1. Develop the Information/Message

If you have information you would like to convey to your customers and clients, in how many fundamental ways could this be presented?

• Newsletters
• PowerPoint presentations
• Emails
• Web site
• Music or message on hold
• Company profile documents
• Products & services lists
• Product specifications
• Company stationery
• Brochures
• Direct mail pieces
• Copies of press coverage/press releases
• Articles
• Invitations
• Speeches

Presentation of your message is critical. Please keep some of these considerations in mind:

• Always think in terms of your customers’ perspectives. What is interesting and useful to them? Be genuine. If you say you’re going to do something, then do it. If you’re not genuine it will be apparent.
• Focus on consistency of presentation, of message, of image, of how you are being perceived by your customer.
• Know who your customers are. Don’t use humour which would only appeal to a small group of people, don’t risk using any message which may offend, and always be mindful of different religious and cultural perspectives when appealing to a broader segment of the local or international market.

2. Open the Communication Channel: Events and Networking

This category of communication is ‘up close and personal’ between you and the customer or potential client. The message may be specific, or non-specific relationship building communication. Some options within this category are:

• Client lunches
• Launch events
• Entertainment events
• Industry events (exhibitions, conferences etc.)
• Association or Institute gatherings
• Organised sporting competitions between companies

Again, remember that your clients and customers are typically not all men, or all women, they are not all the same age, they do not all have the same interests, they may not all have families, and their idea of a great time may not be the same as yours.

The point is, learn about your customers as much as you can, so they join in these events willingly and enthusiastically, so everybody gains something from it. Finally, events and networking are about communication, but what will be remembered is what is different, amusing, and interesting. Add value and your message will be remembered.

3. Involvement from your Clients and Customers

Events and networking functions involve your customers at some emotional level and build the relationship you have with them. However, communication that elicits involvement and follow-through communication from your customers is different, in that there is some notion of commitment to do business with you.

Specific tools to communicate with involvement from customers and clients are:

• Surveys and questionnaires
• New product/service test programs
• Writing up testimonials from your customers
• Case studies on your customers’ businesses and their relationships with you and your business
• Ask customers for feedback on new developments, such as your web site for example.

Inherent in this type of activity is ongoing involvement and relationships. This is the primary objective of successful communication.

4. Follow Through Communication

One-off communication is not enough. One-off communication does not build relationships. A message can be conveyed by communicating it only once, but will it be remembered? How many times have you seen yet another ad on television and not known who the advertiser was because it didn’t register? The message needs to be clear, repeated, and followed up. Ideally it should also be humorous, of interest or value, and have some differentiating factor.

Don’t stop communicating:

• thank your clients
• send notes of congratulations when appropriate
• send information in which they may be interested
• send them leads
• follow up on your survey
• follow up on the new product or service launch
• send them a copy of your first newsletter, brochure, etc.
• proactively call them once in a while to touch base and ask how they are, and how business is

The cycle must continue in order to be successful. “The little differences make all the difference”.

The following ‘test’ is simply based on ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers. See how well you go:

1. Do you write a Position Description before you employ each new person into your company?
2. Are you clear on what you are going to offer and the benefits for the employee?
3. Do you consider your offer from the interviewee’s perspective?
4. Do you know what questions to ask in the interview to uncover certain capabilities and attitudes?
5. Do you take time to build rapport and employ people you like?
6. Do you have a process to assess all the candidates from a consistent perspective? Are you always decisive when it comes to choosing the right person to employ?
7. Do you have a way to keep all your people accountable?
8. Are you completely clear on your own role and accountabilities?
9. Do you have a system that enables you to spend less hands-on time recruiting and managing your people?

Rating:
Count the number of ‘yes’ answers you have and refer to the ratings below:

8 or more You are a legend!! Well done. Way above the norm on this particular test. . .

By the way, Question 5 is a trick question!

5-8 Not bad. You’re doing a reasonable job in a difficult management area. If you were to use the People Management Blueprint, you’d make life a lot easier!

<5 Get help!! By not having a system in place you’re making things way too difficult for yourself. Get the 12-Step People Management Blueprint!! (But hurry! The price will increase significantly after May 30th, 2008, and if you purchase before then you’ll make a big saving!)

Follow these 4 steps to start creating and defining roles within your business, and writing the necessary Position Description:

1. Ask yourself these questions first:

• What functions are being done poorly or not done at all?
• Where do I/other team members need help?
• Where do we need resources the most?
• Where do we have resource gaps?
• Where do we have bottlenecks?
• Do we have any internal people who could do the job/perform this function?
• What exactly do we need done?
• What is the purpose of the role?
• How does it fit in the organization overall?
• Who would the role report to?

2. Decide on your budget, and the timing
This is critical. When developing growth strategies and their required structure with my clients, the addition of more ‘heads’ is always accompanied by the related financial and sales planning.

You can ‘play with’ costs (eg: if we reduce general expenses by 5% we can employ a junior admin assistant), or you can ‘play with’ revenue (eg: if we can increase our sales by 5% a month within 3 months, we can employ a really experienced admin support person).

3. Decide on the level of experience you want/need

• Match the role to the budget (pay less, get less)
• Recruit experience (pay more, get more)
• Trade-off against time required to coach vs higher cost, but self-starter

4. Write the Position Description
This should be easy now you know:

• the purpose of the role
• who the role would report to
• what functions form part/all of that particular role
• the experience level required

Defining the role is just one step in our latest 12-Step People Management System, a new product which I’ll be telling you more about in our next e-news. It will give you all the detail you need for each of the 12 steps, including templates, examples and checklists.

We all like to work with people we like, but we also need to make sure those people we employ are going to deliver and produce results for us. The process of selecting the right person is both subjective and objective, but it does need to be a process.

Focus on doing these 7 things:

1. Know what you want done – write the Position Description first.
2. List the attributes of the sort of person you want (not physical attributes..!)
3. Understand your culture – be honest – and know what sort of person would or wouldn’t fit that.
4. Then, after you’ve done that, meet and interview.
5. Don’t be swayed by anything other than your original set of criteria, because that is what you want.
6. After the interview, give the person a rating against your set of criteria, and use that objective method of assessment to recruit the right person into your team.
7. You could also go to this website http://www.bossgroup.com.au/products/28 and download the 12-Step People Management Blueprint and simply follow the 12 steps! It really is that easy! (But hurry! The price will increase significantly after May 30th, 2008, so if you purchase before then you’ll make a big saving !)

Why did you see those people as leaders? Why did you accept them as your leader at the time?

I had a discussion with a friend the other day, and we were discussing the fact that leadership is not about being the head of a company or a team, it’s about a way of being. It’s having the ability or the presence to inspire people to trust you. You can’t lead if you don’t have the trust of those around you.
I came up with my list of what leadership means to me, and what attributes a person must have to be a leader:

Talent
To me, a person needs to demonstrate talent – they need to have ability and capabilities, they need to be able to lead by example, and also be a high performer that sets them ahead of the pack. They need to be very good at what they do.

Judgement
To me, this covers many qualities and attributes. A leader has good judgement with decision-making, delegation and being able to recognise what to delegate to whom for maximum results, they need to have good judgement when it comes to understanding their impact on others, and have the right balance of empathy and objectivity.

Commitment
A good leader can give the same as they expect – they can put in and demonstrate that they’re in it for the long haul. Self discipline underpins commitment, and without it, a person will never be able to improve and grow their skills. Leaders have commitment and self discipline.

Strength
Having the strength to do what needs to be done and to support others when they need it, is a core part of leadership in my mind. Leaders need to be strong for the people who follow them, and they need to be able to weather the storms, as well as forge new pathways.

Focus
A leader needs to know which direction to lead the team – a focus on both the journey and the outcomes is important. In my mind, a good leader needs to be really clear on the game plan and the end game.

A person who consistently demonstrates strength of character, talent, commitment, judgement and focus will gain the trust of those around them.
Finally, as the quote above says, you can’t have leadership without trust. Do you have what it takes to lead?

Many businesses overlook the fact that they have to sell their offer and make it an attractive option for prospective new employees.

If you operate in a competitive environment where good recruits are scarce, or when you are trying to attract very high calibre people, it is essential that you make your business, and the position, sound as appealing as possible.

Here are some factors to consider:
1. Consider what drives people to join new companies. They typically want:
a. a new challenge
b. more money
c. opportunities for promotion
d. to work in a larger company
e. to work in a smaller company environment
f. to work closer to home
g. to work in an environment where they can improve their skills and learn
h. to work in a company full of friendly people
i. to work for a market leader
j. a manager who will spend time with them to teach and mentor

Does your business offer any of these enticements?

2. If it doesn’t, you may have issues with how the business is structured, or how it is performing, and may need to make some internal assessments and adjustments before you are able to attract the kind of people you need and want.

3. If you do meet some of these criteria, then the next question is, how do you sell your business and the position to the candidate? At every point possible!

a. The advertisement
i. Outline what’s positive and different about your company
ii. Make it sound interesting
iii. Provide several ways to respond to the advertisement (email, phone call, fax) – it appears more professional
b. Your website
i. Presentation – professional or amateurish?
ii. Overview of your business – should provide reasonable detail
iii. Clients – some reference to clients is a positive indicator
c. The interview
i. Reception and greeting – friendly, and again, professional
ii. Positive interaction – encourage questions at the end
iii. Be animated when interviewing and talking about your business
iv. You and the company must reflect the culture (professional/casual, committed, creative, service focus etc.)
d. Follow up
i. Needs to be a fast turnaround if you want the person
ii. Well organised – timeliness, information in the offer

If you do all of these things it is more than likely that you will be able to employ a candidate who matches your requirements, and the culture of your company. Good luck!

Start-up phase:

• Start a business because you want to, don’t just fall into it
• Do your homework – know what you’re getting yourself into, and who else is doing it too
• Do what you love – have a passion
• Recognise that it’s going to be tough and be prepared
• Budget for a completely different level of income (!) (that’s a lower income, not a higher one…)
• Talk to people who remember setting up their own business, and learn from their advice.
• Use suppliers who can meet your budget. Don’t be ‘sold’ into paying more than you want to – there will be time enough for that when your business is making plenty of money.
• Know where you want to go, and don’t lose sight of that
• Make sure you have plenty of capital to get you through this phase – you’ll need all of it. Keep expenses to a minimum – it will take time to start generating an income.
• Depending on your financial position, join relevant networks and associations, and attend events. Make sure they’re the same groups where you will find your target market.
• Draw up a database of all your contacts and spend time getting out there and talking to people. Tell them what you’re doing, and listen to what they need.
• Try to do business with people you want to do business with. This is likely to be amore effective strategy in generating referrals and building your business.
• Don’t neglect the marketing fundamentals: understand what it is you can offer potential clients, understand what they need, develop a very clear value proposition, and know who your competitors are and what makes you different. If you haven’t sorted this out, you aren’t ready.

Up and running:

• Keep the momentum going – keep selling, keep acquiring new business, watch the cash
• Use good financial measurement systems to understand the key drives and key performance indicators of your business. Think of it as a control panel.
• Relationships are critical – pay attention to them (staff, clients, associates, etc.)
• Don’t employ staff until you need them, and provide clear guidelines to those you have.
• Make sure you understand your financial and business reports, and generate them on a regular basis.
• Keep your costs down, even when you don’t need to worry. It’s a good discipline for when you need to pare back, and will keep you in much better financial shape.
• Don’t take you eye off the numbers! Know how your cashflow is tracking.
• Secure yourself some reliable and competent advisors – accountants, financial advisors, a lawyer, a business mentor
• Start to build your knowledge and expertise in areas where you’re not naturally strong (finance, marketing, sales, etc)
• Have goals, know how you’re going to get there, and just do it! Planning without action won’t get you anywhere and you’ll never move forward.
• Sell before you buy – don’t extend yourself before you have the required level of business coming in
• Keep focused on your priorities. Don’t sweat the small stuff but don’t ignore the big stuff. Focus on what will generate revenue (and be profitable).
• Customer retention is important in maintaining stability. If you focus on this now, it will provide a strong foundation for the future.
• Stay healthy – it takes a lot of energy to maintain and build a business.
• Get support – business and emotional support is essential. We all need help in some way.
• Understand the different business models which you could be using, and which are more effective. Don’t be scared to re-engineer what and how you deliver to your customers if a new model is more profitable. This is really very important.
• Build you reputation and your image. Be consistent in the process!

Established & Growing

• Implement systems where you can – it helps make the business run more efficiently and makes it less reliant on you
• Focus on the big picture and know what it looks like.
• Have a vision and a strategy to realise it.
• Keep watching the cash.
• Innovate to stay ahead of your competitors
• A good client list and a cash cow product will be the key to you ‘having a life’
• Look seriously at growth strategies and why you want to grow – acquisition, organic or both

Wisdom of experience:

• Finance & funding are critical – know what you need, be prepared, understand your options – always.
• Sales and marketing are critical to success – never stop these activities.
• People management and leadership – start the way you wish to continue
• Systems and process add value to your business – you may want to sell it one day
• Revenue from cash cows frees you up from your business. It’s all tied in with the business model.
• Strategy and execution are a never-ending cycle.

We use a really effective technique to help our clients self-manage. “Big Rocks” is a management concept of sorts which has been used in various ways for some time. It’s a concept which I use with all of my clients, and we use at BOSS Management Group, to keep focused on what needs to be done to move the business forward.

There are many techniques to use to help us self-manage, but I’ve found ‘Big Rocks’ to be easy to remember, easy to visualise, easy to keep focused on, and consequently it produces results.

My definition of Big Rocks, in a business context, is those actions or projects or achievements which will actually move your business forward. If you have two Big Rocks for a month, and you achieve them, it will actually move your business forward. Think of them as critical foundations for the business you are building.

Being busy vs being productive:
Imagine you have a bucket, which represents your capacity or available time, in any given day, week or month. Now, imagine you have a number of big rocks that need to go into that bucket. Put them in. You’ll still have room for a few pebbles, and then you’ll be able to add some sand to fill up the rest of your capacity, and if you really want to, you could add still more if you add some water into the bucket.

You can fill your time with lots of activities and be very busy as a result, but the key to effective self management is not to be busy but to be productive!

Big Rocks must go first!
The point of the story is not that you can always fit more into your day, or month, but that if you don’t attend to the Big Rocks (most important priorities) first, you’ll never fit them in.
Sometimes we can all get consumed by the day to day, and at the end of those days, we feel drained and also that we haven’t really achieved anything or made any forward progress. It sort of feels like treading water.

Big Rocks = Bigger Game
Keep focused on what your Big Rocks are for the month, and if you can achieve at least one of them each month, you’ll be moving your business forward. Big Rocks help keep you focused on the bigger game, and allow you to still deal with the pebbles and sand each day.

Once you have the important priorities identified and in focus for yourself each month, you can use the same tool for each of your key staff, or teams.

These are the four key points to remember:

1. Self management is Job One.
2. Use Big Rocks as your simplest self management tool, to keep clear on priorities.
3. Big Rocks move your business forward.
4. Use the Big Rocks concept with your team to keep them focused and on track.

When you analyse your customer base, and you should, you need to identify the following indicators:

• What are the broad customer categories by dollar spend – eg: up to $1,000 per annum, $1001-$3,000 etc. You will obviously select categories which have more meaning to your business.
• What is the average customer dollar spend by category, and how do they compare
• Overall, which customers generate most of your revenue – eg: the top 20% may generate 80% of your turnover, or close to that, or your top 10 customers may generate 80% of your revenue. The objective here is to identify those customers which are vital to your business in terms of revenue.
• What products or services are your customers buying? All, some, a mix? Is it changing?
• Is the average dollar spend by category increasing or declining over previous periods?
• Which customers have been active (purchasing) over the longest period of time?
• Which customers have become inactive (not spending) and why?

When you’ve identified this information, you need to look at what you’ve discovered:

• Who are the most valuable customers?
• How many customers add little value, or cost money to service?
• What is the profile of the preferred high value customers?
• What products or services are not really selling? Which are selling well?
• What is the risk identified by your 80/20 analysis? Do you have all or most of your eggs in one or just a few customer baskets?
• If you were to lose any high value customers, you know what the impact to your business would be.

What actions can you take from there?

• Make sure your most valuable customers are well looked after and serviced.
• Revisit your product or service range and make changes where necessary (delete items from your range, look at developing new products, proactively promote some products or services more than others, etc.)
• Assess the structure of your sales team – you may have a direct sales team (or advisors, or consultants, or technicians, or whatever is appropriate to your business) manage the top customers on a one on one basis, you may have a set number of your team sharing the management of the next tier of customers, and you may consider a telesales or telemarketing person or team to manage all of the small customers. They may also be managed via a website interface, for example.
• Now that you know the profile of your preferred type of customer, you need to ensure that you focus on this profile when attracting new customers. This will spread the risk of having most of your revenue generated by just a few customers, and will build your business in the right direction.
• Finally, don’t forget about building the value of your customers: ask them what they think, what they want, what they may want to see changed, and what else you can do for them. Now you have them, and you know them well, build on that to build your business.

1. Marketing to Build Your Business

The following table provides a checklist of fundamental activities you can either do yourself, or outsource to a specialist provider. If you work with other small businesses, these services need not cost you a lot. Get creative and look at providing your services in exchange for their services, or even payment terms in instalments over a period of time.

Remember to do what you’re good at, let other people focus on what they do best, and if you can’t afford them, wait until you can.

Always have an objective or an intended outcome for your marketing, otherwise it will have no focus and minimal results.

Marketing Options and their Objectives

Opt 1: Speaking engagements (Conference, special interest group, radio, business groups)

Doing it/Plan to do

The more ‘doing it’ the better! If not, then plan quickly & do it!

Objectives:

• Raise your profile in target market
• Establish your expertise

Opt 2: Direct marketing

Objectives:

• Present an offer & call to action
• Raise awareness of your product/service
• Educate/inform
• Generate leads

Opt 3: PR

Objectives:

• Raise profile
• Create awareness
• Establish expertise & credibility

Opt 4: Exhibitions & conferences

Objectives:

• Establish positioning in market
• Educate
• Network – identify opportunities
• Showcase products to captive target market
• Establish credibility if speaking at conference
• Generate sales leads

Opt 5: Industry & business publications – submit articles

Objectives:

• Establish credibility & expertise within target market
• Position yourself as specialist
• Raise profile
• Generate enquiries

Opt 6: Telesales/telemarketing

Objectives:

• Prospecting for new business
• Build leads
• Customer service

MARKETING TOOLS
• Case studies – explains the client problem or need, and your solution
• Testimonials – statements of endorsement from satisfied clients
• Press releases – use them to send to media, or to customers or placed on web site
• Award entries/winning awards – winning awards sets you apart
• Newsletters – printed or electronic; write them yourself or ask for contributions
• Company profile – also a ‘credentials’ document to establish your credibility
• Website – make it work for you
• Brochures – try not to change these too often (requires time and $$), but don’t let them date
• Video/CD presentations – particularly if you are in the creative field

Start marketing now and don’t stop!

2. Management Practices & Procedures

Make sure you address each of the following key areas as your business grows, otherwise it will become extremely difficult to manage once you have staff, more customers to manage, higher revenue and profit targets, and more priorities to manage and set.

Sales

• A top priority for any business in growth mode. Face to face selling, telemarketing, sales through agents or distributors will build your network, generate leads, and ultimately result in revenue. Sell, sell, sell!
• If you don’t feel comfortable selling, then pair up with someone who does. It may be a business partner, or commission agent, contract salesperson, or telesales organisation.
• Track your sales efforts and follow up. If people are interested in your products or services, or want more information, or are expecting you to call them back, then do so. A lost opportunity is just that, but it is also bad for your reputation as a professional.
• Make sure you can deliver.
• Use templates for your database, for tracking sales, doing forecasts, and reporting weekly sales activity for a team. If it’s organised it’s easier to manage.

Marketing

• Refer to point 1 of this article.
• Use templates, record your marketing activities, record outcomes to measure effectiveness.
• Use document templates where you can, and develop a schedule of activities for the year ahead.
• Have a well thought through plan. Prioritise and stay focused!

Goals & planning

• Know what your big picture is.
• Have a vision of where you’re going and where you want to be.
• Set realistic, memorable and achievable goals
• Break down the big picture into achievable components – the next week, month etc
• Follow up and track your performance – if you don’t achieve your goals, what are you doing?

People management

• Get it right from the beginning.
• Recruitment is critical in attracting and retaining the right people. Pay attention to the process.
• Have an induction program for new people. Don’t just let them try and work it all out for themselves. Help them become productive quickly. That makes everyone happy.
• Manage their performance and their development. Provide performance reviews, and appropriate development training when required. Provide feedback. Encourage and support.

Systems & Processes

• Document your processes wherever possible.
• This doesn’t happen overnight but it is an extremely worthwhile exercise. It helps organise the business, makes it operate more efficiently, and makes it easier for you to start removing yourself from day to day operations as the business grows.
• Start anywhere, such as HR for example – how you recruit, induct, review and manage your staff can all be systemised and documented for easy reference by you and by your staff.
• A well-organised business has more value to potential buyers, investors, business partners. It’s also easier to work in!

3. Mentoring for Support

Last, but not least, is the Mentoring pillar. Business mentoring from an individual or a group, formal or informal, is invaluable. A business mentor or mentoring program can:

• keep you on track
• help you through the rough times
• demand that you celebrate your successes, however large or small
• provide another point of view
• challenge your approach
• share experience
• help you to reach new heights with your business
• provide support and encouragement
• most importantly make you feel that you’re not alone, and that you have someone else to talk to about your business when you need it.

Marketing facilitates growth, management provides a solid foundation to build on, and mentoring fires your enthusiasm and encourages your development.

What is stopping you?

Market penetration is based on taking the opportunities to sell more of your products or services into your existing market, or penetrating deeper into your market.

Since it costs on average 5-10 times more to source new customers than to work with your existing customers, it makes sense to adopt this strategy if you can.

It will be most applicable if:
- You have a reasonably large base of potential customers in your existing markets
- There is an opportunity for you to sell more of your products/services to your existing customers, and to sell to new customers from the same existing market segment
- You want to sell more of you existing products/services
- Your products/services are still competitive

How to implement this strategy:
- More aggressive promotion and marketing
- More, or more effective, channels to market (whether direct sales or via third party distributors)

An example of this strategy would be Telstra and it’s mobile service. Telstra has penetrated deeply into its existing market (Australia in broad terms), using extensive promotion and advertising, and a continually expanding distribution channel of resellers and its own retail outlets. As a result, it has the largest share of the mobile market.

Market extension is when you identify new markets to sell your existing products and services into, whether they are new geographic markets (interstate, regional, international) or new segments in the same geographic market.

It will be most applicable if:
- You have secured a strong customer base in part of your defined market, and still have other areas or segments that still offer opportunities to you.
- You are reaching saturation in your existing market (you have the dominant share)
- You are able to access new markets through the right distribution channels or through your own presence in those markets
- You have the cashflow to fund the time and cost it takes in breaking into new markets
- You have researched the market thoroughly and understand the potential gain and the risks
- You have the ability to service those new markets well

A simple example of this is when companies open offices or branches interstate, to replicate the success they have had in their own market.

Product development is when you develop new or improved products for your existing markets. Product development may take the form of a new product altogether (for example a new software package), an extension to a product (for example a new feature set/enhancements to the existing software package), or a product add-on (for example, a new software module).

- Products and services are often developed when there is customer demand for them, or when technology results in newer versions being available or created by your competitors, or when you have a great idea and research indicates there would be a market for it.
- Product development requires funding, planning, research, testing, marketing, selling through appropriate channels and more testing.
- If you develop new products or services you must do so objectively, and listen to your customers, take notice of the market research and feedback, and be honest about how competitive your new products will be. Don’t waste time or money launching products or services that won’t sell, or won’t sell enough.
- Product development must be an ongoing process to some extent, as no company can survive on an unchanging product or service, year in and year out.
- Generally it’s fair to say that if you don’t develop and enhance your products, then your competitors will and will overtake you.

An example of somewhat extreme product development is Coca-Cola now selling Lemon Coke, Caffeine-Free Coke, and Vanilla Coke into its existing markets, alongside regular Coke and Diet Coke. This strategy has similarities to the one used back in the ‘80s, when Coca-Cola had Classic Coke, New Coke (when they changed the original formula), Cherry Coke, regular Diet Coke, Caffeine-Free Diet Coke, Tab, Caffeine-Free New Coke and Caffeine-Free Tab. It created a lot of consumer confusion, and eroded the brand power of the original Classic Coke.

A simpler example of product development is the breakfast cereal manufacturers developing breakfast cereal bars, for breakfast ‘on-the-go’.

Diversification is the strategy of developing new products for new markets. This strategy requires a cautious approach as it is based on many unknowns: a new market, an untested product, probably new distribution channels, and probably existing suppliers already competing in the target markets.

Use this strategy if:- you have a large budget for product development and market research
- you can support this strategy (and the time it takes to start generating revenue) with existing cashflow from the business

Acquisition is a strategy used to fast-track business growth by acquiring, rather than building, new business. You may acquire another company for several reasons:
- to acquire their customer base
- to acquire their revenue and profits
- to generate economies of scale (and reduce costs) for the combined entity
- to acquire their products
- to acquire their expertise
- to access new markets
- etc.

The acquiring company retains overall control of the combined business, and may agree to buy all or part of the other business. Future articles will cover some of the key considerations regarding acquisitions.

1. Do you have enough information on the customer’s company to understand their business and the context of their inquiry/request/approach to you?
2. Have you identified the stakeholders?
3. Do you understand what each of the stakeholders really wants?
4. Have you assessed the business requirements, and the individual requirements, of your customers?
5. Do you know who your competitors are, or likely to be, and what they will offer?
6. Have you established strong enough relationships with the right people, to have your proposal taken seriously?
7. Have you established the commitment of the customer to proceed with the specified project/purchase?
8. If possible, try to establish a budget for what your customer is asking you to do. Make sure it’s the sort of project that you would want to take on.

Building the Proposal

1. Recap the brief as you understand it, whether it’s for professional services, delivery of products, or development of software, the customer wants to buy something from you for a reason. By recapping the brief, it sets a framework within which you can work, and the goals and intent are very clear for both parties. It eliminates confusion over expectations on both sides.
2. If, in the course of compiling your proposal, you realise you need to clarify something or need additional information, call your customer to discuss. They won’t mind – they want you to understand.
3. Present your proposed solution or product offering in a compelling way, aligning it with the requirements reiterated in the initial recap of the brief. Your offering, your approach and what you plan to do must be aligned to what the customer needs and wants.
4. Specify very clear deliverables so again, there is no confusion as to what you will deliver and what the customer will receive as an outcome.
5. Set a timeframe.
6. Specify the fee or price.
7. Include terms and conditions.
8. Allow for contingencies and clearly state them. For example, timeframes and fees may vary due to uncontrollable circumstances.
9. Certain agreements would be based on SLAs (Service Level Agreements), in which very clear and specific deliverables will be itemised, often with penalty clauses for non-delivery.
10. Check the spelling of the customer’s name and the company name.
11. Check for spelling and grammatical errors in the document – get another person to check as well.
12. Present the proposal in a format that is preferred by your customer (Powerpoint, email, hard copy document).
13. Include what you need to include and delete the rest. Your customers don’t have time to wade through mounds of words to extract the essence of the proposal.

Follow Up

1. Deliver, present, email or post the proposal.
2. Set a time for a follow up meeting to review, wherever possible.
3. If you’ve followed these steps, you have a very good chance of success!

The strategic planning process is not simple. It involves understanding your market, you 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, 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
Time frames – 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.

Strategy

• Understand your environment
• Be honest and realistic about your companies 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 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 time frames
• Use the road map 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 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.

A review of your business will identify any areas which are working really well, and any which may require you to take action. As we’ve seen from recent corporate examples such as HIH and One-Tel, being informed about the real health of your business is critical.

If your business is robust, and healthy, you can be assured that you’re doing the right things and performing very well.

What are your ultimate goals for your business? Sell out? Franchise? Establish licensees? Take it to an IPO? Bring in other partners? Whatever your goal, the business must be healthy. You will gain more enjoyment from it, more profit, and have more fun working on it. After all, isn’t that why we’re all in business?

Ask Yourself the Important Questions

What are some of the questions to consider before you assess the overall performance or health of your business?
 What is it worth without you in it?
 How well does it function without you there?
 What is it worth today?
 What would you like it to be worth at some point in the future (short, medium or long term)?
 How long do you plan to run it day to day?
 Do you plan to sell it one day?
 Have you maximised its value?
 How can you make the business run better without you needing to be there all the time?

These questions are the starting point. Then you need to look into your business and make assessments on what needs to be done to get you to your future goals. Changes may be needed, extra attention may be required in some areas, or it may be running perfectly well as it is. There is only one way to assess how healthy your business is.

Run a Health Check on Your Business

This is where a health check comes in. You need to uncover the real status of operations and performance in all key areas:
 Finance
 Sales
 Marketing and promotion
 People
 Products and services
 Customers
 Processes and systems/Production
 Planning and goal setting

Table A

For each area, draw up a form with a simple checklist (Table A), rating each area as ‘poor’, ‘satisfactory’, ‘needs work’ or ‘good’. Using the above example, record your rating for each aspect which has been defined for the sales area. You should be able to see the most frequently scored rating, and make an overall assessment of the sales area.

How Do You Rate?

In conjunction with this assessment process, it is always a very valuable exercise to survey your staff/customers/suppliers as appropriate. They ARE your business and you need to know how you are performing, from their perspective. It isn’t necessary to conduct these surveys too often, but they are a useful benchmarking tool to use from time to time.

When you’ve been through all of the broad functions of the business (such as sales, finance, etc.), give each area an overall rating. Again, draw up a simple chart with performance rating across the top, the operational area along the left axis (sales, finance, people, etc.), and tick your ratings in the right columns (Table B).

If an area were generally in pretty good shape, and scored mostly ‘Good’ ratings, but one or two aspects rated a lower score such as ‘Poor’ or ‘Satisfactory’, it would be worth your while to address those under-performing areas now, before they affect all the good parts of the business or area that are working well. As they say, “Prevention is better than cure.”

Table B: Health Summary

You’ll then be able to see at a glance what the overall health of your business is, and take the appropriate course of action:
 No action required (big tick for your performance, or maybe you haven’t been completely honest in your evaluation…)
 Identify priority areas which require attention
 Decide what action needs to be taken
 Implement improvements
 Review progress in 1, 3, 6, 12 months time as appropriate

The outcome of this process will tell you:
• The strategy required – which will focus you
• What you then have to do – which will improve your operations
• What you need to measure in the follow up review – with results as the outcome
• It will have measured your performance as the manager of the business
• Finally, if you are under-performing in any areas of your business, it will help you to make changes which result in improved performance next time around

Monitor the Vital Signs

The most important indicators that you must constantly watch and attend to are:
• Cashflow and available funds
• Sales, and plenty in the pipeline
• Overheads kept low – don’t let them creep up
• Know where you’re going (have a plan)
• Put systems and procedures in place as you go (so you can delegate as the business grows).

Read each of these statements below, and say whether you agree or disagree with them:

• So many people, especially those with service-based companies, say they have grown their business mostly through referrals. Maybe you have too.

• Mostly, they/you do little to generate these referrals, and they just flow into your business.

• Sometimes, we have to ask our contacts for introductions to specific people they know, or ask them if they know anyone they could refer us to in a particular organisation or industry.

• Some of our contacts and clients are far better at referring new prospective clients and contacts to us than others.

• The good referrers often will refer many new business opportunities to us.

• These people often have great networks, have a lot of contact with different people during the course of their business and personal life. They’re connected to a lot of contacts, and they connect people together. That’s how they refer new client opportunities to you.

• When we receive our new clients, through the ‘connector’ referrals, we look after our new clients.

So far, so good? I’m assuming (and hoping) you agreed with most of those statements. I’m hoping that you know, and have this kind of referral relationship, with at least one connector.

‘6 degrees of separation’ can build your client base exponentially

Let’s look into this a bit further. Keep asking yourself if you agree with these statements:

• We spend as much time and focus looking after our connectors, as we do with our clients.

• We thank and reward our connectors for helping us grow our business.

• We proactively build our network of connectors and potential sources of new introductions and referrals.

If you agreed with most of these statements, you’re doing a great job at growing your new client growth opportunities. If not, you probably need to start building your own network and thinking more strategically about who you know, and who they know.

I use this simple matrix with my clients, to help them leverage off the relationships they have with their connectors, contacts, and clients. It will help you to:

• Build your network
• Connect you to more people who you could potentially do business with
• Focus you on strengthening relationships with key people
• Be clear about who you have the most positive business relationships with (in both a business and personal sense)
• Focus on the best-fit relationship building activities for your business
• Build client growth from new connections and contacts

Follow this 3-step process to help you build your own connector network:

Step 1: Use the guidelines below to help you map out:
• Your direct network – connectors, contacts, your clients, people you know of or may have met once or twice. There are 4 levels.
• Your ‘indirect’ network – The contacts, colleagues, client base etc of your direct network.

Connectors – Your Direct Network

Level 4

• These people seem to know a lot of people.

• You are likely to not know them very well, or at all. They could be a friend of a friend.

• If you target them successfully, you could be connected to a large network of their contacts.

Level 3

• These people may be connectors, but you have to qualify.

• They appear to have access to a large network of people.

• You know them well enough; they could connect you if asked.

• They may not feel comfortable connecting people.

Level 2

• These people may have an extensive client network which is complementary to your business.

• They may not necessarily connect you if you don’t prompt them.

• If you drew a line from these people to others, the end network would be very large.

Level 1

• Centres of influence are not only well connected, but well respected. Others listen to them. They may have high profiles.

• They will refer you to others proactively.

• They support and promote you.

• They connect people.

Connectors’ Contacts – Your Indirect Network
Who moves in the same circles as Level 4?

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Who is in the same circles as Level 3?

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Who is known by/works with Level 2?

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Who is closely connected to Level 1 (eg: via Boards)

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Step 2: Identify which companies, specific clients, or people you would like to be introduced to or referred to.

For example, let’s say you’d like to contact the head of Sales at a particular company, and you know that one of your clients does business with this company; ask them if they know who heads up Sales. Alternatively, ask if they could put you in touch with the contact they do have, so you can find the head of Sales via this other person.

Step 3: Ask for an introduction. Make the call/send an email/letter.

This can be a very powerful tool, but DON’T abuse it, and ALWAYS deliver value back to the person who connected you. You have to give something too, that is of value to the connector, and which will continue to grow the relationship you have with that person.

Draw up the Connector Matrix, and give it a try over the next month. See where the Power of Connectors and 6 degrees of separation can take you! Good luck in building your client growth opportunities.