Biz Coach Steve

Category: Entrepreneur

  • Pros and Cons of Outsourcing

    “To outsource, or not to outsource. That is the question.”  

    OK, I took some liberties with that famous line from Shakespeare.

    Businesses today have more ways to be efficient and outsourcing may or may not work for them. Have you been mulling over the idea to outsource one or more tasks within your business? The most popular outsourcing trend right now is outsourcing your human resources. What about outsourcing your marketing? Sales? Customer Service? Production? Delivery?

    What about outsourcing personal tasks? You can outsource things like picking up your dry cleaning with Task Rabbit, many people are already outsourcing picking up their food through GrubHub and other delivery services.  

    Outsourcing in the business world is growing and will continue to grow as many organizations become your outside departments. You really need to understand the effects of outsourcing and how that can affect your company culture and not just the bottom line.

    Some Advantages of Outsourcing:

    Knowing the benefits of outsourcing will help you decide if this is something that could work for your business. One of the biggest reason’s companies outsource is to free up resources for other areas.

    • You don’t have to hire more employees: When you outsource, you can pay your help as a contractor or vendor. This allows you to avoid bringing an employee into the company, which saves you money on everything from benefits to training.
    • Lower labor cost: Did you know that there are approximately 300,000 jobs outsourced in the US each year?  By having those specialists doing the work of the company lowers your labor costs from taxes, benefits, etc. By outsourcing your labor, the company you hire finds the right person for the job. They usually have access to a larger talent pool.
    • Outsource the mundane tasks: Paying a full-time data entry person may not make sense when you can have someone else do the same tasks for a fraction of the rate. Not to mention all the other savings that come with not having that person on the payroll or taking up a desk.
    • Tap into global scaling: Even outsourcing manufacturing can reduce costs but allows your connection with the contractor to tap into other potential customers and revenue streams. Possibly expand your product lines, increase distribution, eliminate warehousing, and not manufacturing in-house.
    • Reduce problems: Outsourcing allows the business to wash its hands from many problems, that are difficult to control in house, such as regulatory, unions, licenses, etc.

    Some Disadvantages of Outsourcing:

    Despite the many benefits of outsourcing, you don’t want to go down this path until you compare some of these potential drawbacks:

    • Lack of control: Although you can provide direction in regard to what you need to accomplish, you give up some control when you outsource. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that you are often hiring a contractor instead of an employee. And since the person is not working on-site, it can be difficult to maintain the level of control you desire.
    • Communication issues: This doesn’t always come into play, but it’s one of the biggest potential drawbacks. Here are several questions to ask:
      • What time zone does the person live in and how does this match up with your business hours?
      • What is your preferred method of communication? Phone, email, instant messaging?
      • Does the person have access to a reliable internet connection?
      • Since communication is essential to success in the business world.
      • A large number of U.S.-based employees report not being engaged at work.
      • Communication remains a major problem. Will this get worse if you outsource?
    • Problems with quality: Despite all the benefits of outsourcing, it is only a good thing if you’re receiving the quality you expect. Anything less than this will be a disappointment.

    This isn’t to say you can’t successfully outsource particular tasks, but you need to discuss the expected quality upfront. You are still responsible to your customers regarding the quality of your product and/or service. Make sure you do your due diligence in finding the best outsource company for your product or service.

    • Delivery: Many companies outsource their manufacturing operation, then have another outsourced company that stores and pick/pack/ships the finished goods. Their delivery problems are your delivery problems. Customers don’t want to hear excuses on why their delivery was not on time, or the wrong products were delivered.
    • Intellectual property/formulas/secret sauce:  You really need to make sure your IP, formulas, etc. are protected properly.  Some countries don’t care about your legal documents and will copy your product and distribute it through their sources without your knowledge.

    Impact of Outsourcing on Company Culture: 

    As a business owner, it’s easy to focus on the benefits of outsourcing, all without considering the impact it can have on your company as a whole. If you plan on outsourcing, you need to take steps to ensure that it doesn’t have a negative effect on company culture.

    A positive work culture leads a higher level of productivity, so you don’t want to do anything to jeopardize this. Some of the ways outsourcing can negatively affect company culture include:

    • Upset employees as they may feel they are being replaced
    • Confused employees who don’t understand why you are outsourcing particular tasks
    • Add challenges to the daily workflow of the company

    Outsourcing doesn’t always have a negative impact on company culture, but you need to protect against this before you ever take a step in this direction. This typically means discussing your decision with any employees who could be impacted.

    There are many pros and cons of outsourcing, all of which you should carefully consider before deciding for or against this strategy. With the ability to affect company culture, this isn’t something to take lightly. Do you have any experience with outsourcing? Did it benefit your company, or result in more harm than good?

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    Steve Feld, MBA, provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. Steve also speaks to organizations, conducts workshops and training.  Focusing on the lead generation and revenue creation to get growth results for the business. Contact Steve today to see how he can assist you grow your business, steve@coachstevefeld.com, or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing

  • Complacency Kills

    When a business’s culture stagnates and complacency sets in, performance declines, growth stalls and existing customers sense the lack of drive and erosion of value occurs. In many situations where a business has lost its drive and is backsliding, the cure it to reset to a performance-based culture. This is a move that can have a significant impact on the organizations long-term financial performance.

    But how to instill a performance-based culture as a means of improving a product or service and concentrating on three main components: Goals, Incentives, and Measures.

    Have you ever noticed the companies that are consistently growing are always changing? Having a strong culture to keep inventing is usually directly correlated to consistent growth. That culture starts with leadership but can diminish over the life of the business as other coefficients of culture become more powerful.  Undoubtedly, a company’s culture is impacted by many factors. Sometimes corporate culture is nurtured by involved and caring management where it flourishes and sustains, while other times the culture gets dinged and damaged over the years to the point of being unrepairable. Among the many no-so-positive factors that might harm the culture are: major restructuring, mergers and acquisitions and frequent changes in leadership at the corporate level.

    Mission Drift: Businesses naturally evolve and change. Executives, staff and customers come and go. Change and evolution are good and to be expected, but over time, businesses can experience “mission drift.” When a business starts it is focused on its mission, as the business grows the organizations workforce expands with the business’s growth. Roles change, key resources stretch to take on new responsibilities and try to transition their knowledge about their old role to someone else. Mis-interpretation creeps in, so does improvisation.

    The original organizational culture has changed, it gets diluted as fresh blood gets pumped into the environment. This is also when the culture transforms, sometimes positive with new ideas and innovation. The key is to stay in check and preserve the core mission of the business, but yet keep it moving forward.

    Relentless Charge:  Expansion creates fatigue and burnout within the organization and can also lead to an exhausted and ambivalent workforce that is detrimental to growth, innovation and operational excellence in the business. This does not mean that a business should not push ahead, or coast along and slack-off. It does mean that we must have a formula to fuel the business for the long-run. Think in terms of running a marathon and not a sprint. The formula must be mixed with the new culture and be attuned to the business’s strategies and goals.

    During boom times, business leaders must listen to the signals the business is sending to them. Organizations get tired and need rest cycles as well. Not like us humans need to rest, but the business cannot endlessly expend energy with replacing it along the way. Business cycles go in spurts of work and then rejuvenation. Constant full-speed accelerations without maintaining the organizational pistons will wear out the engine and momentum will slow. A balance is needed between the need to constantly move the organization forward and the need to recharge energy and celebrate successes along the way.

    Complacency: One of the biggest enemies a business culture faces is complacency. Complacency can come from having reached a level of comfort that accompanies some degree of achievement and feelings of success. Sometimes when an organization reaches a significant milestone the employees throughout the company sometimes gravitate towards a place where it is comfortable and safe. Why risk what we’ve works so hard for? Complacency develops out of our natural desire for the predictability of a routine over the uncertainty of change.

    The primary issue with complacency is that we cannot remain in a fixed position with the external environment is moving and changing. This guarantees that the organization will be passed by competing businesses that embrace change.  Businesses that do not systematically strive for improvement and growth will plateau, stagnate and then decline. Those businesses that continue to reach beyond the status quo and adapt to evolutionary changes in their environment will thrive.

    Strong leadership during growth periods is essential to curtail dilution and avoid organizational complacency. Non-proactive leadership during a growth period can slowly erode confidence throughout the organization and lead to complacency and disconnectedness.  It may seem counter-intuitive, but these outcomes are exposed when people begin to focus on the wrong things as a result of the business-essential tacit knowledge held by the original core team being stretched and worn thin. Some workers may begin to feel overworked, while others may feel underutilized.

    So, what do you do when your organization’s culture has been pummeled and is no longer reflective of the workplace that it once was?

    What’s your ideal target?  Clearly, a broken culture must be addressed by changing it, but that requires a vision of the target culture be in place before attempting any transformative actions as well as a realistic plan for change. Ultimately, the goal of the culture reset is to create a strong and positive culture that is well-aligned with the organization’s core values.

    A strong organizational culture is one that is extremely well aligned to a common set of core values, making policy and procedure changes easier to introduce. However, rigidity and group think are two rick factors that accompany strong organizational beliefs and corporate dogma. Having a strong culture is certainly preferable to a weak one but is not entirely the optimal situation.

    A healthier model is a performance-centric culture, striking a balance between the desirable attributes of a strong culture and the equally important ingredients of goals, incentives, measures, flexibility and acceptance. A performance-centric organization allows for and promotes diversity in thought and business innovation but does not tolerate complacent behavior. These organizations have developed a corporate structure that promotes accountability and rewards performance target achievements, while accepting and embracing challenges to the status quo. Bureaucracy and group think are viewed as the demons of innovation that must be kept in check in order to allow fragile new and game-changing business ideas to survive and one day be implemented. Research has shown that organizations with performance-centric cultures experience better financial growth.

    The Reward: A culture with a bias for action: Make no mistake, transforming a culture is not easy and requires an organization to seek change. Unfortunately, an organization in mission drift, exhausted from the relentless charge and/or suffering from complacency is not an ideal patient to respond quickly to any treatment. Conditions that developed over a long period of time will require a careful and paced culture change program as opposed to an attempt to introduce quick fixes that create more disruption and distraction.  Those organizations that succeed in change the rewards are enormous.

    Realizing the benefits: Performance-based cultures unify employees and naturally bridge the organizational gaps such as hierarchy or geography. In a performance-based culture, the organization feels and behaves much like a family. This commitment helps guide employees to do the right things right and strive to advance the business in the absence of explicit direction.

    Perhaps most importantly, employees in performance-based cultures demonstrate a marked bias for action remaining fundamentally dissatisfied with the status quo and thinking and acting more like owners of the business. They show accountability and take personal responsibility for overall business performance and not just their own domains. As such, the culture tolerates very little bureaucratic debate and expects team players who display high levels of passion and commitment to achieving organizational goals.

  • Start today to change EVERYTHING

    Think about where you were 5 years ago.

    Seems like only yesterday, right?

    Are you where you’d thought you’d be 5 years later, when you looked forward back then?

    Are you leading the life you envisioned?

    Do you have the income, lifestyle, freedom, health, relationships, poise and skills you thought you would have by now?

    Guess What? Now you get another chance to look forward to the next 5 years
    Over the next 5 years you can accomplish what people spend a lifetime trying to do. How do you visualize your life to be in 5 years? What job do you have in what industry? How much money are you making? What city do you live in? What kind of car are you driving? What kind of house/apartment/etc. do you live in? Who are you with in your relationship? How are you viewed in the community?

    Be as specific as possible. Take the time to visualize all areas of your life. I only mentioned some of them. Write them all down and look at it every month, wee, and even day. Start today moving to where you want to be in 5 years.

    A Goal vs. A Promise
    It makes a big difference if you turn your goals into promises. That’s because most of us have set goals and know of other people that have set goals and didn’t fulfill them. Our mind tends to see goals as something to strive for, something to aim at…but if we don’t “hit the target”, it’s fine because “we’re not the first or the last that have set goals and didn’t achieve them.”

    On the other hand, when we promise someone that we’re going to do something, our mind goes to work for us and we do everything that’s in our power to fulfill that promise because we don’t like to feel the pain, shame or embarrassment of letting somebody down. Our integrity is such that a promise means more to us than setting a goal.

    Therefore, instead of saying, “Honey, I know that we have not been spending enough quality time alone, lately… so, I’m going to try (or my goal is) to take you out on a romantic date twice a month”, tell her instead, “Honey, I promise that from now on, I’m going to take you out on a date twice a month.”

    The Power of Accountability Partners
    Commitment is doing the thing you said you were going to do, long after the mood you said it in has left you.

    The pressures of life will not come to an end just because you have decided to begin this program. It has been my experience that those who have the most success with the program are those who had 2 or more Accountability Partners (not within the same household) doing the program also.

    Some benefits of utilizing Accountability Partners include:
    • Assistance in organizing ideas, thoughts, and tasks into specific, measurable, attainable, and realistic goals
    • Assistance in prioritizing an effective and consistent plan
    • Ensuring accountability for task follow through
    • Mentoring through difficulties and indecisiveness
    • Sharing advice, personal knowledge and experience
    • Follow up on your success

    During your search for appropriate Accountability Partners, keep in mind that the right person should be someone who will challenge, engage and evoke a sense of accomplishment in you. Confidence, creativity and strength are all traits that will be useful to you. Also consider choosing an Accountability Partner who you trust to keep confidence as you may get into financial and personal discussions that are confidential in nature.

    Promise yourself and your Accountability Partners that you will become a better person and achieve your goals.

    Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life
    Unlocking your full potential for Wealth, Success, and Achievement

    Your THOUGHTS, your WORDS, and your ACTIONS, are building blocks to creating the life that you want!

    Doing the same things over and over expecting different results is insanity. The only way to get different results is to change what we do. The process of change begins in our minds. Our thoughts help shape and create our circumstances in life. “As A Man Thinketh, So Is He.” When we change our thinking, we change our lives.

    What does it mean to change? Change = to transform or convert.

    When we find ourselves stuck in a rut or not quite where we want to be in life, it is time for change. Old habits, old thoughts, and old ways of thinking must go. We literally have to cleanse our minds of negativity, scars, conditioning, and mental blocks.

    Living Your Dream is a continuous process of training and transforming our minds to achieve optimal living. There are many ways to begin the process of changing the way we think.

    What we feed our minds affect how and what we think. When we bombard the mind with negative images, fears, bad news, violence, pain, and suffering etc…our mind responds by conjuring up matching thoughts. When we feed our minds with positive images, good news, peace, happiness, and prosperity …our mind responds accordingly.

    Our mind will produce thoughts based on the information we provide it with. The thoughts that our mind produces set a wheel of events in motion. Thoughts are creative and whatever thoughts we find ourselves preoccupied with always manifest in our lives.

    What you do with your life is up to you. Life is what you make it. You have everything you need to create life, destroy life, improve life, and touch the lives of others. For every cause there is an effect. Every life represents a mission, a purpose, a cause. What will be the effect of your LIFE?

    I promise you, if you commit today to reach your goal with the help of accountability partners, change your thinking to positive thoughts you will be in a much better place in 5 years.
    How do you visualize your life in 5 years?

    All long journeys start with a one step.
    What one step are you going to take today?

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    Steve Feld, MBA, provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. Steve also speaks to organizations, conducts workshops and training. Focusing on the lead generation and revenue creation to get growth results for the business. Contact Steve today to see how he can assist you grow your business, steve@coachstevefeld.com, or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing

  • 5 WAYS TO BE MORE INFLUENTIAL

    “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”  Ferris Bueller

    The world is moving fast—so you should be, too. Here’s how to inspire movement and influence change.

    The world is moving fast, and the pace of change is only going to keep increasing. It’s challenging us to rethink what we do and how we do it—to rethink how we will operate as leaders into the future. It is challenging us to develop new operating systems for success and to learn to lead movements, to help our teams feel secure enough to think, to innovate, to be curious about new solutions. It’s challenging us to influence change.

    Here are five ways to be more influential:

    1. Build transformational connections.
    Just like your staff, the connections you create are the ones that will decide your success or failure. In our time-deficient world where dreams of change are big and visions of a future are ours to own, making connections has to be about the real and the genuine—about the interplay of a select group of people who are working closely together, strategically creating plans to succeed. This is not about quantity, but like-minded thinkers who understand what you want to achieve. It is here that transformational connections are possible: a select group of people providing quality thinking; creating new perspectives; pushing you further than you could ever go alone; supporting you and taking great pleasure in seeing you succeed. Surround yourself with people who you want to emulate.

    2. Lead out and embrace diversity.
    To lead out—to see the potential in new connections, in the collective intelligence—is part of the art of influence. It’s understanding that by working together, we create opportunity—by respecting the myriad of different abilities of others, by accepting the value in corporate and entrepreneurial viewpoints and by seeing the value in cross-sector relationships. Leading out is facing out—it is leading with rather than leading for; it is to lead toward not away from mutual opportunities for success. Old school thinking, “It’s my way or the highway,” is over.

    3. Beat your own drum.
    Every choice and action we take, every word we speak, has the ability to influence others and their decisions. What does “owning your choices” mean to you? Is it about making X decisions on Y day, or is it about accepting ownership of who you are? Do you own your skills, your flaws, your values and your dreams? Do you own your excuses and your vulnerabilities? Do you own your life, or does it own you? We are all unique individuals put on this earth to shine. Your views are unique to you, your thoughtful voice is your gift, and you matter—you are an integral part of driving change and influencing others.

    4. Kick complacency in the butt.
    You have to be your key competition, so make sure your first competitive audit is always with yourself. Better your end goal, push yourself to do more and to be better. Ask the hard questions: Are you on the path to success, or are you stuck because of critics, or maybe it’s you and your self-doubt? Throw fuel on your own fire and light up the sky.

    5. Speak up and collaborate openly.
    True influence requires one critical thing: for you to speak up. You can influence more if you collaborate openly and willingly, with complete, honest and full disclosure. You have the ability to influence one to one, many to many, more to more—your team, your colleagues, your leaders, your children, your friends, your family. If you don’t speak out, you are not leaning out, being brave, or showing willingness to have courageous conversations and contribute to the collaborative experience. You are not creating the space to gift your knowledge, thoughts, opinions or expertise to others. You are not enabling an opportunity for others to listen, learn and add value.

    One thing is for sure: The world is moving quickly. And if you continue to sit still, then you will inevitably come to an influential standstill. Stand in your spotlight, own your vision and lead out, because it is here that you have the chance to influence more through inspiring, shifting and creating movement around you.

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    Steve Feld, MBA, provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. Steve also speaks to organizations, conducts workshops and training.  Focusing on the lead generation and revenue creation to get growth results for the business. Contact Steve today to see how he can assist you grow your business, steve@coachstevefeld.com, or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing

    Parts of this article were from Janie Garner.

  • Did you expand your knowledge in 2018?

    What lessons did you learn last year?

    Were they positive lessons? Or negative lessons?

    Fast Company magazine wrote an article regarding their top 30 most productive people and I found some very interesting similarities within ALL of these interesting people.  Here they are (in no particular order):

    • They all get adequate sleep. Anywhere from 6 to 8 hours. If you have not been exposed to the mounds of research showing that sleep is very important for us, then here is a summary. You really need to get at least 6 to 9 hours of good REM sleep per day. Being sleep deprived and proud of it, is not a positive thing.
    • They all have set schedules made in advance. They know before they go to bed what they are doing the next day, then they review it in the morning to stay focused and productive.
    • They all have filters on their email and social media. Having a set routine on when the look and respond to emails as well as setting up filters to avoid the junk improves their productivity. Same with social media. They all stated they do look at social media, but narrowed down which sites they look, for what reason, and only in small doses.  They are not scanning Facebook looking for cool GIFs.
    • Most of them exercise. They do some form of exercise, whether it be yoga, working out, etc. Some of them even told us their food habits, which works well for them.
    • They all read – BOOKS. Yes, real paper books.  Studies have shown we retain and process words better on paper than on a tablet, computer, phone, or any other electronical devise.  So, set some time out of the day and read.

    Speaking of books. I do mix of real paper books along with audio books within my schedule. Do yourself a HUGE favor and stop listening to the talking heads on the radio while you drive and educate yourself with an audio book. As Brian Tracy says, turn your car into a rolling university by listening to books while you drive. In 2018, I have read/listened to 63 books.  Many times, I will be reading one book and listening to another in my car.

    Here are my top 10 books that I read/listened to in 2018 (no particular order):

    • Essentialism – Greg McKeown. This is a great explanation on how to simplify everything.
    • Outliners – Malcolm Gladwell. Many of us wonder why one person “gets the breaks” while other done.  There is more to this as Malcolm explains.
    • Born to Win – Zig Zigler. Haven’t read this one in a while and really give you the jump start you may need to push ahead and WIN!
    • Find your why – Simon Sinek. Great follow up that now provides a step by step method to Know your Why.
    • Crush It & Crushing It – Gary Vaynerchuk.  Just get off your butt and do it. Find a medium for your message and just get your message out there. These books are for doers and action takers only.
    • Walmart Effect – Charles Fishman. Want to know why Walmart became a juggernaut?  This book shows the pros and cons of dealing with Walmart.  The gallon of pickle story will really make you think about your operation.
    • Measure what matters – John Dorr. Great lesson for business owners to keep focus on the true metrics in their business and ignore the rest.
    • 100 tricks to appear smart – Sara Cooper. Very funny play on how to appear smart.  Hear a lot of these tricks from people.
    • Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill. This is always on my annual reading list and it should be on yours as well.  Reading this book every year, will really keep you on your path for success.  Get into a mastermind group to really get the most out of this book and improve your life.

    No matter what, we all have learned something this past year. If you haven’t learned one or more new things, then make it a plan to learn something new in 2019 and put it into practice to grow your business, or improve your life, maybe to move up in the company you work for, get a new job, mentor someone, share your time by volunteering for an organization that you have no affiliation with.  Just learn something new.

    By continually learning you are growing as a person.  Right now, decide what action you are going to take to learn something new in 2019. Read more real books. Take an educational class. Learn a new computer program. Learn martial arts. Just learn.

    I wish you much learning success in 2019.

    Let me know what were your favorite books that you read/listened to in 2018 and why.

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    Steve Feld, MBA, provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. Steve also speaks to organizations, conducts workshops and training.  Focusing on the lead generation and revenue creation to get growth results for the business. Contact Steve today to see how he can assist you grow your business, steve@coachstevefeld.com, or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business

  • When should I review my business plan?

    Many of you put a lot of time and effort into creating a business plan for your new business and now it sits on a shelf or in a drawer collecting dust.  Maybe you had an executive business plan that you used to entice potential investors, or a managerial business plan to pitch your business to investors, or the full operational business plan that is your true business blueprint and map to show you the way to achieve your business goals.

    No matter which type of business plan you created, you should ALWAYS review it on an annual basis at a minimum. Publication such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc and many more recommend that you conduct a thorough update on your business plan at least once annually.

    Many businesses review their annual business plan every month to make sure they are staying on the path they laid out for the business and to make the necessary adjustments along the way.

    Apple has their business plans out to the mid-2020, but they update their plans every 90 days.  This way they can be adaptable to the market trends, technology, consumer behavior, regulations, and much more.

    Updating your business plan regularly can help you to ensure that you and your partners or co-owners are on the same page if there are multiple owners of your company.

    When major changes occur at your company or in your industry, this is also a good time to update your business plan. Your plan needs to reflect the current situation and it needs to be relevant within the current business landscape that you are operating in. If something major has changed, it is essential that you make an update to your business plan to accommodate that shift.

    Keeping your business plan updated is vital because no company can succeed unless it stays current with the times and unless it evolves. The goals that you have for your organization will be different when you first get started than the goals you have once your organization is already underway. You want your plan to reflect the latest goals that you hope your company will accomplish so you have clear and measurable objectives to work towards.

    Keeping your plans updated also allows you to adjust to any changes in the law or market conditions that could affect profitability; helps you to identify new competitors and new potential sources of business; and allows you to see how your company is progressing with enhancing profitability over time.

    Business plans are living documents and need to be revisited every so often to ensure they are still relevant. In this way you can continue to use and benefit from the strategies and tactics.

    You probably prepared the original business plan yourself, since you were likely the only employee. If you have now grown and added staff, try to involve them so there is buy-in. That way, when it is time to implement the plan, your staff will be on-board, and the activities will go smoother.

    To recap on why you should review and update your business plan at least one time every year:

    • External and events can trigger the need to update your business plan (consumer trends, competition, regulations, suppliers, market, etc.).
    • Internal events have changed (employee growth, new products, systems/processes, etc.). You are not the same company that you were a year ago.
    • Updating your business plan is more focused and fun than the writing the original one.
    • Involve staff in the updating process-watch how this helps your business.
    • It is never too late to create a business plan-start now if you haven’t already.

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    Steve Feld provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. Steve also speaks to organizations, conducts workshops and training.  Focusing on the foundations of business to get positive growth results for the business. Contact Steve today to see how he can assist you grow your business, steve@coachstevefeld.com, or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. #bizcoachstevef

  • The 10 Essentials of Operational Planning-Part 2

    Is your organization’s strategy delivering on its promises?

    For most organizations, the answer is “no”. Too many plans end up full of content that is cerebral and fluff, ultimately adding little or no value to the organization. That is why companies are failing in strategy execution.

    Operational planning may not be the sexiest part of corporate strategic planning, but it is very important. Most organizations do not even have strategy. Given its importance, understanding how to do operational planning and making sure it gets done is well worth the time and effort.

    It’s not that operational planning is that complex to carry out, but there is some art to doing it well and it does require finesse. In short, operational planning requires a different skill set and discipline than its counterpart – strategic planning. The biggest difference is that we must adjust our thinking to the day-to-day business operations and consider all the constraints, inhibitors and accelerators that must be evaluated and factored into tactical planning. The discipline required is a mix of strategic planning with good old-fashioned program and project management.

    Businesses are not getting the full value they should from their strategic planning efforts. Most have only, themselves to blame and they know it. Clearly, strategic plans without follow-through will collect dust and never be executed as intended.

    This is the second part of this series and these last 4 essential operational planning steps will dramatically improve strategy execution in any organization.

    1. Define Metrics and Measurements

    Metrics and measurements can apply to two groups:

    • Measurements and metrics related to strategic goal effectiveness (plan performance)
    • Measurements and metrics related to managing execution of the strategic plan (execution performance)

    Measuring Plan Performance:

    As with the development of strategy, the relationship of strategic goals to metrics and measures can be tricky. For instance, a strategy might have a strategic goal related to “increasing productivity by X% over X quarters” and another related to “increasing profitability by X% over X quarters”. Setting the wrong metrics might help accomplish one goal, but simultaneously compromise the other. How? Assume the following:

    • Volume metrics for production are encouraging managers to seek higher labor productivity
    • The contribution of labor to profitability is 10%
    • The contribution of materials to profitability is 60%

    In this case, a 10% increase in labor productivity will create a decrease in material management efficiency – as inventory levels must increase to address the volume change. That could easily translate to a materials efficiency decrease of 2% or more to support the 10% labor efficiency increase. Give the profit contribution assumptions above, the net result is as follows:

    • a 10% labor productivity improvement times 10% profit contribution equals a 1% profitability increase
    • a 2% materials productivity decrease times 60% profit contribution equals a 1.2% profitability decrease

    As you can see, net profitability actually decreases when high volume production is encouraged by metrics misalignment – compromising the strategic goal of “increasing profitability by X% over X quarters”.

    Care must be taken to set metrics that actually drive the desired behaviors, and do not risk undermine the intent of the strategy.

    Measuring Execution Performance:

    Operational planning is all about reality, accountability and execution, so estimating work effort and time-to-complete correctly is important to get right up front. To estimate effort as accurately as possible, past metrics are essential to help answer questions such as:

    • How well can resource horsepower be utilized?
    • How much resource horsepower is at our disposal?
    • What is the expected productivity of their horsepower?

    With realistic time frames and accountabilities in place, measuring execution performance is much simpler and managing the strategic portfolio can be accomplished effectively at each organizational level.

    1. Plan Change Management

    Implementing corporate strategy is dependent upon the energy, dedication, hard work and faith of the organization’s employees. Motivating employees to act decisively in the face of uncertainty is a challenge where many an organization have failed miserably. Employees are often starved of adequate information related to strategy. Quite often, employees one or two levels down from the CEO have little knowledge about the strategy or what they can do to help with its successful execution.

    In order to convince employees that change is necessary, the organization’s leadership must communicate about the strategy and develop a sense of urgency around the need for a shift. The urgency becomes the catalyst for change that is needed for employees to rally behind.  It becomes the “cause”.

    The sense of urgency must be real. Change management is never to be about deception.  Effective change requires an open and honest dialogue between leadership, management and employees so that each person in the organization understands the change imperative – whether it is changes in competitive marketplace conditions or an economic downturn. You must let your staff feel that they are part of the process in helping the change come to fruition.

    The change program must be treated as any other large initiative. It must be managed and measured to know if goals are being reached or might be in danger of being missed. Governance of such a program through a PMO or planning office is the most effective way to administer the long-term transformation.

    1. Governance

    Plan governance is the essential “follow-through ingredient” to set the wheels in motion for strategy execution. Organizational performance indicators and metrics help provide the ability to control and manage, as they signal the need for evaluation and analysis early when corrections to implementation tactics can be made more easily with fewer cost implications.

    Plan governance, whether implemented as a formal Plan Management Office or administered through a less formalized committee structure, should be responsible for the functions of selecting, managing and measuring of everything entering or within the plan portfolio.  The plan portfolio is the overall macroscopic view of all programs (related groupings of initiatives) and projects within initiatives that are involved with strategy implementation.

    With proper management controls in place, this approach allows those closest to the action to respond quickly and appropriately when it is needed – always operating within predefined spheres of control and in concert with the strategic goals. The goals are well known and understood by empowered employees, as their direct managers will have effectively communicated these goals to them, accompanied by the expectations for how they can directly contribute – allowing them to embrace the vision and fully participate in the tactical execution.

    1. Sustain / Rejuvenate

    As a function of the ongoing management of the plan portfolio, plan governance also involves refreshing the strategic and supporting operational plans to reflect changes because of completing plan goals and taking on new ones.  A plan governance structure allows for strategic and operational planning to become much more actively managed and based on a shorter time horizon.  Shorter time horizons for plans lead to more focus on execution and results in better outcomes.  As we’ve discussed in previous articles, a rolling 12-month plan that is refreshed quarterly is best suited for achieving optimal results in execution.

    Summary

    Even companies that do a reasonable job at defining strategy and performing high-level strategic planning tend to struggle with operational planning. The overall strategic plan must be thought of as a portfolio to be managed. The strategic plan portfolio represents the overall macroscopic view of all programs and initiatives involved with strategy implementation.

    During the operational planning stage of strategic planning, initiatives get defined that support the strategy’s outcomes. Those initiatives can then be broken down into bite-size projects so that they can be estimated, understood, and eventually – managed. To manage the overall strategic plan, however, we must have some different views of the work to be completed in order to successfully manage it. Grouping projects into programs provides a big-picture way of tracking, managing, and reporting on the tens, hundreds, or in the most extreme cases – thousands of projects that can arise from a corporate strategic plan.  Projects can be grouped into programs in terms of how they support the overarching strategy and goals or along budgetary lines. The overall group of programs is the portfolio. Plan governance then becomes the vehicle to manage the plan portfolio and ensure the of operational initiatives with plan goals and track progress of plan-supporting strategic initiatives through effective oversight at the corporate and operational levels.

    #

    Steve Feld, MBA is a certified business coach that provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. He has owned and operated 6 businesses and operated 3 large corporations with Fortune 500 Companies.

  • Sharpen your Sales Techniques

    Sales is the lifeblood that drives business.  There are no jobs unless someone brings the business through the door.   Career success often depends on your ability to sell a product, a service or an idea.  Even if you are the accountant for the business- you’re in sales. If you engage with vendors or customers – then you are in sales. Everyone in the company must realize they are in sales whether their titles state that or not. No matter what field you’re in, you’ll sell better by remembering these key pieces of sales wisdom:

     

    Satisfy the customer:  There’s a meat counter in the supermarket in my neighborhood.  There are always three or four clerks waiting on customers.  But one of the clerks always has customers waiting for him even if one of the other clerks isn’t busy.

    One day I asked him the reason for his popularity.  He said: “The other clerks always put more meat on the scale and then take some away to arrive at what the customer ordered.  I always put less on the scale and then add to it.  It makes all the difference.”

     

    A sales person tells, a good sales person explains, and a great sales person demonstrates: A company was selling unbreakable mirror glass and had a sales contest.  At the awards banquet they asked the #1 sales rep what his secret was.  He explained that he had the factory cut him several four-by-four squares of the mirror glass.  When he went out on calls he would put one of the squares on the customer’s desk and then take out a hammer and try to smash it.  It wouldn’t break – and the impressed customer was sold.

     

    Sell what’s on the truck:  Years ago, in New York City an Italian fruit vendor was teaching his son the basics of salesmanship.

    “Don’t tell people we are out of peaches,” the father said patiently, “ask them to buy some of our very fresh plums.  Sell what’s on the truck.”

    Many of today’s salespeople could take the same advice.  Don’t spend a lot of time complaining about the current state of the product line or describing products you can’t deliver right away.  Sell what’s on the truck – and your customers will be well served with the quality products you can deliver to them right now.

     

    Get in front of prospects:  Every sale starts with a prospect – a potential customer with an interest in what you’ve got to sell.  Identify those who need what you’re offering.  Find out where they are so you can target your sales efforts effectively.

     

    Profile your buyers:  Your product should fill a defined need.  Analyze the kind of people who might benefit from what you’ve got to offer so you can tailor your pitch to them.  Do they already use something similar?  Do they need to be educated about what you can do for them?

     

    Get into the customer’s mind:  You have to tailor your approach to match individual buyers.  Once you’ve targeted specific prospects, spend some time getting to know their personal priorities and professional preferences, and what they’re looking for when they consider products like yours.  You’ll do a better job of selling to them if you focus on satisfying their requirements instead of yours.

     

    Know when and how to ask for the sale:  Author Murray Raphel offers these words of wisdom: “A ‘closing’ . . . defeats your primary goal in selling: the lifetime value of the customer.  You don’t ‘close’ the sale.  You ‘open’ relationships.  Isn’t the end of the first sale really the beginning of the next sale to the same customer?”

     

    Ask for the order:  I can’t believe how many sales people do everything right, but then they fail to ask for the order.  Often that’s the most important part of the process.

    The famous automobile pioneer Henry Ford was once asked by an insurance agent whom he had known for many years why he never got any of Ford’s business.

    “You never asked me,” Ford replied.

     

    What sales techniques are you going to sharpen today to move your business forward?

     

    #bizcoachstevef

  • Home Office VS Co-Working Space

    One of the many dilemmas of start-up business owners is whether they should work out of their home office or work out of co-working space. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, and you need to spend a few moments to determine which option is the best for you and your business.
    Here are the advantages and disadvantages of a home office

    Advantages:
    – No Rent.
    – Tax deductions-talk to your CPA about writing off a portion of your utilities and rent for business expenses.
    – Work in your pajamas.
    – No commute-save lots of windshield time.
    – Eat at home.
    – No other employees to interrupt you.
    – No social interaction with others.
    – Set up meeting near your house.

    Disadvantages:
    – May need to get liability insurance for the home office if you have clients visit you.
    – May get audited because you have a home office that you are deducting expenses for.
    – Working in your pajamas. You will not get into the business mindset you need to be in being in your pajamas-unless you are Hugh Heffner. Get dressed and be prepared to do business.
    – Not sticking to a strict work schedule. This is easy to do. Make sure you adhere to a strict daily schedule just like if you had to go into an office.
    – Eating throughout the day. Easy access to the refrigerator can pack on the pounds.
    – You will find something to clean around the house, something else to do besides work being at home.
    – No social interaction with others. You will lose this skill unless you make an effort to attend events, networking, meet clients at their office.
    – You have to do business in an open environment. If you are speaking with someone on a confidential item, this may be an issue.

    Here are the advantages and disadvantages of working out of a co-working office.

    Advantages:
    – Established address for your business.
    – Shared meeting rooms.
    – Social interaction with other business owners.
    – Getting out of the house.
    – Dressing for success.
    – Networking/collaborative opportunities. Meeting others that you may find some great synergy with.
    – A place where your clients can meet you.
    – A receptionist. Make sure to establish a great relationship with them to have them help you on many levels.
    – Kitchen. Most co-working spaces have a kitchen that includes drinks and many other amenities.
    – Happy hours/mixers. Many co-working spaces will host happy hours and mixers, so you can get to know others in the office and invite guests.
    – Private office. Meet clients or talk on the phone without anyone listening to your conversation.

    Disadvantages:
    – Rent. Can your business sustain this expense?
    – Some places charge for this service or place some restrictions on how many times you can use meeting or training rooms.
    – Distractions. Those other businesses are just like you and not on your schedule. They may pop in your office just to talk, which can derail you.
    – Commute time.
    – Can’t work in your PJ’s.
    – Too many networking events could take up your time along with other trying to sell you their products or services.
    – Additional expenses, such as furniture, computer, office supplies.
    – That person also represents all the other businesses in the office.
    – You may not like what they stock in the kitchen. Just bring your own items or talk to the manager and I’m sure they will work with you on your preference.
    – This may be a distraction to you if you are working on a project and the noise and activity derail you from your work.
    – No disadvantages on this one.

    No matter what you choose, working from your home office or in a co-working space, you need to know yourself. You must have a set schedule of proactive, income generating activities to do every day. This takes lots of self-discipline, which is one of major attributes of successful entrepreneurs.
    Control the distractions by placing controls in your business up front. I.E. Working from home or office – I will have a break at 9:30-9:45, lunch at noon-12:30, break at 3:15-3:30, etc.
    Treat each location as if you were an employee of someone else. When do you have to start work? When can you leave the office? What events should you attend that will enhance your business? Get the idea.
    Good luck on your decision. Remember you can always start at home and have a deadline or goals for when you get an office.

  • 5 Business Surveys You Can Use Today

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]What’s the purpose of your business?

    What do your customers really want?

    Are your employees satisfied?

    The sole reason your business exists is to fulfill needs.

    Your product or service fulfills your customers’ needs. Their purchases fulfill your business’ needs (and in turn, yours). Your business fulfills your employees’ needs, and so on.

    Fortunately, systems can be put in place to support this end result. One important system is to gather data to better understand how to serve your prospects, customers and employees – rather than just assume you’re already doing it. This is good marketing: understanding how your customers think and make decisions.

    A common, and often overlooked, way to gather this data is by conducting surveys.

    One client told me his demographic was males between 35 and 45 years old. After just sitting in his retail store for 3 hours, I didn’t see one person that matched his demographics. I saw women between the ages of 30 to 50 years old. When I asked him about this he was shocked! We then pulled his client sales records and he had 1 male client in the last 300 sales. Once we confirm this, he changed the focus of his business and his revenue went through the roof.

    Today there are so many options for a business of any size to conduct numerous surveys. If you are going to do a survey, remember every survey has a different purpose and goal. You need to know what you want to know from conducting a survey.

    Here are just a few common surveys:

    1. Net Promoter Score (Customer Satisfaction)
    While there is a large range of customer satisfaction surveys to choose from, one of the best researched and proven formats is Net Promoter Score (NPS), a methodology created by Bain Consultant Fred Reichheld. In his book, The Ultimate Question, he details how one simple question — How likely is it that you would recommend [company] to a friend or colleague? — has been shown to be the single best measure of whether or not a customer will become a repeat customer and refer business in the future. This survey has become a norm in almost industry today.

    2. Gallup Q12 (Employee Satisfaction)
    There are as many formats for employee satisfaction surveys as there are for customer satisfaction survey. The Gallup Q12 (brief 12-question survey) is easy to deliver and comes based on massive amounts of research into what factors lead to engaged employees. Gallup went through thousands of employee surveys to find the twelve that most strongly correlated with employee engagement, which in turn leads to increased employee retention, profitability and revenue growth.

    3. One Question Survey (Headline Testing)
    A little bit of effort researching headlines can pay big dividends in creating messaging that persuades your prospects to take action. My favorite format comes from Joe McVoy of Profitable Marketing Enterprises, who advocates a very simple format. Brainstorm your ten favorite headlines with your team; strive to make them as different as possible since meek headlines rarely win. Next, send an email to at least one hundred of your target prospects titled “One-question survey” (or buy advertising on a website your prospects use) and offer a chance to win a small incentive such as a $50 gift card for completing your survey. Once they click on your survey, ask them to rank the ten headlines from most to least compelling. Make sure to have your survey tool randomize the order of the headlines so that the results are not biased.

    4. Educational Customer Research
    One of the best ways to engage your market can be to create original research they can use to improve their businesses. This original research provides valuable content to staffing companies that want to learn more about current best practices in their industry to improve their service and financial performance. Naturally, companies that engage with the original research you create are often interested in learning more about how you can help them with paid services.

    5. Online Quizzes
    Last but not least, online quizzes can be a good way to engage your prospects. These are typically more casual in nature, but they can spark a positive conversation and engagement. Quizzes can be featured in one newsletter and then the results can be shared in a blog post, social media and the next newsletter to keep visitors coming back.

    If you are going to you a survey, know what information you are looking to get. Don’t just put out surveys because they are fun to do. Have a purpose of the survey. Develop a plan of action on what to do with that information to enhance your business.

    #bizcoachstevef[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]