Last month we addressed the need to prepare for and anticipate growth for your business in the New Year. The planning process is time consuming, but necessary. In the many years I have spent working with growing business owners on the goals that help them determine their success, I have seen how important it is for them to share those goals and plans with people whose experience and expectations can contribute to that success.

Napoleon Hill in his classic work Think and Grow Rich stresses the absolute necessity of having a definite plan for the accomplishment of one’s goals. But goes on to describe the need for “power” to accomplish those goals. Power refers to organized effort, sufficient to enable you to produce the results you want. Where do you find the support that produces that kind of power?

One of the fastest growing trends in business today are strategic alliances. These can range in scope from informal business relationships based on a simple contract or joint venture. The basic idea is to minimize risk while maximizing your leverage. You can do this through joint production, joint marketing, joint sales/distribution, joint design collaboration or R&D.

You can find “power” in trade groups and associations where you can keep up to date on industry changes, trends and competitors. Seeking out people that sell to your same market niche, can also help to keep you on track for what is working for them that may be of value to you. There are also centers of influence who have direct influence on people in your market place, whose interest in you can add power to your plans.

You are often faced with making decisions and would like to have the insight of other professionals, but fear the expense in hiring outside consultants. This is where a Board of Advisors or your “master mind” group can be invaluable. Large companies have used this form of accumulated knowledge and experience for years to address employee, technical, sales, financial and marketing issues.

In any of these associations it is essential that you are willing to listen and that you work with people who have your best interest at heart. That means there is a Trust relationship that can be developed. You must be willing to make commitments that will produce the growth and success you want, be accepting and open to criticism and be willing to give to the others who are giving to you.

The Challenge: Spend some time this month reviewing your plans with an eye to areas that need some outside support.

Here we are again just past the October 15th deadline! It has amazed me the number of people who were still racing to make that deadline. As small business owners it is important to be using this time of the year for looking ahead to plans and projections for the New Year. Growth in any business challenges your skills as a business manager and your financial resources, putting you on a tight rope.

One step on that tight rope involves a comprehensive plan that clearly outlines where your business stands now (not last year), its assets, debts and the current and future profit opportunities for your business. Those profit opportunities often get you out further on the tight rope as your accounts receivable and inventory costs begin to increase. Or perhaps with service businesses, marketing costs increasing.

Projections are often behind schedule of the goals you set and take longer than you initially planned, putting stress on your finances as well as managing the balance between growth, collections, higher credit requirements as well as sales, pricing and your personal involvement and time spent in the business.

This is the time of the year to do some tax planning (not tax filing), like identifying the needs for business equipment (a good tax deduction) and purchasing and using it this year based on the taxable income of the business. To monitor the progress of your business and manage it accordingly, begin now to catch up on this years accounting and prepare a spending plan for next year. In order to make it to the other side of the tight rope, an accurate budget is key to determining how much spending you can safely afford.

Managing your resources is important to the growth and stability of your business. Plan now to come into the New Year with a handle on growth, instead of behind it. Keeping your balance requires persistence, stay on top of your finances, it will give you the an excellent screening device for setting and achieving your goals for profitability and growth in the coming year.

As a growing business owner are you getting caught in the hyper competitive market environment? When you work alone it is often difficult to fulfill all the roles you have to play. So how do you stay competitive? I often harp on the importance of staying focused to the high priority, high payoff areas of the business, but when you are doing it all, everything seems “high priority”. But being in business means staying connected to the people who do business with you as well as the people who refer business to you.

There are three areas that can help you stay connected. To stand out in your market there needs to be a level of interaction that you consistently put forth; developing a personal brand answers to this idea of connecting. Your customers want to know who you are; remember the more they know about you, the more they can feel a sense of trust. One of my clients sends out her marketing material with a cartoon like theme of the “royal family” and fun pictures of her staff and her daughter. When people stop by her shop, it reflects the message she wants to get out, we are a fun place, and fun people to do business with, come and see! Your materials, behavior and connection with your audience help build your brand. Connect by being “real” to them reveal the person they want to know.

Another area for connecting is in your networking. I am not talking about going into a group and handing out business cards. I am referring here to meeting regularly with advocates who refer business to you. It requires “reaching them with information that matters to them” and having some real interest in developing the relationship. Ask them about themselves so that you can better support them with articles, events that may be of interest or people they need to meet. One of my clients who markets merchant services wanted some information for a prospective client to solidify the relationship. I was able to connect him with someone who works in that segment of the business. His prospect is now his client, because he was willing to take the time to research it and I got to go out to lunch.

Connecting with your customers requires some new approaches. Your web site will not create any significant prospect attraction for the person who has never met you, says Robert Krumroy, in his book, Brilliant Strategies and Fatal Blunders. His prediction that personal contact with customers will be solely through the interactive Internet and only businesses that adopt Internet technology as part of their marketing strategies will be able to survive in the coming years. Using e-mail as a means to keep connected will keep you ahead of the competition, and help you build on going relationships with customers. The information you send out becomes information they can pass along to others, you stay connected and so do they.

Challenge: Check yourself. How have you stayed connected lately? How have you promoted your personal brand, showed interest in your advocates or sent your clients and customers something that kept you in front of them? If something has worked for you, let us know, we’d like to print your story.

Your success in business comes down to the difference between managing your work or letting your work manage you. What’s it going to be? The biggest contributors to clutter are those good old fashion letters, junk mail, memos, e-mail printouts and sticky notes, So how do you sort through all the junk and all the distractions and concentrate only on the things that are important to you and your business? In business ownership and management, as in war and other activities, you are only as good as your last success. Just as you always have to be on the lookout for the next opportunity, you also have to be on the alert for the next crisis. That is what being organized is all about. You don’t want to waste your time on useless trivia when important issues that have significant impact on your customers or your organization deserve your attention.

Delegation is an ideal way that allows you to work on important tasks. As your business grows, your functional responsibilities normally grow past the point where you can cope with all the duties which must be handled. As this process of growth occurs, you must begin to delegate specific duties to insure that all necessary tasks are carried out. This means hiring someone on a full or part time basis and properly training them. It is important to have performance guidelines with proper follow up procedures for the delegated assignments. In some instances people who do outside services can take up the slack.

Remember, a well managed business achieves results. Good management requires passing down the authority to get the job done and allows you to get on with the high priority, high payoff activities of your business.

One of the most important steps in the Mind Masters program is planning. A business plan requires an action plan that will have specific and measurable results. Here is a suggested proven planning method that if you are truly committed to improving your management skills you can become a planning master overnight. What would it mean to you if you planned every business day on paper prior to the day starting?

1. Block 30 minutes each week to review the week and your Quarterly plan and determine the actions you will need to take that week to achieve those results.
2. Block 10-14 minutes daily to plan the day. No cell phone, no e-mail, no distractions, just planning.
3. With your goals in front of you ask yourself if the activities you listed will help you achieve those goals.
4. Prioritize your action items for the day. Put an asterisk next to your 5 most important (valuable) action items.

I challenge you to prepare for business growth through better organization, delegation and time management. Remember as a business owner setting a standard of consistent behaviors leads you to achieve results that carry over to all areas of your life.

As I was preparing the flyer for Mind Masters 3rd Quarter Planning workshop I had the realization that by June 30th half of the year would be finished. How many of you after these several months working day and night to achieve those goals you set in January to create a new service, introduce a new product or even design a new business model – all at once find all the drive that brought the initial motivation and excitement has melted away, the steam has run out, the place you are in is comfortable and the dream world has slipped out from under?

This is the wake up call. You must reawaken the drive and motivation, you must motivate yourself! Once you accept that your on going success must come from you, you can build a comprehensive program that will keep you moving forward. You are the catalyst for your business, you must press on, you cannot afford to stand still. Let’s review some thoughts on creating your own personal motivation “touch stone”.

1. Revisit your goals and make sure they have time frames for their accomplishment. Keep a list of other dreams so there is always an on going program for continued motivation.
2. Create specific measurable results and actions for the achievement of your goals. Write out the steps so you can check off your progress.
3. Articulate a personal purpose, it will give meaning to the goals you choose and enhance your desire. Your personality will take on a dynamic magnetism that drives everything to you.
4. Maintain an unshakeable belief in your ability to fulfill your purpose and therefore your goals. List your qualities, abilities and achievements- you will see you have what it takes, so have confidence in them and use them as steps to your next success.
5. Recognize obstacles as learning steps that cross your path and determine to overcome them. And when your purpose and goals are worthwhile the mind can overcome any situation, or circumstances that stands in your way.

The Challenge: What do you need to do to make a “mid-year leap”?

According to Alan Kay from Disney’s R&D Department: “When you … offer unique value your competition cannot, then you … make headway by giving your ideas away.”

You can expand your visibility by disseminating information as one of your prime marketing tactics. Don’t make the same mistakes most small business people do, and think that the knowledge and experience you have is widely known, on the contrary, you are the owner of a capital asset that others do not possess and have no easy way of possessing it.

There are many avenues available to you to present what you know. Trade association journals and newsletters are always looking for articles. What organizations are you associated with? Approach them with a suggested topic.

On staying current with your clients, you need to create information tools such as newsletters or e-mail newsletters that will give you consistent visibility. Clients start to see you as a valuable resource.

Seminars, workshops and talks to groups and organizations put you out ahead of the competition. Your exposure to your market place helps you to build credibility.

When you make your information available to your market place, you position yourself as an expert. Experts produce and sell information. This lets clients sample your information and expands your market to people who can’t hire you. Products can be given away or can bring you significant incremental revenue.

The market place of today wants concise information, whether you record it or put it in print, it will create a definite advantage over your competition. Where do you want to be in the market place? You must put yourself there. The next time a client asks you a question, make note of it – others want that answer too.

One of the questions I often get from my members is, “when is the right time to incorporate”? The answer is often the question of liability that one needs to take into consideration before deciding which entity best suits ones business needs. Do you have employees that put you at risk driving your business vehicle or dealing with customers? Each business entity has its advantages and drawbacks, benefits and tax consequences.

Picture a situation where an employee is driving with you in your vehicle and you are in an accident. The accident is not your fault but your employee gets injured. You are now in a position where the employee’s lawyer decides they need to sue you too. What kind of protection do you have?

Most small businesses are started as sole proprietorships to allow an individual the independence, flexibility and minimum government red tape giving him/her absolute control. Taxes are filed on a regular 1040 form with a schedule C attached. Employee benefit premiums are deductible. However, Linda Harris of Harris Insurance and Financial Services says that the disadvantages of the sole proprietor are so profound that I will quote her explanation.

“The sole proprietorship is limited by the personal financial resources of the owner and the ability to obtain credit and borrow money. The sole proprietorship is also limited in terms of business talent and ability and the success of the business generally is tied to the ingenuity, initiative, resourcefulness and managerial abilities of the sole owner. ”

Without proper planning the employee in the above scenario could wind up owning the assets of the business and other personal assets as well. Creditors may attach personal resources (home, bank accounts, retirement accounts, etc) in the event of a business failure. Also what happens to a sole proprietorship upon the death of the owner? In general, state laws provide that all of a sole proprietor’s business activities cease at the owner’s death.

Without getting over my head in legalities, let’s look at the General Corporation advantages that could offset the sole proprietorship disadvantages. There is limited liability as all responsibility for debt and liability fall on the corporation. That means creditors cannot attach personal assets of the share holders. Financing is generally more easily secured, as corporations have a more stable appearance, whether or not it is true. Unless there is a restriction on the transfer of stock, shareholder’s interests are freely transferable. As a separate legal entity, a corporation enjoys perpetual existence.

Often small business owners fail to value their sole proprietorships and do not adequately plan for its security or continuance. It is important to review all of the benefits and drawbacks of incorporating with your attorney, CPA and financial planner so you understand the financial impact on the business and your family.

Linda Harris has spent 25 years in the insurance and financial industry working with small business owners, finding them the solutions they need for succession planning and fringe benefits for the business. She can be reached at 858-695-1162 for any questions.