The Business Building Process Part 6

5. Allow the system to grow and develop - allow the system to change and grow with use. Ensure that the system is self-correcting and can evolve by itself. Make sure team members keep the system documentation current.

Tips;
1. Don't over complicate the systems or people won't follow them.
2. Use a lot of photos, videos, tapes etc. This may be as simple as printing a computer screen or doing a video of someone doing the task at hand. This will make the systems much easier to follow.
3. Document your system in a "policy and procedures" manual in an easy to access format. And make sure everyone knows where it is kept.


4. TEAM

Building the team is the process whereby you replace yourself in the business. An effective team must share the vision, mission and rules of the business, and, ideally, should contribute to their development and statement. The team must be motivated and function without boundaries to get everyone's mind into the business of solving problems and innovate.

The basis for building an effective team is to develop an organization chart similar to that for the business at maturity using the positions of a public company (Chief Executive, Chief Financial officer, Vice President Marketing etc.) with the roles and position contracts clearly described. Initially you will occupy several of the positions, but as the business grows and people are selected and recruited for the specified positions, you systematically replace yourself until you are only working on strategic functions.

My coaching process will show you how to develop an appropriate organization chart, develop position contracts and, recruit, select, motivate and reward a highly effective team.

The Business Building Process Part 5

Leverage is all about systemization and delegation.I cannot over emphasize the importance of leverage in your business and I guarantee you that the time you spend on this step in your business development will pay you back in time saved and increase productivity ten times over.
Remember:
1. Systems (work mapping (flowcharting) and policy and procedure manuals) run your business.
2. People you hire and train run your system.
3. You are the leader of your people.

Below is a chart detailing the five basic steps to systemizing your business.


Five Basic Steps to Systemizing Any Business

Step Description
1. Organizational Chart - Document your company structure by creating an organizational chart. Then identify the critical areas or functions for your business to be a success.
2. Flowchart your work processes. -For each critical area or function flowchart your work process fo reach task. Chart the path that work takes through each area.
3. Documentation -Involve your employees and document how the work gets done. Have he team member who is currently doing the job write down every step in performing a task. Then have a new person do the task with the draft written steps. If the team member currently doing the task has to step in and explain anything to the new person than add steps or clarify. Once completed start again until any person can do the task without intervention.
4. Measure using KIP's -The KPI's are typically those top measures that show system performance. Get these measures from the person doing the job. For example, in sales you can use the number of leads generated, conversion rates, or average dollar sale.

The Business Building Process Part 4

3. LEVERAGE

Leverage is the process of doing ever more with ever less and is the absolute key to growth. There are only 4 ways to leverage your business;
1. People.
2. Systems and technology.
3. Finance.
4. Marketing.

My coaching process will show you how to use these categories to achieve leverage in the proper order. For example investing in people before adequate marketing, systems and technology, and finance are in place could crash the business.

You need to create your own "franchise prototype". This is where you systemize your business so that every team member does the exact same work the same way every time. This does not mean we stifle creativity and innovation but rather systemize the routine so you and your team have more time and energy directed toward creating and improving the way you service your customers

If you really want to create a business rather than just owning a job, then change the type of work you do! Going to work "on" your business, rather than "in" your business, is the secret to creating a business that truly works. It is important that you learn how to delegate appropriately, document work through processes and develop policy and procedure manuals for every aspect of your business. This may seem like a daunting task but it really isn't if you are taught properly. You can start today by identifying jobs or tasks that you are now doing but want to delegate in the future. The next step is to identify, hire or train members of your team to be able to do these jobs. You then must establish ways in which these tasks can be monitored and evaluated to ensure that they are done appropriately.

The Business Building Process Part 3

A key question you need to answer is how many of these profit centres does your business focus on. Unfortunately, most businesses only focus on 1 or 2 and even more unfortunate is that they are usually focusing are the wrong ones to improve profits. Most businesses focus on trying to improve the most expensive profit centres; lead generation and number of transaction per customer and as a result this hinders profit generation.

FYI, my Action International coaching process has over 282 proven strategies for improving your profits. But more importantly than that, we identify which strategies, directed to which profit centre, will produce that most significant improvement in profits for your particular business.

Below is an embedded excel spreadsheet. Insert your businesses numbers and see for yourself what a difference small improvement in five profit centres can make to the profits of your business.


Instructions:

1. Double click on the chart. You will see it turn into an excel spreadsheet.
2. Type in tour KPI numbers for the past year under the column labeled "Your Numbers" in the appropriate rows (Yellow Highlighted);
1. Number of warm leads.
2. Your conversion rate of these warm leads to paying customers.
(Number of warm leads / total number of sales)
3. Average number of transactions per customer.
(Number of transactions / number of customers)
4. Average dollar sale per transaction.
(Total sales revenue / total number of transactions)
5. Profit margin
(Total Revenues-Total Expenses / Total Revenues x 100)
3. All the calculations are done for you automatically.

(Please Note-In my coaching program that we can choose from over 280 strategies to improve your businesses performance. It is not too hard to expect a 10 or 20 % improvement in each of these areas if the strategies are implemented and managed effectively. That is what my business coaching program is all about and the core part of the business development efforts at the Mastery and Niche stages. These are the foundation stages upon which the future stages must rest.)

The Business Building Process Six Steps to Massive Results

1. MASTERY- learn how to properly manage time and money.
2. NICHE- generating great cash flow by identifying and exploiting your niche target market.
3. LEVERAGE- systemizing the business so it assumes a life of its own.
4. TEAM-investing in people and their education so team members become well organized.
5. SYNERGY- exploiting your, niche, running systematically and creating a well-defined culture.
6. RESULTS- fulfilling your personal dreams.

Every business must progress through these 6 steps or stages before it can produce significant success. While businesses may have some concurrent activities that touch on the different stages, it is important at any point to focus the bulk of your efforts on one, the most appropriate step. Where is your business within these 6 steps? Below I will explain how you can move from one level to the next and the next.
1. MASTERY

Achieving Mastery is the basic process of gaining control of your business. At this stage we focus on;
1. Establishing positive cash flow and creating the profitability that will enable you to invest for growth.
2. Testing and measuring of financials (sales and costs), team productivity, systems efficiencies, marketing effectiveness, reliability of delivery and distribution of product and services. As well, we identify the Key Performance Indicators KPI's of your business and put in a solid financial plan to gain control of your financial resources (debt vs equity).
3. Owner's personal development in areas such as leadership, time management and delegation.

Six Steps to a Profitable and Sustainable Business Part 6

4. The Power of People and Systems

Systems run businesses and people run systems. Systemizing the routine tasks in your business is the key to overall efficiency. People, however, are the business and contribute most to the success or failure of your organization. You must focus on building a team with a common cause and shared vision; a team with well developed interpersonal and communication skills, trust, support, commitment and energy. Only when the systems and people are effectively in place, can you, the owner, graduate from working in the business to working strategically on the business.

5. Leadership

History teaches us that Leadership is a Critical Performance Criteria. Whether it is world events (Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, General Norman Schwartzkoff), sports (Vince Lombardi, Joe Torrie, Michael Jordan) or business (Jack Welch, Warren Buffet) leadership is consistently the determining factor between success and failure. Why would you expect that the results and success of your business be determined any differently?

As a result, your thoughts, words and actions are the critical performance criteria for your business. As a result, how much time, money and effort are you investing in improving yourself. How much time do you spend examining your strengths and weaknesses, setting development goals for yourself, seeking outside advise.

Developing the entrepreneurial mindset, understanding that marketing is an investment for your business not an expense, consistently testing and measuring, acknowledging the power that people and systems bring to your businesses growth and success and the need for effective leadership are the first five key ingredients that successful business owners must possess.

Ask yourself, which of these ingredients do I need to improve upon and what difference will this make to my business and my life?

Six Steps to a Profitable and Sustainable Business Part 5

2. Marketing is an Investment

Your accountant will tell you that marketing is an expense. The entrepreneurial mindset views marketing as an investment. The greater the difference between what it costs you to acquire a customer and the lifetime value of the goods or services sold to that customer, the greater your profit potential and return on investment. Later in this article under the title Niche I will introduce the five key marketing leverage points in your business that if managed properly will rapidly improve cash flow, revenue and profits. It is important that you correctly identify the marketing strategies/investments that will keep you ahead of the competition.

3. Test and Measure

The basic difference between successful businesses and poor performers is that they test and measure everything that they do. It is impossible to play a game or manage a business without keeping score. An iatrical part of any business is to test and measure everything of significance in your business. You can then build a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) tailored specifically to be measure. This is the only way you, as the business owner, can continuously monitor all the key factors that determine growth and profitability for your particular business. Your KPI's and your Financial Plan constitute the Management Control Plan for your business. This is like a Control Panel on your desk that enables you to track your progress. It will tell you what is going on in every key area of your business and enable you to respond quickly to changes and new situations.

Six Steps to a Profitable and Sustainable Business Part 4

The Action International Six Step Business Coaching Process explained below will help you improve your business. After all, being in business should give you more _______________!
( I will let you fill in the blank.)

Action Internationals Six-Step Business Development Process

Before you can begin to work "on" your business with our Business Development Process, you need to have a clear understanding of the following 5 points. It is important that as you read further that you keep an "open" mind. "Attitude dictates Performance" and closing your mind to time tested business best practices will greatly restrict improvement in your business and your life.

1. Success Requires an Entrepreneurial Mindset

Successful entrepreneurs focus on customer needs. They define a profitable opportunity as a better way of serving customers needs and they see the businesses that they create as the way to deliver the solution to these needs. Entrepreneurs have a clear vision of how the business must look and act at maturity to stay ahead of its competition and they build the business that way from the outset. Can you define your business with a unique focus on customer needs? If not, act now to develop your business with the end in mind, satisfying customer needs. This step will quickly focus you and your business on the correct road to success.

Six Steps to a Profitable and Sustainable Business Part 3

Ask Yourself- "Do You Own A Business or Do You Own A Job?"

If your answer is that you own a business, congratulations, I would encourage you to continue to read this report to compare how your business measures up. If however your answer was that presently you own a job, sadly, in spite of the blood, sweat, and tears you've invested in your business, it'll never be worth much to a prospective buyer. Things aren't going to get any better until you apply the powerful business principals and concepts that the owners of McDonalds, Blockbuster Video, and Federal Express have used to build their businesses.

Don't be intimidated by the size of the businesses I just mentioned or brush off the principals I am about to discuss as not applying to you because your business is not a Fortune 500 company. The size of your business does not matter; you don't have to be a "big business" to make your company run efficiently, effectively and profitably. Action International and their business-coaching programs have helped more than 10,000 business owners around the world. All it takes is a realization on your part that the status quo of your business and your life is no longer acceptable and that you are open and willing to participate in changing how your business is structured and managed.

The benefit of improving the way your business operates is that you can enjoy more freedom, make more money, and have more control over your life.

The Key is to Make Your Business Run �
"Predictably, Efficiently, Flawlessly, and Profitably".

The Action International Vision Statement reads;
"World Abundance Through Business Re-education"

Six Steps to a Profitable and Sustainable Business Part 2

If so, there's a reason for it. When you started your business, you were so wrapped up in the product or service you sell, you never expanded your focus to design a business that could run without you being involved in every aspect of running your business. You never freed yourself from the busywork and routines of running your business. You never developed a game plan for working "ON" your business and not just "IN" it. You have become a manager of many activities and master of none.

The result is that you are constantly frustrated by:
- Not enough sales and customers
- Not enough profits
- Not enough time
- Working longer hours than your employees

- The difficulty of finding and keeping good people
- Can't develop capable managers
- Inadequate cash flow
- Business depends too much on you
- Not enough take home pay
- Inconsistent operational performance

The key questions you must ask yourself are;

1.What is all this costing you, financially and personally?
2.What toll is it taking on your family and your health and life?

It's as if you started building a car, but got so consumed with keeping the wheels turning, you forgot to build the engine. Now, whenever someone looks under the hood, they find YOU in there - Running, Running, Running - On A Human-Sized Hamster Wheel! And you're exhausted!

What if, one day, you wanted to sell that car? Who would keep it running? Without you on the wheel, the buyer would have to climb in under the hood and take over! How appealing is that? Do you see the analogy? If your business depends on you (the owner) you don't have a business but own a job and you cannot sell a job

Six Steps to a Profitable and Sustainable Business

Introduction

The information in this report is to help illustrate the key ingredients or principals that help make any business successful. These are not new principals or revolutionary in nature, but are time proven to work in all industry sectors (manufacturing, wholesale, technology, retail, service, etc.) through good economic times and bad. As you read this report, it is hoped that you will be able to identify areas of your business that may need to be addressed and possibly improved upon. The true value of this report, however, is not just to make you think but to motivate you to take Action.

Do You Remember That Grand Vision You Had
When You First Started Your Business?

Think for a minute. When you started your business did you want more than just a better income?. Did you want more out of life; more freedom, more time with your family, more security, the freedom to work or not work whenever you felt like it?

Do you have these things today?

Statistics Canada states that over 100,000 business will fail this year and that over 80% of business fail within their first five years of existence and that 80% of those that do survive the first five years will fail in the second five years. Even if your business is a roaring success financially, do you find yourself trapped in your business, wearing too many hats, running from one function to another, working too hard, and feeling like you've got to look after everything, because you can't properly rely on your employees?

How to Get Your Staff Working Like a Team Part 2

So, the systems have been built and are clearly defined, and now it's a matter of recruiting the right people to run those systems. The DISC working personality profile
can really help in selecting the right people for the job. With this knowledge, you can then recruit the right people for the job. However, the real challenge lies ahead. It's not just a matter of having people who come in, follow the system and get the job done. What you are looking for now is SYNERGY!

Synergy comes from having people who are committed to a 'common goal'. If people are involved in setting the 'common goal', they are generally more likely to commit. If you, as the business owner are dictating to your team 'this is the goal', don�t expect much commitment. If your team has ownership, they are much more likely to achieve. Ownership is also very useful when designing and building your systems, let alone setting goals. Keep asking the team this question�'I'm looking for [certain outcome], how do you think we should go about achieving that?' The successful business owner has team members that say 'I think we should do like this'. An unsuccessful business owner has team members that say 'I don't know, you're the boss'.

Finally, be aware of what you are teaching your team. By this I mean, if a baby cries and it's mother comes running. What will the baby lean to do after a while? Exactly, let out a cry and in rushes Mum. All I ask is for you to be very aware of what you are teaching your team. If you're saying to yourself 'no-one can do it like me' and you jump in and do it, your team is learning from that.


Business Report
Prepared For

How to Get Your Staff Working Like a Team By Action International Business Coach Michael Bedard

All too often the cry is heard 'you can�t get good people' or 'why can't I get my people to do as I tell them'. Well here's a few ideas that may make life a lot easier.

Consider for a moment, the business owner who has 10 people working in the business, yet they're the ones doing all the work. What's the point!?

Firstly, let's get back to basics. Most people in business will understand how important systems are. Systems are usually responsible for having a business that runs smoothly (and profitably). With systems in place, it's simply a matter of employing people to run those systems. Michael Gerber's fantastic book, The E-Myth, really highlights how important systems are for businesses to be successful. A real life example of course is McDonald's. With a food product that at best, could only be described as average, it is simply a matter of systems that keep it a hugely successful entity.

The point is, get the systems built in your business. If you feel like you're banging your head up against a brick wall, take a look at the systems in your business. Look at the most basic things from answering the phone all the way through to how you produce your product. If your systems aren't clearly defined and easy to understand, how can anyone understand what you want. Preferably write them down and turn them into checklists. This is the basic foundation of business and in turn getting your people to work as a team, something that equals more than the sum of it's parts.

Turning Visitors into Customers an Internet Strategy for Small Business Part 2

Visitors to your web site are just the same as visitors to your place of business with one important exception. There is no one to talk to on your web site (yet!). So, turning the visitor into a lead requires a strategy to capture the prospect's details. It doesn't matter if your web site sells or doesn't sell product on-line. If you let the visitor 'surf' right by, without tempting them with an offer in exchange for their contact details, you're losing qualified leads and potential revenues.

Promotional incentives work well to encourage prospects to part with their email address as well as other information. As an example, Qantas earlier this year used its web site to offer a chance to win a business class trip to New York in return for email numbers and permission to send travel information.

Information gathered on your web site including email address, work or home address, phone and fax numbers can be put directly into your contact database. Once in your database you can start on converting leads into customers.

Converting leads into customers can all be done automatically and at little or no cost. You can enable programs to send newsletters, special offers' or any other useful information at pre-set intervals. In every case, your contact with customers provides the opportunity to provide a link back to your Internet site and another opportunity to sell or promote your products and services.

Get this far and you are well on your way to turning visitors into customers. Your web site will become an important part of your marketing mix and start generating more profits from your business.

Turning Visitors into Customers an Internet Strategy for Small Business By Action International Business Coach Michael Bedard

While big business is embracing the Internet with a passion, many small business owners are still wondering 'what's in it for me?'. How can small business start benefiting from the Internet?

The starting point is to cut through all the hype and confusion and start thinking of the Internet as part of the marketing mix. Just like all other marketing elements of the business, the Internet is a tool that can be used to get more profits from your business.

It can be used generate more leads, increase the number of customers, increase the number of times people buy, increase how much people buy and increase your profit margins.

Let's examine just one of these areas and look at how the Internet can be used to generate more leads for the business.

Whenever you advertise your business, advertise your web site. Properly designed, your web site becomes an extension of your place of business. Just as you advertise to get people to visit your business, you need to advertise to get people to visit your web site. However, getting visitors to your web site doesn't mean you will have more leads.

You have to be able to capture the details of visitors to your website. The reason is (and here's the point that is often missed) when someone visits your Internet site you can be sure that they have an interest in what you�re selling. This means that just about everybody that visits your web site is a potential customer.

LETS HAVE A WIFLE Part 2

The Rules for a WIFLE �
Sit around the room. Starting with the person next to you, ask, 'What do you feel like expressing?' This person then has the right to say whatever he or she feels like saying without interruption. This is most important. If anyone does not feel safe to express whatever he or she feels, you are all wasting your time. Remember to play above the line.

Once he or she has had a say, this person then asks the next person what they feel like expressing. When everyone has had their say (and only when everyone has finished) you may then ask if anyone has any 'burnings'. This is where anyone who feels they have been wrongly treated during the WIFLE replies directly to the other person, either by apologizing or explaining what actually happened. If these sessions are conducted correctly, you will find your team bonds together much more effectively and relates to each other as human beings instead of as just someone they work with.

It is important to have everyone realize that any complaints should not be personal attacks, but should instead focus on behavior. This is essential to enable everyone to feel safe in voicing any criticism of you or the system so that changes, and progress, can always be made. You may also try other variations of this such as the high-low. This is where each team member expresses his or her high and low for the week during the WIFLE. Remember, open and honest communication is one of the first steps in building a championship team.

LETS HAVE A WIFLE How to Build a Championship Team By Action Business Coach Michael Bedard

The WIFLE is a powerful tool to help you build a championship team. WIFLE stands for 'What I Feel Like Expressing' and enables each team member to express what is currently going on in his or her life, both in the business and personally. Too often it is assumed that people leave their emotions at the door when they come to work, but the reality is this unexpressed or 'bottled up' emotion can all too often impact team performance.

After introducing WIFLE to one of our clients, his team immediately began to perform at a much higher level and started working much better together. The environment was much more fun, the team became much more productive and he was able to grow his business by 42% without adding any additional staff. You need to hold WIFLE sessions regularly in your business. It should be held a minimum of weekly; but, you may wish to hold them as often as daily - it depends on your business. It can also work well having one at the start of the week (first thing Monday, including goal setting) and one at the end of the week (to review the week on Friday afternoon).

The True Measure of Marketing Success Part 4

5. Consolidate.

Leave it for a month or so, just working on converting the supply of leads you have. A better conversion technique, plus more leads from bigger scale successful marketing strategies should give your business a boost.

6. Branch out.

Remember all those marketing strategies you examined and modified? Now is the time to pull them out of the drawer, and give them a run.

Do one at a time, and track the result meticulously. Note down exactly how many leads it brings you, and how many of those turn into sales. Compare that with the marketing cost, and judge whether it has been a good strategy.

If so, add it to your list of ongoing strategies. If not, try it again � testing a different headline, medium, offer, look etc� If it doesn't work again, give it another try�

Very soon, you'll develop a collection of marketing strategies that work, and weed out all the costly ones. Now that's a business success formula!

The True Measure of Marketing Success Part 3

3. Test and measure for another two weeks.

Measure the enquiries with the new revised strategies. Also compare this with how much you�re spending on marketing.

You�ll probably find you barely miss those dud strategies and the �larger scale� working strategies are paying out nicely indeed. If it�s not, return to the original size.

4. Check your conversion.

Conversion is the number of enquiries that become sales� So many times when analyzing a business, I discover that poor marketing is not the problem � it�s inadequate sales techniques. There are stacks of businesses that have ample leads, but no skill to make them sales.

Be honest with yourself � how many leads do you convert into sales? Is it possible to increase this ratio, even just a little? � In almost every case, it is.

You just have to give the customer a reason to buy from your business. Price is not the only reason a customer spends with your business. What if the salesperson at the more expensive shop actually took an interest in your needs? And what if they were that little bit friendlier? And what if they were willing to back their product with a guarantee? And what if they offered free delivery? All of these �what ifs� add up, and can tip the sale your way.

The True Measure of Marketing Success- Part 2

2. Prune, modify and increase.

The first thing to do is see what�s not working. If your ad is getting a very low response (which means the profit margin from the sales is not at least paying for the ad), kill it straight away.

Now you only have one option � improve your ad to ensure you get a great response.

There�s a few things you can do to make the task simpler.

1) Go back over your past ads and think about how well each one worked. Pull out the best couple and see if you can pick what gave them their edge.
2) Next, read a couple of books, or at least flick through them.
3) Last, look at what your competitors are doing. Do they have an ad that they run every week? What can you learn from it?

Go through this process with each marketing piece you are currently using� Kill, examine, modify� Kill, examine, modify� Remember � the true test of a marketing strategy is whether it pays for itself. If you run an ad that costs you $600 and it makes you $1,300 in profit, then it�s a good ad.

Also run through each of the strategies you know are working in depth, examining why these are producing results and the others aren�t. See if you can pick the one important attractive point about each. This in itself will teach you a massive amount about your business.

Next, think of a way to use each strategy that is working on a larger scale. If it�s fliers, the answer is simple � drop twice as many fliers. That should bring twice the sales. If it�s an ad, run it in more papers, or increase its size. If it�s in a phone directory, book a bigger space next time.

But whatever you do, don�t meddle � just do the same thing on a larger scale.

The True Measure of Marketing Success By Action International Business Coach Michael Bedard

It�s called testing and measuring. Most people hate it. That�s because it means �there is a chance, however remote, that every marketing strategy you try will not work the first time�. In other words, it�s possible you�ll spend money without seeing any returns.
But consider this � you�ve probably been testing and measuring all your business life.
Remember the newspaper advertising you tried that �didn�t work�, and the radio spots that �did OK�.

That�s all testing is� Testing what works and what doesn�t�

The next step is to do it properly; here�s the five steps to successfully working out what �works� and what doesn�t�

1. Start asking people where they heard about you.

Start right NOW, immediately. If there�s one thing I stress to business owners when consulting with them, it�s this � if you don�t know what�s working and what�s not, you can�t possibly make informed decisions and you�ll never know which ads to run. You may keep running an ad that never brings a sale, and accidentally kill a good one.

Customers usually come from so many sources, it�s impossible to judge how an ad is working on sales alone. You need to find out for sure. Create a tally sheet, including the ways someone could hear about you � newspaper ads, direct mail, fliers, phone directory, referrals, walk-by traffic, etc.

Every time someone buys, ask them this question � �By the way, can I just ask where you heard about my business?�.

Make a mark on your tally sheet in the relevant column. Keep track, and ensure every member of your team does the same. At the end of 14 or 28 days, tally up and get the figures.

Now you can start making decisions�