Category Archives: Quick Fixes For Business Challenges

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.

5 Ways to Profit that Every Business Owner Needs to Know

Posted on by petergwaction

Time is slipping away. There’s no stopping it. But there is a way to make time work for you, not against you. What’s your plan? We suggest putting the 5 ways to Profit in place. What happens next will totally astound you. Seriously.

Every business owner knows that “profit” is about boosting one’s bottom line with a cash-building plan. They also know that profit is about increasing margins and average dollar sales. But what if I told you that you could find hidden gold mines in your business with a few shifts in attitudes and focus, would you become skeptical? Let me dispel some of your skepticism and start with shifts in attitude.

If someone asked you, “Do you know how to spend less time at work, yet make more money?” would you  think it was even possible? Well, it is. But only if you shift your attitude and think of time as an investment. “You want to invest time, not spend it,” advises Brad Sugars, founder of ActionCOACH. He asks business owners, “Is it better for you to focus 10% of your time on a task, or have someone else give it 100% of their attention, even if that person is only half as good at the task as you are? Sometimes a simple understanding of a switch in one’s thinking can make all the difference in the world when it comes to making money. Sometimes switching one’s focus is needed as well.

For instance, if you plant fruit trees and your goal is to harvest the fruit, would you start the process by picking the fruit? Of course not. There is no fruit to pick because the tree hasn’t even been planted.

Yet, business owners starting out (and even some established ones) shoot straight for profit and revenue, basically reaching for “fruit” that isn’t even there yet.

The point? If one’s focus is in the wrong place, no amount of wishing, hoping, or even working 24/7 is going to produce a successful operation that’s laden with profit.

Profiting, therefore, is as much about attitude and beginning at the right place as it is about making money. The right place to start is always with the right system.

At ActionCOACH, we think of profit this way:  P.R.O.F.I.T: Proven Results Offer Financial Independence Today.

The key operative in that acronym are the words “proven results”. Just as an unplanted tree cannot produce fruit, a system cannot be proven until it is effectively put into place, tried, tested, and measured. To put the focus where it needs to be to grow your business and revenue, begin by applying this tried and true “5-Way Formula” for profit:

Your (1) Number of Leads x (2) Your Conversion Rate = Total Number of Customers x (3) The number of Transactions x (4) Average Amount of Sales = Revenue x (5) Profit Margin = Profit.

Understanding how to apply the formula is critical to the growth and success of your business. Understanding what specific systems need to be in place to reach that goal is also critical. Systems, after all, are only as effective as the people who know how to implement them.

ActionCOACH Business Coaches are trained to help you implement systems that guarantee increased revenue. Visit www.actioncoachcalteam and find a coach near you.

Are You A Problem Preventer, Or A Problem Fixer?

Posted on by petergwaction

Would you want a clock that didn’t work? Maybe if you were a clock repair person you might; but otherwise, you probably would say no. A clock is a very meticulous machine, built for a specific purpose, but as Anthony Hopkins points out in Fracture, a broken clock is correct only two times a day. The rest of the time, it’s virtually useless.

A clock is a system. It has a job to do. It serves a purpose. Think of your business like that clock: without a system, without a job to do, without a purpose, your business (and you) will fail. It’s that simple.

And just like a clock, your business has many parts and each part has a function.  If the hands of a clock tried to do what the gears behind the face were doing, you’d have one messed up clock. The same is true in business. You can’t be everything and do everything, but you can be in charge of making sure that all the parts of your business function properly and accurately together, and that the gears turn and work with maximum efficiency.

If you want the “parts” of your business to run more efficiently, you need to put:

  1. An effective system in place with goals and strategies clearly identified (Strategic Plan)
  2. Subsystems in place, with each part broken into smaller, effective parts (Operational Plan)
  3. A way of evaluating each subsystem and eliminating ineffective ones in place (Working Principles)
  4. A review process in place to continuously evaluate the efficiency of all systems
  5. A training program in place to properly train employees and in-services offering further education and skill development

Sometimes these things are easier said than done, and that’s where a business coach may be helpful. Look around. How many things are running efficiently because of an effective system? Right now, I’m looking at telephone wires, traffic lights, cars, street lights, drainage systems, signs, and let’s not forget our universe. That sky is pretty awesome, but if everything as we know it (and perhaps some things we aren’t aware of) weren’t in place, doing their “job” up there, our world as we know it would collapse.

The key is to take the necessary steps to change things if they aren’t running as smoothly and profitably as you’d hoped. To start, I challenge you to make a list. Ask, and then answer this question: “What would reduce the stress in my life?” Write at least five things. Let the list sit a couple of days and revisit it. Prioritize the stresses. What’s the biggest? What’s the smallest? Which can you start taking care of today? For me, my diet seriously needed attention. The added weight I was carrying added stress to my health and everyday life. I decided that bringing a healthy lunch to work would help toward my goal of eating healthier and losing weight. I committed to that goal. My new “system” was paying off. The weight dropped. My health improved. The bonus: by having a new, effective system in place, I had energy left over to tackle other challenges on my list.

Now it’s your turn. Make a list of challenges your business is faced with. Prioritize the list. Look at the things you can start taking care of today. Chances are, new systems need to be put into place to help your business run more effectively. Systems work. But they can’t work unless you put them in place and practices them. When you do, your role becomes “problem preventer”, not “problem fixer”—no more chasing fires and putting them out. Your new system helps you prevent the fires from starting in the first place. Effective systems make that process possible.

http://www.actioncoachcalteam.com/index.php/Assessment-Tools/business-health-check.html

IT’S LONELY AT THE TOP: WHY YOU NEED AN ActionCOACH

Posted on by petergwaction

by Bob Britz –  robertbritz@actioncoach.com

To get the truth about how you are running your company, you need someone with an outside, neutral perspective. It’s not enough these days to analyze reports, or get feedback from a trusted employee; that’s why having a business coach has become very common.

Nearly all coaches will tell you that the most important benefit they provide their clients is to be a trusted sounding board. Business owners say they appreciate their coach more than anything for much-needed objectivity.

When you are a business owner, the decisions you make can have huge consequences for your company’s success, as well as for the lives of your employees. They are weighty choices, and it’s crazy to make them in a vacuum. The perception of a lone CEO cowboy is not only outdated, it’s being phased out because you make more money and are actually happier when you make decisions with others involved.

Good coaches will tell you like it is. They will assess the situation and using their years of experience in working with CEOs and businesses of all kinds, will not hold back on their frank evaluation. They strive to be honest with ideas, suggestions and opinions. They will test your assumptions (possibly the single-most destructive problem CEO’s have is taking as hard fact something that is only their belief). A good coach will gain your trust throughout this process. Their role in your life as a business owner is singularly unique.

So, while it may feel as if it’s lonely at the top, it doesn’t have to be. A business coach is your ally. Like all of our current and past clients will tell you, their businesses grew in direct proportion to the amount of weight lifted from their shoulders when they brought a business coach onto their leadership team.

“Think Big” and Other Things You were Told, But Didn’t Do

Posted on by petergwaction

By Virginia Castleman  – peterwilliamson@actioncoach.com

“Think big.” Those were the words of a CEO I worked for when I was in radio many moons ago. At the time, I was going to school full time to get my Masters degree, working full time to stay afloat, and parenting full time as a single parent.

That’s a lot of full time for an 8-hour day, so his words, “Think Big,” didn’t sink in. But they do now. He simply meant, “Have a plan.”

The other important words I didn’t listen to came from my dad. “Pay yourself first.” I do now, but had I done that back when he suggested it, I would be a millionaire today.

What advice have you been given but haven’t taken? I recently read an article quoting Harvard University professor Robert Kaplan. In the article, Kaplan  tells CEOs, “It’s lonely at the top…It’s when you are isolated that you make poor decisions. If I’ve got nobody to talk to and am under a lot of pressure and I have to make a tough decision … I am probably more likely to make a poor one.”

His point? Get help.

But how? As the business owner, who can you talk to? I know that often in life I have said, “I wish I had a me for me,” because it turns out, I am excellent at helping others reach their dreams. So, who’s your you for you? Who’s that someone who will not only listen, but will smartly inform you of possible things to consider that you have avoided or didn’t even think of?

Face it. Most of us go the cheap route. Our spouse, or significant other, or Uncle Charlie, who seems to know a lot about everything…becomes our “ear” and mentor. It’s free advice, but free isn’t, as we all know, necessarily smart. It could be they are the experts to go to, but what if they aren’t?

ActionCOACH business coaches are trained to do one thing and one thing only. Help you. Their focus, their goal, their motivation, their driving desire is to help you succeed.

So, think big. Find a “you” for you, and give ActionCOACH a call. A business coach in your area will consult with you – free – and together you can map out a plan that will lead you to greater revenue, more time for yourself, and less time working in the business rather than on it.

Not to mention less weight on your shoulders. How big would that be! So, go to www.actioncoachcalteam.com, click on Find a Coach and find a you—for you.

Focus on the Negative

Posted on by petergwaction

by Jeff Nott – jeffnott@actioncoach.com

We all have been told many times to focus on the positive and avoid the negatives in life, but I challenge you to take some time and focus on the negative for a short while.

“Why would anyone want to do that?” you may be thinking. No one wants to dwell on anything negative. Well, if you want to minimize the negatives in your life, you will have to focus on them. We need to focus on what we don’t want so we can get rid of them to make room for want we do want.

How do we do this? Let me give you some simple ideas.

  • Get rid of it! Go to your clothes closet and throw out anything you have not worn in over a year. Not sure about when you last wore something? Here is an organizer’s trick: take all your clothes and hang them on the rack with the hangers on backwards. Do this on January 1st this year and 12 months from now, any clothes still on backwards are given to charity.

Do this same activity in your office, garage or any other place where you have items stored. Anything that has been sitting around for years unused or unfinished is a negative source of energy. Get rid of it.

  • Make a pact with yourself and loved ones that you will not criticize or make any derogatory comments for the next 30 days. If you miss just once, you have to start all over. It can be tough, but it can revolutionize your life. For additional support, get everyone in the family to join you in the challenge.
  • Avoid all situations and people that are negative. Those folks you know who are always whining and complaining? Either challenge them to take the 30-day challenge or tell them you cannot afford the time together until they can be more positive. Attitudes are like diseases: they are contagious and harmful.
  • Turn off the news! When was the last time you read or heard anything positive in the news reports? It’s really just the same stories with different names. And when did any of the news ever help you with your life or business? Instead, why not fill you mind with information found in good books? Read some of the biographies of some of the great people of history for some good inspiration.

If you focus on the negatives with these tips in mind, I am sure you will find other things you can do to eliminate them and fill your life with positives.

Lake Wobegon Effect

Posted on by petergwaction

by  Coach Karie Kaufmann kariekaufmann@actioncoach.com

A few weeks ago I visited a new dry cleaner, and in the short time I waited for the cashier to ring me up, I counted 8 signs they had posted on and around the counter.  Various rules, things you can’t do, things they’re not responsible for, things they charge extra for, etc.  It’s just dry cleaning – why so bossy?!

Here’s a fact:
The average person thinks they’re not.

Surveys show… 

  • Students asked to rate themselves as to how well they got along with other students… 25% marked themselves in the top 1%.
  • 93% of American drivers think they rank in the top 50% in driving skills.
  • Most men think they are good-looking.
  • Most business owners think their customer service sets them apart from the competition

There’s a name for all of this: The Lake Wobegon Effect.

Lake Wobegon is a fictitious place made famous by the Garrison Keillor radio program, where he ended each show with, “Goodbye from Lake Wobegon – where the women are strong, the men good looking and all the children are above-average.”

Wikipedia puts it like this: “’Illusory superiority’ is a cognitive bias that causes people to overestimate their positive qualities and abilities and to underestimate their negative qualities, relative to others.”

So where do you need to get real with yourself in your business?  You might think your service is top notch, or that your customers need to be bossed around by all your silly signs, but it could be those little things that keep people from doing business with you.

Your Lake Wobegon might not be easy to identify. 

Look around.  It’s likely a “policy” that you’re used to, comfortable with, or maybe even like.  If you’re not sure, try asking your employees, your customers, or the prospects that did not buy from you.

You’ll probably find that most people (especially if asked verbally) will respond politely, not wanting to hurt your feelings, or not having the guts tell you the truth. A good way to get around this is to sincerely give people permission to be 100% honest.

For example, if you ask a great customer what your business could be doing better and they say something like, “Oh nothing, you’re doing a great job.”  Try responding with, “I’m glad to hear you’re happy with us, and I appreciate the kind words… but, can I just ask, if you HAD to pick ONE thing that we could be doing better – and I’m sure there’s at least one because nobody’s perfect, right? – what would that
be?”

It’s a great way to get some honest feedback and stop living in that fictitious land of Lake Wobegon.

Karie Kaufmann, MBA
Certified Business Coach
ActionCOACH
619.321.9262
www.kariekaufmann.com

Karie Kaufmann has successfully coached over 250 business owners in the areas of sales & marketing strategy, team training, systems
development and profitable growth. For more information, visit www.kariekaufmann.com, or connect with her on Facebook or LinkedIn.

THE BLISS OF A REVERSE COMMUTE!

Posted on by petergwaction

traffic

by Bob Britz (robertbritz@actioncoach.com)

Remember the last time you drove down the freeway at rush hour – in the other direction against traffic? That feeling of, “I’m sure glad I’m not stuck in that mess every morning and night.” That’s how it feels every day to a successful business owner. And it’s not just the fact that they own the business, or that they may open at 9 rather than 10 am. It’s the ability to manage their calendar and time effectively that makes all the difference in the world.

All of us know a stressed business owner who is working from 5 am to 8 pm every day fighting themselves and the traffic each step of the way. It doesn’t happen that way by accident. Generally it starts by trying to save a few bucks and not hire that extra – engineer – bus boy – designer – assistant. They figure that they can pinch a few more dollars out of the business by waiting a little longer. In reality, their day begins to start earlier because they are doing the job that one position would fill, albeit usually more haphazardly in the end because time is tight. The reality is that most business owners by their role earn from $100 – $1,000 per hour they work for the business – whether in delivery or building the business. In reality, most owners I work with find that hiring a $14 – $45 / hour employee will do the job and give them back that effortless commute in the morning while increasing capacity for delivering service and more profit.

The opposite end of the spectrum of the over-worked is the business owner who says, “Every day the day is gone and I couldn’t tell you where it went.” Ok, first I check to be sure there’s a clock or a watch available because time does have a way of getting away from us unless it’s metered and planned. ActionCOACH uses several concepts to help owners manage their time use. The first is a targeted concept of identifying Important and Urgent items vs. Unimportant items. An example of urgent is a customer that walks in the door and requires immediate attention. Something that’s not urgent would be for an owner to retrieve the mail and then rifle through it in front of their $12 / hour reception person. It’s like selecting the right lane on the freeway. The lane leading up to the accident might be entertaining but oh so slow in terms of getting you anywhere. Choose tasks that need to be done and will make you the most money – long term.

Planning your day and your week in advance is the cure called a Default Calendar. It’s like Google Mapping your entire week, the stops, the starts, the distance between, all laid out and hopefully fairly fixed for the week ahead. I use red blocks for networking, blue blocks for group meetings, and green for personal, gold for my clients and black for the kids I mentor. Looking at any given week, I can see by color where my time is being spent. If I see too much Green personal time, I may need more of other activities to balance out the week. By blocking in re-occurring appointments, I am at less risk of double booking and my clients appreciate knowing through the quarter when we are working together. Default calendaring provides the sanity I need to keep up to 25 appointments a week straight as well as my personal life including my wife, two kids and my dog Brodie – who by the way, likes his walks in the late afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

True success in life is mastery of time. Time can be mastered in part by using a default calendar and offloading tasks to appropriately paid and engaged staff. If you are able to work hard, play hard and be with your significant others with two and four feet on a fluid and regular basis – you have arrived.  That 2011 Mercedes c500 may look good in the opposing lanes, but they’re still stuck with the 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass and the rest of the traffic as you buzz on to your next thing – unhindered.

Sweating the Small Stuff

Posted on by petergwaction

by Jeff Nott (jeffnott@actioncoach.com)

We all have heard the phrase “Don’t sweat the small stuff”, but it’s the small stuff that makes the difference in the success or failure of a business. Why bother with the small stuff? Many feel that it is only the big things that matter, but this is just not true. Let’s look at a few examples.

You go to get you car fixed because something is wrong and it is running very badly. The shop tells you that you need a new engine management computer. The total cost will be about $1200 including parts, labor and the diagnosis. You okay the repairs. The work is completed for just under the estimated cost and on time. You drive the car home and it runs even better than it has in some time. But when you get home you notice that the tech has left some grease on the seat which has now transferred to your beige wool slacks! How do you feel about the repairs at this point Most would be pretty upset. But why be upset – your car runs better than before? It was one of those small things that shouldn’t have happened that has now soured your experience.

An alternative ending might be the same all around experience, except not only was there no grease on the seat or anywhere else, but the shop vacuumed the car, washed the windows inside and out along with lubricating that squeaky door hinge for you. And someone from the shop called you a day or two later to see if all was okay and to thank you for the business. These extras are not big things, but they are by stature and probably would cause you to rave to others about your experience with the shop.

What are some small things can you think of that you can do for your clients? Surprisingly, you’ll probably come up with many things; some have called these “critical non-essentials”.  Here are few things to think about:

* Clean restrooms with fresh flowers on the counter or hanging plant or even a painting or two on the wall

* A clean and inviting waiting area with current magazines that appeal to your client (and not just you).

*  A clean, safe and well lit parking lot

* Seasonal greeting cards sent out to all and/birthday cards/or thank-you cards

* Seasonal decorations for the business

* Printing the invoices on heavy-duty, super bright, white paper

* Having everyone use the same cheery greeting when the client arrives or when answering the phone

Not sure what your customers want? Just ask them! They’ll tell you what you need to know.

When it comes to the small things, they really can be quite small, but can end up reaping big rewards. In this day and age of intense competition and price shoppers, one needs to find the little things to do that add to their customers’ experiences and that ultimately really help their business thrive.

Is the Writing on the Wall?

Posted on by petergwaction


IS IT TIME TO CLOSE YOUR BUSINESS? HERE ARE FOUR TELL-TALE SIGNS
(AND THEIR CURES)

by Bob Britz (robertbritz@actioncoach.com)

Most small business owners have struggled at some point in their business to make ends meet. They find themselves working 24/7 to keep the enterprise afloat, and while sometimes launching the business requires this kind of dedication, it isn’t the course that a healthy business should follow. You can take two paths when you resonate with the four points below: Either close up shop, or get an outside visionary like a business coach or consultant to help you get back on track.

1.Profitability: If you are not profitable by the fifth year, you need to look carefully at whether or not the endeavor makes sense. You need to be breaking even by now, and if you’re not, it is likely better to eat your losses and be grateful you are not throwing good money after bad.

Cure:

There are several different ways a business can increase revenue (and not scare away customers by just increasing your prices). At ActionCOACH, we focus on the following and tweak them until you start to see some real growth in profit: Lead Generation, Conversion Rate, Average Dollar Sale, Average Number of Transactions and Profit Margins. We call these the “Five Ways” and they really do work!

2. Time Management: When you started the business, you were probably eating, sleeping and breathing the business. Yet working like that without an end in sight is simply unsustainable. If you can’t take a sick day, for example, your business is fundamentally in trouble.

Cure:

An ActionCOACH coach can help you determine where your time is getting sucked away, and whether it makes sense to hire an employee to help you. As the business owner, you need to be working ON the business, not IN it, and ActionCOACH has proven strategies to help you get to that position.

3. Personal Satisfaction: Are you happy? Most people kind of know in their gut when it isn’t feeling right anymore. If you aren’t feeling fulfilled, it’s a critical sign that you are on the wrong path.

Cure:

Often times, this problem is attributable to the fact that you aren’t weighing your personal goals as carefully as your business goals. In fact, at ActionCOACH we believe your personal goals always come first. Why? Because that’s why you’re in business! Your business is supposed to support your dreams, not the other way around. This is one of the most important principles at ActionCOACH.

4. Strategy: Do you have a truly reasonable chance at making your business work, and do you have a plan to get there, or are you just giving it last-ditch effort? You need to take a good, hard look in the mirror and make the tough choice if you know in your heart it’s the latter.

Cure:

Goal planning is at the heart of this problem. ActionCOACH runs an all-day business planning workshop once per quarter called GrowthCLUB, where we put a plan into action to make your goals attainable.

It’s important to recognize the difference between commitment and loyalty, and inertia and stubbornness. The sooner you are clear on this, the better. Often we simply lack the tools and the outside perspective that can really help make it or break it. That’s what an ActionCOACH Business Coach is here to do. Please give us a call for a complimentary consultation:925-270-1790, or visit us at actioncoach.com/robertbritz.