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Archive for March, 2007

5 Steps for Building a Business Growth Strategy – A Quick Reference Guide

Mar 30

Posted by Jenny Stilwell in Human Resource Management, People!, Planning, The Board Room | No Comments

  1. Set Goals
  2. Develop Business Growth Strategy
  3. Align & Mentor People
  4. Execute Plan
  5. Review Performance

The strategic planning process is not simple. It involves understanding your market, your competitors, your clients, the motivations and drivers of the people on your team, your own drivers and needs, what is working and what isn’t, where the core competencies are for the business and the individuals in it, how ‘big’ should a goal be, what is the ‘vision thing’ for your business, and how do you grow it and have a life at the same time.

Not easy questions, not a quick process. However, if you use this Quick Reference Guide as a prompt to remember the key foundations for growth – Goals, Business Growth Strategy, People, Execution and Reviews – you will be able to gain value from the process as you build your organization.

Goal Setting
Goals must be SMARTA

  • Simple to follow – too many goals won’t stay top of mind
  • Measurable – how will you know when you get there if you don’t or can’t measure
  • Achievable – if the goal is set too high, it becomes de-motivating if it can’t be reached
  • Realistic goals – it has to be realistic to the business itself and the time
  • Timeframes – must also be set at realistic dates
  • Attractive – if the goals are not something that really appeals to you from an emotional level, you are unlikely to do it. They must be goals from the heart.

Goal setting should be a combination of past performance, future capabilities and opportunities, with your real dreams for big goals and a bigger picture.
Goals are the stepping-stones to the bigger picture.

Business Growth Strategy
Understand your environment
Be honest and realistic about your company’s core competencies

Brainstorm all your options and opportunities and how they fit together
‘The Vision Thing’ is critical – without it, you’re not going far
The Vision must be championed and reinforced by the CEO –a key part of the CEO’s role is to provide a very clear direction
Buy-in from competent people in the business is critical to successful implementation of the business growth strategy
Ask yourself what is the purpose of your business
What will the business look like at some point in the future if you focus on that purpose?
What sort of team do you need and want to help you realise that purpose and that vision?

Align & Mentor People
Mentoring adds real value to business people in key areas such as leadership, and management expertise and skills.
Not everyone wants to be, or needs to be, a leader. Some are more effective and supportive as followers. For those who want to, or have to, lead the pack, leadership skills are required.

There are different types of leaders, but all can benefit from understanding their impact on others and the world around them, their communication style and effectiveness, and their emotional intelligence in connecting with people in a more effective way.
Management skills can be learned along the way, but learning by osmosis does not usually produce the breadth or depth of expertise that is required by managers or business owners in a highly competitive and dynamic market.

Business mentoring not only helps teach these skills, but helps develop and strengthen them to produce new levels of confidence in the person being mentored. This applies to managers, managers-in-training, senior executives, entrepreneurs and professionals in their own practice.

Execution

  • Stay focused
  • Work to timeframes
  • Use the roadmap as a working document
  • Enlist support where needed
  • Execution is the critical part of the process, and why many strategies fail – because nothing is done, or the plan isn’t actually followed, which produces a whole different set of outcomes.
  • A key person needs to drive execution of the business growth strategy.

Review Performance

  • Accountability for, and to, everyone involved
  • Individual & business progress is importance – individuals achieve & business grows
  • When goals are fun/attractive/exciting, there will be a commitment and certainly a desire to achieve them.

Jack LaLanne — Physical Genius

Mar 27

Posted by Tony Alessandra in Human Resource Management, People!, Personal Development | No Comments

When we think of genius, for the most part we think in terms of mental or intellectual power. We think of brilliant human beings. We think of mathematicians or inventors or writers. Painters and sculptors may be in a slightly different category — a little more physical and intuitive — but even here, we still don’t think of artistic gifts as a physical skill. It’s the quality of the mind and heart that manifests as paint on canvas.

In light of this, let’s look at physical genius — the genius that expresses itself through physical action, whether it’s running or swimming or hitting a ball or, perhaps, even hitting another person. By the time we’re done, I think you’ll have an appreciation of what physical genius really is — how you can connect with it in your own life — and how the person I’ve chosen as our model in this session can help you do that.

He once did 1,033 pushups in 23 minutes — an average of 44 pushups every 60 seconds.

He towed 70 boats at once, carrying 70 people each from the Queen’s Way Bridge in Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary ocean liner, which was anchored a mile and a half away — and he was handcuffed and shackled while he did it. This was to celebrate his 70th birthday.

He also has made the supposedly impossible swim from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf, in San Francisco. He not only made it, but once again he was handcuffed and shackled when he did it. Just to make it more interesting, he was towing a 1,000-pound boat.

Jack LaLanne did not start out as a genius of physical fitness. Into his teenage years, he was a sugar addict and junk food junkie. In an interview, he explained what this meant. “It made me weak and it made me mean,” he said. “It also made me sick. I was nearsighted, and I had terrible skin problems.

He was 15 years old when he attended a talk by a nutritionist in his hometown of Oakland, California. This was a turning point in his life — and at that moment, he decided to totally recreate himself. He began lifting weights at the local YMCA, and he made changes in what he ate and drank. He also read everything he could find on anatomy, nutrition, and health. Very quickly, Jack developed the lean, muscular body of an athlete — and a thorough knowledge of physical fitness to go with it. But rather than keep all this to himself, he was determined to share it with the world. He began to develop approaches to physical fitness and nutrition that were both highly effective and scientifically sound. Many, if not most, of the exercise devices in today’s health clubs were first thought of by Jack LaLanne. As he said, there are 640 muscles in the human body, and he wanted to have a specific exercise for each of them. So he invented the tools that could do that.

Since then, Jack LaLanne has done many amazing things. But none of them are more amazing than the way he invented an entire industry. In 1936, he opened the nation’s first health and fitness center, on the third floor of an office building in Oakland. He was 21 years old — and he knew more about the workings of the human body than most doctors. Even so, many people viewed him with suspicion. Weightlifting, for example, which LaLanne has always advocated, was believed to cause heart attacks. Incredible as it seems, even coaches discouraged weight training by athletes, which was supposed to make them “muscle bound.”

Over the years, LaLanne’s message began to be heard. In the 1950s he began to appear on television as an advocate and motivator for fitness and health. The message was simple but compelling: Everyone should engage in physical exercise every day — and everyone can do that, including the elderly and the infirm. Even in 2004, approaching his ninth decade, LaLanne practices what he preaches. He took up golf at the age of 50, and shot his age four times when he was 73 and five times when he was 74. He still describes his daily workout as the top priority in his life, and he’s still coming up with new ideas and exercise programs.

When an interviewer asked about the differences between today and when he was first starting out, LaLanne replied, “It’s gratifying to see that everything I was preaching and advocating 50 years ago is being accepted. Back then I was a crackpot. Today I am an authority. And believe me, I can’t die. It would ruin my image!”

If this has sounded a bit like an infomercial for Jack LaLanne, don’t let that distract you from the facts of what LaLanne accomplished. He wanted to bring knowledge and experience of physical fitness to everybody — and he did it. Today there are many others in the field that he pioneered, but Jack La Lane was one of the very first. And his message was simple: you can become healthier and stronger, starting right now, no matter how unlikely that may seem. Just as importantly, he himself exemplified exactly what that meant.

In this sense, Jack LaLanne models what I mean by physical genius better than many professional athletes and Olympians. The fact is I could train as long and hard as I want, and I’ll never play in the NFL or run in the Olympics. But I can do what Jack LaLanne teaches. I can exercise every day and pay attention to what I eat and drink. You can do this also. And when you do, the genius who is your model — whether you realize it or not — is none other than Jack LaLanne.

Trademarks, not what you think…

Mar 25

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Innovation and Creativity, People!, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business, The Board Room | No Comments

I know you are probably thinking I am going to chat about the little TM symbol signifying a registered trademark on an item, short answer, no

And so to “trademarks”, I heard about this through my wife’s school, they are working with the students on establishing things that are of value to them and they call them trademarks, the things that clearly point out what their class stands for – tolerance – forgiveness – support etc… Now when I talk to businesses, large med or small, the values they have become an issue and its usually early on in the discussion. Now if I talk about “trademarks” I can do the same but make it a bit more ‘street smart’ for some of these organisations.

Which does it for you? Which do you appreciate and or understand better, values or trademarks? I guess for me it was a difficult paradigm shift at first but when I looked at it in the cold hard light of day, using ‘trademarks’ was in many cases more straight forward.

So lets give it a go…

What things are your trademarks? E.G. things that are vital and or important above all else to your business. Here are some examples.

• Profit

• People

• Customer service

• OHS

Okay there are some basics, now what would you do to embellish these to make them MORE of your ‘trademark’, things that you would be able to assist or tell your staff about the CORE things of high interest (of value) to your business.

Profit, (hey you’re in business right… not a charity) lets focus on this one for now, so how do you add to that one word to ‘tell yourself and the staff’ about it, what qualities if you like would make it stand out, or seem better for you (and in the end them). – lets try this, “We develop sustainable profitability as it is one indicator that we are providing goods and or services that are valued by our consumers.” Okay now instead of just profit, we are afer sustainable (ongoing) profit, and we use it as an indicator our goods and services are valued, now it has more MEANING, meaning that is of use to us.

Using this to our advantage, we can cover people that think we are too money hungry, if we just say profit for example, and use it as an idicator of our effectiveness. So over time, if we made a $10k profit and then in the next time frame we made a $15k profit then we are simply grabbing more customers and influencing them to buy, our market share must therefore be up! (It’s simplistic I know but hey its a basic indicator at this stage.)

Lets go further, lets note that it is an indicator, so for this to work we would need to measure things to be able to report it has grown, if its in decline then we would want to make urgent changes to the system to improve the profit. (Powerful huh!)

I hope you can see that the org’s values and ‘trademarks’ are one and the same, and can be very useful in making things happen in your organsiation large med or small.

Explore the idea of ‘trademarks’ with your people, ask them what are the most important things at the core of the business, start a list of words (like I did above) and then work to add to that to give each one more meaning. Then your business will develop a solid foundation to work from, be able to see what things need development and then you can put in place action plans to make them happen as they will have more meaning than before.

For more information on “Trademarks” click here.

Total Customer Satisfaction

Mar 22

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Human Resource Management, People!, Planning, The Customer Service Dept | 2 Comments

This is it folks, the holy grail… Total Customer Satisfaction… TCS for short. Notice its not total customer excellence or any other nonesuch just plain old SATISFACTION.

It’s a part of the Six Sigma quality stuff and it makes sense, after all why would you want total customer DISsatiasfaction? does not compute right….

So making this work can be tricky but should be the overarching aim of ALL business. AND it should be for both the internal and external customers. (staff and the paying customers).

Here’s an example of how not to do it.

Scene: Hospital… Day surgery with an overnight stay. Players… Me and the staff. Date: recently…

Walk in, on time (a bit early actually) wait while one person handles the people waiting… other staff wander through most not happy looking, moving about here to there, paperwork bits flying about, xrays etc… “Who’s is this” “Dunno… ” shuffle shuffle… more papers, more people “NEXT”… That’s me, gave the details, yep I’m on the list, take a seat they will call you through soon. I was wondering who they were and where they were going to come from, people were coming in and going out of about five different doors! I look around, paper signs, reminders if you will, they were dog eared and all needed to be replaced… not a good look. Staff behind the counter seemed all over the place as well.

“Mr Gray…” asked a poilite young lass, “Hi Mr Gray, I’m Alice, this way please” She was nice, I later found out that it was her second day in the facility and she was happy, one other guy was too, he had been there 22 years and loved his job, amongst his first statements to me was “As long as you keep clear of the politics its not a bad place to be.” he says with a wink. A nice guy, shook my hand and held my shoulder for a brief reassuring moment, good.

There was paperwork, I didn’t mind that, I just answered the questions. There was a lady, grumpy looking, needed to have some major work on her attitude and girth!, not a good role model for a healthy lifestyle, she lost her pen more often than she wrote with it, got grumpier as she went.

It’s a surgical facility, beds lined up, curtains flipped back and forth, machines that go “bing” etc. The aneasthetist came in for a chat, good questions, good beside manner, nice guy. Okay yah.. the surgeon came in, fleeting visit, his assistant marks the spot for surgery with a pen (felt tipped!) okay on to the trolley, we’re off, jab in the arm, injection and good night nursey!

Surgery, slice and dice… I will spare you the gory details as I did not see them to tell you anything about it.

Two hours later, up to the ward from the recovery room, I even cracked a few jokes on the way. Hmm should have saved that… not to worry the lass that was assigned to me Nurse R was on the ball, checked out the wound, asked questions, nice and polite.. so far so good, but in amongst the movement in the room (four beds with men in various states of ‘repair’) there were the odd interns, other nursing staff, cleaners, visitors, this place was a veritable high st at noon. Questions were asked of each of us, about things, tea, coffee, have you had your scans, where are your charts? etc.

In the hubbub and shuffling one mans charts did go missing, disappeared for a few hours. (not good!) Customer not staisfied (Dr for one, head nurse for two and patient that makes three all up!) the other guy was not fussed in the bed near me either, his “bag of fluids” was a different brand to what he was used to, “not happy Jan!” they washed out the old one (the new one did not fit on to the existing fittings very well, worried about a leak you see.) I was also worried about a leak, and was handed a plastic recepticle in which to dispense my concerns… okay yah! they want to keep it to see how much, “Just pop it on the trolley next to the magazine you are reading Mr Gray, we will pick it up soon… I hoped no one mistook it for apple juice, although the pharmacist nearly elbowed it over the edge!

On the story goes, on into the night! the night nursey (no names please you might forget…) Was sharp as a pin but delighted in chatting to the other nurseys until 3am just outside the door… “How did you sleep” Mr Gray (on to the chart went restless sleep!) 2am one of the guys wants to get up, no can do, Steve to the rescue, press the nursey button, the nurse walked straight by him and got to me, I sent her in the right direction, was that a faint thankyou from either… no I did not think so… Why didn’t he press his own, could not reach it.

In the morning the cleaners mopped, no sign to say wet floor thanks very much! and no sign of nursey for about 15 mins while it dried. Interns followed the Dr’s and we all heard the plight of this ones bowels, that ones tubes, and this ones stroke and the drama it’s causing… It was amusing, good thing I did not know any of the guys, it would have been a solid breach of privacy in my view (I think it still is!) Lost charts came back, scans taken were sorted out and my Dr paid a cursory visit in the blink of an eye with an asisstant that was not introduced. (names, just more things to remember…)

I got out alive, saw a few sour faces (patients and some of the staff.) and thought that the customer satisfaction was in all a bit LOW.

No doubt there will be a new crew of patients with hopefully a good dose of patience, and a nursey and Dr or two to see after their aliments. I know its a busy world and its spins a bit faster each time I look, but please dear people stop for a moment and create a few more satisfied souls.

You’ve Got… Complaints! How to Turn Disgruntled Customers Into Raving Fans

Mar 20

Posted by Alexandria Brown in The Customer Service Dept, The Marketing Dept, The Sales Dept | No Comments

Did you know that marketing isn’t only about getting your clients or customers? It’s also about KEEPING them, and keeping them happy. That’s a big key to growing your business, because not only will those customers themselves keep coming back to you for more, but they’ll send their friends and colleagues as well.

Studies done by the American Management Association show that your average HAPPY customer will tell three people about her experience with you. But your average unhappy customer will spread the negative word about you to 11 other people!

I’m sure you’ve done this yourself. I sure have! In fact, I can name three companies right now that I will “never” do business with again, simply because of the way they handled my complaints. (Sometimes all I wanted was for someone to say, “I’m sorry this happened, Ms. Brown!”)

A System Is Your Solution

If there are any complaints you receive on a regular basis, you should be addressing them by putting systems into place to avoid those problems from happening in the first place. There’s no way your business can grow with those landmines in your path.

But even after you do, remember that you are human, and so are your customers, so things will go wrong from time to time. And customers will write or call you to complain. So let’s give you a system to handle these situations graciously, with integrity, and turn them around for the best!

After doing some research, I’ve found that most all the recommended protocols for taking care of complaining customers basically follow this 5-step process.

1. Validate the customer’s feelings. Simply acknowledge that she’s irritated. Example: “I can understand you are upset.”

2. Assure her you’ll take care of her. Let her know something will be done. Example: “I’m here to help you with this.”

3. Make a “sad-glad” statement. This helps the customer realize you care. Example: “I’m sorry you experienced a problem. And I’m glad you told me about it!”

4. Ask the customer what will make HER happy. Don’t let this scare you! Customer service experts say that most often the upset customer will ask for “less” than what you would have offered yourself. Example: “How can we make this better?” or “How can we make this up to you?”

5. Acknowledge that you’ll do what she wants, or make a counter offer. (But always try to just give her what she wants! In the end, it will save you time and headaches, and avoid any bad word spreading about you.) Example: “I want to keep you as a customer, and we’re going to honor your request.” Or, “We can’t do that per our agreement, but we can… [counter offer here].”

I’d also throw in a little something else for her trouble. For example, perhaps free shipping or a bonus gift.

Adjust to Fit, and Review With Your Team

Of course you should adjust this process to fit your particular business. I suggest you take a few minutes to write up a script based on these steps, and then review it with your assistant or anyone else in your business who is in contact with your clients and customers. Make any necessary changes, and then distribute it to your team and agree that everyone will follow it.

Have your team keep a log of each complaint that comes in, what it’s about, and how it’s handled. Then have a monthly meeting to review and suggest improvements.

The best and the rest…

Mar 8

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Innovation and Creativity, Planning, The Board Room | No Comments

Are you the best at what you do?

Do you know that your services are the best available? – Do you know what your competition is doing?

Far too often I am called in to discuss how a business can beat the opposition and be better at what they do in a range of other areas, (management and staff development.) Over time I have come to notice that many aspects of the business finding better ideas to ‘beat the competition’, could have been developed from within, or by working on the ideal of constant and never ending improvement.

Unfortunately many smaller businesses have little idea of where to start in this process and can often be caught saying, “We are working so hard, we simply can not get the time to do anything else!” If on the other hand they set aside an hour per week to plan these things they could discover how to build a better business.

Being No:1
How would you go about being the No:1 organisation, doing what you do? Consider the changes you may have to put in place, are they as difficult as you think they are? Would they be so costly? Would they upset the staff that much? And above all where would you start?

So many questions require time and some effort on your behalf. Often utilising the efforts of a professional such as an accountant, or business development advisor will give you some ideas to work with.

Often businesses find that a fresh view point can give them great options to work with and flexibility to go the next step.

Even a humble milk bar can do this. They could start by asking, do we provide the best service for what we have? Are we offering a range of products that our customers want, How well do we present our wares? Is the business running at a profit? How well do we make the customers feel? How do we add value to the customers and the level of service we have.

Measure what you do.
How would you measure what you do to ensure you are the best, (not just in your head either) and can keep your business that way? For some it can be snooping around other businesses like yours and comparing, asking customers and clients or simply making sure you are at the cutting edge in your industry by having the best – Displays – Products – Staff – Technology – Ideas etc etc.

In time any business that gets itself in to difficulty, is obviously going to be lacking in one or two things…. $$ or customers. By measuring what you do to some degreee can assist you to overcome these difficulties if you know what area is providing you the most difficulty. For example, if I have plenty of customers and lack $$ then I may not be charging enough for the products and or service I provide. On the other hand, plenty of $$ and not many customers may mean the profit margin is too high. Only you will know the balance that you want to have here.

Many of the businesses I have looked at over the past few years have had no way of knowing how many customers they had on any given day, in any given week. Nor were they able to give any reasonable feedback on $$ earnt at the same time last year. In time a growing business can develop a few simple strategies to ensure they can be No:1 and measurement of the basics is one of them.

If for example your business does well on a few days per week and on the other days it performs miserably, ask your self what is the cause? Is it that people do not need your services on those days, is your target market elsewhere (eg kids at school therefore not able to shop) are you open enough for when your target market wants to shop?

There will always be plenty of ways to maximise the potential of your business and get better results. In time you should be able to grow and develop your business and give your customers a worthwhile service that is profitable for all concerned, but only when you put an effective measurement plan into practice.

In the end it’s up to you do you want to be the best, or part of the rest?

Adaptability

Mar 7

Posted by Tony Alessandra in Leadership, People!, Personal Development, The Sales Dept | 3 Comments

Adaptability is your willingness and ability to behave in ways that are not necessarily characteristic of your style in order to deal effectively with the requirements of a situation or relationship. Adaptable people make the choice to go beyond their own comfort zones so others feel more comfortable.

With adaptability, you can treat people the way they want to be treated. You practice adaptability every time you slow down with another person who does not feel as comfortable moving as fast as you do. You also practice adaptability when you take time to listen to a personal story from another person, rather than getting right down to the task at hand.

Adaptability is important because people are different and need to be treated differently. You develop open and honest relationships with others by being tactful, reasonable, and understanding.

Up Your Sales With Testimonials!

Mar 6

Posted by Alexandria Brown in The Marketing Dept, The Sales Dept | No Comments

When a prospect is deciding to hire you, register for your program, or buy your product online, you aren’t there in person to help convince them you’re “for real.” That means you have to go the extra mile by building credibility, so your web visitor immediately can trust you!

One of the easiest and most effective ways to do this – and increase your sales by leaps and bounds – is to feature TESTIMONIALS from your clients and customers. Testimonials may seem like a given, but many people completely forget to use them in their marketing.

You can never have too many testimonials. In fact, if you enjoy watching TV infomercials like I do, you’ve probably noticed a typical 30 minute spot is over 80% testimonials! And that’s for good reason… they are the hands-down BEST way to gain instant credibility. So rack ‘em up, and put them everywhere!

Here are 3 ways to make sure your testimonials sell FOR you…

1. Ask for RESULTS-ORIENTED Testimonials

The most effective testimonials are results oriented. That is, they share actual results your clients or customers have gotten. Also include numbers, dollar amounts, and/or percentages to get your prospect’s attention and dramatically increase your response.

Lame testimonial: “Alexandria Brown’s Online Success Blueprint course is a great guide to online marketing.”

Awesome testimonial (and a real one, too!): “Thanks to the Powerful, Simple Strategies I Learned From Alexandria Brown’s Online Success Blueprint, I Made $60,000 in TWO DAYS. I Will Easily Quadruple My Income in 2006. Thank you!”

2. Include Full Information on the Client or Customer

Have you ever seen shifty ads in the back of magazines with testimonials like this? “These super magic pills melted away 300 pounds of my extra weight overnight!” – E.B. in Wichita, Kansas.

Yah, right! I’m sure “E.B.” is a real person and that’s a real testimonial. Hmmm…

The more information you provide about your clients and customers, the more believable your testimonials are. Include full name, occupation or company name, city and state they’re from, web address (if applicable), and a PHOTO. (Even a crappy photo, if that’s all they have. It’s important to make them REAL to your reader.) You can see samples of how I did this here.

3. Use Audio (or Video) Testimonials for Even Better Results

Audio and video also add a TON of credibility to your testimonials, because your prospects actually hear and/or see the client or customer delivering the testimonial!

Audio is a snap to set up on your web pages using a great tool call Audio Generator. Have your customers/clients call their hotline and leave a voicemail testimonial. Then you just copy and paste the code onto your website! You can see samples of how I did this here.

I’m also venturing into video testimonials using Instant Video Generator.

Bug, Then Beg. And If All Else Fails… Bribe!

If you have trouble getting testimonials from your clients or customers whom you KNOW have had great experiences working with you or using your products, don’t get mad at them. You just have to bug them. It’s rare you’ll receive a testimonial unsolicited.

First, contact clients/customers whom you know have gotten great results thanks to you. Ask them if they can write up a short testimonial outlining their experience. They’ll probably say “yes” but will forget to follow up or take a long time.

I then usually offer to write something up for them based on what they’ve shared with me, which I’ll email to them for approval. Every time I’ve offered this, they are relieved and say “great!” And 99% of the time they are delighted with what I sent them.

As a last resort, and if you’re dealing with clients/customers whom you may not know as well, I suggest offering an “ethical” bribe to encourage them. For example, have a contest and the people whose testimonials are chosen for your web page get a free prize or product. Gets them off their butts and works every time!

Why be in business?

Mar 5

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Leadership, People!, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business, The Board Room | No Comments

So you want to be, or are in business, how come? What motivates you, or drives you to do it, or want to do it?

For many its the percieved lifestyle (golfing fishing, haning out with business buddies while others are working for you), or is it the money, or the sense of achievement…. Whatever it is I think its vital to know.

Many businesses fail in the first 12 months or so, and its not for the want of trying… long hours, hard slog, marketing, managing, operational issues the list is extensive and it all needs work. For many the hard slog of operating a business comes as a shock when they realise the startup idea they had is now a ideal heartache!

So why be in buisness, whats the need, the want, the desire…. what is it at your CORE not on the surface. What makes you want to really do it? In a post war era there may be those that got started due to being in life threatening situations and they clearly said “There is more to life than a 9 – 5 job, my destiny is what I make of it, not what my boss, my family or my wife wants to make of it…” And if ever they needed to stop and smell the roses, they counted their blessings for being alive and knew intimately what drove or motivated them to be in business. These people have a sense of higher purpose and want to make sure they make the most of what they have.

On the other hand those that get into business for other reasons, (It’s a family business and I HAVE to take over) would possibly be doing so from a completely different angle, the need is great in one sense, but the want is different (they may not want to, but have to in some cases).

The minute you figure out why you need the business at a deeper level than “I need the money” or “I need to buy a job” then you will have a solid reason to ensure you make the business work.

Here’s a big example, what if I was to tell you a business you wanted to set up and a product you want to manufacture will “save the country from being wiped out by aliens, and keping it going will ensure they stay away”. Would that be different to “My wife says I will not get a job so I should buy a franchise so I am kept busy…” of course it is, the drive to make the business work is infinitely stronger, the sense of purpose, and the benefits are truly compelling in the first instance.

Then add to this the ability you would have to “sell” the mision and vision to the team would be VERY different. Your ability to lead would be VERY different, if things got out of hand and a staff member wanted to quit you would have a VERY different pep talk to them, “C’mon, don’t leave, your country needs you, we need you… you are a vital member of this team…” (Mind you you probably would not need to pep them up and remind them of the mission and vision, the team and the project as a whole probably would be very compelling for them.)

And the sense of achievement at the end of the process… WOW! we saved the country… PHEW! YAY! etc…

So make the need compelling, explore it, roll in it! revell in it! MAKE SURE the need is something worthy of your efforts, worthy of your time.

How to Get Started With Direct Mail

Mar 4

Posted by Alexandria Brown in Planning, The Board Room, The Marketing Dept | 4 Comments

I admit that for some time I was resistant to doing any marketing via old fashioned snail mail. After all, email is FREE (at least for the time being). Why pay to print and mail anything at all? I mean, I’m the Ezine Queen – not the direct mail queen! And I was already making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year using the Internet.

Well, I can tell you I’ve changed my tune based on several mailings I’ve done over the past year. A test of sending out few simple postcards and one sales letter mailing helped me exponentially increase my response to two of my programs over the last several months. I’m now SOLD!

If you aren’t collecting any physical addresses right now from your clients, customers, and ezine subscribers, please get started now. Because not only will offline marketing supplement your online efforts immensely, but email deliverability gets trickier and trickier to maintain.

Email can (and will) change in the future. How, I can’t tell you. But the good old U.S. Postal Service will be around for a long, long time just the way it is. (And if YOU want your business to be around a long, long time, you’d better start getting those addresses now!)

Best of all, direct mail marketing will supplement your online efforts for even better results. It’s a no-brainer, folks. Time to get with it.

So, if you’re ready to venture into direct mail, here are a few dos and don’ts I’d like to share with you before you get started…

1. DON’T blow your whole budget on one mailing!

Imagine Nissan coming out with a new car and running ONE single television ad spot, never to be repeated. Ludicrous, yes? But many small business owners somehow think one mailing will do the trick. The biggest mistake most new marketers make when venturing into direct mail is doing ONE mailing, and judging the response solely from that. You should plan a campaign that involves at least three steps, and five to seven for best results. (If you want to keep it super simple, you can just mail the same darn thing repeatedly!)

2. DON’T do an expensive mailing your first-time out, even if you can afford it.

Why? I learned this the hard way when I did an exciting, pricey mailing without first realizing how many undeliverable addresses there were on my list. Remember that some people mistakenly mistype their addresses into your system, and people often move, sometimes with no forwarding address. I recommend doing an inexpensive mailing such as a postcard first time around in order to help weed out the undeliverables on your list! (Remember to include your return address so you’ll get these back.)

3. DON’T overlook how important your copy is in order to get attention and get response.

The great thing about mailing a postcard is the recipient reads what you have to say right then and there. If you send something in an envelope, it has to get opened first. That’s why master marketers recommend printing a headline or teaser on the outside of any mailing that’s done in an envelope. Example: “Look inside to learn 5 ways you can increase your sales by next week!” I say just do a postcard to keep it simple (and less expensive than doing an envelope mailing).

4. DO keep your graphics simple and attention-getting.

Don’t go crazy paying some designer thousands of dollars to create a mailing for you, when you can keep things simple and get just as good – if not better – results. I used to pay an artist beaucoup bucks on a regular basis to make everything I sent out looked picture perfect. Once I stopped that and started focusing more on the message, I started making (and keeping)a LOT more money. Remember it’s WORDS that sell, and the job of graphics is to get attention and support your message.

5. DO give them a reason to take action NOW (and not wait until later).

Include a deadline or expiration date on your offer, even if it’s for something free, or emphasize there are a limited amount of spots/products left. Of course this will all depend on what you’re offering, but you get the idea! You don’t want to risk the recipient putting your postcard or letter in the “get to later” pile (which never gets touched).

6. DO track your mailings carefully so you can judge your return-on-investment.

If you are driving people to a website to opt-in or buy something, make sure you give them a separate and simple URL (web address) that is ONLY for the purpose of this mailing. You don’t have to create a new website or anything, just make sure you can track it. For example, I bought BlueprintWorkshopPostcard.com and then had that redirect to a tracking link I set up using the easy ad tracker program in my shopping cart system. This way I could tell exactly how many people typed in that URL, AND also how many people also actually registered for the workshop from the postcard! (VERY valuable information.)

7. DO work with a vendor who can make this all EASY for you.

I tried several different companies this past year, and now I only work with and recommend TWO. For full-color postcard design, printing, and mailing, I use Modern Postcard. (They did all my postcards for the Online Success Blueprint Workshop, including design, printing, and mailing, with quick turnaround too!) For mailings with goodies (called “premiums”) inside them and more creative stuff, I use my friend Mitch Carson at Impact Products. He’s the consultant I pull in when I truly want to make a BIG impact in the mail!

Leadership frameworks

Mar 3

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Human Resource Management, Leadership, People!, Personal Development, Starting out in business, The Board Room | No Comments

When it comes to leadership, business operators are given the reigns often by default rather than as a planned part of the process. So here’s a framework you can use as a starting point. At any time you can refer back to it and ask yorself, “How am I doing in each of these areas?” it might just be the development framework you ahve been looking for…

A suggestion might be to grab a piece of paper and write down the practical implications to your organisation, then assess yourself and your organisation based on these.
Effective leadership utilises the following aspects:

Technical
An effective leader demonstrates the capacity to optimise the organisations, human, and physical resources through relevant management practices and organisational systems that contribute to the achievement of the organisations vision and goals.

  • Thinks and plans strategically
  • Aligns resources with desired outcomes
  • Holds self and others to account

Human
An effective leader demonstrates the ability to foster a safe, purposeful and inclusive environment, and a capacity to develop constructive and respectful relationships with all stakeholders.

  • Advocate for all stakeholders
  • Develops relationships
  • Develops individual and collective capacity

Educational
An effective leader demonstrates the capacity to lead, manage and monitor organisational improvements through a current and analytical understanding of the organisations processes and its implications for enhancing the organisation as a whole.

  • Shapes the structure and style of teaching
  • Focusses on achievement
  • Promotes enquiry and reflection

Symbolic
An effective leader demonstrates the capacity to model important values, beliefs and behaviours to the organisation and wider community, including a commitment to creating and sustaining effective personal learning communities within the organisation at all levels.

  • Develops and manages self
  • Aligns actions and shared values
  • Creates and shares knowledge

Cultural
An effective leader demonstrates an understanding of the characteristics of effective organisations and a capacity to promote a sustainable vision of the future, underpinned by joint purposes and values, which secure the commitment and alignment of stakeholders to realise the potential of the organisation.

  • Shapes the future
  • Develops the organisations culture
  • Sustains partnerships and networks

Your aim as a leader, based on all of the above, is to create an organisatation that thrives, not just survives. To do this you might have to think outside the square and stretch yourself to make relevance of the information to your organisation. However the results can be exceptional and you may just find the leadership skills you thought you might never have, have just become achieveable.

Take the bull by the horns as they say, and lead on…

7 steps to greater results

Mar 1

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, People!, Planning, Risk Management | No Comments

You know when somethings good, when you find yourself nodding in agreement to many of the points being made by a successful business operator as they run though their points on what made them successful.

It was the points being raised on a recent TV current affairs program that had me sitting up paying attention, and I was in AWE of the results achieved by a relativley young couple (early 30′s) that had gone from zero to HERO in a few short years. (To me it doesn’t matter if it takes a few years for a “few more years” as long as the results are there.

I appreciate that some of you may be dismissive and say “Yeah yeah we’ve heard it all before… Blah blah, BLAH..” Why do business people go on about being rich… or having passive income, or building wealth? Really its quite simple, the quality of life you may enjoy now may be under threat in the future as the cost of living goes up, average wages rise, and as you decide to retire you find there is not enough cash to sustain you. Anyhow, rich in comparison to who or what?

For me this is enough of a driving force to say “How much will I need to ensure I can live equal too or better when I retire?” So here’s the list… How many of these points can you connect with, and how many of the points do you need to work on some more?

1. Do your homework – Know that knowledge is power, and when knowledge is put into action, then wisdom is the result. Find out the things you need to know to get into top gear.

2. Be a developer – Of business, property and shares, know that these are the main ways the affluent get to the top, so know about them and utilise this knowledge.

3. Have a go – Use the “try angle” at the end you can at least say, “I gave it a go, and now I know… Next time I might do it differently…” Know that getting results requires effort, observing is not doing (but can be a starting point!) and remember mistakes = learning opportunities.

4. Avoid discouragement – See the glass as half full, not half empty… When you get results, reward yourself, it may be minor at the time but its still a useful milestone to recall. Focus on your success; failure and a sense of not moving forward can cause a whole lot of damage, so be careful.

5. Use your equity – Equity is the bit you own (theoretically), if the asset was sold it’s the amount you would end up with. Using this to your advantage is called leverage; it’s the use of this leverage that can lead to enhanced results.

6. Focus on your goals – Begin with the end in mind then fill in the gaps to get there. Goals are a powerful device to lure us to great outcomes.

7. Compounding is good value! – The compound effect is the interest earned on top of what is invested, re investing this (often small amount) adds to the capital to make it work harder for you. One percent now might seem insignificant, but over time added together the results can be stunning.

In all, this is about achieving success, and here’s Wayne Berry’s definition of success, “Working towards any worthwhile goal” I love that as a definition and love its far reaching impact. I even ask groups of people which do they would prefer?, success or a failure? They choose success every time.

So check the list carefully, set some goals, make your business do more, be more and have more, so your future can be all it wants to be!

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