Core Business Solutions Advice

Many types of problems can threaten the very survival of any business.

The typical problems are:

• Lack of Sales
• Lack of New Customers
• Marketing Problems
• Cash Flow Problems
• Poor Employee Productivity

And the list can go on ad nauseum.

But how should you react or behave when these problems arise?

What you can't afford to do is to behave like the following:

• A Goldfish - simply does not realize that there is a problem until it is too late.
• An Ostrich - buries it's head in the sand and will not face up to how serious the problem(s) are.
• A Deer in the headlights - frozen into inactivity by the fear of the inevitablility of the impending crash (which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy).
• A Headless Chicken - runs around making lots of noise and complaining about everything ('the sky is falling'), but is unable to focus on taking the structured actions necessary to tackle the real issues.

The management animal you need to be is the Sheepdog:

1. Remaining in control of the situation
2. Identify the actions required to solve the issues
3. Staying focused on achieveing your objectives
4. Herd (lead) your business around the obstacles and distractions back to the safe path

Remember, operating a successful business requires three steps that you must complete and these same 3 steps will help you solve most any problem:

I- Plan- Put a plan down on paper; What will you do to solve the problem (brainstorm all possible solutions)? Who will do it? Why will you do it? How will it get done? When will the plan be accomplished? Is there expert help I need to be sure the plan gets done?

II- Execute- Implement the Plan; "Plan your work and work your plan"; Be sure all the steps are completed on time; FOLLOW THROUGH!

III- Measure- How did the plan work? What were the results? Has the problem been resolved? If not, develop another plan (See step I above)

So in a quick summary you should:

A- Be conscious of your difficulties as soon as possible
B- Face up to the situation and plan what you will do
C- Get expert help to stay on track
D- Design systems (probably some type of report) to give early warning of problems ahead

Once the problem(s) has been solved, make changes in your business to stop the problem from reoccuring.

In about 2-3 weeks or so I'll review another subject designed to provide business owners with information they can use to help them work "on" their business.


Until Next Time : Live Simply, Speak Kindly, Care Deeply, Love Generously and Live In The Moment

All The Best To Everyone,

Walt Morey
Executive Business Advisor Accredited by the Institute for Independent Business
http://www.corebizsolution.com/
Core Business Solutons is proud to be an Affiliate of Amazon.com

A lot of people create excitement around ideas, but then those lofty goals more often than not, fall to the wayside. Why is this?

To begin with, let's look at the excuses we use to justify why our goals fail.

Ever notice these excuses?:
1- I don't have time / I'm too busy
2-I don't have enough money
3- It's (insert someone else's name)'s fault
4-It's too hard / harder than I expected
5-I'll do it later
6-I don't know how
7- It's just not "the right time"

Let's talk about setting goals. You have to be SMART about your goals.
SMART goals are:

S – Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Realistic
T - Timely

Here are some common business goals:
A- Make more money (how much?)
B-Generate more sales
C-Meet more people (how many? /How?)
D-Generate more leads

What happens if you don't meet your goals? It's ok! Just take a realistic look at what happened, and set a new milestone date. Just don't go back to the excuse list!
If you don't respect yourself or hold yourself in high enough regard, why should other people?

Learn to keep your commitments to yourself first [Self integrity], and then you will be better prepared to deal with the commitments to others in your life -your clients, family, and employees.
Watch how others start regarding you when you take yourself seriously.

What if you really don't have time? Oh right...you're *different*. The truth is, that everybody has time for the things that are important to them. If you don't have time, then maybe it just isn't really a priority for you (and, that's OK!?).

If someone offered you a million dollars to do something you "don't have time to do," would you find time?

What is achieving your goals really worth to you? If you did achieve them how much better would your business and your life be?

Keys to accomplishing your goals:

1-Write them down [Planning, sound familiar?]

2-Tape them to your wall, or carry them in a notebook.

3-Look at them every day.

4-Tell other people - enlist others in helping to make you accountable.

5- Ask people for help - don't assume people know what you want or need.
Try being direct it's a rare trait these days.

In conclusion - being SMART about your goals, is the key to achieving them.

In about 2-3 weeks or so I'll review another subject designed to provide business owners with information they can use to help them work "on" their business.

Until Then : Live Simply, Speak Kindly, Care Deeply & Love Generously.

All The Best To Everyone,

Walt Morey

Executive Business Advisor Accredited by the Institute for Independent Business

http://www.corebizsolution.com/

Do you even have a specific plan for building customer loyalty?
Have you truly given the subject much thought? In most successful businesses 20% of their customers generate 80% of their volume.
If you currently retain 60 percent of your customers and you start a program to improve that to 70 percent, you'll add an additional 10 percent to your growth rate.

Because of the high cost of landing new customers versus the high profitability of a loyal customer base, you might want to reflect upon your current business strategy.

Here are ten ideas to help you improve customer loyalty:

1. Product Awareness. Know what your steady patrons purchase and keep these items in stock. Add other products and/or services that accompany or compliment the products that your regular customers buy regularly. And make sure that your staff understands everything they can about your products. This is crucial. Cross selling is easy if the product knowledge has been provided to your employees. Be sure your staff knows that they are 'expected' to offer the cross sale item. Train them.

2. Reliability. If you say a purchase will arrive on Wednesday, deliver it on Wednesday. Be reliable. If something goes wrong, let customers know immediately and compensate them for their inconvenience. The best way to handle this is to always under-promise and over-deliver. If you know it will take 3 days to deliver your product, tell the customer it could take 'up to 5 days'. When you deliver in 3 or 4 days your customer will be pleasantly surprised and a more loyal customer.

3. Be Flexible. Try to solve customer problems or complaints to the best of your ability and as quickly as possible. Excuses — such as "That's our policy" — will lose more customers than most anything else you can do. Remember- "The customer is not always right, but the customer is always the customer." Use the 'Golden Rule' here.

4. Use People over Technology. The harder it is for a customer to speak to a human being when he or she has a problem, the less likely it is that you will see that customer again. In the name of cost savings companies have automated much of customer service. This will cost more in the long run with lost customers in the name of efficiency.

5. Know Their Names. This another part of the 'human' equation to business success. Remember the theme song to the television show Cheers? Get to know the names of regular customers or at least recognize their faces. Welcome them to your business and thank them for coming.

6. Communicate. Here's that 'human' thing again. I call it "stirring the pot" It's also known as Appreciation Marketing. Whether it is an email newsletter, monthly flier, a reminder card for a tune up, or a holiday greeting card, reach out to your steady customers. This tells your customers you are thinking of them. This creates a positive comfort level in your customer base.

7. Customer Service. Go that extra mile and meet customer needs. Train the staff to do the same. Customers will remember being treated well and return.

8. Employee Loyalty. Loyalty works from the top down. If you are loyal to your employees, they will feel positively about their jobs and pass that loyalty along to your customers.

9. Employee Training. Train employees in the manner that you want them to interact with customers. Empower employees to make decisions that benefit the customer.

10. Customer Incentives. Customers need a reason to return to your business. For instance, because children outgrow shoes quickly, the owner of a children’s shoe store might offer a card that makes the tenth pair of shoes half price. Likewise, a Hair Salon, Massage Therapist or Auto Repair Shop may give a 30% discount off all services on every 3rd visit to any regular customer. A simple "Loyalty Card" program can work well here with simple tracking. In personal services businesses, keep a file on each customer to track their prior purchasing habits and preferences. Train your employees (& yourself) to review these files before a customer comes in for their next appointment. Ask them how their past purchases worked out. That 'human' personal touch will seperate you from your competition.

So to sum it up, creating customer loyalty is critical to the success of most businesses. Make sure the culture of you company/business is customer friendly and 'human'. Plan now to implement startegies to improve your customer retention in 2010.

In about 2-3 weeks or so I'll review another subject designed to provide business owners with information they can use to help them work "on" their business.

Until Then : Live Simply, Speak Kindly, Care Deeply & Love Generously.

All The Best,
Walt Morey an Executive Business Advisor Accredited by the Institute for Independent Businesswww.corebizsolution.com

As part of my FNI Networking 30 second commercial in November & December I reminded everyone that it's time to review and update one's business plan. Recently someone asked, "if I'm just a small sole proprietor and do not need much money to keep my business running, why do I need a business plan?" It sounded to me as if they were thinking of a business plan as just a fund-raising tool. Actually, a business plan is much more than that: It is a tool for understanding how your business is put together. You can use it to monitor progress, hold yourself accountable and have some control of the business's fate. And of course, it's a sales and recruiting tool for courting key employees or future investors if that is ever needed. It should be a living document that is reviewed at least twice per year, but I recommend quarterly.

Writing a business plan forces you to look at all of your business, all at once:

1. What's your value proposition?
2. Marketing Assumptions & Budgets.
3. Financial Plan & Budgets
4. Operational Plan
5. Staffing Plan
6. Sales Plan

You will uncover poor assumptions that need some work. For example, if your marketing plan projects 10,000 customers by year two and your staffing plan provides for two salespeople, that forces you to ask: How can two salespeople generate 10,000 customers? The answer might lead you to conclude that forming partnerships, targeting distributors and concentrating on bulk sales to large companies would be your best tactics. This takes strategic planning & action.

Your Operational Plan will lay out major marketing and operational milestones. If you are the business founder, the only person holding you accountable to your desired results is you! Your plan contains the baseline for monitoring your progress towards your goal. If your goal was 10 new customers per month and after 6 months you have just 30, or 50% to goal, now you can analyze what activities (more networking, more social media marketing, more advertising, etc.)you need to increase, to drive sales to new customers. Your operational reports should tell you from what source your new clients are coming from. Now you know you could increase your marketing to that source, to increase your new customers.

But even more than a tool for after-the-fact learning, the business plan is how you drive the future. As many great business people have said, "The best way to predict your future is to create it."When you write, 'I expect 100 customers by the end of year one',it's not a passive prediction You can't just wait for the customers to show up. This becomes your sales goal.

The plan lays out targets in all major areas:

1- Sales

2- Hiring Positions

3- Expense Items

4- Finance Goals, and others

Once laid out, the targets become performance objectives. Now just break them down into quarterly and monthly objectives and monitor the activities you planned to reach those objectives.

And of course, a well-written plan {Note-it does not have to be a large 25-50 page document all bound up in a pretty format, a simplified version will work as well}is great for attracting talent to grow your business. When a prospect asks to understand your business, you can hand them a plan that gives them an entire overview. Their reactions will tell you something about how quickly and thoroughly they can think through your businesses key subjects. Plus, the written record of your goals, coupled with a track record of delivering against those goals sends this message loud and clear: You understand your business and can deliver the results you promise.

Great employees or strategic partners will respond to that message, as will banks and investors when you need to raise money.

So you can see why a business plan is not about raising money. You can use your business plan to:

• Better Manage Yourself [Accountability]
• Better Manage Your Operation
• Measure Your Progress Against Your Objectives
• Recruit Talented Employees You Need
• Attract Investors or Strategic Partners

So to sum it up, before deciding to skip your planning phase going into 2010, consider all the implications and what they mean for your business success. To find success you must plan to. As my earliest mentor told me at least 20 times per month, back in the day, "Plan Your Work then (and only then), Work Your Plan.

In about 2-3 weeks or so I'll review another subject designed to provide business owners with information they can use to help them work "on" their business.
Until Then :

1- Live Simply.

2- Speak Kindly.

3- Care Deeply.

4-Love Generously.

All The Best,

Walt Morey
Executive Business Advisor Accredited by the Institute for Independent Business
www.corebizsolution.com