Blogging is Tough Going for Business Owners

Writing and posting a regular business blog is seen by many as an efficient and cost effective way to promote your business expertise and your business brand.  It is also now seen as an integral element of a necessary social media strategy, one that businesses that continue to ignore embracing, do so at their own peril.

Whilst it may be correct to say that doing it yourself is an efficient and cost effective means of blogging, this statement relates to an ideal world, and the reality will be far from this for most business owners, who will generally be far from efficient and effective at this multi-faceted task.  

Unless you possess a fantastic skill set, have a great handle on the language and its nuances, can find the time and the clear headspace to do the writing task properly, and you can then be disciplined enough to publish and promote your blog on a consistent and regular cycle, I would suggest you save yourself a lot of pain, and look at your alternatives.

As a first time blogger, with no previous experience at all of blogging, twittering, and face booking (if that is the right term), it has been a tough ongoing assignment for me to establish a blogging platform, choose topics to blog about, write and edit same, publish and promote each blog, and monitor the statistics to see who was reading them, where the readers are located, and how they accessed each blog.

Having said that, this article is the twenty-fifth consecutive, weekly business blog, that I have authored and posted to the "Unique Insights" Blog Site, and it will be the last for this year. Along this short journey, the Blog Site was awarded a Top 100 Business Blog Award, and it is now consistently read by business owners in over 35 countries, each week.

My experience over this last six months, tells me that the discipline required, the brain power necessary, the creativity that needed to be found, the understanding of audience needs that must be developed, as well as the ability to continually maintain a high level of enthusiasm, will mount a serious challenge to most business owners wanting to do it all themselves.

As a management consultant, I felt it was necessary for me to experience exactly what a business owning client would go through, if I was to recommend to them, that they promote themselves and their business, via a blog that they needed to write and publish themselves.  This was the driver that sustained me through my first six months of blogging, and without this driver, it would have been difficult to maintain the momentum.

Following my own personal experience, my recommendation to any business owner thinking of doing it themselves, would be to outsource the majority of the heavy lifting that is involved, and just play the key roles of idea generator and final editor.

However, before embarking down this path, I would strongly suggest all business owners need to be absolutely clear on what outcomes they expect to achieve from blogging, at what cost, and by when, so that they can adequately brief anyone they engage, and have a way of measuring return on investment, so that they can stop the activity if it is not delivering to expectations.

 Will I continue blogging, yes I will, as I have now gone through the pain of acquiring the required skills and have caught the bug. However, commencing with this article, and for all future articles, I will be posting via e-mail through Posterous (which I have just discovered and recommend anyone just starting out blogging should investigate) to my own domain, rather than via Blogger at the Blogspot domain.

Will your business have a social media strategy in place for 2010?

Will a blog site be part of your social media strategy if you adopt one?

Will you outsource the heavy lifting and stay focussed on areas where your strengths lie?

As this is my last article for 2009, I would like to wish all of my subscribers and casual readers, a happy festive season and a happy, healthy and prosperous year in 2010.

Posted via web from Unique Insights

Stay Focused on the Main Game

As a business owner you are the focus of all incoming demands on your time and attention whether or not the demands are solicited or unsolicited. You are also the owner of “the buck stops here” label, so you probably also feel the burden of responsibility for staying on top of all relevant knowledge and other readily available information, so that your business can remain competitive with your immediate, as well as emerging, competitors.

As hard as it is to do, it is imperative for the ongoing success of your business, for you to remain totally focused on the main game, and not get distracted or sidelined by unsolicited demands for your time, or through allocating far too much of your limited available time, to attempting to know and understand everything you believe you need to know and understand, in order to stay in front of your competitors.

One problem commonly experienced by business owners is that they have never really decided what their main game is, and as a consequence, they devote far too much of their time and energies to activities for which they never see an adequate financial return, one commensurate with the time and energy devoted to those activities.

If you fall into this category, it is beholden upon yourself for the sake of your business and your own peace of mind, to review your current business activities, make a clear decision as to what in future will be the main game of the business, and then focus as much energy as you can on preparing a strategic plan for the future of the business, and then to developing a clearly focussed business plan that will facilitate the eventual success of the chosen business strategy.

Should you already be perfectly clear on the main game of your business, but the business is not living up to its potential, then it is highly likely that a lack of focus on this main game due to the constant demands on your time from others as well as the need for you to be the resource and information gatherer for your business, is a key reason for the under-performance of the business.

The following are a few suggestions that you might consider implementing in your business to ensure that, at all times, your major focus is on your main game, and not on participation in all of the sideshows to that main game.

• Implement a policy of only conducting face to face meetings by appointment, and limit these appointments to only people who can clearly be seen to have a real and positive contribution to make, in assisting you to win at your main game.

• Hire a “bulldog” as a gatekeeper to ensure that those attempting to circumvent the appointment process, only ever attempt this tactic once, and without success.

• Let everyone you deal with know the actual nature of your main game, and ensure that they are clear on where you would welcome their input, but equally clear that outside these boundaries their input will not be entertained.

• Learn to accept that you cannot possibly, regardless of the industry you operate in, personally ever acquire all the knowledge needed to run a successful business, and be prepared to import expertise, as and only when actually needed, and then only for specific well defined tasks.

• Realise that the vast majority of information that circulates and is always at your fingertips if you want to seek it, or is constantly being pushed and marketed to you incessantly even if you are not seeking it, is in the main stuff you already know, just repackaged, relabelled, pushed through new mediums or by new gurus, and really adds little value to your business.

• Use a media monitoring service to deliver to you a weekly tailored package of information published about topics specific to the information needs of your business, and allocate no more than an hour or two each week to digesting the information provided.

• Have someone else open your incoming mail and make sure they clearly understand that the only thing you want to see in your in tray is real business mail, and only then, if that mail is clearly and directly related to the activities of your main game.

In making sure that your deliberate focus is on your main game, and you are not wasting time and effort participating in sideshows, you will not only make a far better personal contribution to the success of your business, but you will also send a clear message to others, as to where they should be paying the most attention.

Are you as focused as you should be on your main game?

Do you have strategies in place to help you stay focused on your main game?

Is everyone associated with your business aware of what the main game is and where they need to put their focus?

Time for an End of Year Tidy Up

As the end of 2009 fast approaches, a common activity for a lot of small business owners is to try and finalise as much business as possible, before taking a well earned rest over the festive season.

Unfortunately, what subsequently tends to occur as a consequence of all of this end of year “busyness” is that the opportunity to refresh the working environment for the coming year tends to be overlooked, and the potential for significant productivity improvement in the following year, are missed.

Often, the perceived need to finalise as much business as possible before the festive season kicks in is not driven by client/customer expectations, but more from business owners wanting to keep their staff productive, right up until the holiday break.

I would suggest that any internal capacity not directly needed to be applied to finalising business where commitments have been given or expectations raised, should at the tail end of the year, be devoted to an internal clean up of the working environment, in preparation for a clean start to 2010.

A range of tasks including;
a) Removal and disposal of all unused, obsolete, surplus to needs, damaged or otherwise unnecessary items from the work place environment,
b) Re-organising, remodelling, streamlining, and any other actions to improve physical filing and storage systems for physical documents and office supplies,
c) Reviewing existing office, work station, furniture and equipment layouts which have been in place for some time, to determine if the layouts remain optimal for the work currently being performed,
d) A thorough clean of all of the areas that cleaners never get to because of furniture and equipment placement, height limitations of their equipment, and difficult access or access restrictions,
e) Attending to finalising all database updates, queries, revisions, deletions, annual calendar year report production, and other such actions to ensure pristine database records and improved functionality, for the start of the coming year.
f) Identifying areas where touch up painting, minor repairs, lighting upgrades, carpet/tile replacement and the like can be quickly attended to before the festive season,
g) Replacing all half dead, or well past their used by date, indoor plants with better and more suitable indoor plants, to help improve internal air quality and general workplace ambience,
h) Ensuring that all IT equipment, related backup systems, and virus protection programs are fully functional, and actually meet all current needs in terms of ongoing suitability and reliability, and
i) Checking that all fire protection systems, security systems, disaster recovery systems and the like are performing as expected, and as appropriate, for the holiday season and that the listed contact people and their contact details are actually current,
will ensure that staff are productively active, and effectively contributing towards a clean start in 2010, during what is traditionally regarded as the end of year wind down period.

If such a range of end of year activities is not part of your normal business operations, you stand a very good chance of being pleasantly surprised, as to how much more productive than normal, January/February 2010 will be for your business if you follow the above suggestions.

When was the last time your business conducted such a comprehensive list of end of year activities?

How often have you during the holiday break, been unable to relax and wind down, because of concerns that arise in your head after you have shut down the business for the break?

What effect do you think a tired work environment has on the productivity of your staff?

Are you asking the right questions?

Business owners are busy people, and in their perpetual state of “busyness”, they often don't take the  necessary time to carefully think about the right question to ask another party, in order to gain the correct information they need, to enhance the quality of their decisions.

Business owners are regularly faced with the need to make important decisions about matters in which they lack expertise, or sometimes even a basic understanding of the subject matter, and in these circumstances, asking weak questions, or the wrong questions, and then acting on the answers provided, can prove to be extremely costly.

Key business decisions, are often made on the run by business owners, without any more than the asking of cursory questions more aligned to reassurance than probing to ensure clear understanding and elicitation of quality information. It is decisions, made on the basis of such poor answers, that business owners often live to regret.

The right question should indicate to the other party that the issue is important in the context of a decision to be made, should inform them of the need to provide accurate and concise information, and should convey a sense of urgency in respect to the applicable decision time frames.

The right question is usually the best possible, simple question, that can be asked in the context of the overall objective that the actual decision needing to be made is aligned to in terms of supporting that objective, or successfully achieving it. The best, simple question, should lead the other party to ask themselves a range of more detailed questions, before they can provide the requested answer.

Whilst, determining the right question to ask, is a critical component in gathering information to assist in decision making, of equal importance is making sure that you are directing the right question to the right party. In other words, you need to be sure that the other party is actually qualified to provide the answer, and has the experience necessary to put the answer into a context relevant to you, and your business requirements.

Asking the right question of the right party has an additional element which needs to be taken into consideration. That element is ensuring that you ask the right question of the right party at the right time. There will be times when it is inappropriate to seek information if you want the best possible response, so the desire for instant gratification, may occasionally need to be tempered, until the timing is right.

The right question asked of the right party at the right time can be incredibly empowering for a business owner, and their business, especially if the answer elicited, provides more information than expected, and leads to a decision which is far superior to any decision that would otherwise have been taken.

How often do you give any consideration to the quality of the questions you ask others when requiring information to assist in your decision processes?

How do you determine who is the right party to ask the right question?

Can you temper your need for immediate gratification to ensure that the right question is asked of the right party at the right time?

You Can’t do Everything.

The role of a business owner gets more complex by the day, and it is little wonder that many business owners find that by spreading themselves so thinly across all of the activities they need to accomplish each day, nothing ever gets done properly, or as quickly as is optimal for their business.

Many owners fall for the trap of trying to do everything themselves to keep costs down, but in reality, the cost to the business of the inefficiencies inherent in this approach, and the lack of necessary attention to the detail  in any business which inevitably results, will generally outweigh any savings expected by the business owner, in adopting this "one man band" approach.

In working with a client recently, I identified that as the business owner he was trying to perform at least 16 clearly identifiable key roles, many of which were measurably not the best use of his available time, and some were critical roles for which he was not all that well qualified, to perform.

In the best interests of the business, an owner should step back from attempting to be the jack of all trades and the master of none, and look at where specifically in the business their skill set and personality can be utilised to greatest advantage and for the greatest return, and delegate or outsource the remaining roles to others, or another entity, that can do what is required in far less time, more effectively, and at relatively lower cost, than the cost of the owners time in completing the particular role(s) themselves.

The issue of control and inability to delegate raises its ugly head time and time again when examining why, small business owners in particular, continue to beat their heads against a brick wall in trying to accomplish everything themselves, but at considerable cost to themselves, their families and their businesses.

In an earlier article, “Four Critical Business Roles”, I explored and discussed my view that it is a very rare individual who is capable of effectively performing all of the critical roles required to be performed in a SME business, and that one’s personality will to a high degree dictate the roles one can effectively perform, and which will positively contribute, to the expected outcomes for the business.

Where the business owner’s personality is not suited to one or more of the four critical roles which need to be performed on a daily basis, then the business will be facing an uphill battle to achieve any real level of success, and the business owner will constantly frustrated with his/her inability to achieve the outcomes desired, in the time frame available.

The answer is to recognise that “one man bands” generally run out of steam long before the businesses they operate grow to a level where they can be regarded as successful, sustainable businesses that are no longer reliant on the input of just one person, and take action now to make the most effective and productive use of your time, and pay others to perform the roles for which the business is paying a higher than necessary cost for you to perform.

Why do you continue to try to do everything yourself?

Do you have an inability to let go and an aversion to delegating or outsourcing?

Do you now understand that the cost of doing everything yourself is the future level of success of your business?

Rewards; Gold Mine or Minefield?

Rewards, to facilitate ongoing performance or to effect change in the company’s culture, are not generally used effectively, or often enough, by many otherwise astute, business owners.

Too often, consultants observe the wrong behaviours being rewarded by business owners, resulting in unintended consequences which can, and often do, derail well thought out business plans and lead to serious financial issues.

In business, rewards are generally allocated for the purposes of developing people and influencing changes in their behaviour to prepare them for alternative or higher level roles, or for effecting required organisational changes and improving overall company financial performance.

At an individual level, rewards encourage people to learn, prompt the taking of necessary steps for personal growth, facilitate the desire to make greater contributions to the company’s well being, entice the desire to lead others and leverage off their success, and flame the passion in those who aspire to top leadership roles.

At a company level, rewards encourage the development of the required company culture, promote teamwork throughout the company, shift the performance focus to the achievement of specific financial outcomes, and display how serious the company is in respect to compliance with ethical and governance norms.

Rewards can take many forms, some which are familiar to most business owners, and many which may not be so familiar for one reason or another. Common rewards include;

a) a simple thank you
b) quiet words of encouragement
c) transfer to chosen area or location
d) promotion to a new position
e) better shift or roster allocation
f) paid day(s) off
g) preferred holiday dates
h) tickets to special events
i) discounts on company products/services
j) cash bonuses
k) trips at company expense
l) company shares or options
m) company expense account
n) child care/education allowances
o) company car

Used well, and with careful attention to ensuring that any reward offered is actually rewarding the right behaviour(s) to deliver the specific outcome the business wishes to achieve, rewards can turn any business into a veritable gold mine.

Used unwisely, not nearly often enough, or only in favoured parts of the business, rewards can create a minefield for the unsuspecting business owner. Whilst it is beyond the scope of this article to provide the level of guidance needed to step a business owner through the minefield that reward systems can become, the following tips may prevent a little pain;

a) ensure that you reward only behaviours that clearly support and reinforce company culture,
b) ensure that rewards to encourage high performance in all areas of the business are spread throughout all operational and support areas,
c) ensure that everyone, without exception, receives a reward of some kind when key elements of the business strategy are delivered on time and on budget,
d) ensure that evidenced behaviour supporting required cultural change is immediately rewarded and crucially,
e) ensure that any reward offered, especially at an individual level, is of a value to the recipient equal to, or exceeding, the cost of the reward to the company.

How well do you understand how rewards motivate or demotivate?

Do you use appropriate rewards to encourage peak performance and staff retention?

When did you last reward yourself?

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Slash New Business Acquisition Costs

Most business owners understand that the cost of acquisition of customers/clients is one of the major drains on the overall profitability of their particular business enterprise. Unfortunately, a far fewer number, approach the task of ensuring that a high proportion of their new business comes from prospects referred to them via their customers/clients and business associates.

The downside of not treating the obtaining of consistent referral business as a real business strategy, and thereby devoting time and necessary resources to affect the required outcomes, is firstly, a higher cost of acquisition of new business and secondly, detrimental fluctuations in the monthly revenue generated from new business.

Realistically, as a business owner you cannot afford not to be doing everything you can to ensure that your business receives a consistent flow of referrals from satisfied customers/clients, and that the other businesses that you do business with, reciprocate by referring business to you.

The only way I know to consistent get referrals of potential new business from your own customers/clients is to set up a formal referral system, as part of the overall customer acquisition strategy of your business.

The key component of any referral system should be as follows;

a) a process for asking for referrals from customers/clients,
b) a process for acknowledging all referrals received,
c) a process for recording and monitoring progress of all referrals,
d) a process for rewarding referrals which result in new business,
e) a program of targeted training to ensure all staff understand both the importance of all referrals and the workings of the system you put in place to obtain same, and
f) a mechanism for rewarding staff for supporting the referral system.

The other major source of referrals of new business is through your own business associates, and this avenue should also be carefully considered, when establishing your referral system.

The key elements here are similar to those outlined for obtaining referral from customers/clients, but with business associates, you need to add the additional task of informing them fully of the types of new business you are specifically seeking, what your ideal new customer/client looks like, and what you intend doing for them as a reciprocal approach.

Without an overall customer acquisition strategy, which includes a formal referral process that is supported throughout the business, referrals of new business to you as a business owner, will always be inconsistent, and the level thereof always well below what it should be for a well run business.

What percentage of your new business comes from direct referral from existing customers/clients?

Do you have a formal customer acquisition strategy and does this include a referral strategy?

Do you currently devote sufficient time and other resources to ensuring that your business maximises its opportunities to become more profitable through generating the bulk of its new business via direct referrals?

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Sell like a Pre-Schooler

Pre-schoolers never stop asking until they get what they need but unfortunately, most people tend to lose that ability to ask for what they need as they grow up and subsequently conform to external pressures from parents, teachers, early employers, social peers, and the general community in which they live.

As a business owner, the loss of this skill, to ask for what you need from those who control what you require, can have a highly detrimental effect on your businesses’ ability to increase its sales revenue.

Your business will therefore reap the benefits if you relearn the ability to ask for what you need in order to grow your business. So how do you start relearning what you once did intuitively as a pre-schooler?

Until you ask someone specifically to take an action, exchange something for something else, or subscribe to a different point of view, you might be selling hard, but you are not gaining any real ground. Therefore, if you have lost the ability to ask for specific outcomes that help you to advance your own agenda, you need to reprogram your brain back to that of a pre-schooler.

In a nutshell, you need to practice, and practice again, the art of asking for the outrageous, until you can do it without cracking up, flinching, sweating, or shaking uncontrollably, and can do it with utter conviction.

Try practicing to ask a prospect to pay $50,000.00 for the privilege of buying a clapped out second hand car, until you can do it in the expectation that you might just be able to pull it off one day.

When you can do this, you are ready to effectively ask for the small things you need your prospects to do in order for you to help them, and at the same time significantly increase the number of sales you make for your business, in any given time frame.

It may surprise you, but most people are happy to give you what you need if you ask in the right way at the right moment. Unfortunately, business owners struggling with making sufficient sales tend to telegraph that they are squeamish about asking for what they need, and as a consequence, their prospects feel the same way about giving and the sales never get booked.

Once you have determined exactly what it is that you and your business need your prospects to do for you, and you have a compelling reason (the future of your business) to ask for what you need, you should then be able to successfully apply what you have relearned, and you should then be rewarded by seeing a significant increase in your sales revenue.

When was the last time you really asked for exactly what you needed from your sales prospects?

A better question perhaps is, when was the last time you asked yourself what you want?

What will you now do differently?

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Learn to Sell with Your Ears

One of the key roles of a business owner is to be the chief salesperson for the business itself, and in many instances this role also includes being the chief salesperson to the largest and most important customers.

Some business owners are very competent in one or both of these sales roles, but for many who do not have sales or marketing backgrounds, and even some who do, the necessity for them to perform these roles can often be quite challenging, and they often find that the efforts that they do put in, deliver less than optimal results.

Regardless of their backgrounds, all business owners can improve their sales performance if they remember the old adage “God gave you two ears and only one mouth, use them in that proportion, if you wish to be successful”.

When you are in front of a prospective customer or client for the first time, how much air time do you give to them? If the ration is not at least 70% of the time you spend with them, you are more than likely talking yourself out of a lot of new business.

How often do you interrupt your prospective customer or client during an average first interaction? Any interruption is a bad mistake. Apart from being seen as rude behaviour, the chances are high that you will not discover a key piece of information, which could help you win the business.

If a prospective customer or client says something you disagree with strongly, are you able to hold off countering with an argument before they have fully expressed their views? If you can't, you will establish the climate for multiple objections to your offering, as well as perhaps missing a hot button or two that you could later push to win the business.

Do you constantly intersperse your presentations with personal stories? Whilst personalising your presentation and building rapport in the initial phase of the first meeting is good form, constant story telling throughout a presentation wastes time, and can easily divert the dialogue away from the business at hand.

Are you a great finisher of other people's sentences? If you are, you will frustrate your prospective customer or client who will see you as a rude, unlikeable person with whom they will not want to do business on a long term basis. You will also be more often wrong than right in your assumptions, as to what they were about to say.

Do you clearly convey to your prospective customer or client your impatience for them to finish speaking so that you can make your point? This is a deadly habit as your prospect knows you are not listening to anything they are saying to you while you are rehearsing in your mind your response to what they said at an earlier point in their dialogue.

Whilst not regularly acknowledged, your eyes are also a tool to enhance communication and you need to be careful that yours don’t bore into your prospective customer or clients eyes like laser beams on full and continuous power. It is easy to overdo eye contact, and this will create tension in the person being subjected to such scrutiny, and this tension will usually block effective communication.

If you improve your listening skills in each of the above areas you will remove a significant barrier between yourself and your potential customers or clients thereby allowing you to more easily establish constructive relationships, which in turn will lead to far more successful business outcomes.

How many of these common listening mistakes are you currently making by force of habit?

When did you last do any training to improve your listening skills?

If you were to remove these listening mistakes completely from your sales presentations, what effect would that have on your closing ratios for new business, and what would this mean in terms of additional revenue for your business?

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8 Tips to Prevent Negative First Impressions

It is unfortunate, but nothing conveys nervousness or a lack of confidence more than negative body language, and given that we live in a very visual society, you will generally be judged on your body language alone, usually well before you have even had the chance to open your mouth.

As a business owner, you fortunately get to choose whether you are going to be your own best visual aid. The eight tips below can be used as a guide to assist you to demonstrate the body language required to create that critical positive first impression in all of your business interactions.

1) Be properly prepared for the particular activity in which you are to engage.
2) Ensure your posture is erect and conveys alertness.
3) Make a relaxed and confident approach towards those you will be engaging.
4) Make eye contact before you begin to speak.
5) Dress comfortably and appropriately to the environment you are entering.
6) Be conscious of what your hands are doing, or not doing.
7) Smile often.
8) If you wear glasses don't hide behind them, or use them as a crutch.

You also need to understand, that your gestures and mannerisms can help you achieve strong rapport and create a climate of trust, but if your gestures are not aligned to your message or your mannerisms annoy, they can also make people uncomfortable, or even antagonistic, towards you.

It is wise, if you do not already know, to learn quickly what mannerisms and gestures are used by people to convey defensiveness, reflection, suspicion, openness and co-operation, insecurity, and nervousness and ensure that you train yourself to recognise these, and use as appropriate to the situation you find yourself in.

If you can support a strong verbal message with positive and powerful body language, you will appear to your customers/clients as confident, creditable, and caring and in control; the end result of which will undoubtedly be, an increase in business for your enterprise.

Are you conscious of the message your body language conveys to others before you engage with them?

How well do you read the body language of others?

Have you ever filmed yourself doing presentations or conducting business meetings?

Good Questions Equal Great Business Strategy

Reviewing your existing business strategy, or creating a business strategy for a new business venture, should not be seen as a complex and difficult task by any business owner or business manager. In fact, the process itself can be invigorating and exciting, and if done well, will certainly make your business and personal life somewhat easier, over the next twelve months.

Unfortunately, most readily accessible literature on this subject is focused on the development of business strategies by large corporate entities or similar sized public enterprises, and what little guidance is around for the SME business owner is still overly theoretical, and in my view far more complex than it needs to be, or the simplicity of suggested methodologies is far from adequate in being able to make a real difference to business outcomes.

In reality, the process of reviewing an existing business strategy, or creating one for a new business, can be distilled into an easy three part process. Firstly, asking and answering the right questions in respect of your business, secondly, collating all of the answers and grouping them into a small number of specific strategies, and thirdly, identifying all of the tasks which need to be performed to successfully implement each strategy.

So what are the right questions that you firstly need to answer? I suggest that the following nine questions should always be asked, and answered in a comprehensive manner, as the first part of the process of developing a new business strategy.

1) What business arena are we really operating in, and is this the business arena we want to operate in?
2) What market(s) do we want to serve with this business and which particular customers/clients?
3) What outcomes do we want to achieve in the next 3, 6, 9, &12 months, and by year 2, year 3 etc?
4) What resources will we need to progressively apply in the business to achieve these specific outcomes?
5) What actions need to be taken and by whom to gather these resources so they are available as needed?
6) What management and support structures will we need to initially have, and progressively upgrade?
7) What tools will we need to put in place to measure and report progress?
8)  What external reporting requirements will we need to comply with, and how important are each of these?
9) What don’t we know, that we need to know, to manage known and unknown future risks?

Robust analysis of the answers that flow forth from the above process, and the grouping of these into relevant subject headings, will allow the second phase of the development of your business strategy to be finalised.

Ideally, the information so gathered, will allow you to quickly prepare a range of specific tasks for each of the following strategic areas;

1) Customer/Client Acquisition and Retention Strategies
2) People Acquisition and People Management Strategies
3) Resource Acquisition and Resource Management Strategies
4) Organisation Capability and Organisation Structure Strategies
5) Financial and Capital Management Strategies
6) Legal and Regulatory Compliance Strategies
7) Public Relations and Stakeholder Communication Strategies.

Once the full range of tasks has been identified for each of the strategic areas it is an easy matter to complete the third of the processes involved. That is the placing of timelines, costs or budgets, and responsibility for completion of each task to an individual or a team, against each specific task.

When this is completed your new business strategy is ready to be pulled together, documented, disseminated and put into action.

Do you have a strategic plan for your business?

If so, is it time you reviewed it and looked at it from a new angle?

If not, will this article provide you with the impetus to create one and run your business within its structured boundaries?

Business Planning Benefits Explained

The discipline involved in preparing a formal written business plan will stand any business owner in good stead as their business grows, whereas anyone proceeding with a business venture of any kind without one, is generally at short odds not to fully capitalise on the opportunity, that they seek to exploit for profit.

Preparing a formal business plan can be an eye opener for someone without a business degree or previous exposure to formal business planning processes. Business owners, who engage consultants to help them in this process, quickly become aware that there can be a lot more strategic and operational matters to be considered than they expected, and they often acknowledge that their limited understanding of the importance that these matters assume as a business grows, would most likely have cost them dearly if they had proceeded without a plan.

A business owner contemplating creating a formal business plan should consult others (which should at a minimum include legal, accounting and business advisors) who will question their assumptions, their projections, the substance of their offering to the market, and even their competence to successfully translate their ideas into a viable and sustainable business. The investment made in engaging these advisors is generally money well spent, providing of course, that the advisors are chosen carefully.

I would suggest that a business plan will never be passé, and I am confident in saying that anyone who prepares a comprehensive plan before embarking on the launch of any business venture, will give themselves a far greater chance of succeeding, than if they proceeded without one.

The most obvious benefits that a business owner will gain from the process of preparing a comprehensive business plan include the following;

a) It will force a move down from the big picture solution to the level where the detail becomes critical to the overall success of the business, and the planning required to co-ordinate all activities effectively and efficiently, becomes self-evident.

b) It will allow an early determination as to the feasibility of the proposed business activities relative to the human and financial resources definitely available to commence operations.

c) It will assist in setting the business owner’s vision in concrete, and from there allow the formulation of realistic goals, and appropriate schedules for the completion of these goals.

d) It will provide a framework for the guidance of those charged with implementing various components of the plan as to where their activities fit in relative to the achievement of the overall business objectives.

e) It will allow for financial control in the form of the allocation of budgets for each of the tasks which need to be undertaken in building the business to become a viable concern.

f) It will provide a scorecard of sorts, against which progress can be measured, necessary adjustments made, and final outcomes evaluated to determine the effectiveness of the actual planning process in the delivery of the results expected.

g) It will provide a certain level of confidence in that the planning process will have taken into account all of the known variables, thereby reducing the risk of the unknown by a significant degree and  as a consequence, providing a more solid platform upon which to grow the business.

h) It will ensure that all statutory and regulatory factors are known, the necessary compliance structures are established from day one, and all necessary training requirements are scheduled and managed.

i) It will instill the discipline of the planning process for the future years that the business will be operating, and the lessons learned from evaluating the effectiveness of each year’s process, can be utilised in making the following year’s planning more robust.

The preparation of the initial formal business plan does not have to be a laborious or expensive process, although the more time taken and the degree of expert input involved, may mean the difference between an average plan with average outcomes versus a dynamic well structured plan designed to maximise the profit opportunity for which it has been prepared to exploit.

The old adage, those that don’t plan are actually planning to fail, holds as true today in business as it always did. As a business owner, it is your responsibility to plan for the success of your business, and the extent that you embrace this responsibility, will determine the future profitability of your business.

Are you planning to succeed through embracing a formal business planning process?

If you are not familiar with such a process, are you willing to learn the process or engage those who can assist you develop a realistic plan for your business?

Can you see that an investment of time and capital into ensuring your business has a formal business plan as the framework for its future growth, will return great dividends to you, as the business owner?

Are You Fishing with Blunt Hooks?

An extremely important component of growing any business to the point where it becomes self sustaining is prospecting for suitable clients or customers. As a business owner, you need to set the lead for others to follow if you want to elevate the importance of prospecting for future business to its rightful place as a key component of your business plan.

All business owners have to prospect, and some are far better at it than others. If you, and those you employ, avoid the seven common mistakes that others frequently make when prospecting, you will become very good at it, and your business will grow quickly.

The first and most common mistake in prospecting is simply not doing enough of it. As a business owner, you must understand that the work you do today, in uncovering suitable prospects, represents your income for weeks or months down the track. The absence of constant prospecting activity equals no constant income in the future, and creates the real and dangerous potential for cash flow problems to develop in your business.

The second mistake is prospecting with the wrong attitude towards the job. When you prospect with a positive attitude towards the work which needs to be done, and you expect that work to generate good business leads, you will usually prove yourself to be absolutely right.

The third mistake is not having a good system in place to ensure that all leads generated are followed through with, and all income potential is maximised. Without systems, too much falls through the cracks and unproductive activity will prevail. Before you commence any prospecting activity make sure that your business has a CRM package in place, and that all involved in the prospecting activities are familiar with it, and understand the importance of recording all activity and outcomes.

The fourth mistake is prospecting the wrong people in the first place. Are your potential prospects going to deliver your business a high enough return on the investment made, are they geographically positioned to make servicing them a cost effective option, do they actually want what or need what you are offering, are you face to face with the decision maker or a key advisor to the decision maker?

The fifth, and a killer of a mistake, is not asking the prospects you do get in front of, for referrals. It is vital for all business owners to remember that when you are prospecting, you are not only prospecting the prospect, but anyone else they know, who may have a need for your offering. Always remember, if you don’t ask – you don’t get.

The sixth mistake in prospecting is a reluctance to invest in direct mailing to potential prospects that you have on any database you own or control. Mail them monthly at a minimum, and the frequency of touches will eventually deliver a regular stream of people wanting to take up what you are offering, and who will also be willing to give you referrals.

The final, and an all too common mistake made by business owners, is to stop regular and consistent heavy prospecting just because they have a few good weeks or months flowing on from previous prospecting activities. Never forget, that a drop off in prospecting will inevitably result in a drop off in income for your business in the coming months.

How does your business measure up in terms of the returns from your prospecting activities?

Does your business have a program of activities which constitute a constant and effective prospecting machine?

Do you need to sharpen your hooks?

Two Magic Pills for Business Success

To be successful as a business owner, regardless of the type of business you operate, you need to insulate yourself from the negative aspects of selling yourself, your business, and your product or service, and at the same time, fully commit yourself to the ongoing development of the vital skills you need to have, in order to be truly successful.

This can be easier said than done, but with the right approach, you can achieving realistic outcomes in financial terms, from your investment of capital and time, in your business. This approach does, however, requires you to pop a pill or two for the overall good of your business.

The pills you need to swallow are the Two Magic Pills for Business Success. These Magic Pills are the tonic required to ensure a healthy future for your business. Taken daily, these Magic Pills will make a significant difference to the outcomes that you are able to achieve in your business. life.

As with all such magic remedies, there is a trick involved. The trick here is to develop the habit of taking these Magic Pills daily, for as long as you are in business. If you do, over time they will reduce or completely obviate, your need to call on others to help you to be successful.

The first Magic Pill is to take whatever steps that are necessary to develop and continually reinforce your faith in yourself. That is, you need to cultivate and feed a very strong self image. This is vitally important, as without one, you will find life as a business owner extremely tough.

A Google search on Self Image reveals in excess of 6,000,000 references, so there is no shortage of information available on this subject, and the sheer volume of references indicates the importance of the subject matter to all aspects of life, not only business.

This first Magic Pill needs to be accompanied by both the determination to never quit regardless of how tough the road to success may become, and having enough faith in yourself to repeat the right disciplines and actions until they become ingrained, and continue them for as long as it takes for you to eventually achieve success.

The second Magic Pill is to develop a strong ability to focus, that is, to become extremely efficient in your use of the time available to you, to conduct your business each day.

Focus is the most powerful tool a business owner can possess, so it is imperative that you develop your skills in this area. Focus allows you to accomplish more in less time by staying in the moment, and being completely attuned to the task at hand. See prevous posting titled Focus is everything in Business to see if you may be guilty of lack of focus.

A quick Google search for "ability to focus" will take you to a wealth of resources that you can tap into to improve your performance in this area. Find what works for you and put it into practice, and persist practicing until lack of focus is no longer an issue for you.

If your business is not doing as well as you had anticipated, ask yourself the following questions; Do you have stong faith in yourself and your abilities? Is your self image as strong as it must be if you want to succeed in the tough world that is today's business environment? Are you as focussed on the success of your business as you need to be? Is your focus in the right area?

Take these Two Magic Pills for Business Success everyday for an extended period, and you can virtually guarantee yourself, that your business will improve out of sight.

Will your Business Survive and Prosper?

As a business owner, you have chosen to invest both your capital and your valuable time into an enterprise that operates in an environment which is highly competitive, very personally demanding, and constantly changing.

Quite rightly, one of your highest priorities should be to protect your investment and nurture it for long enough to build, from the proceeds of your ongoing business endeavours, a strong asset base to support your future plans.

In order to protect your investment, you need to develop a fundamental understanding as to why SME businesses often fail to meet their owner's initial expectations, and why many businesses actually fail.

The list of reasons for failure is long, but the more significant factors include;

• lack of a cohesive strategy for continuous improvement and innovation
• lack of systems for business accounting and control of business expenses
• lack of understanding of working capital needs and cash flow management
• lack of general business acumen and core business management skills
• lack of understanding of the market demand for the product or service offered
• lack of understanding of the value of family and other support mechanisms
• lack of well developed negotiation, influencing and sales skills
• lack of understanding of the importance of choice of location to the business
• lack of ability to handle the challenges of growing the business
• lack of focus, energy and persistence in the face of all types of challenges and
• lack of acceptance of personal responsibility for the success of the business.

Looking at this somewhat truncated list, it is easy to see that running and operating a successful business requires a lot of skill and effort, and it is not for the faint of heart.

Another key stepping stone on the road to protecting your investment of capital and time into your business is to learn to work on your business, as much, if not more than working in the business.

To this end, the ability to focus your mind and your best energy, on the areas where they will have the greatest effect, is extremely important.

Many business owners try to do everything themselves and are reluctant to rely on others, be they employees, contractors, outsourced service providers, or other business professionals such as accountants, lawyers, and business consultants, to perform roles for which these people are far better qualified.

Do you have a clear picture of where your strengths lie? If not, perhaps it is time for the good of your business, to explore who you are, and in doing so, develop a clear understanding of your major strengths and identify the areas in which you face strong challenges.

People often say that business is not rocket science, however what they generally neglect to say, is that all businesses require someone powered by rocket fuel, in order to get lift off, move into orbit, and stay afloat for long enough to enjoy the ride and the view, from on high.

As a business owner, that person needs to be you. Are you up to the challenge?

Get Personally Organised for Business Success

Successful business owners have the ability to efficiently multi-task, an ability which they most likely developed through focused action on improving their level of of personal organisation.

This week's article offers advice on how to develop a higher level of personal organisation so that you can better handle the variety of tasks, problems, issues, professional and personal responsibilities, and the day to day challenges, you face in growing your business.

The keys to developing a high level of personal organisation include the following elements;

• Have a plan which outlines what you want to achieve and more importantly - why you want to achieve it.
• Set your priorities on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.
• Be totally focused - concentrate on only one thing at a time.
• De-clutter, get organised, know where everything you need is, and make sure it is readily accessible.
• Don't allow any distractions into your work time.
• If you are no longer passionate about a particular role find someone else to do it.
• Have set routines for your regular activities.
• Organise your own work space to be as efficient as it possibly can be given your particular environment.
• Learn and practice how to say NO and then do it more frequently.
• Don't say YES to anything unless you mean it.
• Don't make commitments you can't guarantee you will be able to keep.
• Learn to respect and value your own time.
• There is a time to work and a time to play. Don't mix these two up.
• Use technology simply as a business tool not as a crutch to hide from the world.
• Create an environment in which you can work surrounded by the things which make you the most productive person you can be.
• Pack more into your day - Get up earlier and go to bed later.
• When you find yourself procrastinating ask yourself WHY?
• Before you venture out into the world have a list of everything you can possibly do whilst you are out, and which can be done along either the route to or from your destination.
• Have access to one or two trusted mentors to give you an injection of support when times are tough or the challenges appear too great.

The above is not an exhaustive list, but if you quickly and critically assess your own level of personal organisation against each element, you may discover one or two areas where, with a little effort, you can improve your own skills and help your business on its path to greater success.