candy store

Who they are:

The ordinary seems extraordinary to a kid in a candy store. By reacting to everything as if it were the greatest thing since sliced bread, they think people will have to be impressed with how entranced they are.

What they say:

“No thanks, I’d like to go to Disneyland with you, but my work is way too much fun. Every minute brings a wonderful new surprise, and I just can’t tear myself away from this!”

The pros:

It might convince people that you’re happy.

The cons:

It might sound a little phony.

Defense #5

“I’m rubber, you’re glue”

Who they are:

Any onslaught aimed at this person will harmlessly bounce off and stick to the assailant.

What they say:

“You know, you’re always complaining about how awful your job is. Why don’t you look into freelancing so you can have more control over your life?”

The pros:

It shows that you’re not bothered by what anybody says.

The cons:

Many people don’t like unsolicited advice.

Defense #6

The underdog

Who they are:

Everyone loves to root for an underdog. This type will position themselves as someone you can’t possibly root against.

What they say:

“I know this is going to be extremely difficult, but I really want to stay home to be with the kids. I just have to make this work. Can I count on you for moral support?”

The pros:

You’re likely to get your own little cheering section.

The cons:

They’re cheering because they feel sorry that you don’t have a chance.

Defense #7

Clark Kent

Who they are:

This type disguises their entrepreneurship so no one knows who they really are. When duty calls, they disappear when no one’s looking. They secretly get their work done and then reappear. If asked where they were, they make some excuse about errands they had to run.

What they say:

“Oh, an entrepreneur was here? Golly, I’m from Metropolis. I see entrepreneurs every day.”

The pros:

They avoid conflict because no one has any idea what they’re doing.

The cons:

A double life takes its toll.

Defense #8

The bragger

Who they are:

While not outright insulting, the bragger is not shy about telling people how successful they are.

What they say:

“Why would I want a job? I make more money working from my bed than I ever did in a stuffy old job.”

The pros:

It’s hard for anyone to attack someone who’s displaying success.

The cons:

Nobody likes a bragger.

Defense #9

The zealot

Who they are:

Whenever a zealot comes in contact with anyone, they make sure to put on the mother of all happy faces.

What they say:

“Is this the best day ever, or what? Every breath I take gives me new life. Every ray of sunlight is a gift from God. Excuse me while I go sing to the bluebirds again.”

The pros:

The bigger the parade, the less people want to rain on it.

The cons:

Everyone will wonder if you’ve joined a cult and will ask them to drink the Kool-Aid.

Defense #10

The surgeon

Who they are:

To a surgeon, an unsupportive person is like a tumor. You don’t try to reason with it, you cut it out.

What they say:

“I’m sorry you can’t support me in this venture, but life’s too short to be held back by negative people. Goodbye.”

The pros:

A tumor that’s completely removed probably won’t be back, at least for a while.

The cons:

Cutting someone out of your life eliminates all the positive experiences as well as the negative.

Defense #11

The delayed gratifier

Who they are:

By making sacrifices now, the delayed gratifier expects to achieve greater rewards later. Anything that’s currently not going well is just a sign of progress to them.

What they say:

“I’ll have to pass on the movie this time. By spending two years doing what most people won’t do, I can spend the rest of my life doing what most people can’t do.”

The pros:

You’re not being overly optimistic. You’re acknowledging that you’re making sacrifices, but to you it’s worth it.

The cons:

Two years later, you’ll look pretty bad if you still haven’t gotten anywhere.

Defense #12

The (wo)man on a mission

Who they are:

This person thinks the fate of the human race is dependent on their business success.

What they say:

“I’m on a mission from God. This is my destiny. This is my role in the universe, and my work is what holds together the fabric of the space-time continuum. If I don’t succeed, Zion will fall.”

The pros:

People might be too freaked out to criticize you.

The cons:

People might be too freaked out to come within 100 feet of you ever again.

Defense #13

The guilt tripper

Who they are:

Instead of putting up a defense, the guilt tripper disarms their critics by giving in to them.

What they say:

“Well, excuse me for having to supplement my income to make ends meet! Not all of us get to go to Harvard and have everything handed to us on a silver platter like you! I will now avert my gaze while you ascend your spiral staircase into heaven, your majesty!”

The pros:

People who feel guilty won’t attack you.

The cons:

This can wear down your self-esteem.

Defense #14

The workaholic

Who they are:

By being fully absorbed in their work, the workaholic will be too busy to notice any negativity directed towards them.

What they say:

“I’m sorry, Bob, what did you say? I’ve got to take this call right now. Can we meet up tomorrow? No, that won’t work. How’s your July? Actually, mine’s terrible. You know, I’ll just see you when I see you.”

The pros:

People will take you seriously if they see that you mean business.

The cons:

Someone in this situation may be paying too steep a price for success.

Which one are you?

Hunter Nuttall wants you to stop sucking and live a life of abundance. Visit HunterNuttall.com to learn how to improve your life and your income.