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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.

3 Tough Business Decisions And Their Solutions

Posted on by petergwaction

by Peter Williamson

If you’re considering asking someone for help in your business and have done research on the Internet, you’ve probably discovered the difference between a consultant and a business coach. There are some questions you’ll want to ask before hiring a coach.

The reason I’m writing this article is to fully disclose the 3 most common reasons business owners are skeptical about hiring a business coach, but I have no intention of leaving you hanging. I’ll also share the questions you’ll want to be sure to ask a business coach. We’ll review the reasons some business owners are skeptical, and we’ll offer some ways that you can avoid the pitfalls they fell prey to.

Because we have coached thousands of business owners just like yourself, because we’ve been voted #1 Business Coaching Firm six years in a row by Entrepreneur magazine, and because our clients are winning awards and raving about unparalleled revenue increases, we feel we are a pretty good resource and business coaching firm.

Now YOU get rewarded, because I can now share some of these secrets with you.

#1 Reason for skepticism: My business is struggling, so how can I benefit by spending even more money to hire a coach.

#2 My business’s downfall is just the economy. When things turn around, my business will, too.

#3 Are you serious? I work 24/7 just to keep my business afloat, and now you want me to schedule time I don’t have to work with a coach?

All these points are valid. The four areas most business owners define when targeting areas they need help in are: money, management, marketing, and time.

Now, I know it sounds all sales copy-ish to bring up ActionCOACH business coaches, but there’s a reason I have to with regards to skepticism #1. You see, ActionCOACH offers a guarantee, making your decision to work with us risk free. Wait! Go back. Read that again: Risk Free. So, number one worry is already off your list.

Number two. Wishing does not mean something is going to happen. We can wish and wish and wish that we’ll double our revenue, land a great team, or have the time we’ve pined for to do all those things we gave up for our business. And while an improved economy would definitely help you and your business, it’s not a given. One has to make it through the tough times to see the kind of growth and increased profit you are aiming for. Again, your ActionCOACH business coach helps you put the strategies in place that will allow your business to flourish, even in tough times.

Ah, yes. Skepticism #3. Time. It’s an elusive little bugger, isn’t it? I used to say that time is relative (or was that Einstein?). Anyway, it’s especially relative around the holidays. Okay, that was a joke, but my point is that time is a commodity that we can never get back. We can’t bank on it. We can’t harness it. But with an ActionCOACH business coach, you can stop needlessly eating away at it. Because, it IS disappearing. The secret is learning how to turn your time into an INVESTMENT. An investment in YOU, your business, your dreams.

Now, are you ready for the secret? Your ActionCOACH business coach can’t grow money. S/he can’t snap a finger and have the economy healthy and balanced. S/he can’t flick a switch and have time suddenly expand. But, with a trusted ActionCOACH business coach at your side, you can learn and implement process and strategies that will:

  1. More than pay for your coach’s services and boost your business to heights you didn’t even know were possible.
  2. Turn your focus to the success of your company rather than any decline in the economy, and show you ways to profit when times are tough.
  3. Help you manage your time so well that you’ll FEEL like it is being given to you. You’ve certainly felt long enough like it’s being taken away. And there’s no greater feeling than having your business run successfully without having to be there 24/7, trusting that things are running as they should.

Now, isn’t that worth its weight in gold? Still a little skeptical? Try this. Call the coach in your region and ask for a one-hour complementary coaching session. Tell you what. Call now and get an extra hour of coaching. That’s two FREE hours of coaching. But do it now, because this is a limited time offer. It’s only good through April, 2012.

Here are the names, regions and numbers of our California coaches.

So, ready to turbo to success? Trust me. It feels good.

Our goal is to get you there – fast.

No games. No gimmicks.

Just results.

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.

Lessons from the world of Business Coaching: Goals (Ep 01)

Posted on by petergwaction

This video briefly talks about the importance of setting goals and how to accomplish them.
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