Small Business Blog

Archive for August, 2009

As a business coach, I spend a lot of time working with people who want to improve different aspects of their business. Many times these aspects are merely symptoms of a more fundamental, underlying issue.

If you want your business to truly shine, then there are some basic principles that, if not present, can lead to sub standard performance in other areas. And here they are:

1. Crystal clear purpose
The most common reason companies run into trouble is losing sight of the customer and their needs. Having a crystal clear purpose helps keep the focus from becoming too internally fixated, instead articulating why the business exists from the customer’s perspective. A clear and inspiring purpose will also give your employees a reason to be connected with their hearts, not just their minds.

2. Discipline
Sometimes this is an unpopular topic, but it is critical. Discipline means having a sharp and constant focus on your objectives, whether they be growth, profits or customer objectives. Successful businesses build continual monitoring into their processes, constantly aware of the gap between where they are and where they should be.

3. Goals that compel action
Most people are motivated to work for a cause of some sort. The business must continually paint a picture of what the future may hold. And it needs to be more compelling than ‘surviving’ or ‘selling lots more’. Goals that challenge without being unrealistic, and that inspire people to go above and beyond, will reinforce a culture of innovation, effort and excitement.

4. Prepare for several futures
Successful businesses are rarely taken by surprise. They spend time thinking about “what if” scenarios, and planning their responses. It’s a fact that most business owners don’t think beyond the next quarter or six month period. This can lead to sticking with products and services for too long and failing to identify shifts in the market – making change and innovation almost impossible.

5. Leadership
The leader’s job is not only to inspire effort and provide direction. They also carry the task of meeting the psychological needs of their employees while they are at work. Leaders that are emotionally mature, energetic and future oriented are an absolute necessity, if the business is to thrive rather than plateau.

6. Excellence in everything
Companies will not survive long today if they are “just average”. What does it take to foster a culture of excellence? High standards, accountability, a willingness to learn and a continual focus on creating value for customers. If these things are in place, excellence becomes a by-product.

So how can you tell if your business lives these principles? See how you go at answering these questions:

How do you measure performance of the organization as a whole?

What is the purpose of your business?

What is it to “go beyond yourself” and how is that important to the business?

Can you articulate the differences between what you need personally and what the business needs?

Assuming most companies reach an early plateau, what do you think successful companies do to avoid that?

Far too many organizations are limited in their capacity to grow because of the skills, capabilities and attitudes of their people (including ourselves). How do you plan to address this potential problem in your business?

How can you be sure that your employees tell you everything you need to know?

So how did you go? Any room for improvement? Aim to instill and live these principles in your business, and you will have laid truly solid foundations. From there, the sky’s the limit.

It takes more than a hefty bank account to get you started and manage your own business. More than that, it takes motivation and skill to do so. It also takes careful planning and thorough research to launch your enterprise. And for you to take the upper hand in your industry, you would need a healthy dose of discipline, hard work and talent to get the advantage.

It is therefore suggested for you to take some time to explore and evaluate what you have and then use them to build a lucrative business for yourself. From your business and personal goals, it would be easier for you to reach your aim with the help of a comprehensive and carefully thought of business plan.

A business plan will help you to sift through the issues that you wouldn’t normally consider. Your business plan can help you wade through your concerns especially those pertaining to raising money, as well as provide you with a valuable tool to measure your milestones and success.

In addition, the following suggestions can also provide you with the means to map out an effective business plan for your business:

First, list down your reasons why you want to go into business. Are you looking at self-fulfillment when you start your own business? Or would you like to stop being an employee and start becoming financially independent? Or would you want to be free to do whatever you want to do in terms of creativity and imagination? Is your reason to put up a business to allow you to manage your own time and resources, while making full use of your personal skills and knowledge? You need to write it down – why do you think you want to be in business?

Second, determine or look for the right business for you. Don’t just try any business. Don’t go for newsletter printing for example just because it’s the job you have been doing for so many years. You have to consider your interests, your skills and your knowledge to determine what kind of business would be perfect for you. What do you like to do with most of your time? What skills (creative or technical) have you developed through the years? What do your friends and associates say about your skills and expertise? Do you have any bobby or interest that would be easy to market?

Next, determine your business niche. What business are you interested in? What kinds of products and services would you want to sell? Is your idea practical? Will it satisfy a need in the market you’re looking at? Who is your competition? What makes you unique from your competition? What will make you stand out? Will you be able to deliver better services with your business? Do you have a demand for your kind of business? If not, will you be able to create one?

The final step is to make your pre-business checklist. What skills and experience do you have to make a success of your business? What legal structure will you need? How will you maintain your business records? Do you need insurance coverage? If so, what would be best for your needs? What marketing tool should you use? Would print newsletters be appropriate? Would newsletter printing generate more leads than print brochures? What are the resources available for you? Where will you locate your business? What name should you give to your business?

Your answers to all these questions will help you form a focused and well-crafted business plan that will serve as your outline for business success.

You need checklists.  Things in the life of a small business leader are hectic and overwhelming.  There is a seemingly endless list of tasks to be accomplished with constantly changing priorities.  It can be difficult to stay focused and accomplish those objectives that can truly grow your small business.  Checklists help you deal with this challenge.  Checklists are a great tool to help you grow your small business.

There were countless times in the earlier days of the development of my motivational speaking practice that I would forget things.  Let me walk you through a typical scenario so that you can learn from my mistakes.  When I first started planning events for meeting planners I would ask for basic information such as the time of my speech and the address of the hotel. 

I often made mistakes about confirming basic information.  Where was I to park?  If there are 3000 people at a convention that might have keynotes, breakout sessions and other activities at multiple venues, this seemingly simple question sometimes had me literally driving in a circle for an hour.  If “Where should I park?” were on my checklist, I could have invested 1 minute of time to potentially save 1 hour later. 

I have another example.  One client delayed paying an invoice by three months because my staff did not follow their invoicing process.  We combined two invoices into 1 sheet of paper.  This did not work in their accounting process.  In this example, a checklist question of “How would you like to be invoiced?” would have helped us avoid a 3 month delay in payment. 

What are the critical steps in your business process?  Are they all documented?  Does everybody know these steps?  When you have a checklist you help to insure that the critical steps are not overlooked.  This will create greater efficiency in your business.  If you spend less time trying to park and deal with invoice paperwork, you can focus on selling and providing higher value to your clients.

Have checklists for the important steps in your small business.  Having checklists is a great way to grow your small business. 

Could you use more tips like this to accelerate the growth of your small business?  Achievement thinking is a powerful concept that Mark Mikelat, the founder of Building Aspirations, www.BuildingAspirations.com, uses to coach his small business clients to double or even triple the size of their businesses. You can learn more and take advantage of a free strategic analysis at http://www.BuildingAspirations.com/BusinessSuccess.html.  Also, you can view his books on Amazon.com. 

Are you tired of being broke? Do you want more out of life than just a measly little paycheck? If you want more and are ready to put in some effort then the sky is the limit. With so many at home business ideas out there floating around how do you know which one to choose. Well only you can answer that question but, I have put together a super plan that will help you and show you a dead simple and free home business. If you are ready then lets get to it.

Most people that want to start an online business usually have little or no money to invest. It is OK if your budget is small you really don’t need a big budget to work from home. I am living proof of that since I started out with just $50.00. I will show you how I did it with my at home business ideas and you can take it from there.

The best at home business ideas for you is Affiliate Marketing coupled with Article Marketing both are free and easy to do.

In a nutshell affiliate marketing is just selling other people’s products and getting a commission for what you sell. Most merchants pay between 50-75% of the sale. You can become an affiliate marketer for free at Clickbank.com or Paydotcom.com. Once signed up you select which product you want to promote and get a special affiliate link and advertise the product and once it sells you get paid. It is pretty simple and not hard to do. But, there is a learning curve just so you know.

The best way to promote your affiliate business is to use Article Marketing. It is easy and free and one of the best at home business ideas. You just put together a 300-500 word article and put your product link at the bottom in your resource box and submit it to several free article directories. Article marketing is a learned skill that anyone can learn and once you learn the basics the rest as they say is history.

This is the exact plan that I used to start making money online and it has worked great. You just have to keep a positive attitude, focus on a doable system, and never give up. Your best work at home ideas are usually the easy and simple ones to follow.

Put these at home business ideas into action and watch your income start to pile up. But, you have to take action for this to work just sitting there doing nothing isn’t going to make you any money. So go ahead and get started today!

Despite of the fact that SEO is important for the efficiency of your internet business ideas, the article must always be written to the reader. It is an art to include the search keywords into the copy in the natural way. You can bookmark this page, press Ctrl+D .

1. Do The Search Keywords Research For The Internet Business Ideas With Care

The internet is an information highway. People are searching things from search engines by using search keywords. The more specific or niche the search keywords are, the more relevant are the search results. This is important for the internet business ideas web site and makes it look more special.

The search keywords are the tools to find new markets from the internet and the number of good relevant keywords is practically limitless.

An article needs from 2 to 3 relevant search keywords, which can be picked by some the most respected tool online.

2.Do Not Slaughter The Innocent Copy.

You sell the business ideas to the web site visitor, not to the search engines. The most important job of the copy is that the reader gets the feeling that this is for me, this is what I searched. So the search keywords must be included naturally and that requires that a writer has picked them before he has started to write.

On the other hand, the search keywords are important, because those are exactly what the reader has used in his search and they make the reader convinced that the copy is exactly from the topic.

3.Target The Long Tail Search Keywords.

The long tail keywords are phrases, which are built with from 3 to 4 words. With the long tail search keywords the article of the business ideas can be targeted to the very narrow and relevant target audience, actually to many, because one keyphrase will include several keywords or -phrases.

According to the many researches, the long-tail search keywords will convert better and rank better in the search engines.

4.Add Some Useful Hyperlinks.

The role of hyperlinks in the internet business ideas article is not to sell but to offer more information or, for instance, a practical tool related to the topic.

5.Distribute The Articles Widely And Measure The Results.

The marketing of internet business ideas is a numbers game and the wider is the distribution, the better are the results. The simple and affordable method is to use ArticleMarketer, which distributes articles to the widest distribution list online.

It is very interesting and useful to measure the number of hits and visitors of each internet business ideas article. This happens by adding a small code from some of the free tracking services on each article.

In order to relocate your business successfully, not only do you require a well-defined plan of action, but also a way in which you can keep track of that plan. Business relocation can, more often than not, a complicated process and in order to restore order and account for everything, a checklist can be extremely useful.

Even professional relocation agents can make the logistics of a business relocation plan very complicated to handle if a thorough checklist is absent. Some points should be kept in mind when it comes to the checklist, and the rest of this article is devoted to outlining these points.

Firstly, your business relocation checklist must have a definite structure which categorizes each part of the POA in various steps or phases that define a certain progressive pattern. Each phase should outline different activities to be carried out. It need not always be arranged in an inflexible schedule but used as a rough outline stating what the final goal of that particular phase is, and moving towards a final destination.

The details of each phase and the activity in that phase depend on the type of business that is being relocated. Having said that, however, there are always some basic aspects that will apply to many of these cases. No matter what the specific details of your checklist are, these facts will always apply and in this order

a. determine your needs

b. contact a group that will assist with moving the business

c. plan the physical move

d. prepare a new site

e. a flexible, regular update of the checklist to cope with changes in the budget

f. installation of essential materials such as internet and telephone connections

g. new office and residence space

h. confirmation of all inspections and certifications

Whether your business is private or corporate, your relocation will follow the same basic parameters.

Another major factor to keep in mind while preparing the checklist is accounting for time. According to the different phases allocated to different activities, a time-frame may be allotted. Some items might take up to weeks or months to arrange while some will take considerably lesser time. A time frame will take care of deadline based work schedules and also facilitate greater coordination among the business and other parties.

Particularly if relocation on a large scale is required for the owners, employees and their families, the checklist should have details accounting for the lives of all these people. Practical needs such as schooling and housing must be addressed, and time frames allotted on the list.

Ensuring that these points are incorporated in the business checklist will bring greater order to the relocation and many significant business necessities will not be disregarded. They will all be on your checklist to be reviewed.