6 Solid Tools To Help Business Owners Succeed and Prosper

Posted on by petergwaction

I met with a business travel and tours executive for the first time today and he said, “So, you’re a business coach. What’s your vehicle for transporting business people, or are you a cheerleader?”

Interesting questions on several levels.

While business coaching has nothing to do with transporting a business owner from city to city, state to state, or country to country, business coaches do transport business owners to new levels of understanding and profitability. So, in that vein, I guess business coaches are a vehicle for transporting. As for being cheerleaders, while we are very encouraging to business owners, our role as business coaches is less to inspire and motivate than to provide real systems and processes that can take a business places the owner never dreamed he or she could reach.

As business owners are aware, these four key areas relate to the ultimate profit one will make: management, sales and marketing, finance, and stock.

Three highly effective and important starting points business owners need to know and understand for their businesses to succeed and prosper are to:

  1. Understand that change is often good— necessary, even—but you have to know where you are in order to determine where you want to go.

You can’t take a trip unless you know the starting point. Same in business, you can’t exceed expectations if you don’t know the point from which you’re starting.

  1. Swallow your pride. Get help.

Too many business owners are afraid to admit they’re overwhelmed, or that they started their business without a solid plan. SO WHAT! What’s done is done! Get over it and GET HELP.

  1. Quit trying to recreate a broken wheel.

Why implement a system that may not work? Why not instead opt for a tried and true system that does work and make it work for you? Put another way, which would you rather – jump off a cliff knowing there’s water below, or just blindly jumping off a cliff and hoping for the best?

Exactly.

So, here are three solid ways to put your business on the fast track toward instant profit:

  1. First and foremost: Take Stock. One cannot change something if you have no idea what is already in place. Determine what your current profitability margin is. Remember that what comes after an equal (=) sign can’t be directly influenced but what comes after a times (x) sign can.
  2. Profit has to do with the Average Dollar Sale (ADS), which affects turnover, and margins, so one has to have a starting point and know what the ADS is. To do this, create an ADS survey and determine where you are so that you can then plan where you want to go.Once you have a grip on sales, develop a MARGIN survey and begin to work out your margins.
  3. Get help. Hire a business coach. Putting effective processes in place will go a lot smoother if you have someone guiding you. An experienced business coach can help you develop these surveys specific to your company and can help put other plans into place to help you excel.

Think of your business like a tree. A tree either grows or dies depending on certain conditions. To grow, it needs: air, water, soil, and room to expand. Well, your business needs systems, too: Accountability (Air) Test and Measurement tools (Water), Finance (Soil), and Growth (room to expand). With these “processes” in place, and a new, more confident “you” at the helm, your business will soar to new heights.

Choose to be a victor not a victim by being proactive and determining your own destiny. A business coach can be both vehicle and cheerleader, but the best ones are the competent, behind-the-scenes experts that help you help yourself.

8 Key Ways Innovation Can Help Business Owners Catapult to Success

Posted on by petergwaction

What’s your definition of effective innovation? A clever idea? A novel product or service? As the owner of a business coaching firm, the key word for me is “effective”, and for innovation to be effective, it has to make my company money.

Dreams, wishes – these are all great things, but unless they bring in capital, they’re just air. So, here are some places to start to make innovation work for you!

1. Effective innovation requires the right “pricing” vehicle.

Pricing is tricky. It involves your needs as well as what your customer considers fair. But, either way, innovation will not be effective without the right business model:

* Cost-plus pricing – the easiest, yet sometimes criticized method involves setting the price at what it costs to produce/provide service, including expenses, adding in your target profit margin.

* Target-return pricing- set your price with the goal to get back money invested in the company based upon the projected sales. If you invested $10,000, how many products or services must you sell at what price point to get your money back in a specified time frame?

* Value-based pricing – the most “psychological” of the three involves pricing the product based on its value to a customer. If you’re product saves them 3 hours of productivity a day, for someone who made $50/hour, that’s $150, so you could probably charge $75 or more for it.

* Fair-Value pricing – setting your price at what the market supports. If customers want something badly enough, they’re willing to pay ridiculously high prices for that product. Just look at Tickle Me Elmo that customers were willing to pay $600+ for so their kid could have one for Christmas. But, customers are also saavy shoppers and know what the going rate is for products and services. The challenge is balancing your needs with their willingness to pay.

2. Innovations needs to be re-invented.

Large companies with huge budgets can brand their products and have that branding last for 10, 20, 100+ years, but good ideas are often copied and become common and no longer innovative. We see it in advertising all the time (buttons, badges, “likes” etc.) The irony is, if you become TOO innovative, you’ll lose the “stickiness” necessary for viewers to grow accustomed to seeing your product or service. So, there’s a balance you need to have to even out innovation and previously successful ideas.

3. Innovations come from making concepts “stick” in the minds of your customers.

I will never forget a shaving company’s line that went something like, “Our razors are so safe, even a baby can handle them”. The next image is a bald guy covered in shaving cream with clean razor-track cutting across his scalp. Behind him is a baby holding the foamy razor. Sometimes innovation means coming at your product from a completely different angle. Business coaching has nothing to do with marriage, yet we were able to show parallels between business ownership and getting married in order to sell our services. Again, it all gets back to “what sticks” in your customers’ minds and hearts.

4. Innovation is sometimes driven by going in the “exit” and out the “entrance”.

What if all streets were “one way”? How frustrating and boring would that be? Sometimes going “out” the “in” can be as simple as thinking of your existing product as your competition, and out-do yourself. The reason this is “forward” thinking is that eventually your product or service is going to need some renovating, and if you don’t have a product and/or service to replace or enhance it, you might as well go by way of the Titanic. Think of your product or service like you’re the product or service’s competition. How would you improve upon it? When you’re in a vehicle, you can look out the windshield at where you’re going, or out the back winder at where you’ve been. Turn the car around and you can look out the back window to see where you’re going and out the front window to see where you’ve been. Same vehicle – just a different view.

5. Who says innovation can’t be well thought out?

Of course innovation can be carefully planned. Perhaps the ideas will have to be new and hopefully surprising, but one can still save space for innovation and encourage it within the company. One company I was affiliated with gave incentives for innovative ideas that became part of the company culture in the form of $500 gift cards. Normally, innovation starts with the spark of an idea. Brainstorming often leads to different ways to approach the idea. Then one has to lay out the new idea, test it, and voila, a new concept is born.

6. Innovation that results in changing people’s lives is the crowning touch.

Ask customers what they want and you’ll get as many answers as the number of people asked, and then some. You simply will not be able to please everyone – so quit trying. Improving on something is not creating a new innovation. It’s just creating a derivative on an existing idea. And there’s nothing wrong with that. True innovation is revolutionary. The resulting change is mind-boggling. We’ve seen it all through life. The Pony Express was replaced by a postal system. The horse and buggy was replaced by the automobile. Typewriters were replaced by computers. The list goes on.

7. Innovation requires tough skin.

Sticking to your guns will be hard if everyone is poo-hooing your concept. But, if you don’t believe in it, why should anyone else? Many times you have a vision and are so clear about your idea, but when you try to explain it, you’re faced with blank – or worse, doubtful – looks. Learn the art of explaining things in different ways, remembering that some people are visual, others are auditory, and still others are kinetic processors. Speak their language when trying to share your ideas. Develop a Teflon attitude and let the criticism slide off you. It doesn’t mean you aren’t listening and taking note, but it does mean that you protect yourself and stay true to your ideas.

8. Business Owners have “hire” expectations.

Innovators are your “1st” string players on your team. They are not only full of ideas, but can work independently to execute their plans. “1st” string players require less training and are eager to get things moving forward. “2nd” string players are good at doing what they are told, but often need innovative motivation! “3rd” string players are just what corporations love: the do-as-you-are-told types. A company full of “3rd” sting players will not advance. This last group likes routine and doesn’t favor change. There’s a place for each string, but hiring innovative people might be just what your company needs to excel.

In all . . .innovation is like a planted seed. With the right environment and conditions, innovation can flourish and help your company catapult to success.

When Business Owners Ask, “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”

Posted on by petergwaction

When a business friend of mine and I found ourselves comparing business to marriage, love came up. He snapped, “What’s love got to do with it” adding, “Business is business, my friend.  Marriage is hell.” Well, as most business owners know, business can be hell, too, and quite frankly, not all marriages are doom and gloom.

Still, let’s stay with the marriage analogy for a moment. Certainly, when two people first feel a mutual spark, things are wonderful and exciting. And when a budding business owner decides to try his or her hand at running a business, the buzz is equally electrifying.

Courtship:

Just as couples date, an entrepreneur “courts” an idea, weighing a lot of factors, including money, management, time, and commitment. All are important parts of the process.

Nuptials:

Marrying couples certainly hope to prosper, just as a new business owner hopes to prosper. And both must come to the moment of saying, “I Do”, cementing a commitment. Well, that’s the initial idea, anyway. But what exactly are they “I doing” to?

Ah. The “agreement”.  Yes. In business, it’s imperative, but what if I told you a lot of business owners have passion, persistence, patience, push (drive), and perseverance, but lack one of the most important “p”s of all: a Plan. In business, it’s important to have a clear plan and a business coach can help you build one.

Honeymoon:

For business owners, the honeymoon period may not be as exciting as bedding their bride or groom, but few new business owners I have spoken with have not felt a certain “high” after making the commitment. “I am terrified,” one admitted to me recently, “but in a good way.” And while the initial honeymoon is also a time to set up shop, get affairs in order (ah, ah…the other kind), determine roles and set goals, it’s a time of wonderment and giddiness, and then reality sets in.

Commitment:

As the honeymoon wears off and the “couple” starts looking more seriously at their future, often the topic of starting a family comes up. For the new business owner, this could equate to new product, or growth, or expansion. Ironically, when families start having kids, the husband often feels a little left out in the beginning, and when business owners expand, the spouse often feels a certain similar feeling of loneliness. A friend calls it “Ignorance” with the emphasis on the “nor”, yet it stems from a similar word of the same spelling, ignorance, with the emphasis on the “ig”. Few of us like being ignored, yet when the pressures of supporting a family, or supporting a business kick in, we’re often spending a good portion of our time “trying to keep things running smoothly” and not paying attention to each other.

7-Year Itch

And then “it” can happen. In marriage, sometimes it’s the seventh inning stretch, where we want a break and the grass starts looking mighty green on the other side of the fence. In business, we’re lucky to make it to five years, but the itch of envy and “wanting” can still creep in. My motto is “absence makes the heart grow fonder,” but the business friend whom I opened this article with has a different way of looking at it. He’s fond of saying, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder – of someone else.” In case you’re wondering, he’s no longer married. But the point is, a weakening in our armor, whether we’re male or female, can lead us to making decisions that may not be the best for ourselves and our “marriage” – whether we’re talking spouses or businesses.

Divorce

Then that day comes, when the thin threads of reason snap. Ending one’s marriage is at the top of the list of stresses one can go through, as is losing one’s business. It doesn’t have to happen in all cases, but in some it will and it does. The thing to remember here is that love and loss whether in marriage or business, follow Elizabeth Kubler Ross’s Five Stages of Grief:

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance

There’s no getting around it, nor should there be. Everyone has to go through these stages when the unfortunate happens. But just as love is not always enough to save a marriage, a love for your business is not always enough to save your business.

That’s where a coach can come in. A business coach in today’s economy is almost a must to have on board to succeed. But one need not wait for the business to start showing cracks to seek help. As a matter of fact, introducing a coach right away can not only save one’s business, but can turn one’s business into an operation that allows you time to share with family, friends, and time for yourself. I cannot stress this enough.

So, back to the initial question, “What’s love got to do with it?” The answer is everything – including the ups and downs and in betweens of keeping one’s business and/or marriage prosperous. But in business, love is not enough.

And when you realize that, you’ll call a business coach.

Business Owners Are Often Miserable, But This Valuable Advice Can Save Them

Posted on by petergwaction

“Screw being happy,” a business owner once said to me. “Who has time?”

Then a colleague says to me recently, “I work 24/7, my business takes up all my time for everything and anything, including family, friends, – hell – even myself . . . there’s no time for all that, let alone being happy.”

Who knew happiness was becoming extinct! At one point in our lives we were convinced that getting married would make us happy, or having a kid, or getting a great job – or owning a terrific business . . .

Then the economy tanked and frustrations set in. We were soon overworked, underpaid, under-appreciated, and still looking for “other” things to fill in that void:

* A new house * New car * Vacation * Retirement. . .

. . . Putting off happiness for some undefined time in the future that is sure to come, and all the while letting something so precious slip away: Time.

Still, can joy be as easy as just “being” happy? It can if you make happiness a priority. Here are ten ways to lose the weight of doom and fill your life with positive, happy-necessities:

First and foremost: start being grateful. Seriously, if you have nothing else to be grateful for, be thankful that you woke up this morning alive and with the opportunity to make this day different, and start there!

If you are putting happiness on hold:

until your bills are paid; until you get a new job or prospect; until your kids are out of the house; until you advance your education; until you lose weight; until you find Mr. or Ms. Right; until you get married; until you have kids; until you retire; until you croak . . .

STOP!

A dear friend of mine once said, “Happiness is an inside job. It’s a journey – something to have with you at all times.” Happiness is not a destination – something to land on at any given time. It’s a choice.

So, next time stress pays an unwelcome visit, ask yourself, “Is this the worst that can happen?” and take the steps to work through the challenge. You’ll be happy you did.

BONUS TIP: Think money is happiness? Money would be nice to have, sure, but money can’t buy time, and by letting time slip away, you’re letting happiness slip away as well. So, look at personal happiness as an investment and bank on it. When you do, you’ll attract happiness and good fortune to you. Now, isn’t that better to anticipate than that doom and gloom you were courting earlier?

I thought so.

9 Steps To Creating a Solid Marketing Plan

Posted on by petergwaction

In business, failing to plan sends up one big red flag about you: you’re planning to fail. Still, I know of no business owner who goes into business with the idea that they want to fail. So, what’s one leading cause of failure in business: a faulty or non-existent Marketing Plan.

Without a solid Marketing Plan, business owners spend excessive amounts of money on ineffective marketing.Think of it like taking a trip to a place you’ve never gone before without a map. True, it might be an exciting journey, but chances are, you’ll use excess gas driving around and around in circles, getting nowhere fast, eating up something valuable that you can’t get back: TIME.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. What you can put in place today can save you hours and hours of time tomorrow and in your future,and can turn a teetering business into a commercially profitable enterprise, affording you time to work ON your business rather than 24/7 IN it. Here are the nine essential steps we teach when business coaching:

DEFINE: First and foremost, define what the role of your marketing is.

VISUALIZE: To accomplish this, you need to have a vision for your company. Using the map analogy again, think of it this way. You have to know where you’re going to figure out how to get there.

CALL TO ACTION: Be clear on what you want potential clients to do? If you want them to call, be clear about why and what you’ll tell them when they do. If you want them to visit your website, be clear on why and what they will gain by following your direction. Years ago there was a clever bumper sticker going around. It said, “Don’t follow me, I’m lost.” You don’t want potential customers to put that figurative bumper sticker on your business.

VALUE: To ask what you want potential customers to do is also to imply that you have to know what they want. If you are singing “Who’s” classic, “Who are you, who, who, who, who,” then you have a ways to go before reaching your audience. Obviously, different people want different things, but you have a service or product you feel will help them, and you must think them as individuals, not groupies.

COMPETITION: To know your competitive edge, you must know your competition. When you visit their sites, are you impressed, repelled, envious, disgusted? Study them. What do they do that you like. What do they do that you hate? UPS delivers, but for business owners, USP (your unique selling proposition) delivers. If you don’t know what your unique selling proposition is, how will your customers? Define it!

BENEFITS: One way to determine that is to think of the value you offer the customer you are trying to reach. If it’s all about you, you’ll turn your potential customer off, but if you show them how they will benefit and back it with testimonials and proof, you’re halfway there.

MEASURING & TRACKING: We’re in an age of social media, from Adwords to Zonk and everything in between, but social networking is only as good as the person who knows how to master it. If you’re not proficient in social media, find someone who is. 50% of marketing is wasted ONLY if you don’t know which 50% it is. Just ask Henry Ford. The key is measuring and tracking responses, coding each campaign, and having a system in place as a means of identifying and capturing leads.

BUDGETING: “Money, money, money, money!” may have been a key lyric for the O’Jays in their son, “For the Love of Money,” but for business owners, marketing is budgeting and important budgeting at that, for marketing is not an expense – it’s an investment. In order to know how much you are going to spend, you need to be clear on the Return on Investment (ROI) you want to gain.

FLEXIBILITY: It’s not just for rubber. While a solid plan needs to have the backbone of steel, it also needs to be flexible in the event that changes need to be made, and believe me, you should revisit your marketing plan every 90 days and assess what’s working, what needs changing, and establish a new goal.

ACTION: No plan is effective without Action. Putting that Action into place takes strategies and processes that are proven and guaranteed. No amount of wishing makes something come true. A colleague of mind bends a favorite expression and says, “Practice what you Reach”.

My motto is: no games, no gimmicks, just results for a reason. Here’s to your success.

If You’re Not Growing, You’re Dying!

Posted on by petergwaction

by Coach Eamon

This phrase–and it scared me when I first heard it–is taken from a Bob Dylan song and was being applied to business. It scared me particularly since I thought I’d learned all there was to know about my chosen profession. Yet, deep down I recognized that I thought that I’d been given a fixed amount of intelligence and a certain set of talents, and basically that was that. In short, there was no way to improve on what I was born with.

Though I felt uncomfortable, I went and did some research (Mindset – Professor Carol Dweck, Random House) and found that this thinking was typical of a fixed mindset and there were a few traits associated with it that I was uncomfortable to acknowledge – one of which was not expanding “expertise”. In this view, fixed minsetters don’t expand their world because they don’t like the uncomfortable feeling of not being good at something. They prefer to stick with what they know they’re competent at, even if many opportunities are lost as a result…

So, I was dying!

I learned about the other mindset, a growth mindset, where the belief is that learning is the secret to success in any field and happiness in life. “If you’re not growing, you’re dying” could easily be the growth-mindsetter’s motto.

The research showed that many of the greats of history were not actually born geniuses. They developed their startling abilities through monumental ambition and plain old hard practice. They worked for their greatness.

I’m sure as you’re reading this that you may be wondering whether one can change his or her mindset from fixed to growth. Well, the good news is that of course you can change, and like most things worth achieving, it will take focus, effort, and time. In fact, since you know these two mindsets exist, you’ve got one of the biggest parts of change handled.

The next task, if you want to become a true growth mindsetter, is to look at your life and make some plans. Ask yourself:

In what way would I like to improve?

How would I like to grow and change?

What would the “new me” look like? Feel like? Act like? Achieve?

Great questions to be asking for all areas of your life. And certainly in the professional arena, Education helps you expand your expertise that will help you to continuously grow. As does having a coach, someone who helps you overcome the roadblocks you can’t see and helps you perform to the best of your abilities.

So, what have you decided you’re not good at? Is it possible that the only reason you’re not exceptional at whatever you’ve chosen is because you haven’t worked hard at becoming so? What would life be like if you were excellent in that area?

Is it worth trying again?

Now Is The Time: “Women Now” Are the Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow

Posted on by petergwaction

Joe Siecinski is the featured guest on WOMEN NOW and talks with viewers about his goal of having a positive impact on business owners and encourages entrepreneurs to “catch the right bus”.

To do that, he encourages women business owners to define their dream, and to establish what he calls a “SMART”  Goal (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-Oriented Timeframe).

In this informative video, Coach Joe shares insights on:

  • How to identify
  • How to Plan
  • And How to Execute

Strategies and tactics that will set business owners on the path to extraordinary results.

To see the video, click on the link below:

WN : Coach Joe Segment

By Women Now| 1 video

Food for Thought – Business Owners Are Hungry for Solutions, But Often Miss the Main Meal!

Posted on by petergwaction

As a business owner, we know what we hunger for. Some of us hunger for more customers. Others hunger for more profits. Still others are hungry for more employees, or simply more time.

And some of us simply hunger for food. In our 24/7, non-stop, busy lifestyles, we sometimes resort to eating poorly and then wonder why we don’t have any energy left for ourselves, our families…our work. So, here are some simple things you can make that are healthy and that you can sink your teeth into as you strategize marketing, management, money, and time issues. Clearly, if you have any health issues relating to food, you should check with your doctor or nutritionist before accepting these ideas:

Breakfast:

Breakfast burritos are not only good for you, they’re easy to make in minutes. The egg and bean provide protein and the recipe can be modified for vegetarian and/or meat eaters.

            Ingredients:

  • 6 lightly beaten eggs
  • 1 TBSP butter
  • A pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup chopped onion
  • 1 16-ounce can vegetarian baked beans
  • 6 warmed 7-8 inch flour tortillas
  • shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
  • salsa or ketchup
  • (For meat eaters) Sausage links)

            Preparation:

Heat butter in 10-inch non-stick skillet until it’s sizzling.

In a bowl, season eggs with salt and pepper. Add to skillet. Sprinkle with onions. Cook until eggs are done, stirring occasionally.

(For meat eaters only) Cook six sausage links until well done. Either leave whole or chop up sausage into egg mixture.

Divide egg mixture into 6 parts. Spoon egg mixture and about 1/4 cup beans onto warmed tortillas. Sprinkle with cheese and drizzle

with salsa, if desired.

Wrap five tortillas for later, refrigerating them. Save the sixth to eat and enjoy as your power  breakfast.

Lunch

Lasagna lovers will like this variation. Try different cheeses for different flavors. This recipe calls for Monterey Jack, but also try Pepper Jack, Sharp Cheddar, or other favorite cheeses that you like with traditional lasagna. This feeds eight, (or one person for eight meals)!

            Tortilla Lasagna

  • ½ cup chopped onion
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • 1 pound ground turkey/ground meat/ground chicken
  • ¼ teaspoon cumin
  • 3 cups canned enchilada sauce (see recipe below for Homemade Enchilada Sauce!)
  • 12 corn tortillas
  • 2 cups shredded Monterey jack cheese
  1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Sauté onions and garlic in oil.
  2. Add turkey/ground beef/ground chicken and cook until brown. Stir in cumin. Set aside.
  3. Spoon a layer of enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9″ × 13″ casserole dish. Layer tortillas, meat mixture, and cheese; then sauce, tortillas, meat, and cheese again.
  4. Top with a layer of tortillas, sauce, and cheese.
  5. Bake 20–25 minutes.

            Homemade Enchilada Sauce

This recipe is both vegetarian and vegan.

            Ingredients:

  • 2 TBSP vegetable oil
  • 2 TBSP flour
  • 2 TBSP chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • Cayenne pepper to taste
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 (one) 8-ounce can tomato paste
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt

            Preparation:

Heat the oil, flour, and chili powder together in a large pot. Cook for one to two minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients and simmer slowly. Stir mixture until tomato paste is dissolved. Cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add extra finely chopped vegetables as  preferred (olives, celery, etc.)

Dinner

Lentil Shepherd’s Pie

After a grueling day at work, cooking might not seem like something you want to race home to do, but cook this in advance and you’ll definitely want to race home to eat it!

If you’re looking for a vegetarian shepherd’s pie recipe, or just want to try a shepherd’s pie that is a bit healthier and lower in fat than traditional meat-based shepherd’s pies, try this vegetarian and cholesterol-free recipe which uses lentils instead of meat. Scroll down for more vegetarian shepherd’s pie recipes to try.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 pound lentils, cooked and drained
  • 1 diced onion
  • 1/2 tsp crumbled fresh sage
  • 1/2 tsp minced garlic
  • pinch of dried oregano
  • 1 tsp salt
  • dash cayenne pepper
  • 3 large potatoes, cooked
  • 1/2 to 1 cup of hot soy milk
  • margarine

Preparation:

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, mash the cooked lentils thoroughly and add the onion and seasonings. Put the lentil mixture in a lightly oiled casserole dish.

In a separate bowl, mash the potatoes and add the hot soy milk, margarine and salt. Beat by hand or with an electric mixer until fluffy.

Spread the mashed potatoes over the mashed lentils and bake for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are dry on top.

Place the “pie” under the broiler to brown the top. Serve warm.

So, there you have it. Some simple, delicious, nutritious meals in less than half an hour prep time. What’s more, they can be made in advance and can feed you for a few days!

What are some ideas you have for simple meals that pack a powerhouse of protein and punch for fellow business owners?

And if you were sharing one of these meals, what would your advice be to them on: marketing, management, money, and time?

For our business tips, go to www.actioncoachcalteam.com

If You Give a Girl a Freebee…

Posted on by petergwaction

Are you like me? Any time I hear free anymore, I freeeeak out.

Yesterday, for instance, I was offered a free sample at the store. The tiny paper cupcake mold that was put in the palm of my hand had a smidgen of lasagna in it, which I devoured in seconds. The server asked me how I liked it and I had to admit it was delicious. But I didn’t need to answer; my face said it all and she even handed me a second free sample. As I chewed, she pointed down the aisle to let me know where to find the assortment of lasagnas.

I thanked her with every intention of wheeling my cart down a different aisle, but that would have been rude, so “squeaky” and I rolled to the section that housed the luscious lasagna. What do you know! It was on sale for $9.99.

I came to the store for dog biscuits, yet here I was, buying not one, but two boxes of lasagna and a large box of doggie treats. My “freebie” just cost me upwards of $20 bucks. Sound like anyone you know?

Well,  it didn’t stop there. That night, as I waited for the oven to warm, I flipped the box over and scanned the ingredients, forcing my eyes to focus on the calorie intake.

The cheeses, sauce, meat, added up to 1500 calories. My daily…not mealy…daily intake should be around 1200 max.

Looking away, my eyes rested the gym membership notification that had just come in the mail. Only $20 a month. “But,” I rationalized, “why would I need to go to a gym when I can exercise right here at home for free?” I didn’t have a pool, however, and swimming was such good exercies.

I stared at the fish in my fishbowl, suddenly realizing one thing I had forgotten at the store was fish food. After stuffing myself with lasagna, I wedged myself into my car and headed this time to Wallyworld.

Fish food, it turns out, is clear at the back of the store, right by the exercise equipment.

$159 dollars later, I had myself an exercise bench AND a packet of fish food. Eight months of gym membership was now packed into my trunk. Back at home, I opened the box and tried to read the directions (They were in French), I gave up and called my son to assemble the bench. He agreed to, but only if he got paid. He now owns his own successful business…but that’s another story.

The day finally ended, and I went to bed nearly $200 poorer – all from sampling a freebie.

The lessons I learned:

  1. Do not shop when you are hungry.
  2. Bending over and standing up is not only a good exercise, it’s cheap.
  3. Clear, concise, understandable instructions save time and money
  4. You get what you deserve. (Brad Sugars says his dad told him this. Brad’s the founder of ActionCOACH and clearly got what he deserved!)
  5. Accept that FREE generally operates like “Friends with Benefits”…you’re going to have to put out sometime, somewhere…for someone…so, why not let that someone be you?

I know a business coach would read my story here and would already be formulating advice on how to help me prioritize, make lists, be disciplined and save money. While I ultimately spent $200+ dollars on a free sample of lasagna, had I had a coach along, s/he would have showed me how to take that $200, invest it in something that would save me money AND generate capital and I’d be rich—er, smart—er, and enjoying something I can’t get back…time.

In business, there are many things that are basically FREE. These include:

A freebee is only as good as the one who can make it profitable. The coaching costs nothing for you to get an “outside look” at the” inside story”: Your business . And when, after receiving all that free mentoring , you realize you could use some help, the ActionCOACH service is guaranteed.

Here’s what other savvy business owners are saying:

When Sharon Mor and Ed Caballero founded Edventure More summer enrichment programs they began growing the business, but  realized they had no real comfort in dealing with their finances and how to manage their money most efficiently. So, they decided to hire a certified business coach with ActionCOACH Business Coaching. Their coach worked with them to help them squeeze their margins and to improve profitability. Since then the company has undergone a metamorphosis, working better internally and externally. Through restructuring their business model and improving their efficiencies, Edventure More was able to save and reallocate a quarter of a million dollars. Through their coaching experience Mor and Caballero have become increasingly confident in their business and thus their ability to be better leaders. As a result they have built a new level of trust and respect among their team.  ”I am most surprised by the ability we have gained in trusting our team in a genuine way and therefore successfully delegating tasks. Through working with ActionCOACH, we have gotten a better understanding on valuing our costs and when it is smarter for us to delegate,” says Mor. – Edventure More

I always knew what I wanted to do and knew that I had the potential, but I just didn’t know how to get there. ActionCoach is guiding me step by step toward my goals and I actually see them in front of me. I feel like ActionCoach has given me the key to open the door to my own house. My ActionCOACH is helping me unlock my dreams.-Eduardo Pintos Owner Pepito’s Restaurant

So, business owners, that’s my story. What’s yours? Is it a Grimm’s Business Tale? Three CEO Billy Blokes Gruff, perhaps?  Let us hear your “Grimm” stories and we’ll share them with our blog readers!

And sure to look for my next article: “What the Tech Are You Talkin’ About?”

Converting Leads into Customers

Posted on by petergwaction

By Rich Allen

One of the biggest tragedies I see in business is watching a business owner spend significant time and effort generating leads for their business, but then not acting on them in a logical, methodical, repeatable way to convert those leads into paying customers.

You haven’t done that in your business have you? But I’ll bet you know someone (better to keep them nameless) who has a stack of business cards on their desk that they have collected through their networking activities but they have not been added to their customer database, no follow up has taken place, and they are essentially growing colder by the day. If that is you, no need to raise your hand. But it is time to get out of the trap and start turning those leads into paying customers- wouldn’t you agree?

To make improvements in this area, you simply have to start doing one thing- MEASURE your current conversion success rate! Most business owners have no clue what their conversion rate is. By simply measuring where you are, you will improve. It happens every time. Once you start measuring, you realize what you should be doing that you are not, and your results begin to improve.

Add to that a specific, focused approach to handling your leads and your conversion rate will go through the roof! And, the best part is, you can grow your business without spending one more dollar! You’ve already invested marketing dollars to generate the leads. Now, make the most of that investment by defining your specific, repeatable sales steps that will convert your leads into customers.

To get started, take a few minutes and write down the specific steps that you take each and every lead through to get them familiar with you and your business. Each business has a different set of steps in their selling process. Some have just a few steps- most often where the average ticket price for a transaction is relatively small. Others have many steps- most often where the average ticket price is relatively large. You must decide how familiar a new prospect needs to be with you and your business in order to pull out their wallet and make a purchase. If it is a complicated product or service, you will likely need more steps in your selling process.

Once you have your current process steps written down, ask yourself, is everyone in my business doing it the same way? If not, why not? How can you have a “best in class” approach if you allow each individual to “roll their own”? How can you test and measure new approaches if you don’t first start with a standard? How can you improve and predict your outcome if there are multiple approaches? The answer to all of these questions is you cannot!

I often hear business owners say they would lose their best sales person if they made them follow a standard sales process. Let me ask you- whose business it? Is it your  or your sales person’s? Who has all the risk in the deal? Who is setting the expectations and limitations? My hope is that it is you- the business owner. Don’t let the personal preferences of others dictate how you will run your business- unless you like working for them!

Establish your specific selling process steps, train your team to follow the selling process, support it with the necessary materials, and measure the results of each specific step. Make changes to your sales process based on the results of your measurements. Test and Measure. Test and Measure. Again and again. Make incremental improvements and hold yourself and your team accountable for the results. This is the recipe for success.

One last thought. As you build your step by step sales process, be mindful of the thought that in every sales process there is a point where your prospect will do some specific physical something to indicate they are ready to buy. If you can identify that “physical something” for your business, then point all of your efforts to make that happen, your conversion rate will improve. I call this the “get on the boat” moment. One of my clients has a 100 person catamaran on a local lake and does corporate events, private parties, wedding, etc. His specific physical something for his prospects is to get them to step foot on his boat. Once they do that, they are so impressed that they are very likely to sign a contract. What is your “get on the boat” moment?

Stay focused. Stay determined. Be determined. Build a repeatable process for converting leads into customers. Your business success will become a certainty.