Trade Show Mistakes Costing Business Dearly

 
Last week, I had the occasion to visit a major five day trade show, and what I witnessed, I found hard to comprehend.


I couldn’t believe some of the poor performances that I witnessed from many of those manning the booths for companies, most which had paid big attendance fees and were also incurring high daily expenses, to participate.


Deadly Trade Show Sins on Display

Just a few of the litany of poor performances witnessed included;

• Three caffeine addicts having their mid afternoon coffees, chatting aimlessly about sporting performances, with their bodies facing the back of their booth, completely oblivious to to the six people who were reading their brochures and wall posters, and the one person in particular who obviously wanted to engage with the company, but after a minute of being ignored, just shook his head and walked away.
• One young lady, left to man a booth alone, engrossed in a heavy duty conversation via her mobile phone, totally ignoring three separate visitors, in the space of two minutes.
• The failure of 9 out of 12 booth staff to ask for a business card or contact details from myself after answering questions relating to their products or services.
• Three sales people all dealing with responding to the questions being asked by one demanding enquirer, whilst ignoring everyone else who passed through their large booth, in the space of five minutes.
• Young, inexperienced, female staff accosting passing foot traffic with pleas to enter their competition to win a pitiful prize. An affront resulting in the majority of people, other than young men, bypassing their booth completely.
• Two young male spruikers, far more intent on picking up the cute hostesses at a neighbouring booth, than performing the roles for which their company was paying them to perform.
• Two booths completely unmanned and without at least having substantial information boards, business literature, and business cards that those passing by, during the absence of the booth operator, could at least take advantage of if they had interest in the products on offer.
• With two and a half days still to go in the show, far too many staffers displaying far too obvious signs of boredom and preferences to be anywhere other than in the booth they have been employed to man.
• Apart from five or six well trained operators (perhaps actual business owners), the general reluctance of booth operators to step out from the bowels of their booths to actively engage with the traffic passing the front of their booth, was a too common occurrence.

Cost of Poor Trade Show Performance

The return on investment (ROI) for participating in a trade show has to be measured in terms of;

• leads generated,
• products sold,
• contracts entered into,
• contacts made, and
• brand awareness created.

The performances I witnessed, as outlined above, will obviously have affected the ROI of the individual companies concerned, and may possibly lead to some companies electing to bypass the event in future, to the detriment of their businesses.

Failure to achieve an adequate return on investment in such a major, enduring and popular trade show is really unacceptable, and speaks badly of the management skills of those charged with conducting the event for their companies.

Preventing Poor Trade Show Performance

What gets measured gets done. This is a truism and if you want to prevent poor performance at your next trade show you need to;

• Outline company expectations in term of the ROI expected from the participation.
• Make all participants aware of the cost the company is incurring by attending.
• Set individual targets for those manning the both.
• Ensure adequate training is provided to all staff attending.
• Monitor performance throughout the event and provide constant feedback.
• Be aware of brand reputation when selecting staff to attend.
• Debrief after the event to determine ways to do better next time.

Ask Yourself


How does your company manage its trade show participation?


Does your company set the required return on its investment in advance of committing the funds?


Are all of the staff deployed adequately trained, provided with performance targets, made aware of the costs involved, and effectively monitored throughout the show?


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If your business is based in Melbourne Australia, and you need assistance to develop and grow it in order to provide you with a certain level of future prosperity, check out our website http://www.rhodan.com.au and, if you think we can help you, please don't hesitate to contact us.

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Avoid Personal Flat Battery Syndrome

Small business owners are notorious for burning the candle at both ends as they struggle to meet all of the demands placed upon them as they build and develop their businesses. Eventually, the constant demands on one’s time, the lack of sufficient rest and respite, and the constant pressures of making the weekly payroll, can take their toll and the business owner may find themselves ending up with a very flat battery.

The temptation to simply soldier on and hope for the best, regardless of the price paid personally, is generally overwhelming for most small business owners who find themselves in this difficult situation. Unfortunately, for most who reach this point, it is hard for them to see that they are fighting against themselves in a battle they can’t, realistically, ever expect to win.

The Problem

The problem for a business owner of soldiering on without the necessary battery power to provide forward momentum, is that they will find that at very best their business slowly grinds to a standstill, and at worst, they will find themself operating a business that is actually sliding downhill fast.

Prevention is Easier than the Cure

As with most ailments that develop over time, prevention is usually far easier than the cure. As a business owner, it is most advisable that you ensure that the energy level in your personal battery never dips below the level where it can fire you up each morning, full of energy and enthusiasm for the challenges of the coming day.

So what can a business owner do to avoid their energy levels dropping to the point where their battery is absolutely flat?

Firstly, understand and accept the following;

• The human body was not created to function 24/7 and perform effectively under constant stress, and the body itself requires adequate rest, exercise, and appropriate fuel to operate at its optimum level.
• The human brain needs strong blood flow to deliver the oxygen it needs, and deep breathing whilst not stressed out, is a good way to deliver the oxygen needed to enhance the brains ability to reason, exercise sound judgement, and make effective decisions.
• If you don’t give your body and your brain what they need on a regular and consistent basis, they will both adjust to lower levels of performance, making it much harder for them to be encouraged back to peak performance in the future. The longer this situation is allowed to continue, the harder and longer the recovery period will be, and the less likely a return to full peak performance, will be achieved.

Secondly, consider the following business truisms, and take appropriate action;

• Doing everything that you can possible do yourself, rather than delegating or outsourcing non critical activities, is never going to make the best use of your time, skills or energy.
• No business plan ever properly formulated, had a key objective of killing or destroying the mental or physical health, of the business owner.
•  Working on the business itself is as important, if not more important in most cases, than working in the business.
• No business owner ever got wealthy or lived to a ripe age through flogging a dead horse.
• Without sound foundations, good support mechanisms, consistent and regular cash flows, competent and committed staff, sound business policies, procedures and practices, and good leadership, the chances of long term business success are minimal.

Thirdly, a separate focus on a range of activities outside the business itself is necessary to provide;

• A sense of balance and a mental break from constantly focussing on the business.
• Alternative experiences to encourage development of different perspectives of problems and issues, new perspectives which can be applied back in the business.
• Self development both personally and professionally in an environment more conducive of delivering the required learning outcomes.
• Activities which involve socialising with family and friends and letting them know that their support helps both sustain you in your business, and provides the reasons to continue.

Finally, make time just for yourself to;

• Regularly sit quietly alone and uninterrupted and reflect on your own contributions to your business and the effectiveness of those contributions, and note any adjustments you can make to reduce the personal impost, that the business places upon you as the owner.
• Reward yourself with a bit of regular personal pleasure, be that a massage, a long walk, a hard run, a quiet drink in your favourite bar, an afternoon nap, a bit fishing or gardening, or any other activity that is for your pleasure alone.
• Contemplate what life after your business life will look like (assuming the business doesn’t kill you first).

Self Protection

There you have it, four areas in which you can take appropriate action to ensure that your personal battery never goes flat and causes your business to grind to a standstill, or rapidly go downhill.

Ask Yourself

Are you finding that you are rapidly approaching the stage when you might end up with a flat battery?

Are you aware of the needs of your body and brain for adequate rest, exercise and fuel?

What are you going to do to ensure that your battery never goes flat?

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If your business is based in Melbourne Australia, and you need assistance to develop and grow it in order to provide you with a certain level of future prosperity, check out our website http://www.rhodan.com.au and, if you think we can help you, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Gain Business through Promoting your Expertise

One of the toughest tasks for a SME business owner is generating new business. This may be necessary to either replace lost business, or to grow the business itself on the back of consistently increasing the volume of new business, whilst simultaneously minimising the loss of current business.

A common reason why many business owners find the going tough when it comes to new business acquisition, is because they are doing the all of chasing to find the new business, rather than new business seeking them out, to provide the products or services, required to satisfy their needs.

We all know that the cost of acquiring new business via promotions, advertising, direct selling or indirect sales activity can be quite high. We also know that often the budgets available to SME business owners, are not as extensive as usually required, to fund the costs of acquiring a constant flow of new business from such activities.

An alternative way of acquiring new business, is to get the new business to come to you as a consequence of the recognition of your expertise, and the reputation you have established in providing that expertise, to the market.

Unfortunately, as good as your expertise and reputation may be, unless the wider market that you wish to serve, is made aware of how good your expertise is, and you then continually reinforce this message at every opportunity, you will forever be chasing new business to maintain momentum in your business enterprise.

There are many cost effective ways to raise your market’s awareness of your particular expertise in producing something for sale or providing a particular service. The important thing is to develop a specific strategy for increasing your profile in your designated market, and then work this strategy until you see your expertise acknowledged via the avenue of business coming directly to you, without you having to be the hunter all of the time.

Steps you can take to promote your expertise in a cost effective way include;

• Write and publish articles, that demonstrate your expertise, at your own blog site or submit articles to other blogs which cater to your target market,
• Write and submit articles relevant to your industry to your local paper, relevant industry publications, regular newsletters that circulate in your business community, and as many relevant online forums that seek such content,
• Volunteer to provide some of your expertise to local community groups or major charities,
• Volunteer to be a speaker on subjects within your area of expertise at as many local business and local networking groups as you can find,
• Register your business and detail the expertise you offer on as many of the free online business registers that will help people find you in your customer/client catchment area,
• Get well structured testimonials that highlight the key elements of your expertise as well as the quality of your products/services and make these as prominent as possible on your website,
• Ensure that your e-mail signature block highlights your expertise as well as your contact details, and where possible includes a link to the testimonials on your website, and
• Where you have a telephone system that has the capability of putting callers on hold utilise a message on hold system to ensure they are listening to a message about your expertise whilst they are on hold.

The more ways that you can find to promote your expertise in a cost effective way, the more business you will see by way of direct engagement, and the less hunting you will need to do, to ensure that your business consistently generates new customers/clients.

Are you doing as much as you should be doing to promote your expertise?

What is it currently costing you to acquire a new customer/client?

How much more profitable would your business be if you could reduce this cost yet continue to acquire new customers at a satisfactory rate to continue to grow your business?

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If your business is based in Melbourne Australia, and you need assistance to develop and grow it in order to provide you with a certain level of future prosperity, check out our website http://www.rhodan.com.au and, if you think we can help you, please don't hesitate to contact us.

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The Lone Ranger had support; do YOU have enough?

We all know that life as a Business Owner can be tough going. This recognised reality actually works in your favour, as it lessens the competition you face in the market, for your product or service. It also provides you with the opportunity to do well financially, if you are able to surmount the hurdles that you will inevitably face, as you develop and grow your own business.

One of the critical elements, that will determine whether or not you will be successful as a business owner, is the degree of support you can engender from others as you travel along the path to eventual success.

This external support is absolutely necessary to keep you buoyant and focussed on your objectives, despite the difficulties you will encounter on a daily basis. The various types of support you will need from others include;

a) Someone to act as a sounding board for you to bounce ideas off and to assist you to evaluate the validity of your ideas before you act on them impetuously, or erroneously,

b) Someone to help you with brainstorming ideas for problem resolution, promoting and marketing your business, development of new products or services, and effectively managing your available resources,

c) Someone who will provide you with continual encouragement to continue to persevere with facing the daily challenges that need to be met to make your business a success,

d) Someone in the same boat as yourself as a business owner to share information, share leads, share celebrations of the small wins you make each week, share the emotional ups and downs that only a fellow business owner will understand, and share the pain when everything doesn’t go as well as planned.

e) Someone who can introduce you into appropriate networks that you need to be part of to gain the required level of exposure in your market, in order to be highly visible to your customers or clients,

f) Someone who is willing to allow you access to their similar business so that you can benchmark your operations against theirs to determine areas for improvement in your own, and

g) Someone who can act as your businesses financial guardian angel to point you in the right direction and to ensure that you don’t make any terminal mistakes in the management of the cash flow of your business.

It is likely that you will need support from a number of different people to ensure you have the support that you require.

If you are very lucky, you will find two or three people, who between them, can give you the level of support you need to get your business to the stage where it can then afford to engage professional firms or individual professionals, to provide the support systems that every successful business needs, to enable it to continue to thrive and prosper.

So where do you find the people you need to provide the support to you that can make your difficult role a little easier and provide a greater chance for you to become a successful business owner?

The following list highlights great places to look for the people you can turn to for the necessary levels of support for yourself, as you grow your business;

a) Members of your immediate and extended family,

b) Members of clubs, associations and groups that you belong to or have had previous associations with,

c) Programs for business owners established by your Local Council, State Government Instrumentalities and National Government Departments,

d) Networking Groups specifically set up to support SME business owners,

e) Informal networks of non-competing local business owners in your immediate vicinity, and

f) Social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter that have a business focus.

To garnish the support you need you must be passionate about your business and the outcomes you are trying to achieve, and use the right approach when sounding others out for the level of support you require.

You will usually find that if you approach the right people in the right way, even if you have not had a really strong previous relationship with them, most will, within the bounds of reasonableness, go out of the way to help others, especially if there is any form of reciprocity involved.

Are you acting a little like a modern day Robinson Crusoe?

Do you understand the benefits that the types of support outlined above can deliver to your business?

Will you now develop a plan to ensure you get the level of support you deserve and need?

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Is your Business a Nest Egg or a Future Millstone?

If you are a business owner not planning to sell up in the next five years and you wish to avoid future unpleasant financial surprises, especially when the time comes to retire from your business, then this article is for you.

If however, you are one of many business owners who are planning to retire solely on the proceeds of the sale of your businesses during the next 5 years or so, you may already be too late to avoid an unpleasant surprise, but you may still be able to mitigate the extent of the unpleasantness, so I have also included a few suggestions in this article for achieving this outcome.

The unpleasant surprise referred to above, which has its roots in the large bulge of baby boomer business owners all planning to exit their businesses around the same time and the likelihood of far fewer prospective purchasers being in the market at that time, will most likely take the form of significantly lower selling prices, usually well below expectations, being achieved for the sale of these businesses.

A more extreme, unpleasant surprise which is likely to be experienced by sellers for many of the last century style of businesses still owned by many baby boomers, will be little or no demand at all, from potential buyers for these businesses.

For baby boomer business owners, your key challenges in the period between now and your planned retirement date will be to; reinvent or revitalise your business, systemise it so that it can operate independently of your direct involvement, enhance its saleability by any other means available to you including quickly increasing profitability, introduce succession planning or plan for an internal buyout at a specific future date, and perhaps to consider introducing new shareholders now, rather than at the time you choose to retire.

For all business owners of later generations, the situation unfolding now for many of the baby boomer business owners is one you should seek to avoid, at all costs.

You definitely need to utilise your business to provide the substantial nest egg that you will need to have in order to afford a comfortable retirement, but this should be achieved by ensuring that you are always an employee of your own business, and that the business makes regular contributions of an adequate amount on your behalf, to the employee superannuation fund run by the business on behalf of its employees.

To achieve this outcome, you need to ensure that the prime objective of your businesses today is to operate profitably at all times, and at a level which allows the owners to draw a living wage, and make adequate superannuation contributions on a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly basis for as long as the business operates.

If this can be achieved, any risk of the business not being able to be sold at the time it needs to be sold, or selling for a price far less than the amount needed for retirement, is completely mitigated. The bonus of course being that, if the business is able to be sold when desired, all proceeds are simply icing on the cake, and the price obtained is immaterial.

The difficulty in reaching this outcome is that few SME business owners have the achievement of a minimum level of profit as their prime and ongoing business objective.

It may sound easy enough, but it takes both foresight and discipline, as well as dogged determination on behalf of the business owner to implement, enforce and continually reinforce everything required to keep all endeavours of the business focuses on achieving the level of profit which allows the consistent payment of wages to the owners, and the making of the required level of superannuation contributions on a regular basis.

Is your business paying you a wage and making regular contributions to a superannuation fund on your behalf?

Is the making of a required minimum level of profit the prime business objective of your business?

Is your business culture capable of being reshaped to allow such an objective to be successfully implemented?

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New Eyes Rectify SME Blindness

Being a SME business owner can be both lonely and demanding and often this can result in the business owner experiencing the “not being able to see the forest for the trees” syndrome.

One effect of suffering from this quite common affliction is that a SME business owner can start to live wholly in their own world, and eventually lose sight of the bigger, business picture. I call this affliction SME Blindness.

The very nature of business ownership in the SME environment is such that SME business owners often have to severely stretch their personal skill sets, and can find that they are spending most of their time engaged in activities that are far from the best use of their time and abilities, and which tend to bury them deeper and deeper into their own darkening world.

The amount of time engaged in such activities, usually mostly of an operational nature, also makes it harder for the SME business owner to be as strategic in their decision making as they need to be if they want to grow and prosper with their business endeavours, and be well prepared to face greater challenges in the future with their eyes wide open.

In many cases, the business concerned is the owner’s “baby”, and the attachment can be so strong that objective analysis and cutting the umbilical cord when necessary, are almost impossible when the business is not performing as it should, or major changes need to be made to ensure ongoing survival. We all know that no mother ever had an ugly baby, but if you look around, some are definitely better looking than others, but who would ever directly tell a mother that she had an ugly baby.

If your business is not performing to your expectations, perhaps it is now time to bring in an independent pair of fresh eyes to help you to critically look at your business, so that you can gain new perspectives, and can then utilise the insights gained through this process to implement the appropriate changes to re-invigorate your business.

There are many ways you can avail yourself of a fresh pair of eyes for your business, but first you need to determine what will work best for you, your team, and your business.

You should consider your own strengths as well as the strengths of your business, your own ego and the culture of your business, your willingness to change and the capability of your business to adapt and quickly adjust to changes, the cash flow of your business and its financial capacity to meet any costs involved, and the adequacy of yourself and your team to take your business to a new level, or in a different direction.

Once you determine what you believe is holding yourself and your team back from successfully growing your business to the level that matches your expectations (remembering that this is your reality, but analysis by others may subsequently come up with different findings) you can target the market to find the fresh pair of eyes you need to give you a greater and fresher independent perspective.

You might decide to find a mentor, access community or local government resources, utilise resources from any associations of which you are a member, hire a business coach, engage a business advisor, call in a management consultant, or actually employ (either part-time or full-time) a good business manager, with complementary skill sets to your own.

Whatever you choose, you must be willing to work with the person concerned, and make sure that you establish upfront, how you will value their contribution. Where appropriate, ensure that where fees are involved, you look on the fee as an investment in the future of your business, not a cost to minimize at the expense of the quality of the outcomes likely to be produced.

In general, look for a pair of eyes that are well qualified, have broad business experience, have owned a business themselves, have a track record that demonstrates good analytical and consultancy skills, and who will commit to providing their expertise for as long as it takes for you to extract all that you can from the relationship.

Is your business well and truly in need of a fresh set of eyes to flesh out the reasons why your business is not doing as well as expected?

Are you willing to expose yourself to that level of scrutiny for the greater good of your business?

Do you see the cost that you may incur in bringing in a fresh pair of eyes to look over your business as an investment in the future of your business or an expense to be minimized?

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Federise your Business for Ultimate Success

Living in Melbourne, the home city of the 2010 Asia Pacific Grand Slam of Tennis, otherwise known as the Australian Open, it has been hard to escape the blanket exposure Roger Federer has received over the last two weeks, as he has danced his way to yet another Grand Slam Final.

Whilst I have always been conscious of the growing legend that Roger Federer is creating as his career trajectory continues unabated, the statistics rolled out in the local media throughout the last week or so, and the ever growing list of records he is breaking or simply extending further, are simply breathtaking.

Taking in his clinical approach to winning his semi-final the other night, I began to wonder what lesson for business success could be found by analysing the real essence of Roger Federer.

This article is being written and will be published prior to Roger playing off in the final this evening against the great British hope Andy Murray, but the outcome of this single match will not change the person that Roger has become, or the success of brand Federer, other than creating more records, should he be successful.

Amazing as it may seem, the essential essence of Roger Federer and his keys to achieving unbelievable sporting and financial success, can be found in words starting with the letter P.

So here is a comprehensive list of the secrets to business success, as distilled from the exploits of one supreme sportsman, using only words commencing with the letter P.

Apply the lessons of each of these P elements to your business, and watch it take on a new life.

1)      Preparation

Roger never comes to a tournament unprepared to go the full distance. He leaves nothing to chance and reliance on luck has never been his approach. His fitness has always been a key element of his success, and he has employed the best to ensure that it stays that way.

2)      Practice

Roger is the ultimate example of practice making perfect, the ease at which he executes his strokes, moves around the court, anticipates opponent’s moves and clinically steps up to a higher level whenever necessary, screams out hours and hours of practice and continual refinement of technique.

3)      Participation

Roger is a participant in the wider world of tennis other than just participating as a player. His voice is respected and he gives his time to advancing the interests of all professional tennis players. His approach should see his “tennis career” extend well beyond his playing days.

4)      Performance

Roger is the ultimate performer. He always brings his A game to the court and spectators know that regardless of whether or not the match is competitive, they will observe a master in action, and leave with a finer appreciation of what it takes to succeed at the highest level.

5)      Professionalism

Roger and professionalism go hand in hand, which is a lot more than can be said of all of his contemporaries. Has there ever been a more professional sportsperson. I doubt it. Long after matches are over, Roger is still giving media interviews which he conducts in English, German and French, respecting the needs of various media organisations.

6)      Persistence

Roger is nothing if not persistent. He waited a number of years before achieving his first success at Grand Slam level, and once having tasted success, he has persisted with all of the work required to maintain ongoing success, in a highly competitive environment.

7)      Personality

Roger is regarded as one of the nicest people to ever compete and succeed consistently at the highest level of his chosen sport. His personality is also his brand, and surely brand Federer, is now one of the most valued brands going around. The brand reflects the person and the personality continually adds value to the brand.

8)      Posture

Roger walks on to the court and no-one is in any doubt that he is there to do the business of winning. Off court his posture is one of co-operative endeavour to assist those who support the periphery of the world that he inhabits as he plies his trade. His standing outside the tennis world continues to grow, and his work with his own foundation supports this growing respect.

9)      Pride

Roger takes great pride in his achievements but suppresses the temptation to let his ego become rampant as a consequence of climbing many tall mountains on the way to where he is today. He now plays for his place in history as the best male tennis player to ever play the game.

10)   Projection

Roger projects the expectation of being successful in all of his tennis endeavours and whilst this may be intimidating for opponents he does not overtly set out to intimidate lesser opponents. None the less, he always projects the intent that winning is his sole objective when he steps onto the court.

11)   Power

Roger exercises power in a controlled and deliberate manner. His power comes from both his physical prowess and well developed techniques and from his status as a champion of his chosen field. He has not been known to use his power unwisely or inappropriately in any endeavours on or off the court.

12)   Promotion

Roger quietly and judiciously, continually promotes both his own brand and the sport which has richly rewarded him, over the years. He is now assiduously promoting his own foundation, and during the current Grand Slam, he used his promotion skills to raise considerable funds for the people of Haiti.

13)   Patience

Roger is now clearly a patient man. Success did not come immediately to him, he was somewhat petulant in his earlier days, and seen to be in a hurry but now is approaching statesman status, whilst continuing to compete successfully at the highest level.

14)   Perfection

Roger will dispute this, but in the eyes of tennis players and supporters worldwide, Roger Federer is as close to the perfect tennis player that anyone is ever likely to see in their lifetimes. He is blessed with natural talent, but has carefully honed this talent on a consistent basis for over ten years, to reach that state of perfection.

15)   Predictability

Roger created a new record this week in reaching his 23^rd consecutive Grand Slam semi-final. Tournament organisers, the media, the paying spectators and many other stakeholders have benefitted from this predictability over the last 5 years. No other player gets close in terms of predictability, and few would ever bet against Roger before a semi-final.

16)   Profitability

Roger has redefined tennis as a business and is probably one of very many who treat it as such. His predictability as demonstrated above ensures consistent cash flow and avoids the peaks and troughs of revenue generation. Brand Federer continues to grow in value and it would be impossible to estimate the earnings potential of this brand over the next twenty years or so.

There you have it, sixteen words, each starting with the letter P, which defines why Roger Federer experiences a level of success which, others only dream about. As a business owner you can learn valuable lessons through assessing yourself and your business against such precise benchmarks.

How do you and your business measure up?

Where can you take action using these lessons to grow your business to a new level?

Do you have what it takes to climb your personal mountains?

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Attack it Before it Gets Big Enough to Eat You.

As business owners, we are always aware that there are problems we should be addressing in various areas of our business, but often we confine them to the too hard basket, or turn a blind eye to them, in the vain hope that they will somehow just go away, or someone else will resolve them for us.

The chief reason for this particular mindset is not an unwillingness to deal with all of the problems of running and operating a business, but rather the propensity of small business owners to focus on today’s most urgent problem, as well as older problems that have recently assumed a greater level of importance, due to the damage they are now inflicting on the business.

The downside of this understandable approach is that as a business owner you can get blind-sided by what was initially a small problem, but which has festered out of sight and mind, to become a much bigger problem that is about to bite you when you least expect it.

So how do you break the cycle and address problems as they arise, and when they are easier to resolve, rather than just putting them aside to deal with later? The following six step process may assist you to address the tendency to ignore problems until it is too late, and the damage has been done.

1)    Identify it is real and then quantify the extent and rate severity.

The fact that someone says something is a problem doesn’t necessarily mean that it is. It may actually be a symptom of an unidentified larger problem, or a consequence of a misunderstanding, or a deficit of knowledge, about the relevant subject matter.

Once you have established the problem is real, you need to quickly quantify the extent of the problem, and rate its severity relative to your business operations. This will allow you to establish an order of priority in taking action to resolve a series of problems if you have more than one to address.

2)    List the key benefits of solving the problem immediately.

Look at the problem from the perspectives of; the business, the shareholders, employees, external stakeholders, customers/clients etc, and list what the key benefits of resolving the identified problem will be for each group. This exercise should be quick and should also determine how widespread the effects of not solving the problem will be. It will also assist in pointing you in the right direction for Step 3.

3)    Collect and evaluate a range of potential solutions.

Don’t just rely on your own intuition or knowledge when considering potential solutions or you may miss more effective or more efficient solution that are readily available. Share the problem around and canvas, as widely as you deem necessary relative to the severity of the problem, for suggestions on how it can be effectively and efficiently resolved.

Allow only a short period for feedback, and as soon as this expires, evaluate the suggestions and rank them from the best to the least attractive, in terms of resolving the problem quickly.

4)    Evaluate the chosen suggestions against the tools and resources available to implement.

What may have been rated the best solution could, on closer examination of what tools and resources will be required to implement it, be relegated down the list of preferred solutions. It is therefore necessary to carefully evaluate each suggested solution, so that the one to be proceeded with can actually be successfully implemented.

5)    Sell the chosen solution to those who will implement it.

This is an important step to ensuring that the problem identified is addressed and put to bed.  The benefits to the business of resolving the problem as identified in Step 2, should be highlighted again, and specific individuals charged with implementing the solution within a specific time frame.

6)    Check implementation is complete and validate that problem is now buried.

This final step is critical. On the completion date check with those charged with implementing the solution to ascertain that full implementation is completed, and then validate the outcome is as expected.

As part of this process always ask, if in implementing this solution whether any other problems were identified, which now should be addressed. You will be surprised how often resolving one problem assists in identifying others that also need to be addressed.

There you have it, a quick and simple 6 step process to dealing with problems as they arise, rather than when they create a fire, which you may or may not be able to put out.

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Are you a business owner or manager who sweeps problems under the carpet rather than dealing with them when they arise?

Do you see the value in using this six step process to ensure problems do not fester in your business?

What will you do when you next become aware of a small problem in your business?

Turn Employees into Raving Advocates

How fantastic would it be for your future business revenue, if every one of your employees was a raving advocate for yourself, your business, and the products or services you offer to the market?

It is not hard to see that a concerted effort, to encourage all of your employees to raving advocates rather than just wage slaves, is clearly in your best interests.

What is difficult to understand, is why so few businesses have ever managed to succeed, in achieving such an optimum outcome.

Because it is an impossible task, I hear you mutter!

Not really.

It can be achieved, but only if you decide to make the challenge of turning all of your employees into raving ambassadors, a key focus for your business strategy over the next 12 to 18 months, and you are willing, and able to lead from the front, to make sure it happens.

If you are up to the challenge, the first thing you need to do is to change your own thinking and make absolutely sure that you acknowledge to yourself, and then accept, that you have the right to expect your employees to bring business into your enterprise from their own personal networks, and also through their advocacy of your business in their own, outside working hours, interactions with others.

It is a fair assumption that the majority of your employees (for whom you sign the pay cheques and who, in the main, are dependent on this income) will, in the right circumstances, under the right conditioning, and responding to effective management, be willing to meet your reasonable expectations as to the personal contribution required from them, to help your business grow and prosper.

Obviously, if you don’t currently have any level of expectation in respect to employee advocacy of your business, you won’t have any systems, policies and processes in place to encourage, reward, direct and manage employee activity in this arena.

Therefore, if you want the rewards which flow from having a team of raving advocates on your payroll, you will need a lot more than just rhetoric, to achieve ultimate success.

A very comprehensive and complex book could be written on the subject of how to get your employees to adopt your business as their own and become its raving advocates, so this article will only attempt to point you in the right direction, and suggest a few of the steps which will most likely need to be taken, to deliver the desired outcome.

An understanding of the Sphere of Influence is a good starting point. Basically it is said that the average adult in the workforce has a personal sphere of influence (to varying degrees) over approximately 200 people. Multiply this by the number of employees in your business, and you will quickly see the tremendous potential for your business to greatly increase its own sphere of influence, by tapping into each employee’s network.

In addition to people already in employee’s networks, the majority of employees through community activities, sporting pursuits, entertainment choices etc, interact every year with hundreds of people they have not previously met, providing you with great opportunities to help them to help you, by tailoring their answers to the age old questions; Who do you work for? What are they like to work for? What do they actually do?

You can also assist your employees to help you by providing them with scripted conversation starters to open up more opportunities for them to be asked these questions.

So how do you get all of your employees onboard with your challenge to turn them into raving advocates for your business?

The first step is to communicate that you regard each employee as an extension of yourself and, regardless of their individual roles, your expectation of each employee is that they will personally make an ongoing, and measurable contribution, to introducing new business to your enterprise.

The next step is to communicate to your employees the benefits to the business if they all meet your expectations, and ask them to tell you what it would take collectively, and individually, for them to become raving advocates.

You may get a surprise as to some of the answers you receive, and if you strike initial reticence, the following list can be used to generate possibilities;

a)      Group rewards if new business generated through employee activities meets minimum targets ie; Bigger, better Christmas Party in a fantastic location.

b)      Individual rewards for those who exceed expectations by wide margins ie; pay increase or bonuses.

c)       Training programs during work hours to prepare employees for the role of raving advocate and to enhance their understanding of the importance of this role to the ongoing success of your business ie; networking skills training.

d)      Special discounts on company products or services for both employees who embrace the raving advocate role, and those whom they introduce to your business.

e)      Allow employees to develop a clear Unique Selling Proposition for your product or service that they can identify with, and which they can also easily articulate.

f)       Profiling individual employees in the company newsletter along with photos of them with new customers/clients they have introduced to the business.

g)      Allow employees a key role in building a Facebook fan page for your business and allow them ongoing participation in this endeavour.

h)      Allow employees to host seminars for their own contacts to learn about company products or services and provide everything needed to ensure each seminar is successful.

i)        Let employees have a degree of control over their work environment and give them the tools they identify as being necessary to turn them into raving advocates; ie free or discounted wireless broadband modem with shaped and limited data allowance for home use, for the purpose of promoting your business through their own social media activities.

j)        Set up an employee run (perhaps management moderated) blog for your business where employees can blog to their hearts content about you, your business, your products/services and anything else that those subscribing to the blog are interested in and will engage with your business as a consequence of that interest

k)      Allow time of in lieu of approved, after hours endeavours, by employees at networking events, seminars and presentations they make to their contacts on behalf of your business.

l)        Throw and end of month party each month for all employees and use it as an informal forum to thank all contributors, single out exceptional efforts for specific praise or monthly awards, and reinforce expectations.

m)    Provide sought after privileges ie; a car parking spot to the employee(s) deemed to have supported to the highest degree the role of raving advocate over a specific period, and allow them the use of the privilege until the end of the next review period.

n)      Agree to review company policies, rules and procedures to remove barriers which may prevent employees wanting to embrace the company as a raving advocate.

o)      Make it clear that any managers who themselves become roadblocks or discourage employees in any way from being willing to be raving advocates of the business, through their actions or inactions, will not have a long term future in the business.

p)      Agree to build appropriate systems and develop the relevant policy and procedures to ensure that raving advocacy by employees becomes the way we do business around here, ie; effect and embed the change in business culture which must happen, and

q)      Anything else you can think of to facilitate the change you require in your employees.

The next step is to decide on the actual expectation level that you will apply and ensure that you get employee agreement that this is a realistic expectation relative to employee’s wages/ salaries and the trade-offs conceded to encourage them to become your raving advocates.

Once this critical agreement is reached, the next step is to decide on and create the necessary systems, policies and procedures that will embed the activity, as a key component of your operations, and provide the framework for effectively managing the process.

The steps which follow will be the steps needed to implement decisions made, monitor progress, review outcomes, moderate expectations if required, and respond to feedback from the employees themselves.

There will be of course many more things that you could do and probably will need to do to create the ultimate sales machine for your business, but to achieve success, you will need to play the role of idea champion, and make this endeavour one of your key priorities.

Can you clearly see the benefit of creating an army of raving advocates out of your employees?

What do you estimate to be the ROI you might achieve from allocating your time and the resources available to you to deploy this army?

Are you up to the challenge?

Posted via web from Unique Insights

Is Social Media Sucking your Business Dry?

Being blissfully unaware of the entire social media landscape before embracing LinkedIn about two years ago, and then branching out over the last six months or so to embrace facebook, twitter, blogger, instant messaging, web-based e-mail and the like, I had no idea of the amount of time, that active participants in this so-called social media age, must commit to remain active and relative to their audiences.

As a management consultant, I am now concerned for all business owners who have employees with direct and unfettered internet access, and who do not employ an IT manager, or have a very good understanding themselves, of the social media landscape.
  
My concern stems from the fact that even with an IT manager or a good understanding of social media, it is far from an easy task to determine the extent to which company time and resources are being misappropriated through the private social media activities undertaken by employees.

Without one, or both of these elements, at your disposal to stem systematic abuse, your business profitability, is at the mercy of your employees.

Apart from the time such private activities can suck out of any business day, there is also the cost of bandwidth effectively stolen from your business and used to download music, movies, video clips etc to ipods, mobile telephones, flash drives and the like, for private use (the fact that such devices can also be used to download and steal business data, is a separate issue all together).

Those of you with wireless capabilities enabled in your business premises may, to your cost, find that employees and their friends are accessing your internet connection for downloads after hours, via smart phones or laptops operated from cars parked within range of your business broadband signal.

The critical danger will be where you have one, or more employees, who develop an addiction to social media activities. There are already terms such as Facebook addict, Twitter addict, and Social Media Whore, being bandied about on the internet, with some users applying these labels to themselves.

Don’t just think that it won’t affect any of your employees, and remember that it is not only the young, that are heavily into social media. You need to develop a real awareness of the dangers both financial, and potentially legal, of providing unfettered internet access to your employees. 

Remember that if you feed an addiction, it will only get worse.

As with gambling, alcohol, and illicit drug addicts, it is ultimately a downhill spiral, with the employer bearing the brunt of the collateral damage, and ultimately paying a high price, before eventually needing to dismiss the errant employee.

Don’t think social media is a passing fad. If you have lived in blissful ignorance like myself until recently, you are about to be hit by a fundamental change in the way in which the world communicates and transacts.

I am old enough to have commenced work before mainframe computing impacted on the workplace, and well before personal computers were thought of, and certainly many years before that other supposed passing fad, the internet, was available to the masses.

I have no doubt that unauthorised social media activities by employees are going to become a large and problematic issue for small business owners, especially those not equipped to fully understand, much less handle, the risks inherent in this growing problem.

Do you know just how much time your employees spend on unauthorised social media activities during working hours?

Would you have any idea if any of your employees are social media addicts?

Do you understand that this is an issue that you can ignore, but only at your own peril?

Posted via web from Unique Insights