Business Management

We are living in a world of change. Competition is engaging in price wars, customers expect more for their dollars. Businesses can no longer be in the business of selling products and services—you must be selling a “customer experience.” According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek Research Services “a customer experience is not one thing but many: It is the practical and emotional manifestation of how a company delivers on the promise it makes to its customers through … every direct and indirect customer encounter a company has across all its customer or enterprise functions.”

Ultimately, your business exists to do two things:

• Attract customers

• Satisfy customers

If your business doesn’t perform these two fundamental functions, it doesn’t matter how well you do anything else.

What are your points of “value?”

• What is the promise that you’re communicating to your customers in your message?

• Can customers trust that you will fulfill that message to the best of your ability?

• What expectations will they have when they come to you?

• Are you listening so you can identify their problem?

• Do you treat customers as you would like to be treated?

Bloomberg Businessweek Research Services again found, that the companies which stand out in creating the customer experience believe that by focusing on customer value,”they can become more profitable and sustain these profits longer than the competition”.

Many companies now ask customers to call or go online and answer survey questions about their experience, others use secret shoppers. Do some inspecting of your own; look at your business with a set of fresh eyes – the eyes of your customers. What do they see? Walk through each step of their experience as if you were a new customer – from the initial visit to your website, to the time they leave your store or office. A great way to organize this is to create a checklist of every customer touch point. Make notes of each step in the process. Does their experience make you stand out from your competition? Are they apt to spend more, pay higher prices and recommend your company because they have become loyal and emotionally connected to you?

The Challenge: Strive to develop loyal, engaged advocates who would not even consider a competitor, because they trust you.

 By Barbara Eldridge

 Are you keeping up with the pace of change?  The pace of technology? The pace of your marketplace? The pace of your competition?  The Yearly Dilemma is how much do you and your business have to change to keep pace?  As a business owner you need to have information at your finger tips that help you make the best decisions. 

 Planning each year is a hands on process.  You might start by asking some tough questions. 

 Do you recognize the need for change?

Are you prepared to look reality in the face?

Are you willing to change the way you do business – and change        yourself?

Will you turn the plan into action?

Do you have the guts to take your business in new directions?

 I would like to lay out a road map that will get you to view your business through a lens that eliminates the distortions of everyday business.  Let me warn you, you may not like what you see.  But if you are going to meet the year head on it is a necessary process.  Let’s look at what a strategic plan could do for you.

            1. Develop a statement of purpose.  Why does your business exist?

Sometimes why we started the business is not the same as why we continue to work it.  One of my long time clients over the years has added staff, and possibly her successor, so that now she can travel more.  The business was started so she could support her family.

            2. Conduct a SWOT analysis.  This will help you evaluate your business’ internal strengths and weaknesses, along with the opportunities and threats you face in the market place.  It will give you a basis for developing a plan.

            3. Crystallize your thinking – Determine what specific long range goals you want for your business.  It is never enough to just want more money.  They should cover all aspects of the business.

            4. Create benchmarks, with specific results for meeting those goals.  It is easier to make adjustments along the way without losing sight of the long range goals.

            5. Brainstorm strategies for reaching each of the results.  There is more than one way to achieve a result, ask others for ideas.

            6. Develop a Plan of Action.  Plan the progressive steps, along with who will do what when.  Nothing ever happens without action, but there is a world of difference between mere action and constructive action.

            7. Be confident in yourself and your own abilities.  Be determined to follow through on your plan, because without determination the plan will deteriorate.

 The 8^th step is to track your progress.  Write out your numbers (yes I said write), know your sales number, gross profit, cost of goods/time.  It is a sure way of staying focused. 

 The Challenge: Turn the yearly dilemma into a solid strategic plan.  If you need help, Mind Masters has a Planning sessions each quarter, check it out at www.mindmasters.com.

As you head into the last months of 2011 it is important that as a business owner you begin to take stock of the business in order to begin your process of preparing for next year. Many people know that a successful strategy puts a lot of different factors into consideration and uses these factors to make adjustments. Every successful entrepreneur will tell you that there are four things that play a part in the development of any successful business strategy, while looking at the 4 major areas of the business (Management/Operations, Marketing/Sales, Financial and Leadership (Personal/Personnel):

1) Strengths – You must always consider the various strengths that your business has. These strengths should be present within both you and the business. Knowing your strengths enables you to use them in order to achieve the desired goal. It is clear that every business has strengths which it could use to gain advantages over the competition. These strengths could range from having more resources to having more experience. Your strategy must utilize the strengths to the maximum to insure greater success.

2) Weaknesses – Just as every business has strengths, every business also has its weaknesses. As you plan your strategies, you need to take these weaknesses into account in order to overcome them. Be realistic regarding weaknesses in order to truly be effective. These are factors that are under your control, but for a variety of reasons, are in need of improvement to effectively accomplish your objectives. Being aware of the weaknesses, you will be able to address specific ways of overcoming them.

3) Opportunities – In any business environment smart business owners have always taken advantage of every available opportunity for advancement. What opportunities exist in your market, or in the environment, from which you hope to benefit? These opportunities reflect the potential you can realize through implementing your strategies. Opportunities may be the result of market growth, lifestyle changes, resolution of problems associated with current situations, positive market perceptions about your business, or the ability to offer greater value that will create a demand for your services. If it is relevant, place timeframes around the opportunities. Do they represent ongoing opportunity, or are they a window of opportunity? How critical is your timing?

Be alert to the fact that these opportunities are often shrouded and you need to keep a keen eye and a good sense to take advantage of them. In taking advantage of opportunities, however, you must not lose sight of your main goals through which you can measure success.

4) Threats – Since the market contains opportunities for the business, it should also be mentioned that it does contain threats. As a business owner you should be aware of any potential threat that could place the business itself, at risk.

These are also external – you have no control over them, but you may benefit by having contingency plans to address them if they should occur.

A threat is a challenge created by an unfavorable trend or development that may lead to deteriorating revenues or profits. Competition – existing or potential – is always a threat. Other threats may include intolerable price increases by suppliers, governmental regulation, economic downturns, devastating social media or press coverage, a shift in consumer behavior that reduces your sales, or the introduction of technology that may make your products, equipment, or services obsolete. Get your worst fears on the table. Some of these threats may be speculative in nature, but you need to recognize them to add value to your incoming year’s strategy.

Having a clear handle on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in your business will position you to develop the strategies you need to meet the challenges of the 2012 marketplace. Next time we will look at how to develop and execute your strategies.

When I have asked my solo-preneur/small business owners how they plan and keep track of their work I usually find they keep overwhelming lists of to dos.

Having just finished Mind Masters 3^rd Quarter Strategy workshop I always stress that a specific plan of action is essential to progress and success. A worthwhile plan is more then a to do list, it is a design, a blueprint. 

        ~Action steps implement the chosen strategy and tactics to realize chosen goals and   results. 

        ~Action steps or action planning is a tedious, but critical, part of the planning process. It is a matter of spelling out step by step each of the accountability steps that must be completed. It requires careful thinking about the timing involved and the manpower requirements. 

        ~Action steps with completion dates can also provide a measurement of progress towards any objective. Breaking each task down to small steps keeps the process from being overwhelming. It allows time for skill development. Complex skills take practice. Small action steps increase the mastery of the game, which adds to the passion, and creativity needed to sustain the motivation for winning.

 Over the years my own experience of working with a PDA caused me to be overwhelmed.  I went back to a system that had helped me put organization into my to do list.  It’s called a Planner Pad (www.plannerpad.com).  It has been the key for me to take control of my plans, projects and goals once I have clearly defined what I wanted to accomplish.

 Yearly, quarterly and monthly planning has been an important aspect of Mind Masters from day one – but having a way to filter those plans into productive action needed a tool that would get me the results I wanted.

 The key is to categorize your high priority, high payoff items first, both business and personal.  They can be referred to as:

            Activities             Results        Projects     Commitments 

Some of the things we do are routine, but we still need to be reminded about them, while projects or results require a more detailed list for completion along with time frames. It helps balance everything you do – in your work, home and personal life. 

On a weekly basis, when you do your planning, it is easy to choose the things from each list that must be done within that time frame.  Each day, based on your schedule you can easily funnel specific actions down knowing you have allotted the time to complete them.

In working with entrepreneurs over the last 20 years I have emphasized the importance of developing basic systems and procedures for all areas of the business. The more new things that get introduced, whether its technology, new markets, new products or services, without the basics it costs you money.

There are days when so much is going on, it doesn’t leave much time for improvement or making your business work better. Starting with some basics allows you to adjust one thing at a time.

Of all the areas that small business owners violate the most are marketing and sales. Consistency in generating prospects we can sell to is the only way to keep the business growing and working for you. Your effectiveness in marketing and sales starts with mastering the basics and then applying the best strategies.

Marketing Basics:
What do you sell? And what do prospects buy? What is the benefit to your client/customer?
What business are you in? How do you position yourself in the marketplace?
Do you specialize in a target market?
Do you use at least 3 consistent marketing tactics to reach your target audience?
Do you track the results of your implementation schedule?

Selling Basics: Do you have a prospecting system?
Do you have a process for developing needs?
Have you created a solutions based sales presentation?
Do you have a handful of ways to ask for the order (close the sale)?
Have you created a good client service process?
Do you track your vital statistics? (number of prospects, calls, appointments, sales)?

There is only one way to be successful in your business or anything else. Master the fundamentals—the basics!” To master them you must own them. There is no mystery here. It takes discipline, fundamentals, solid repetitive systems, and activity.

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life lies in eliminating the nonessentials. Chinese proverb

  Have you ever wished that you could have 30 hours in a day? If you are like most people, more often than not, you are plowing through your day full speed with all possible energy and ability and yet at the end of the day, you still find yourself floundering for enough time to do everything you had wanted to do.

  Time is a unique resource. Every person every day is assigned the same amount of time. The amount of hours you have in a day cannot be accumulated like cell phone rollover minutes. You can’t turn it on or off, and it can’t be replaced. It has to be spent at the rate of sixty seconds every minute by every person.

  The secret then in accomplishing all you need to do does not lie in being given more minutes, but it lies in excellent time management. Excellent time management principles come from knowing what your goals are, setting priorities which would bring about those objectives and putting them into action. It comes from identifying what is urgent versus what is important. The important priorities are the ones that will help you accomplish your goals in life and business but rarely must be done today, while the urgent tasks may not help you achieve your objectives but always call for instant action.

  The best starting place to improve your use of time is to understand the extent of control to which you have of the time available to you. No one has total control over a daily schedule, because someone or something will always make demands (These are the urgent things); however, everyone has some control, and probably more than you realize. If you learn how to utilize this control that you do have for the important priorities, you are well on your way to excellent time management. Excellent time management will take you on the road to-ward success.

 Barbara Eldridge, President & Founder of Mind Masters

On Sept. 27, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Small Business Jobs Act, the most significant piece of small business legislation in over a decade. The new law is providing critical resources to help small businesses continue to drive economic recovery and create jobs. The new law extended the successful SBA enhanced loan provisions while offering billions more in lending support, tax cuts, and other opportunities for entrepreneurs and small business owners.

For more detailed information on the Small Business Jobs Act, go to www.sba.gov/jobsact.

Increase Profit and Advance Your Business Success

As an entrepreneur and small business owner you have a unique opportunity in this market climate to take advantage of fewer competitors and your ability to be flexible. This is a great time to reinvent yourself, grow, expand and build a strong foundation for the future.

“This is the BEST time ever for your business!”

Join other small business owners on January 10, 2011, 9:30am to 3:00pm, at the Mission Valley Resort & Conference Center, 875 Hotel Circle South in San Diego and learn to take your business to the next level with less stress, greater confidence and better systems, if you will spend the time to work on your business:

• To create key strategies, that shorten your success time line, and position you for the highest payoff.
• Explore ways to synergize your sales and business development efforts.
• Detail a business development strategy to increase revenue.
• Map out your core Marketing campaign.

You are invited to the most rewarding business event of the year, where you and other business owners sharpen your strategic thinking, enhance your strengths and revitalize your resources. You will better align your values and vision for engineering success into every action or decision you make.

This dynamic program provides a 5 Stage Business Building process that turns “intention” into action, defines priorities, gives you focus on your greatest needs and ensures you develop strategies that increase your effectiveness with proven bottom line techniques. In addition you will experience a dramatic increase in personal motivation, that will sustain you throughout the year.

The Breakthrough Business Summit is a proven results-oriented system, that directs you to get maximum results from your time, money and effort and provides a formula that helps you envision, enact and engage in growing your business.

Register Today!

Please choose one…

Active Member $99.00 Inactive Member $109.00 Visitor $119.00

I had a meeting with one of my members who was sharing his frustration about the way his vision for the business just wasn’t happening. He kept getting bogged down in things that didn’t allow him time to work on creating the vision. He came to realize that although he had job descriptions, he had not fully delegated all of the work to the people he had hired.

Small business owners often ignore the need for an organizational chart. This is a mistake, because when you detail all of the roles and/or positions necessary to profitably manage the business and spell out the systems/functions for each role you are then properly positioned to grow. This is the structure that Michael Gerber talks about in The E Myth Revisited. He refers to the fact that an orderly business provides customers with a level of trust that the product or result they want can be delivered.

It also delivers a message to you, the business owner, that the business can grow without you. Your decisions on how to handle growth will be easier, when you have worked out what is necessary to run the business. Leveraging your time, so that the high priority, high pay off activities have consistent focus and other things can be handled by employees, virtual assistants, subcontractors or by part time people.

It is easy in any economy to get stuck in a comfort zone. When things are going well, you stop doing the necessary things consistently; prospecting, following up and saying thank you, In a slow economic time, fear sets in, you stop investing in the things that keep you visible; networking, advertising, asking for testimonials. Your Success is built on a variety of choices you make, review the following to tap the potential you have barely scratched the surface of.

1. Redefine your Goals: Get crystal clear about the goals that motivate you to do the work it takes to grow your business. Also know the reason why you want it. If it’s to make a certain amount of money every month, you need to have a reason. No reason or desired reward, no motivation, more complacency.

2. Recognize the effects of not taking action: Get very clear about the cost of not achieving that goal. If you don’t get this goal, there are consequences. Know what they are.

3. Make commitments to others: Use the power of what Napoleon Hill called a driving force- a master mind group helps you be accountable, as you hold your employees/subcontractors accountable. Valuable support is provided by other business leaders who know what it takes to stay focused.

4. Acknowledge your fears: When you acknowledge your feelings of fear it points your awareness to areas where you need to improve and grow. Do something to move you in the direction of growth.

5. Ask for Help: Asking for what you need is the most underutilized tool for unlocking that comfort zone complacency. Whether its money, information, support, assistance, or time, don’t be afraid to ask for what you need in order grow.

6. Learn to say “No”: Do you spend too much of your time on projects and activities that you really don’t want to do simply because you fall into the trap of pleasing others? (an easier comfort zone then focusing on your own goals). You are going to have to create stronger boundaries about what you will and won’t do.

7. Do 1 thing that makes you uncomfortable every day – work toward stretching those “goal achievement muscles”.

8. Create something new for your business: Be open to change. Change is good—it helps you grow. Develop a new product, a better system, redo your work space, makeover your marketing. They can reignite your momentum and your speed at which you succeed at your goals.

9. Set and meet deadlines for yourself: Set reasonable deadlines for all jobs and stick to them. Hold yourself accountable, it’s true that work expands to fill the available time, so set expectations.

10. Invest in Win-Win Relationships: A great way to build the foundation for a relationship with referral partners is to hook them up with others in your network. Invite them to a workshop, seminar or networking function where they can make valuable new contacts themselves. This keeps you alert and aware of others needs.

The Challenge: Identify an area of your work or business that needs some new energy or change and set an intention to update or refresh it, then do it!