Success Quote: “Good example is …

“Good example is followed. A single act of kindness
throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and
make new trees.” Amelia Earhart

April 30, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 

Business Productivity – Are You Making Any Of These 3 Deadly Productivity Mistakes?

Your daily productivity is a very important element in your business’s overall results. What you do with your own time, attention and energy will make or break your entire team’s business building efforts.

So let’s take a look at 3 of the biggest and deadliest mistakes that entrepreneurs, professionals and business owners alike make, and then what to do instead.

Big Mistake #1 – Going with the flow. Because we live in a society that rewards risk taking and responsiveness, I usually see people running businesses start each day with their focus on the squeaky wheel. The problems that shout the loudest get the most attention, even if they are not the most important factors in the business’s success.

What to do instead – Start each day and each meeting with a clear purpose. Make that purpose the stated vision and goals of the business and evaluate the issues that come up for their fit with those success targets before you put time or resources into solving them.

Big Mistake #2 – Giving problems the first call on your attention. When a business is primarily problem focused motivation goes right out the window. For a team to pull together, and even for you to want to get out of bed and go build that business each day, you can’t keep ringing the “what’s gone wrong” bell.

What to do instead – Focus everyone’s attention first on what’s being accomplished. Help your team see what they’ve done well and you’ll have them motivated to take their enthusiasm and creativity into fixing breakdowns with glee.

Big Mistake #3 – Letting externals design how you do business. There is nothing more deadly to productivity than watching the clock. Forget the notion of setting meetings for an hour. The issue you’re working on might only need 27 minutes to solve, yet everyone will spread the work to fill that hour. No one will speak up and say “can we take care of this quicker?”

What to do instead – Decide on the agenda of your meetings before you sit down at the table. State it clearly, and let people know that the meeting will end in 12, 27 41 minutes – however long it takes to get clear about the exact next steps to be done, and who will do them.

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April 29, 2009 | Filed Under Productivity Tools | Leave a Comment 

Success Quote: “We are what we …

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act,
but a habit.”

Aristotle

April 27, 2009 | Filed Under Quotes | Leave a Comment 

Practical Business Building Tips – How To Fix Your Marketing To Pull More Customers

Business Marketing begins with a secret ingredient. You want to craft all your marketing activities around the frustrations, challenges and fears of your customers.

The benefit here is how you create marketing with the clearest focus, in words that resonate for your buyer, rather than as advertising about what you personally want them to value. You’re going to be able to double and triple your sales by making this shift.

My marketing leverage formula

My business marketing leverage formula goes like this –

Your ideal client’s challenge + Your matching solution = Unbeatable product and service offerings.

The key is the word “matching”

There are 3 steps to creating a solution you key customers will be clamoring for:

1. Ask them what their business Vision looks like, and what the key roadblocks they are running into are. You might uncover a frustration you can fix with little or no effort on your part. The difference will be when you tell them that’s the very thing you want to solve for them.

2. Be a problem solving resource by staying in regular contact. Your job is to be the relationship builder, rather than the technician. You can hire people to provide your products and services. YOU are the one with the broader business experience so that you can leverage your rolodex to connect your customers with the experience and intelligence of other people to solve their business challenges.

The more you do, the easier it will be for you to focus your customers on turning to you for ideas that grow their business.

3. Challenge “the way we’ve marketed in the past” to constantly invite new, more productive and more profitable ideas be brought to your attention. Spend 30 minutes each week reading business periodicals like Entrepreneur Magazine, just to see the myriad ways other businesses have marketed themselves.

Every time you read an article, no matter what industry or product or service it’s covering, ask yourself how you might adapt their approach to your business. You’ll find a gold mine of new ideas your competitors have never thought of.

The other great thing is as you go forward using this marketing strategy and you deepen your relationship with your customers, your competition won’t recognize what you’re doing. They won’t even think of it as marketing and you’ll be leaving them in the dust as you create deeper connections with your clients.

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April 25, 2009 | Filed Under Marketing | Leave a Comment 

Success Quote: “No kind action ever …

“No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to
another. ” Amelia Earhart

April 24, 2009 | Filed Under Quotes | Leave a Comment 

Practical Business Building Tips – You Can’t Grow Your Business In A Recession – Truth Or Myth?

One of my favorite games to play with my cousins was “Truth or Dare.” It had the same feeling as ‘trick or treat’ – you get to step up to a challenge and face it head on, quickly. And it often required ingenious thinking to make it through the challenge, sharing a sensitive answer or jumping off tall walls and so on. It was a great way to bust the myth that a player couldn’t take the challenge and win.

One of the myths I hear all the time is you cannot grow your business in a recession. While it doesn’t require jumping off roof tops or exposing private information, I think I can bust that myth for you in this article.

You can’t grow a business in a recession

I love hearing this one, because I have a three part response to this belief:

1 – These folks are mistaken

2 – These folks are your competition and you want them to believe this

3 – The is the best time to make moves they would never consider, and claim a bigger piece of the market

Make Profits Faster

Recessions provide perfect business building opportunities in at least 3 ways:

1 – Take the lead with your vendors by offering to pay them ahead of time for a 10% consideration. Rather than try to figure out how to slow down payment (like your competitors are doing), move yours up. You’ll be reducing the stress your vendors are feeling and you can bet that your needs are going to take precedence over their other customers.

2 – Do more marketing by negotiating favorable ad rates. Your fellow business owners are falling into the wrong-headed thinking that they need to cut expenses and marketing goes first. That means that ad rates are dropping – a perfect opportunity for YOU to be the only brand consistently in front of your ideal customers.

3 – Reposition your products and services by talking directly to your customer and matching your offer to their needs. Forget about selling what you think they should want. In tough times, your clients are buying only exactly what they cannot do without. Fill that need, stay in constant conversation with them, and you’ll know exactly when they’re ready to open the purse strings for other solutions.

Get Direct Results

When you step up to the challenge, you get to learn first-hand the secret that Bank of America and Steinhafels taught the big boys in the last recession: There are plenty of opportunities for growth!

As Washington Mutual and IndyMac Bank were failing under their subprime mortgage load, Bank of America—which got out of them in 2001—attracted $21 billion of new consumer deposits as consumers ran to safety. While the Wickes furniture retailing chain filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, as more than 100 truckloads of furniture were on their way to its stores; financially solid, a Milwaukee retailer Steinhafels, bought the contents of several at bargain prices.

Myth: You can’t grow your business in a recession

Truth: Busted! YOU can while others don’t even try

As your competitors are trying to do less in these challenging times, it’s your chance to take the dare, do more and actually build your business.

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April 22, 2009 | Filed Under Marketing | Leave a Comment 

Success Quote: “It’s easy to sit up and…

“It is easy to sit up and take notice. What is difficult is
getting up and taking action. ” — Al Batt

April 22, 2009 | Filed Under Quotes | Leave a Comment 

Home Business Management Tips – Can You Create A High 6-Figure Business?

One of the greatest misconceptions about home-based businesses is the idea that there is an upper limit to the income you can create.

Back in the olden days (just a little while ago) the image many people held of home based businesses was that they were for those who wanted to scrape by and make due.

The fact is that today not only are 6-figure businesses are being run from homes… there are even multi-million dollar companies.

What does it take to achieve that level of success?

1. A compelling concept
Many of these businesses are based on information products and services. Why? Because there is little to no need to manage inventories. Often the information that is being sold is being ‘drop shipped’ from an independent fulfillment house, or it is actually being delivered in electronic format.

2. A hungry audience
The most successful entrepreneurs and home based business owners stay tapped in to the trends in the marketplace. Today, everyone from financial advisors to bankruptcy attorneys, information product sellers and technology consultants are each able to provide stellar services out of their homes.

3. Subscription based clients
Among the new business models are those whose customers pay monthly for access and information. The subscription and continuity model is ideal because human nature will keep each of us paying monthly so that we know we have access to expert advice the moment we want it. It’s sort of like investing to broaden our own capabilities, even if we don’t use them regularly.

4. Easy delivery
How many envelopes do you receive in the mail these days? Compared to 5 years ago? If you’re anything like my clients that number is down 80 percent. Why? Because we’re all very comfortable getting our information and services electronically these days. Email, telephone, computer connections are all highly reliable paths for delivering information based products, services, and communication.

5. Re-purposable products and services
The highest earning home based businesses are those that take one piece of information and deliver it over and over again in many formats. This includes consulting to a client by phone, discussing the same material on group coaching calls, recording the calls and transcribing them, turning the information into home study course materials, and so on.

The most successful businesses today are those creating multiple streams of income for their owners and that holds true for home based businesses.

So what information do you have that you could turn into products and services, delivered electronically to a hungry market?

And one way to grow your business to the next level is to join the Business Accelerator TeleSeminar Club at http://www.TheBusinessAcceleratorClub.com – come on board and join for $200 savings the first month.

Come join me and like-minded business builders and learn all about how to run your current business ever easier, AND how to take your experience & expertise and turn it into – Programs, Products & Services Your Clients Are Hungry For – with all the how to’s set out for you.

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April 21, 2009 | Filed Under Ideas | Leave a Comment 

Entrepreneurship – Can You Create The Business Of Your Dreams (The Answer Is Yes)

Entrepreneurship is a passion game. The reason your business succeeds will always come back to having a clear vision of what you want to accomplish. That clarity is the fuel to fire all of your momentum in building your business.

The good thing is you can use that clear sightedness on purpose with these 4 easy steps.

Tie Your Passion To The Market
Entrepreneurs who succeed are those who both have a passion and find a ready outlet for it in the market place. They create their competitive advantage by asking their prospective customer what they want solved.

Keep that in mind and don’t let yourself be pulled off course with things that interest you but don’t have buyers – save those for the hobbies of your weekends and vacations until the day there is a true market for them.

Tie Your Products To The Market
Your golden opportunity is to design products and services people want right now, for the challenges they rank the highest on their own “I Need This Solved” list. Once you’ve heard back from the marketplace what they want solved, give it to them.

This may sound simple, but if it were simple your prospective clients wouldn’t still be looking for someone to solve it!

The more people who tell you they have that same challenge, the easier it will be to build your path to success.

Tie Your Customers To You
Solving your customers’ number one challenge is the beginning of a relationship that can last for years. Let them see how you approach solving their problems and you’ll be seen as a trusted advisor for other issues they are facing.

This part is powerful. You may not be able to solve each issue they run into, but if you stay in conversation with them about their challenges, you’ll be the first to see the opportunity and will be able to refer them to the ideal resource they need.

By being the person they regularly discuss business with, you’ll be the first to know of each next opportunity.

It’s as valuable to solve the key challenge even when it’s by finding them another resource first as it is to be the provider of the solution itself. So your job is to stay in regular contact with your clients and prospective customers and invite them to turn to your for solutions. Let them know they can get more great information, quicker, from you.

And one way to grow your business to the next level is to join the Business Accelerator TeleSeminar Club at http://www.TheBusinessAcceleratorClub.com – come on board and join for $200 savings the first month.

Come join me and like-minded business builders and learn all about how to run your current business ever easier, AND how to take your experience & expertise and turn it into – Programs, Products & Services Your Clients Are Hungry For – with all the how to’s set out for you.

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April 19, 2009 | Filed Under Marketing | Leave a Comment 

Small Business Management – Is This Your Solution To The 5 Things You Need To Be Successful In Business?

You basically need just 5 things to thrive in business. Focus, leverage, leadership, management and passion The really good news is that everyone can master these just by giving them your attention.

Focus
Being able to stay focused is the first key to small business success. There will always be new options, new opportunities, new markets you ‘could’ take your products and services to. The quickest and easiest way to build success is by having a clear focus and checking to make sure all your efforts are aligned.

There is always more that could be added to your To Do list, but are those tasks adding value? Double check daily that the actions you’re giving your time to will build the business results you’re aiming for.

Leverage
One of the ongoing challenges for every small business is getting it all done. If your vision is to grow your business, you need to practice ‘not doing’ – not doing it all your self, not doing what doesn’t actually need doing. Leverage means setting up systems for how things are best done, so that they can be handed off to other people.

Another form of leverage is hiring others, whether part-time or full-time, to take over those systems and activities. Using both of those forms of leverage will free you up to be doing exactly what you need to accomplish on behalf of your business.

Leadership
How do you envision your role in your business? Is it as a team member or a team leader? If it’s the former you’re playing small. Every team needs great members, but team success depends on a leader who make sure the resources the teams needs are available, and the obstacles get cleared out of the way. Be the leader.

Management
No matter the size of your business, you need to carve out time for working ‘on’ your business rather than ‘in’ it. That means putting together the plans that will be road maps for everyone’s efforts. Once you have those plans, it’s your turn to make sure you’ve got the resources your business needs to get the work done. And as work is taking place, you need to monitor how things are going so you know what to adjust.

Passion
Let’s not forget, as you become absorbed in the doing, you need reminders of why you’re in business in the first place. Keep your life vision and your business vision in your line of sight on a regular basis so that you can draw on the inspiration to sustain your balance!

And one way to grow your business to the next level is to join the Business Accelerator TeleSeminar Club at http://www.TheBusinessAcceleratorClub.com – come on board and join for $200 savings the first month.

Come join me and like-minded business builders and learn all about how to run your current business ever easier, AND how to take your experience & expertise and turn it into – Programs, Products & Services Your Clients Are Hungry For – with all the how to’s set out for you.

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April 17, 2009 | Filed Under Inspiration, Leadership, Managing, Productivity Tools | Leave a Comment 

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