Top 10 Things Every Business
Should Provide for Every Worker
Including the Boss!

Creativity. Every human being has a need to decorate their own office, find their own way to do their assigned task, and have their creativity be recognized. In the sense that all of us are somewhat lazy, often allowing and encouraging "creative laziness" can lead to not only happier employees, but a healthier bottom line.

Contribution. Managers have always known that every worker must contribute to the bottom line, but increasingly staff at every level want to know that their suggestions, their efforts, energy and loyalty contribute to the company in many other ways. From the old suggestion box, to recent Quality Circles, every member needs to know that they contribute and that their contributions are valued.

Community. The workplace is increasingly a one-stop source of friendships, exercise clubs, day care, health care and anxiety. If you and your staff aren't able to foster a sense of community and teamwork in the midst of a highly mobile, competitive and insecure world, performance will immediately suffer.

Personal Development. As out-sourcing and mobility increase, the best and the brightest are increasingly clear that the work they do must strengthen, enrich, and enhance their lives far beyond a simple paycheck. From team building and communication skills, to new technical skills, every member of your business must know that they are growing, becoming stronger and healthier, or they will quickly grow restless.

Professional Development. This actually comes after Personal Development. In the past, industrial bosses needed welders or drivers or clerks, and employees were expected to come to the job with these skills. Today, business requires skills that didn't exist even 3 years ago! Asking the boss to manage with last year's reporting system, or your sales force to use last year's website, or expecting the accounting department to cope with an old spreadsheet is asking for bad information, bad decisions, frustration, low morale and high turnover.

Challenge. For work to be alive and vibrant, it has to challenge us. From winning a sales contest, to solving international marketing and financial problems, we all love a challenge! Make sure you and your staff understand the "next big thing" and understand that you have confidence in them and will give them the support they need to meet and conquer the challenges ahead.

Personal Recognition. While most projects involve teamwork and cooperation across networks, in the end, each individual needs to know that their contribution is recognized, appreciated and rewarded. Often sole-proprietors and professionals in independent practice are the worst offenders! Stop and recognize your own achievements, pat yourself on the back…and share that recognition with others whenever and wherever it is appropriate!

Financial Rewards. This is the old (misused and misunderstood) standby. Business has always used incentives, bonuses, competitions and rewards to motivate productive behavior. Unfortunately, in many cases it backfires! The old rule was: pay as little as possible for labor. The new rule: pay as much as you possibly can to hire, train, and retain the very best! Reward yourself and your staff generously and often. It doesn't cost, it pays!

Clear vision. From the CEO to the newest trainee, we are all bombarded with so much information, so many messages and so many demands that keeping a clear vision, staying "on message" is increasingly difficult. What, precisely, is each staff member's number one priority? Do you know? Do THEY know? What is the company's primary mission? Confusion about expectations is the number one killer of productivity. Have a target, and make sure everyone knows their responsibility to hit it….every time!

Civility and Mutual Respect. I recently saw a news show about an office where "practical jokes", bias, discrimination and "hazing" were rampant. Of course they are being sued! It's increasingly clear that few businesses can fully meet all of the various rules, regulations and court decisions about employment. It's also clear that most employees don't want to sue or even complain. People want to do a good job in a safe, clean and supportive environment, and they want to know that they and their work are respected. The "bottom line" is common decency and doing the right thing.

Top 10 Stumbling Blocks that Limit Business Growth

Never in history have more entrepreneurs launched more new businesses! In America, thousands of business open their doors every single day! Unfortunately, most of them (over 90% of them) also close their doors within two years. Businesses are started with high hopes and glorious dreams. It is easy to start a business. It is much more difficult to build it, to make it succeed, to avoid the traps and pitfalls and frustrations, and enjoy the fruits of success over the years.
In working with hundreds (probably two to three THOUSAND) entrepreneurs over 25 years, here are the mistakes I see most often. Avoid them!

Fear and Confusion.
There is either a sense of being over-whelmed by the size of the tasks, or a refusal to master the work of being an entrepreneur and business owner. There are specific skills to owning and running a successful business. Learn them! You can master this! You can focus and succeed! (This is often the time to hire a coach!)

Lack of Capitol.
Capital comes in three forms: Time, money, and energy.
Some people have one or two, but not all three, and they fail because they simply can not sustain the growth phase of their business. EVERY business is a commitment of everything you have. You may start “small”, but that does not mean casual or part-time!

Lack of Courage or Commitment.
Building a business is always risky. Some people perceive the risk as huge, others see it as a fun hobby, but there is risk. Manage it.

Limit your potential losses.
Understand the risks involved and enjoy the process. You will make mistakes. Learn from them and go on.

Refusal to select and target an audience.
No one can sell their services to “everyone” – a message that goes to everyone is unlikely to create a sense of urgency in anyone in particular. Attorneys focus on one type of law. Physicians specialize. So should you.

Choosing the wrong audience.
A market that can not or will not pay or an audience that is too small or dispersed is a recipe for disaster. The “poor” desperately need medical, dental, legal and other services, but who is going to pay you? The same problem exists when trying to reach an audience that is dispersed over a large geographic area and not easily identified.

Fuzzy or unfocused message.
What exact benefits do you provide? To whom? Under what circumstances and at what cost? How can people contact you? Be precise, be clear, be specific.

Lack of planning – too many random efforts.
Many entrepreneurs try a little radio, a direct mailing, join a service organization, offer free samples, and then report that they have “tried everything and nothing worked”. Pick one, and stay the course! You become identified with your marketing techniques. Choose a logo, a color-scheme, and a marketing technique and stay with it!

Too much advertising, too little relationship building.
Advertising works best for tangible products because customers can see the results. Intangible services are very difficult to advertise and are almost always purchased based on the quality of the relationship. The more people know you, and the more they know about you and your caring, your professionalism and your quality, the more business you will do. Build networks of relationships!

Laziness and/or Greed.
Your business ONLY exists to serve the customer! You must make a profit in order to continue serving the customer, but service is the key to success. Everything must be focused on that. The statement, “I want to be my own boss”, or “I want a business that supports me” may be true (and be totally honest and reasonable), but they are a dangerous focus for your business. Customers first!

Final Notes:
Having a product or service that fails to produce adequate benefits, or fails to serve as promised. Some professionals are incompetent. Some don’t use current technology, or are sloppy in their delivery. Particularly with services, even ONE mistake will undermine client confidence, loyalty, and trust. Do your best – every time!

© Copyright 2003 by Dr. Philip E. Humbert. All Rights Reserved.

TOP FIVE MARKETING MISTAKES
by Kevin A. Epstein
2006-07-13

Every business owner or marketer is going to make mistakes. But with a good marketing plan and some marketing smarts, they can avoid making too many mistakes and see their marketing become more effective than ever before.

"Avoid common mistakes. Make only uncommon mistakes," says Kevin A. Epstein, a Silicon Valley marketing executive and author of Marketing Made Easy (Entrepreneur Press, July 2006, $19.95, ISBN: 1-599180-170). He offers a list of the top five high-risk situations and associated blunders and offers a three-step plan for each situation to ensure new marketers don't commit the same errors.

The top five mistakes are:
*Betting on the big event: gambling instead of planning. Never spend all your marketing dollars in one place, such as a trade show or television ad, without calculating the odds of success first. To plan instead of gamble, do the math on expected costs and resultant sales, equip yourself to make the most of the event, and shop around to be sure the event fits your audience and meets your ROI goals.

*Consultant failure: Knowing what not to outsource. Don't rely too much on consultants for critical aspects of your business. When you do, be sure to get references, communicate and align expectations, and have a backup plan.

*Product? What product? Never over-promise or under-deliver on your product or service, or you risk losing a customer. Understand your customers and what they value about your business. Sell what you have, not what you're planning to have. And future-proof your products for added value.

*If you can't measure it, it doesn't exist. It's difficult to justify additional marketing spending when the impact of current programs isn't clearly measured or understood. First, understand what you want to measure--the cost per sale, not cost per person. Build ways of measuring what you want to measure into your marketing program. And once you have the data, don't change too many things about your program at once; changing one at a time allows you to see the effect of each element.

*Simple = good: Sunk by excess complexity. Most people can only hold five to nine pieces of information in their short-term memory. If you present a marketing message longer than that, it won't be successful. State your product or company's value simply. Make it easy to respond, and don't ask too much of customers.

Though these strategies will help business owners avoid common mistakes, it won't help them avoid uncommon ones. The unwritten fourth step in the three-step plan is to make lemonade out of lemons, Epstein says. "When all seems to be going wrong, relax; take a deep breath, ask what the situation lets you provide to customers, and dive in," he says.

For more information, check out www.entrepreneurpress.com.

About the Author:
Kevin A. Epstein is a Silicon Valley marketing executive with a Stanford MBA, founding experience at three success small business retail ventures, and 15 years of experience in guerrilla marketing tactics at software industry high-flyers such as Netscape, RealNetworks, Inktomi, and VMware. His marketing programs have generated more than 5 million sales leads.

How To Create An Effective
Business Development Strategy
by Jonathan Farrington
7-14-2006

The Business Development Strategy is used to underpin your main Business Plan and essentially it sets out a standard approach for developing new opportunities, either from within existing accounts or by proactively targeting brand new potential accounts and then working to close them.

This document highlights the key issues you should consider prior to compiling your own plan and will hopefully guide you logically through a proven framework. The key word is 'Strategy', because you are creating a workable and achievable set of objectives in order to exceed your annual target.

Your Starting Point:
The key words are Who? What? Where? When? Which? Why? How?
For example:
Who - are you going to target?
What - do you want to sell them?
Where - are they located?
When - will you approach them?
Which - are the appropriate target personnel?
Why - would they want to meet with you?
How - will you reach them?

If you have conducted regular account reviews with your key accounts during the previous twelve months, you should be aware of any new opportunities that will surface during the next twelve months. You will also, when assessing what percentage of your annual target usually comes from existing accounts, need to review data over the last two or three years. (It is likely that you can apply Pareto i.e. 80% of your business will probably come from existing accounts and in fact 80% of your total revenue will come from just 20% of your customers/clients)

You will be left with a balance - i.e. "20% of my business next year will come from new opportunities" - therefore you can then begin to allocate your selling time accordingly.

Ideal Customer Profiling:
Pro-active business development demands that we create an ideal target at the front end - i.e. an Ideal Customer Profile. The essential characteristics you will need to consider are:
- Industrial Sector
- Geographical Location (Demographics)
- Size of organisations (Turnover, number of employees etc)
- Financial Trends
- Psychographics - i.e. Philosophical compatibility

Many strategic sales professionals merely profile their best existing clients and try to replicate them - there's nothing wrong with doing this but we should always remember that we are seeking an IDEAL and we can always improve on what we already have.

'New' Opportunities From Within 'Old' Accounts:
Because it costs approximately ten times as much, to first locate and then sell to a new customer as it does an existing one (although these costs are rarely reflected in the cost of sales), it is essential that we fully develop our existing accounts working upwards, downwards and sideways, thus making the most of the (hopefully) excellent reputation we have developed already.

Most corporate accounts have several divisions, departments, sites, even country offices and you must satisfy yourself that you have exhausted every possible avenue. Don't be afraid to ask the question "Who else should I be talking to in your organisation"?

Developing New Opportunities:
There are a number of ways in which we can target new opportunities e.g.

* Direct Mail

* Telephone Canvassing

* Researching Archived Files For Customers Who Used To Buy From Your Company

* Exhibitions

* Seminars

* User Groups

* E-Mail Campaigns

* Referrals

* Qualified Leads

* Advertising

Not all of these will be appropriate to your particular industry, but you should not be afraid to experiment - i.e. challenge the paradigm - and do not accept that just because a particular idea has not worked in the past that it will not do so in the future. (Remember when you were learning to walk - it didn't work first time then!) The important thing is to make an early decision in terms of what you are going to try and then build this (those) ideas into your master plan.

A Typical Business Development Plan:
You should plan out the whole year and review / revise quarterly.

* List your existing accounts and plan what activities / actions need to be completed in order to fully exhaust all opportunities. You may for instance, plan to cover more bases within the decision making unit or contact associated companies or offices. The Strategic Account Profile can be used as a prompt.

* Begin to target new accounts using business directories etc. and set targets per week / month / quarter i.e. I normally allow for eight hours per week as a minimum (Don't forget to continually refer back to your Ideal Profile)

* Then build in what assistance you need from your marketing function - i.e. qualified leads, seminars, exhibition attendance etc.

* Finally share your plan with your manager and then commit to it.

Linking With Your Commercial Plan:
I have suggested that your Business Development Strategy, would link with your Master Business Plan but logically you should also integrate it into your Commercial Kit(this is a document that outlines your monthly,quarterly and annual targets) - specifically the areas that deal with new business generation, account management and development, four tier account lists etc.

These three documents when combined should drive and guide you through the next twelve months and beyond.

Summary:
As I have said often enough "People do not fail because they planned to fail but rather because they failed to plan".

The man who knows where he wants to go is more likely to get there, he just has to decide how to get there. All plans are essentially maps and guides; the strategic element is the 'How'.

Do be prepared to change course, flexibility is key, and don't be afraid to experiment, look outside the square.

The moral right of the author, Jonathan Farrington, has been asserted.All rights reserved.This publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system or otherwise, unless this notification of copyright is retained.

About the Author:
Jonathan Farrington is the Managing Partner of The jfa Group - jf-assocs.
He has authored in excess of three hundred skills development programmes, including the Strategic Workshops series, Channel Programme,the Vanguard suite, Optimus+ and ASP Profile. www.jonathanfarrington.com

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