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Posts Tagged ‘small business owners’

As an organization grows in revenue, other aspects also may grow from operations to people.  Eventually when small business owners or chief executive officers determine they can no longer manager all the daily operations, they will take action to hire additional staff and give them the titles specific to their responsibilities.   These titles usually are:

• Managers
• Supervisors
• Team Leaders

What sometimes happens is these titles become very confusing because of:

• No clearly articulate organizational chart
• Poorly written to even non-existent job descriptions
• No evaluation process
• Lack of written policies, procedures, processes and systems including succession leadership
• Interference from small business owners or Chief Executive Officers (Think E-Myth)

With so many small businesses operating in today’s global economy, having a clear understanding of these roles and their impact on the organization appears to be even more critical today than even last year.

In reading a posting by Tammy Kohl of RAC Corporation, she shared the results of a survey conducted by OI Partners of Cincinnati, OH.  They surveyed companies about who would takeover current leadership roles (think about your current great managers, best supervisors or good team leaders). What the results revealed was:

• Past succession plans had not been updated
• 54% lacked enough successors to fill current roles
• 14% are unsure if they have enough future leaders in place

These results confirm other management research about the lack of effective successors at all levels of management from those good team leaders to best supervisors to great managers.  So to answer the question, at this time there is no difference when we look from the 30,000 view point.

Leadership is what separates good companies from great ones and this is not about revenue or sales.  Small companies may have incredible leaders be them managers, supervisors or team leaders.  Business Training Coaching Tip: One of the better books on organizational leadership and how that translates into individual leadership is Fail Safe Leadership.

As Peter Drucker has been quoted as saying, “Leadership is all about results.”  What makes Great Managers, Best Supervisors or Good Team Leaders is the ability to secure the predetermined results with behaviors that reflect the values of the organization. Without this critical component, organizations cannot achieve their full potential.

All businesses be them for profit or not for profit have overhead.  For single office/home office (SOHO) and independent contractors including realtors, financial advisors, lawyers, accountants (CPAs) this budgetary and financial number is much easier to determine than for the small business owners with employees and the much larger companies where it exists, but no one department wants to own even a part of it because it reduces profits within that department.

A recent post in the COO Bulldog by Kevin Callahan provided a simple explanation as how to calculate and subscribe overhead costs to employees. His last point reaffirms what Gary Sutton talked about in his book Corporate Canaries specific to you cannot outgrow losses.

Operating a business can either be from a short term or long term perspective.  Data from the Small Business Administration suggests many small business owners appear to operate from a short term perspective given by year five, 50% of these organizations are not longer viable.  By not understanding and properly allocating overhead can contribute to this small business failure rate.

One other variable in this mix is this one word – value.  The inherent value within your products and services can help you in your overall pricing structure.

By knowing and being able to clearly articulate this value to your customers should allow you to raise your prices or sell more of your products and services at their existing price levels while building customer loyalty.  Then provided you maintain your overhead costs along with direct costs because you cannot outgrows losses you should be able to increase your profits and not be constrained by your losses. Bottom line is you will then be the Red jacket in both sales and profits.

As always, please feel free to leave your companies or observations about the importance of this business practice.

With only 24 hours in every day, small business owners to C Suite executives are hard pressed to be aware of everything within their organization, the marketplace to their own customers.  Yet, your customers truly do not care if you are not aware (ignorant) of what is happening. Simply speaking, excuses are not allowed.  They want their answers now, not later, and expect you to deliver the same.  If for some reason you cannot, then they expect and more than likely will demand you to be honest with them and not becoming confrontational.

My father said, never, absolutely never argue with a customer.  Discuss yes, but challenging your customer from an argumentative position that is infused with negative body language not to mention verbal words will only backfire if your goal is getting customers.

I was reminded of this when viewing a clip on Fox News about a politician who was in the role of salesman talking to his constituents (customers). One of his customers asked him a question about a particular event and his response was he did not know because his news sources did not report it. Then this Congressman became very agitated and his behaviors (both verbal and non-verbal) reflected this irritation. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Check your sources to ensure you are not making dangerous and ignorant assumptions.

From a business perspective especially those in sales, this news clip demonstrates what happens when you as the salesperson, small business owner or C Suite executive blame ignorance or offer a similar excuses to your customers.  The end result is a lot of negative reactions that potentially generate even more negative results.

Getting customers is relatively simple, but not necessarily easy. All any business or organization must do is to provide:

• Quality  services or products that meet your customers’ needs
• Extraordinary customer service
• Prices that are reasonable and value added

Oh and remove the ignorance, anger and excuses and replace them with authenticity, integrity and personal full accountability.

Small business owners who employ less than 9 employees make up over 50% of all organizations according to the Small Business Administration (SBA). Due to their limited resources, they rely on outsourcing more so than larger organizations to enhance their overall business productivity.

By purchasing specific services related to business operations including marketing, sales training, executive coaching, human resource and technology just to name a few, these industrious entrepreneurs can truly focus on what they do best while maximizing both profitability and business productvity.  Small Business Coaching Tip:  Any dollars invested on outsourcing are really redirected profits.

The challenge is how to decide what company to select.  Referrals from trusted colleagues and clients are probably the best way. Yet for those who watch Holmes on Homes (one of my favorite television shows) this does not always ensures  the desired results.

From my observations, the decision rests between these two key criteria:

1. Experience
2. Expertise

There are a ton of people who have experience. With baby boomers comprising the greatest percentage of the workforce until their forthcoming retirements, experience abounds. However, experience does not necessarily equate to expertise.

According to Webster’s New World Online Dictionary, experience means “direct observation of or participation in events as a basis of knowledge.” The same resource traces the word expertise back to the word expert which means “having, involving or displaying special skill of knowledge derived from training or experience.”

From my observations, expertise must go beyond just having special skill or knowledge, but it must be directly connected to results through the demonstration of positive core values (business ethics).  For bottom line it is all about results.

For example, each day I receive at least one email or telephone call from some local to offshore web design firm sharing with me how they can propel me to page one on Google. In fact one of my colleagues, Alan Boyer, a small business coach in Kansas City, MO, shared with me his recent conversation with one of these firms.  They had a good sales pitch and guaranteed they could get him on page one and if not, they would refund his $4,000 small business outsourcing investment.

As the conversation continued and this firm explained how they would do it using long tail keywords and buying some links.  Alan said that was what he was currently doing both long tail keywords and link exchanges, but he still could not get on page one for “Small Business Coach.” All of a sudden this firm with experience and expertise backed down from their initial claim because they knew they could not guarantee the desired results.

Jill Konrath in her new book – SNAP Selling – discussed expertise and the connection to results. She advocated being very specific with the results you deliver when speaking with potential qualified customers.

Also, I remember when my husband had his own business – repairing and rebuilding chimneys. He came across numerous masons who had built hundreds of chimneys. Their brickwork was exceptional (think form), but the overall chimney (think function) was less than desirable. These professionals had the experience, but not the expertise. Their lack of expertise resulted in my husband being called out because the fire would not burn properly to the homeowners experiencing chimney fires.

Many firms who supply outsourcing will share they have helped hundreds of businesses and this goes to their experience. However, the question you as a small business owner need to ask and be very firm in this compound question:

Can you share with me the specific results you have delivered for at least 3 of your customers and their names to follow-up with personal conversations?

By taking this one action, you will convert your redirected profits into sustainable results.

P.S. Years ago I came across this Chinese proverb:  Vision without action is a daydream; Action without vision is a nightmare. This reminded me that Expertise without experience is a daydream; experience without expertise is indeed a very costly nightmare.

Northwest Indiana experienced heavy fog this morning. Visibility was in some areas less than 200 feet.  What is interesting to note is all the drivers who failed to adjust for this hazardous road condition by not just simply turning on their full beam headlights.

How many times do businesses fail to adjust their actions because they:

• Did not fully comprehend the potential looming disaster?
• Believed minor adjustments would work?
• Expected others to take action?

When small business owners to independent sales professionals including realtors, insurance agents to financial advisors ignore the “fogs” of business, they are truly setting themselves up for failure.  And this truly does not need to be the case.

Just by taking some simple actions (course corrections) businesses can get through these “foggy” times. For example, slow down.  Make sure you are on the right road and you have identified as many potential obstacles as possible.

Put your lights on. Now is the time to truly look for what is lurking just beyond the fog. Greater clarity always helps.

You can also just pull over.  Invest the time to stop and assess what you are doing.  Is it the right action for the right time to secure the right result?

When drivers and businesses ignore the fog, they can literally crash and burn. Does it not make more sense to:

• Review to your business growth action plan?
• Revisit existing sales goals?
• Conduct a temperature check (customer loyalty service walk) with both internal and external customers?
• Seek business advice?

The “fogs of business” should not stop your day to day operations, your goal to increase sales and your ability to be the Red jacket in that fog of gray.

Having high business ethics and personal ethics are not only a good thing from society’s viewpoint, but they also help to increase sales. Yet sometimes, the lack of these  ethics can be directly connected to the bottom line.

Credit: thebsreport

On Monday, June 7, 2010  a recognized journalist, Helen Thomas, abruptly retired after numerous years covering Washington, D.C. politics.  Her retirement was spurned on by some inappropriate remarks she made in May of this year that caught the attention of the world. The White House Press Correspondents Association (WHPCA) denounced her remarks as “indefensible.”

Helen was a columnist (independent contractor) for Hearst Media (newspapers). She had a long history covering the Presidents and Washington politics.

And in the USA whether you are a journalist who engages in the business of reporting the news or an average citizen, you  have “Free Speech. ” From the various reports I have read no one is questioning her right to say what she said, but what is being questioned are the ethics (positive core values) behind the words. And that is today’s lesson on business ethics.

What small business owners, independent contractors, sales professionals, front line workers to even C Suite executives must learn is that everyone is on camera somewhere almost 24/7.  If you misspeak, sooner or later your words will demonstrate your business ethics (positive core values) and may either end up in print or worse yet on some video on YouTube.

Do you know what your time is worth?  Given that most people believe they have little time and their plates are overflowing, one would think everyone would have an answer to this productivity question.  Yet, when speaking to small business owners, sales professionals, financial advisors, realtors, insurance agents and other independent contractors, I am surprised at the number who truly cannot answer this question or feel awkard if actually sharing what they believe their hourly time is worth.

A post just came across my desk which provides a very simple way to determine the value of your time is money. What I like about this posting are the questions at towards the end.

Years ago I contributed the cost for small business onwers, financial advisors, realtors, insurance agents and other independent contractors who belonged to a:

• Chamber of commerce
• Formal (dues paying) business networking group
• Professional association
• Civic organization such as Rotary
• Industry or trade association

Between membership fees, meal costs, raffle tickets, penalties (e.g. not wearing your pin), mileage (car expense) travel time and attendance time, I estimated $30,000 annual profit drain. Business Coaching Tip: Anything that costs the company outside of the actual purchase of goods or services in relationship to the sale comes from profits. When I made those calculations, I estimated hourly rate of $100 for being in attendance and $50 for travel time.

In speaking with many of my clients, I received push back because they had never considered their time in the equation. When I reminded them that they could be selling instead of attending these necessary marketing activities, they all of a sudden understood why it was important to make sure their marketing actions were focused. Business Coaching Tip:  Having a written business action plan reinforced by WAY SMART goals helps to best leverage this non-renewable resource of time.

Investing the time to understand what your time is worth and how best to use that time (think productivity) will allow you to become one of the few who achieve business success instead of one of the many who languish in the land of missed opportunities (failures).

Small business owners according to the Third Annual FedEx Survey will lead the charge to economic prosperity or in simply terms increase sales.  This is good news. However, the question remains will they survive in the long haul?

With the business failure rate at 50% in the first 5 years of operation and by year 10 only 10% remain (according to the SBA and SCORE), there appears to be a disconnect between being optimistic and results.

Within the FedEx Survey, one of the surprising results was specific to poor marketing decisions. Prior to the recession of 2009, 41% of the businesses were considering to increase marketing expenditures. Then with the economic downturn, some of these businesses (34%) reversed course and 31% of those polled said this decision had a negative impact on their business results and did not increase sales.  Go figure!

What this survey does reveal is marketing is still not delivering the results it should for many small business owners. In this survey, small business owners were defined as 5 to 100 employees and own firms that generate over $100,000 in annual revenue.

To be successful in leading the charge to economic recover, these key points may help:

1. Invest the time to research your market
2. Create a core positioning statement
3. Understand the psychographics of why people buy
4. Survey your customers about why they buy from you
5. Develop a simple marketing goal driven action plan
6. Monitor your results
7. Ask (firmly) from any marketing firm who wants your business for specific references and what results can they guarantee

By incorporating this points into your current and future actions, should help you be the Red Jacket as well as one of the 10 who are around in 10 years.

During an executive coaching session with a small business owners, this gentleman uttered what I believe to be a most profound statement:  “Success is not about what I know, but who I am.” This gentleman has been on a now 5-year journey to truly take control of his life and his success has multiplied both personally and professionally.  Now with this realization and a new belief, he will see his new goals achieved with even greater speed while traveling his road to success.

How many times do small business owners, entrepreneurs, professionals and those who just believe that they are average individuals seek help from outside, externals sources such as acquiring more knowledge, certifications or degrees to achieve success.   Many of these same individuals fail to look inside, for those internal discoveries that actually provide them with a sustainable belief in catapulting them to success.

Unfortunately, looking within takes an enormous amount of honest and courageous reflection. Possibly, these 5 questions may help you if are up to the challenge.

#1 – Do I really like me? – What this means is do I have a grounded positive self-image? Or, am I always looking to be like someone else or thinking “if I only had his or her looks, money, (fill in the blank)” etc.?  NOTE:  Many of my sales training coaching clients don’t really like themselves. This is the hardest part of truly transforming into “Who I am.”

#2 – Do I know my purpose? – Why am I here on this earth right now? What gifts such as creativity, insightfulness or determination do I bring to the table of life? Purpose is not a constant as it does change as we grow and our experiences grow with us.

#3 – Do I know my values? – By what behaviors will I deem acceptable or not acceptable in my ongoing attempts to live my purpose.  In many instances, individuals’ values are also their gifts or talents.

#4 – Do I know or have a vision?  Where can I take or apply my purpose?

#5 – Do I know my mission?  What WAY SMART goals will take me closer to uniting my vision to my purpose?

Over 75 years ago, Napoleon Hill recognized what my client only just realized when he shared this thought:  “ You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.” And for that success to happen, you must know who you are.

Marketing is usually the first victim when times are down because the business cannot afford what those in charge view as an unnecessary expense.  Then when times turn around and the economy rebounds, again marketing loses because sales appear to be happening without once again this not needed business liability.

So this leads to this question: What comes first marketing or selling?

This is the chicken in the egg quandary faced by small business owners, SOHO, sales professionals to even C-Level executives.  However, to end that quandary I contend the answer is marketing. Now some may resist this simplistic response because marketing is not their strong suit or because the current organizational structure removes the sales department from marketing efforts.

So why is marketing so critical to business and sales success?  During the past 10 years in working with my clients and observing those who continue to be desperate about revenues, I have identified these five (5) axioms to help answer that question.

Each of these five marketing axioms will be discussed beginning this coming Monday.