Gratitude and Goals for You and Your Business
Published November 24, 2011 | 
Today is Thanksgiving or Turkey day in the U.S. where flocks of turkeys everywhere are being prepared for this day’s traditions. Their time is definitely up today. If we’re all lucky in America, we will all enjoy the results of hours of preparation and eat those birds along with many other traditional delicacies. Most of us will be sharing precious minutes with our loved ones around the table or on the phone.
Now, if you haven’t already figured it out, then let me break it to you that the turkey, although nice, is not really important and what it’s all about today. Many thousands will be eating tofurkey, or even bologna sandwiches, and doing so with the same or even greater level of thanks.
Relationships are what powers us and makes this wonderful world go round. Clearly understand that you and I can’t possibly begin to know who we are, can’t possibly learn and grow, and can’t possibly 
experience the joys and sorrows of life, and pursue elusive happiness, without other people there to help us along our life’s journey.
We ARE the 100%
It doesn’t matter that we either agree or disagree with recent Occupy Wall Street protests that attempt to divide us into the top 1% of earners and everyone else. You and I, along with everyone who actually earns bazillions of dollars are in reality, ONE big living organism. The enormously important element to remember from all this, is what we do as individuals matters to the whole. And as an individual, entrepreneur and business owner, how you live and operate your business matters to the world.
You might think of yourself as small fish right now, but if you’re smart and innovative, can visualize what you want to do, with a little bit of luck mixed in, you’ll grow your business into something as BIG as you want it to be.
Be Grateful and Visualize
So understanding that all of us are affected by the state of the world today, are you totally grateful for the way things are? Would you like to change up a few things?
Most of us don’t start thinking about the tradition of setting goals until New Years. But why wait? There’s no time like the present to take action, right? So be sure to soak up all that gratitude today, and count your blessings!
You can even share your vision for what you’d like to accomplish. Have some fun and enjoy the day’s moments. Use the power of relationships to move forward with the understanding that collective visioning is one of the most powerful things unique to us. And answer questions like, “What would you like to be grateful for this time next year? And how will your business make a difference?
Top Business Dangers
Published November 4, 2011 | 
One question that we always get when talking to clients is: “What is your business experience that can help me?” The fact is, after having consulted with thousands of clients about their businesses, we know without a doubt that while all business owners face situations unique to their business, most of the challenges they face are quite common and cut across all industries.
Each entrepreneur and small business owner should develop plans that address many of the top business dangers with cost effective strategies and options that can effectively drive results, improve the bottom line, and build business staying power.
Let’s take a look at some the business dangers entrepreneurs need to be aware of.
Financial Mismanagement – It’s important for any business to make money, yet just as important, if not more, to manage the money well… We’ve found it to be common that many business owners, regardless of how long they’ve been in business, spend the biggest part of their time on making money, but certainly not enough on developing good money management.
Ineffective Marketing - All other business activities contribute to expenses only, but without a well thought out and comprehensive business plan to generate enough leads, your business is destined to fail.
Poor Sales Performance - Common reasons for poor performance are lack of focus, lack of an efficient and effective system, and just plain poor time management. 
When looking for reasons behind poor sales performance, do not use the economy as an excuse.
Poor People Management - When it comes to managing people, shortages of skilled workers, along with widening gaps in the level of skills, and unfocused disengaged employees, are all serious problems facing most businesses in today’s economy.
Poor Leadership – Believe it or not, the number one reason cited for failure to meet business goals is ineffective communication. What can you do to ensure that your business has superior leadership?
If you can effectively address these five common dangers facing entrepreneurs in their pursuit of business success, you can begin a transformation of your business that will have you well on your way to achieving your Income, Lifestyle, Wealth, and Equity Goals.
Plans Are Useless, but Planning is Indispensable
Published November 3, 2011 | 
I was recently reminded by a friend and successful small business owner, that General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was also President of the United States, was quoted as saying, “In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
It’s all too often that companies are in search of magic silver bullets. They leap from the latest trend-to-trend and solution-to-solution trying to find elusive easy answers. Growing success and associated staying power just doesn’t work like that. Developing a business is hard work, and planning is an indispensable step in the process. As the great Yogi Bera once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.” And “somewhere else” is definitely where you don’t want to be!
Planning is a key component of every business, from developing strategic plans for the start of the business, to annual reviews for tactical adjustments. The purpose of these actions is not to write the most sophisticated strategic plan. The purpose is to refine your strategies, question all the market variables, set and reset your priorities and get geared up to execute.
It all boils down to execution
Finding the correct strategies is simply not enough. Success depends on how effectively the strategies are executed.
Understand that plans are just plans until you put them into action. Your success is directly linked to how well you can execute your strategy.
Planning purely supports execution. When you plan on a regular basis it builds buy-in from your team, but even more significantly it provides accountability. No one wants to show up to a planning and review meeting and admit they dropped the ball and didn’t do what was expected. That of course is unacceptable, since lack of execution as planned lets everyone down.
Effective planning provides the structure and clearly defined expectations required to successfully execute. It places everyone on the same page, describes and delineates what actions need to be accomplished, why the actions are essential, and exactly who is responsible for what.
Don’t get caught up in the jargon
You should clearly understand not to get carried away with development and planning, which can easily get you mired in unnecessarily sophisticated MBA jargon. Don’t! Planning doesn’t have to be that complicated. When you aren’t looking for your magic silver bullets, it’s much easier to focus on the definition and implementation of your vision. Let’s examine three simple questions to help discuss your mission statement, goals and strategies:
- Why start the business in the first place? (This is your mission statement)
- What do you want to realistically achieve in three years? (These are your goals)
- How are you going to accomplish everything? (This is your strategy)
Of course, these questions may seem simplified to some. But for me, they are great. I hate carefully worded mission statements that sound wonderful, but in reality don’t say anything. Take my word, they’re completely useless. Clearly understand that you should get beyond terminology, and develop clear concise strategies that you can execute. And always remember, as General Eisenhower said, “plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
Small Business Success – Fewer Customers Excellent Experience
Published August 2, 2011 | 
When it comes to serving fewer customer or clients, here is a simple multi-step plan that can be used to achieve more success with any new business or product/service by successfully focusing on fewer customers.
First identify a narrower market. You have to be sure to clearly define your target market or niche. Understand that it really is better and easier to achieve a 20% share of a smaller, more clearly defined market, than a tiny 0.1% share of a huge undefined market.
Leverage the tried and true 80/20 rule. If you are unfamiliar with the 80/20 rule, it states that 20% of your customers will result in 80% of your sales. You should of course figure out who the 20% of your customers are, and then focus on attracting them with your targeted marketing efforts.
Create an avatar or profile based on the 20%, and speak to that avatar. An avatar in this case is a person or customer profile that embodies the characteristics of what you identify as your ideal 20% of customers.
Once you have developed and identified this avatar (ideal customer profile), market your company as if you were speaking directly to the avatar. By doing so, you will better speak to the needs of your customers.
Let’s look at an example of what an avatar might be. The customer avatar could be a man named Steve. He might be a 30 year old entrepreneur who is looking to either start a new business or grow an existing company. He would also typically have a wife and a couple of younger kids and enjoys sport activities to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
So, when you are thinking about marketing strategies, you have Steve’s needs, thoughts and desires in mind. Because of that, you are better able to attract and ready to serve him or your real customer.
Okay, so now you might be thinking, Steve actually represents only one customer type you have. The reason is it would be fairly rare for another customer to personify the exact same attributes you have labeled Steve with (e.g., 30 years old, likes sports activities, etc.).
But you know that’s ok, because the message you give to Steve will also find pretty good traction with Jennifer, a 48 year old entrepreneur with three college-aged kids, and of course Tony, a 26 year-old single entrepreneur Etc.
Most likely your message to Steve doesn’t find traction with non-entrepreneurs who could also buy and benefit from your products and services, but who you have deemed not worthy enough for exclusive and specific targeting from either a “return on investment” or focus perspective.
When you market to a faceless group of target customers, it’s difficult to really speak to their needs. When you give your customers a face by creating an avatar, you can almost always serve them better. You can better contemplate any issues that are concerning them, and what their hopeful for, and then can provide them effective solutions.
Finally, serious consideration of the principles of thinking small is important to achieve your big dreams. Remember to begin by defining and better serving a smaller group of customers. Develop the processes and efficiencies of providing high-quality and excellent service to parlay that into more customers and more target market segments or niches, and just by doing so, you will achieve much greater success!
Small Business Success – Serve Fewer Customers
Published August 1, 2011 | 
It has always been a major component in the entrepreneurial DNA that when introducing their business to the market, or launching a new product or service, most entrepreneurs tend to dream big. Magical visions of as they picture masses of customers gathering to buy their products or services, and the happy ending of sailing off into the sunset with their riches from success in hand. Now, while the vision and dreams of massive success are great, the strategy is generally unsound and faulty.
Wondering why?
Entrepreneurs that fall into this category, which is the majority, typically reason that every man, woman and child will strongly desire to buy their product or service. So, when asked “who do you think your customer is?” they naturally answer “everyone.” That answer is a big mistake they should rethink.
There are a couple of obvious problems with this kind of answer. One is that marketing to “everyone” is really difficult, and can be quite expensive. Of course, you may have occasional companies including Facebook and Groupon that enjoy tremendous natural growth via viral word of mouth. 
But this is such a rare feat the chances of being struck by lightning are much greater. The truth of the matter is for us that remain, marketing to those in the market we think as “everyone” costs millions of dollars.
Another difficulty is that when you attempt to serve more customers than you capacity to serve and maintain high-standards, more times than not you are unable to perform at the level required to serve any single customer and successfully meet the high-standards you both set and promise. Always remember this great saying: “When you try to be everything to everyone, you end up being nothing to anyone.”
Believe it or not gigantic companies like Wal-Mart is not everything to everyone, as there are many folks who have never been inside a Wal-Mart. While it is clearly evident retailers like Wal-Mart don’t target the upscale market, they do well at selecting one large customer segment that want low prices and high value and serving them extremely well.
So what’s the solution?
Target a smaller audience and provide outstanding service, and if you can do so, you will notice a few things happen. First of all, you will be able to more effectively market to the wants and desires of your smaller niche market, thereby gaining revenues and profits.
In addition, even without specific niche marketing, you will always undoubtedly serve some customers outside of your target market.
Lastly, via certain brand extensions you may enjoy, you will always be able to target additional customer segments as your capacity to successfully serve and maintain high-standards at the same time increases.