Biz Coach Steve

Tag: Business

  • 8 Signs an Employee Is Exceptional

    We can all spot a great employee: she’s dependable, proactive, hardworking, a great leader, and a great follower. She brings a wide variety of easily defined attributes, but they also have some hard to find soft skills to the table.

    Some employees, though, are exceptional. They have skills and qualities that aren’t evaluated on performance appraisals but make a huge impact on that individual’s performance, the performance of the people around her, and especially on the company’s results.

    Here are eight signs an employee is truly exceptional:

    1. They think beyond job descriptions: The smaller the company, the more important it is that employees can think on their feet, adapt quickly to shifting priorities, and do whatever it takes, regardless of role or position, to get things done.

    When a key customer’s project is in jeopardy, exceptional employees know without being told there’s a problem, and they jump in without being asked, even if–especially if–it’s not their job.

    2. They’re quirky: The best employees are often a little different: a little eccentric, sometimes irreverent, even delighted to be unusual. They seem slightly odd, but in a really good way. Unusual personalities shake things up, make work more fun, and transform a plain-vanilla group into a team with flair and flavor.

    People who aren’t afraid to be different naturally stretch boundaries and challenge the status quo, and they often come up with the best ideas.

    3. They know when to rein in their individuality: An unusual personality is a lot of fun–right up until the moment it isn’t. When a major challenge pops up or a situation gets stressful, the best employees stop expressing their individuality and fit seamlessly into the team.

    Exceptional employees know when to play and when to be serious; when to be irreverent and when to conform; and when to challenge and when to back off.

    It’s a tough balance to strike, and a rare few can walk that fine line with ease.

    4. They praise other people in public: Praise from a boss feels good. Praise from a peer feels awesome, especially when you look up to that person.

    Exceptional employees recognize the contributions of others, especially in group settings where the impact of their words is even greater.

    5. They disagree in private: We all want employees to bring issues forward, but some problems are better handled in private. Great employees often get more latitude to bring up controversial subjects in a group setting because their performance allows greater freedom.

    Exceptional employees come to you before or after a meeting to discuss a sensitive issue, knowing that bringing it up in a group setting could set off a firestorm.

    6. They ask questions when others won’t: Some employees are hesitant to speak up in meetings. Some are even hesitant to speak up privately.

    An employee once asked me a question about potential layoffs. After the meeting I said to him, “Why did you ask about that? You already know what’s going on.” He said, “I do, but a lot of other people don’t, and they’re afraid to ask. I thought it would help if they heard the answer from you.”

    Exceptional employees have an innate feel for the issues and concerns of those around them and step up to ask questions or raise important issues when others hesitate.

    7. They are self-motivated: Self-motivation often springs from a desire to show that doubters are wrong. The woman without a college degree or the man who was told he didn’t have leadership potential often possesses a burning desire to prove other people wrong.

    Education, intelligence, talent, and skill are important, but drive is critical. Exceptional employees are driven by something deeper and more personal than just the desire to do a good job.

    8. They’re constantly exploring: Some people are rarely satisfied (I mean that in a good way) and are constantly tinkering with something: reworking a timeline, adjusting a process, tweaking a workflow.

    Good employees follow processes. Great employees tweak processes. Exceptional employees find ways to reinvent processes, not just because they are expected to…but because they just can’t help themselves.

    How can you recognize these employees? Encourage them? Provide them with the resources and developmental skills they want?  Let that employee know they are doing a great job and support them. They are the ones to ask about your business and will help you grow your business.

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    Steve Feld, MBA, Certified Business Coach, Author, 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 Biz Coach Steve today to see how he can assist you get the results you want in your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today.

    #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking #keynotespeaker #meetingprofs #eventprofs #meetingstoday

  • Sticking to your values – in a time of crisis

    What are your values in your business? Are your values Integrity, Honesty, Trust, Ownership along with many more? Those values may have changed due to COVID-19. Are you still true to your personal and business values, or have they changed with the unexpected circumstances that are taking place?

    Many businesses have stuck to their value, while other have thrown out their core values and substituted them for greed and shortcut solutions that will harm them in the end. With the first value that is being violated – Integrity.

    Here is what I am talking about. Once the shutdown order was given in his state, Bob (name changed to protect him) a retail business owner just told his staff to go home and wait it out, instructed them not to file for unemployment. Bob stopped paying the companies group medical insurance, in fact he just stopped paying all his bills. He didn’t communicate anything to his customers, vendors or staff. Just closed the doors and went home to wait it all out. Bob’s store was successful and had a good referral business. Didn’t have any real social media presence and believed word of mouth was enough to keep his business moving forward.

    His staff, now unemployed-but not officially. Because, Bob did not fire them, lay them off, or furlough them. Just told them to go home. Bob does not answer their calls or responds to his staff’s emails and texts. The staff has filed for unemployment-late in the game and Bob is denying all the claims.

    Bob clearly has not stuck to his values and taken no responsibility for his actions. Bob told me this story and then when I attempted to coach him back to his values, he shut me off, just like his staff, customers and vendors. Bob will probably not have a business once everything re-opens. He has thrown in the towel along with his values.

    Another retail store business owner (let’s call her Cindy), stuck to her personal and business values. She pivoted her business from brick and mortar to on-line; she intentionally told her staff that she is going to fire them so they can file for unemployment and they will be rehired as soon as they are allowed to open. She immediately reached out to all her vendors to see what she can negotiate to defer payments. Cindy did emails, texts, videos to her customers telling them what is going on with the business and they are operating on-line and to see how she can help the community.

    Cindy was able to keep 60% of her staff working full time. She started doing simple informational videos about the products and services she offers, which has increased her sales. She and all her staff (even the ones she “fired”) made masks to donate to local homeless shelters and retirement homes. They stayed active and she and her business stuck to their values. Cindy will come out of this is a great place and have new raving fans, vendors and staff.

    These are just two examples of businesses and how their values have changed. In speaking to a minority of business owners, they have thrown out their values to buy toilet paper and sanitizer only to mark it up 400% to sell it online and then they claim it’s to save their business. But they are putting that money in their own pocket. Other businesses are donating food, clothing, protective gear, time to help others that may have lost their jobs for good, have no food, cannot make their rent/mortgage payments.

    I would like to say Bob and Cindy are fictional, but they are just two business I have spoken with since the craziness began. Many other business owners are not sticking with their values and will learn an extremely hard lesson when this is all over with. The business owners that have stuck and even improved their values will survive through these times and come out posed for growth.

    So, are you sticking to your personal and business values?  Are you operating with integrity, honesty, trust, accountability, commitment to customers, humility, ownership, leadership, quality, teamwork, and many others?  Or have you thrown out your values in these unprecedented times? Harming others or taking shortcuts?

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    Steve Feld, MBA, Certified Business Coach, Author, 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 Biz Coach Steve today to see how he can assist you get the results you want in your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today.

  • What are YOUR hiring standards?

    Standards. We may not think about them much. But we all have them. Individuals. Families. Companies.

    From time to time, we are forced to measure our conduct against our standards. We may find when we do that, we are not living up to what we profess to believe. I am talking about what happens when a business cuts corners, makes compromises, takes “the path of least resistance,” contrary to an established policy.

  • 7 Steps to the Perfect Social Media Plan

    Do you dream about the perfect social media plan? The perfect social media template? Many business leaders wanting to get social dream about it.  They think they need it. The social media magic template. The one that includes the perfect strategy, tactics and themselves as the social hero of their company and social superstar of their market niche!

    You know the social media template I am talking about.  The one that will help you see a positive return on investment where everything is measurable and justifiable to stakeholders. The one that will make your employees scream with delight and as a result enable you grow your business even faster!

    The question is… does the perfect social media template or strategy for your business exist?

    A perfect strategy or template, well probably not! A good template and structure, yes!

    Do you want the answer? Are you ready for the top 7 tips to develop a social media strategy that will make your ROI zoom?

    Here ya go…

    Step 1: Do your own research on how to best leverage social media to meet business goals and objectives. Don’t be on every social media platform. Find the right ones for your business.

    Step 2: Develop a business and integrated marketing plan inclusive of goals and objectives. Be sure to focus clearly on your target market segments with a goal of knowing them and getting in their head the best you possibly can.

    Step 3: If you don’t have the skills and knowledge of social media internally, hire the agency or consultant to help you integrate social media into your business. Be sure that they understand integrated marketing, the importance of setting goals and objectives and can help you develop and execute a plan to meet yours! Refuse to accept a list of random acts of social media (RAMs). If the plan is not integrated then the RAMs will eat your ROI for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

    Step 4: Integrate social media into your business plan with a focus on leveraging social media to support your business goals and objectives. Your business plan may need to be adjusted based upon your new findings and research of the social media landscape.

    Step 5: Develop an integrated social media strategy, approach and plan that best supports your business goals and objectives. Just like your marketing plan, have a detailed social media plan. When, where, what, how you are going to post content. What is that content? Be detailed in your social media plan

    Step 6: Execute the integrated marketing, social media and business plan.  DO IT!  Don’t put your social medial plan in a drawer and forget about it. Act on it and measure the results.

    Step 7: Continuously analyze, measure and refine your approach, strategies and tactics based upon achievement to goals and objectives. Things will change based on the data you receive from your social media plan, be ready to make those adjustments to get the ROI you are looking for.

    Now, start on Step 1 and start researching social media platforms that are relevant to your business and where your customers are.  Then go through the other steps to build your perfect social media plan.

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    Steve Feld, MBA, Certified Business Coach, Author, 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 Biz Coach Steve today to see how he can assist you get the results you want in your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking #keynotespeaker #meetingprofs #eventprofs #meetingstoday

  • 10 Easy Ways to Resist Change

    Having worked with many owners, leaders, managers and employees and a theme that keeps coming up is how to deal with change. The standard way of dealing with change in most workplaces is to get really upset and run around in great distress. Many people dwell on how things used to be and clutch desperately onto the old ways of doing things. In one business where I had to change the culture, everyone told me “but, that’s the way we have always done it.”  My response was the same as well. Doing that way is why the business is failing and we need to change how it is done so everyone has a job in 6 months. This dynamic usually happens because leaders and organizations do not have the systems in place to welcome change or view it as an opportunity for growth.

    Many people fear change. Change can be scary and daunting but what I’ve noticed affects workplaces negatively is how they deal with the situation. People don’t consciously try to complicate things, it’s just that they don’t know what to do and very often their leaders aren’t helping them through the challenging times.  The next time you’re experiencing change in your organization make sure that you do the following things to make it more difficult.

    1. Pretend it’s not happening.  The put your head in the sand and hope the change blows over.

    2.  Stubbornly keep doing what you’ve always done. No matter what is said and done, just keep doing the it way you’ve always done and hopefully no one will notice.

    3.  Whatever you do, don’t change your perspective.  Stay on your course. Do not look at anything from another perspective.

    4.  Complain to as many people as you can. My favorite. Be the poison in the water. Why not, the squeaky wheel gets the attention.

    5.  Don’t buy-in to new ways of doing things. Blockbuster loves this one. The world is changing and don’t buy into the hype that it is changing.

    6.  Actively resist doing anything differently.  No matter what do NOT try anything different.

    7.  Stay nervous at all times. Be that long tailed cat in a room full of rockers. By being nervous you can spread some panic to those that do want to change.

    8.  Run around aimlessly. Like the old FedEx commercial. Busy being busy. This way people may think you are changing, when you are really just spinning your tires in mud.

    9.  Feed into the hysteria as often as possible.  Find others with the same fears as you and really build the hysteria- just like the media does.

    10. Don’t offer any solutions.  Remember you need to be the problem and not the solution. Giving a solution means you are open to the change and that is not good.

    I know I have seen all these 10 things being done withing businesses that are trying to change for the better. But, if you do these ten things, you’ll find that you will reverse the rotation of the earth and everything will go back to how it was. Realistically, you will have little to no impact on the changes going on which really leaves it up to you to decide how you’re going to deal with what’s actually happening. You have the ability to take even the worst situation and focus it any way you want. You choose whether the change is a tragedy or an opportunity. It’s just like when you want to support your point of view, you can always find someone to support it on the Internet, but maybe not support it in real life. By resisting the change, you will actually cause change, in that you will have to look for another J.O.B. If you are the owner and resist change, then you will probably have to close the doors to your business.

    The world changes. Your customers preferences changes. Buying habits change. Technology changes. Economics change. Regulations change. And so much more.  Smart leaders expect change and need to plan for it in order to grow their businesses.

    What will you do to welcome change and use it to grow and succeed?

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    Steve Feld, MBA, Certified Business Coach, Author, 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 Biz Coach Steve today to see how he can assist you get the results you want in your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking #keynotespeaker #meetingprofs #eventprofs #meetingstoday

  • How to Be More Persuasive

    What will make you more persuasive? Thinking less about what you want and more about what you deliver for others. Think about delivering benefit instead of trying to win over your clients/prospects.

    A benefit exchange is the heart of persuasion. It answers the question from the radio station-WIIFM, “What’s in it for me?” for the person you are seeking to persuade. In other words, it’s a benefit you promise in exchange for someone taking your desired action.

    The old school way of marketing is nothing like WIIFM. It was clearly a neglected concept in communicating a business’s products and services to the market. But benefit exchanges are useful for all kinds of situations, such as getting someone at work to agree to your proposal, inspiring people to change their habits or compelling someone to buy your product.

    We so often get the benefit exchange wrong. The number one error is we talk about attributes vs. benefits. We get lost in the qualities of an idea or a product rather than translating those attributes into the benefits they deliver for a prospect or customer. Telling me that a proposal addresses a problem in workflow is citing an attribute; demonstrating how it saves money or increases efficiency is showing a benefit. Rack and pinion steering is an attribute of a car; responsiveness that makes you feel safer on the road is a benefit.

    Good benefit exchanges focus on what your audience wants – not what you want. That’s the second common error most small businesses make. Don’t fall into the trap of communicating based on the benefits you desire. Think from the perspective of those you want to influence and speak to that world view.

    Those are ways we go wrong. So how do we do it right? If you want to be more persuasive, here are five ways to build a strong benefit exchange and win hearts and minds in the process.

    Make the Benefit Immediate: Few of us take action based on a benefit that we expect to receive in the far future. It is human nature to seek instant satisfaction over distant gratification. How can you make your case that if someone does what you want, they will reap immediate rewards? Answer the question: what will be better tomorrow?

    Make It Personal: A compelling benefit needs to make people feel their lives will be better as individuals or within their tight circles of friends, family, community or work. At the end of the day, the personal connection, not the grand concept, grabs our attention. Make sure you’re focused on why your agenda is specifically relevant to the person you wish to persuade.

    Speak to Your Audience’s Values: We can’t easily change what other people believe, but by plugging into their existing mind-set, we unleash great power behind our message. Make sure the benefit you are communicating is something others seek – not just what you want. Those two things are rarely the same, but we often imagine they are.

    Know What You’re Up Against: Think competitively about your benefit. Is it better than what people get for doing nothing – or something else instead? Don’t forget there’s a reason people aren’t taking the action you seek. They may be deriving benefits from those alternate behaviors. How can you shape a benefit better than sticking to the status quo?

    Be Real: Last, you need to make sure your benefit exchange is credible and honest. People need to believe in what you communicate. Ask someone who is respected to back you up. Or show other people gaining the promised benefit. Or tell a good story that is a true example of the benefit in action. You want to persuade by keeping your promises.

    If people aren’t doing what you want, you may to speak to someone and get an outside perspective. Maybe you are thinking the WIIFM is you, when the WIFFM is your customers. What outcomes are you providing to your prospects and clients?  How will you and your company’s products or services solve their problems, needs and wants?

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    Steve Feld, MBA, Certified Business Coach, Author, 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 Biz Coach Steve today to see how he can assist you get the results you want in your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking #keynotespeaker #meetingprofs #eventprofs #meetingstoday

  • What is your EXIT strategy?

    Stephen Covey stated, “Think with the end in mind.”

    Many business owners are so excited and overwhelmed that they often overlook a big part of their business, operating plan.  Their exit plans.

    You may finally figure your target market. Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Your business structure and much more, but you have not figured out how it all ends.

    Here are the most common ways to end a business:

    • Your business dies. You must shut the doors. Usually due to lack of cash.
    • You die in your business-literally.  Do you have will set up on what will happen with the business when that day comes?
    • You get bought out. You worked hard over the years. Put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into your business, now you want to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Do you have a plan to sell? Is your business sellable?
    • You buy a business and they assume control of the merged company. Nice, what are you going to do next?
    • You pass it to a family member (legacy). Most family members do not want YOUR business. The ones that do, it may turn into a legal battleground.
    • You voluntarily shut it down. Could be due to some internal or external situation, but usually must happen rapidly and the outcome is usually not too good.

    The sale or transition of a business will likely be the single largest and most important financial transaction of a business owner’s life………and its level of success will impact the rest of their life in retirement.

    Mapping out a successful plan to exit the business can help business owners:

    • Avoid unnecessary or excessive taxes.
    • Minimize risk during the transition.
    • Realize the full value for their life’s work.
    • In recent years only 20 to 30% of businesses listed for sale ended up being sold. Many of them did not sell for what the owners initially thought they were worth.
    • The failure to plan and manage succession well is the greatest threat to the survival of a family business:
      • 41% of family businesses plan to pass ownership and management of their business to the next generation in the family
      • Yet…only 30% of family businesses last into the 2nd generation, only 12% into the 3rd generation and only 3% into the 4th generation and beyond. (Family Firm Institute)

    The key to exit planning is that it isn’t actually about the exit itself. It’s about the planning for the exit. The staging process that leads to a happy ending for the business owner, bringing them maximum value for the business when it’s sold.

    Here are some exit statistics:

    • Most business are owned by nearing retirement baby boomers 63% of all businesses. The youngest are now 56.
    • 80-90% of their wealth is tied up in their businesses. They have NO retirement plan.
    • 75% plan to transition over the next 10 years; 48% in the next 5 years.
    • Represents a transfer of 4,500,000 businesses and over $10 trillion of wealth.
    • 78% have no exit strategy team on board.

    How successful are we at transitioning businesses?

    • 12 months after selling, 3 out of 4 business owners surveyed “profoundly regretted” the decision. (Price Waterhouse)
    • 70-80% of businesses put on the market don’t sell. (Business Reference Guide, T. West)
    • 95% of M&A professionals believe a business owners unrealistic expectations of company value are the biggest obstacle to sale or transfer. (AM&AA)
    • Private companies are not generating returns on investment greater than their costs of capital. (Private Capital Markets Study, Rob Slee)

    A successful business exit strategy includes 5 key ingredients:

    1. A written exit plan, and related documentation, based on the owner’s objectives.
      1. A team of professional advisors to each help with their areas of expertise (Business Coach, Attorney, CPA/Accountant, Financial Advisor, Banker, Insurance Advisor, Business Broker, etc.)
      1. Positive cash flow in the business and determining a quantified business value.
      1. A strong management team.
      1. Enough time to prepare for a successful exit (typically planning 3-5 years, minimum, in advance of an exit…the more time prior to the owner’s planned retirement age, the better)

    Are you prepared to exit?

    How are you planning on exiting your business?

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    Steve Feld, MBA, Certified Business Coach, Author, 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 Biz Coach Steve today to see how he can assist you get the results you want in your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking #keynotespeaker #meetingprofs #eventprofs #meetingstoday

  • Top 10 Reasons Small Businesses Fail

    Sad to say this but the stats don’t lie. The statistics for a new business to succeed is not too positive. Twenty-four percent of new business fail in the first two year. Almost 50% of those remaining fail within the first five years. Which leaves about 8 out of 100 new business that are still around after 10 years.

    The top ten reasons small businesses fail are simple and all can be avoided. But most business owner do not seek help and avoid the harsh realities of their own business. The order of the list has been discussed with many fellow business owners, mentors, coaches and consultants and we feel this order and the years in which a business fails are accurate.

    1. Cash flow: Hands down the number one reason why small businesses fail. You need to know how to track the money coming into and out of your business — even a profitable venture will flounder if it runs short of cash. In addition, you must learn to make cash flow projections that will help you decide how much money you can afford to spend and warn you of impending trouble.
    2. Lack of clarity: Most new business owner does not have a clear vision for their business, and do not have a target market. They are shooting a shotgun in the wind and not shooting at anything at all. If you don’t know who you service, what their problems are and how your product and service satisfy their need-your business will die an ugly death.
    3. Sloppy or ineffective marketing: Contrary to the popular cliché, few products or services “sell themselves.” If you don’t have time to market your product effectively, hire an experienced person to do it for you. Marketing keeps your products selling and money flowing into your business. It’s crucial that you do it well. Know your target market and stay focused on them. Forget everyone else.
    4. Unsustainable product or service: If you don’t have a market for your product or service, then you have no sales. The true purpose of business is to satisfy a want or need with your product or service in exchange for money. If your target market is 1 out of every 10 million people, you will not be around long. Once those people have your product or service will they rebuy?
    5. Inadequate planning: Start with realistic but precise goals for your business, including deadlines. For example, don’t just say that you want to increase sales; instead, decide that you want sales to reach $100,000 by next holiday season. Then write down the steps you can take to meet those goals on time and set deadlines for completing those steps. Consult your goal list every day, and make sure you are doing what you need to do to meet your objectives.
    6. Procrastination. When you own a small business, you will find that tasks and paperwork pile up like snowdrifts on your desk. Putting them off is like piling up debt; eventually they could overwhelm you. Small business owners like distractions that keep them from money making activities. Stay focused, have goals, move forward in your business.
    7. Incompetent employees: Hire only workers who are essential to your operation. When you do hire employees, make sure they’re well trained and able to complete the tasks expected of them. And remember that happy employees make good workers — try to create a work environment that keeps your staff happy and motivated. Sometimes the incompetent employee is the owner.
    8. Ignoring customers´ needs: Once you attract customers, you’ll have to work hard to keep them. Customer service should be a key aspect of your business. If you don’t follow through with your customers, they’ll find someone who will. Most small business are horrible at following up with customers. This can set you apart from your competition.  Remember, not customers, no revenue, which leads to no business.
    9. Ignoring the competition: Consumer loyalty has declined sharply in recent years. Today, customers go where they can find the best products and services, even if that means breaking off long-term business relationships. Monitor your competitors, and don’t be ashamed to copy their best ideas (assuming that doesn’t mean violating patent law). Better yet, devote some time each week or month to devising new methods, products or services for your firm. You need to show value in your products and services. Being the low-price leader, means you also need to be the low-cost leader to win.
    10. Lack of versatility: You may be great at making hats or painting houses or fixing computers, but that’s not enough to make your millinery shop or house painting business or computer consultancy successful. Successful business owners tend to be adept at a number of tasks, from accounting to marketing to hiring. You need to be well versed in all aspects of your business. Hire people to do the tasks you do not like to do or are unskilled to do.

    Bonus: A closed mind: Everyone goes into business with some preconceptions — don’t be surprised if you find that many of yours are wrong. Look for mentors who can give you advice and run your ideas by them before you make important financial commitments. Read books and magazines about small business, visit business-related Web sites and network with your peers in the business community.

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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, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking #keynotespeaker #meetingprofs #eventprofs #meetingstoday

  • How to be strategic in your business

    One reason that many businesses fail, is that they have no strategic plan.

    They are always chasing a sale, or marketing/advertising just to be marketing or advertising with no real purpose. Yes, we get it.  You want more sales, but your marketing and advertising is not strategic towards the goals of your business. It has no real purpose; it does not have any strategy that is in alignment with the goals of your business.  That is one of the many reasons you are not getting an ROI on your marketing/advertising investment.

    Strategic management is a widely studied field because it is through strategy that organizations attempt to reach their goals and out-think the competition. Thinking strategically requires research, analysis, and forethought in order to create a plan for how you will proceed as an organization.  Most small business owners do not take time out of their schedule for strategic planning.  They have no strategic “game plan.”

    The process of crafting and implementing an organizational “game plan” for:

    • Creating customer value
    • Sustaining competitive advantages
    • Achieving performance targets

    Look at your business and ask yourself, your team, division, department and then as your organization as a whole:

    • Are we doing things, right?
    • Are wee doing the right things?

    Next, you need to create a plan for how you will make choices in the future that align with your strategic plan. You must be willing to identify and make changes to the way you currently think and operate so that you are truly guided by the strategic plan you adopted for your business.

    Here are six P’s of thinking strategically:

    1. Purpose: Decision as a collective group. Without purpose or a mission, you don’t know what you’re working towards. This is the goal of what you want to achieve. What you want your business to be in the future. A strategic plan is a guide for when you cannot remember what you are working towards. When changes happen fast, it may not be easy to keep up with them and it’s very easy to get sidetracked from your goal. This is when you need that roadmap to keep you on track with your actions and activities.
    • Plan: Actions that you have consciously intended. You need to develop a solid, specific action plan to achieve your goals.  Each goal you set requires some form of strategy to reach it. Each goal should, in turn, be somehow forwarding the goals of the strategic plan. If you and your employees have a goal with specific actions to reach the goal, it will improve work performance overall and move the business forward. I.E. If the goal is to “improve customer service” that is not specific. What you think that might be, may not be the way your staff thinks it should be. But, if the goal is clear, “reduce customer complaints by 50% over a five-month period” that is specific, measurable, realistic and timebound.
    • Ploy: What you will do to out-do the competition. You need to be familiar with your competition. You need to identify how you compare to them in the areas that are important to your customers. Part of your plan is to strengthen your weaknesses, highlight your strengths, pursue customer where your strengths are the most important decision criteria.
    • Pattern: Establishing success as a constant action over time. One useful method is to incorporate items into individual performance goals that you have for you and your team. I.E. Review existing performance goals and measure to determine whether or not they are in alignment with the overall strategic plan of the organization. In one business, we tied performance goals to the total output of the business. The employees got a bonus to the business achieved those goals, but their own personal goals where tied to that success.
    • Positioning: Creating and holding a marketplace presence. Despite your enthusiasm for all that your product or service and do for a customer, the fact is that there is only a certain portion of the population that will every purchase your product or service. This is because not everyone can benefit from your product offering.  You need to know who your customers are, and what they are most likely to perceive as a benefit from your product or service. Then concentrate your time, effort and money on marketing to those people.
    • Push: Goals that stretch the organization-push them outside the boundaries of your existing comfort zone.  Whether or not you manage a team, you need to take on the challenge of pushing it to the next level of achievement. Start with an assessment on you and your team to determine where you are now as well as what is you and your team’s strengths and weaknesses. Then you can determine the appropriate action to develop yourself and your team to be high performing.  Organization that sit back on their accomplishments get left in the dust by those businesses that are continually evolving. Ever heard of Blockbuster?

    A strategic plan is like a game plan for you and your team to follow. Your team wants to know they have a leader that knows where the team is headed. The plan gives you something that your team can rally around and get excited about. It helps them feel connected to the mission of the organization and to feel that they can make a contribution helping the organization to reach the desired outcome.

    What are your businesses strategic plans?

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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, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking #keynotespeaker #meetingprofs #eventprofs #meetingstoday

  • To create change you need Action

    “I think there is something more important than believing: action!  The world is full of dreamers, there aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision.” —W. Clement Stone

    Contrary to movie lore, you can’t just sit on your tush on your couch and imagine checks coming into your mailbox.  If you do, you won’t have that couch for long.  You have to act on your plans.  You have to get off the couch, walk out your door and work that tush off to get what you want in life.  Doing must follow planning.
     
    All the planning, pondering and philosophizing in the world won’t produce your desired results.  All the contemplation, envisioning, affirmations, chanting, positive thinking and meditation won’t materialize your goals if you do not take action.
     
    “Affirmation without action leads to delusion.” —Jim Rohn
     
    Napoleon Hill once asked an audience, “What is the average number of times that a person tries to achieve a new goal before they give up?”  After several guesses from the audience, he gave the answer: “Less than one.”
     
    Most people give up before they even try.  Even though they want to improve their lives, increase their income and accomplish more, most people think, “I can’t,” and give up before they even get started.
     
    Nothing breaks the human heart more than the realization that one has lived only a fraction of their potential—that they didn’t fulfill their duty to shine.  Don’t let this be you.

    To achieve your goals, you must be Committed and disciplined.
     
    You’ve decided what you want and who you must become to achieve your goals.  Now you must “strike while the iron is hot.”  Begin now, while your enthusiasm is high, and your intentions are strong.  What is stopping you from starting?
     
    “Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.” —Jim Rohn
     
    DO IT NOW!

    You may have heard that if you learn something new and want to implement it into your life/business you must act on it with 72 hours. Let’s get moving and make that 24 to 48 hours. What one goal must you act on in that time frame? Create momentum by taking action now.
     
    Examples: Go to a car dealership and get a brochure for the car you want.  Purchase a greeting card and mail it to your wife.  Inside, tell her how much she means to you and state your intention to create a magical and romantic year.  Get a course catalog from the community college and mark the courses you will take.
     
    Within the Next 30 Days
    Identify what you need to do during the next 30 days to put some of your goals into action.  What will you do?
     
    Examples: Make your first donation or set up a savings account and arrange an automatic draft according to your plan.  Hire a personal fitness trainer and start your program.  Recruit your mentor.  Make the necessary prospecting calls.  Designate the planned family night.
     
    Do it now.  You cannot afford to wait for perfect conditions.  Have the courage to begin.

    Be BOLD and re-instill your faith in yourself.  A lack of self-confidence can keep you from reaching your greatness.  Start living with audacity.  Have chutzpa.  Stand away from the crowd.  Refuse to follow the herd.  Never again settle for average results.  Set a higher standard for yourself than anyone around you would expect.  Be different, think different and act different.  Be what others are afraid to be.

    Remember: “Fortune favors the bold.” —Virgil
     
    Fight for your life. Most people wouldn’t know or care about David if he didn’t take on Goliath.  You want to be remembered, revered and heralded like David?  Find a Goliath (your Big Hairy Audacious Goals), and fight for them to the death.
     

    Casualness leads to casualty.  Get serious about creating a better future.  If you want to get healthy, get serious about your health.  If you want to get rich, get serious about becoming wealthy.  If you want to experience great love, get serious about your commitment to relationships.  Astound yourself.  Bewilder your friends, family and competition.
     
    Never, Never, Never Give Up
    Develop a hard-core devotion to your better you.  Have an obnoxious commitment to your goals.  Be unreasonable.  Be uncompromising.  If you have gone just as far as you can, you can still go a little bit further.  Success is obtained in the extra mile—extra effort, extra hours, extra preparation, extra care and extra calls.  Extra is what separates you from average.  It is the “extra” that goes in front of “ordinary” to make you extraordinary.
     
    You are going to make mistakes.  You are going to get off track.  You are going to fail, fall down, trip up, become discouraged, feel defeated, become overwhelmed and hit the wall.  That is OK; it happens to everyone.  It’s called being human.  Expect failure, plan for it, and get back on track as quickly as possible.
     
    “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.” —Confucius
     
    As you go through the trials and tribulations that come with striving to achieve your goals, believe that success is closer than you think.  It is darkest just before dawn.  A transformative moment might only be steps away.  It could be the next phone call, the next meeting, the next person you meet.  The key is to keep moving forward.
     
    Persistence is the ability to face your fears again and again without giving up, to push on in the face of great difficulty.
     
    “Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success.  They give up the last minute of the game, one foot away from the winning touchdown.” —H. Ross Perot
     
    Go for it!  The power is now in your hands.  You now have everything you need to achieve everything you have ever wanted.  Just go for it, one step at a time, one foot in front of the other.  The journey of a thousand miles starts this very moment.  Take your first step forward now.

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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, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking