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�

Team Building Team Challenges Part 2

Team members become empowered through their commitment to participate, more co-operative through their intra-dependency and involvement, more communicative and informed which raises their level of contribution overall. This type of involvement and participation ensures and strengthens a commitment to corporate values and vision. They see the bigger picture and realize their role is an integral part of reaching corporate objectives. Teams ultimately become accountable and responsible to implement, measure and monitor results. A current job description for a team member could read as follows: "Use Your Head" and "Make Yourself Valuable."

Successful results and attainment of ownership goals are testimony to the impact that teams and teamwork have to produce significant gains in productivity and business success. Action plans are needed to build team concepts. Action plans take into consideration the values that drive the business and the strategies necessary to support them. Team concepts are thriving, strong, and continually striving to develop people in the pursuit of growth and prosperity.

Actual Together
Commitment Everyone
To Achieves
Improve More
Operations
Now!

Action principles at work give you more: Learning
Integral
Fundamental
Empowerment

Team Building, Team Challenges By Action International Business Coach Michael Bedard

Today, quality initiatives, superior service, cost of doing business and succeeding at doing business are commonly shared ownership issues. Reliance on individual experience and competencies and even greater reliance on fragmented cross-organizational work units can actually prove prohibitive to achieving these.

Proven, positive strategies should be applied to influence people to work together, together towards end results, common purpose and mutual gain. These strategies and this direction are gaining solid ground and supporting overall organizational framework goals. It is a fact that businesses of all sizes experience greater tangible payoffs and reach levels of optimal productivity when people work together.

Teamwork is all about spirit, attitude, and enthusiasm. In the corporate sense, people are more inclined to buy into quality outcomes; it gives everyone a sense of pride and companies realize the positive effects on bottom line.

From the earliest days of civilization, the hunters and gatherers demonstrated effectively how working in groups brought greater abundance into their lives. The underlying strength behind every team is the diversity each member brings to it.

This blending of talent, attributes and experience supports a common and shared sense of purpose: that being for the betterment of the business. Teams become both efficient and effective in accomplishing work and achieving results. They become effective at doing the right things and efficient at doing things right�

An Action Approach to Team Building Part 2

Beliefs are the key motivators in peoples' behaviour. However, changing your team members beliefs is not an easy or swift task. Recruiting the right people through personality instruments and team interviews can be one strategy but understanding their beliefs can be important in identifying other strategies. Common beliefs limiting team performance include:

Feedback "I have some constructive feedback but expressing it may cause a confrontation � best to keep it to myself"

Delegation "The only way to get the job done properly is to do it myself"

Sales "Real salespeople are dishonest, pushy and arrogant"

Changing beliefs such as these can be a daunting challenge. Team leaders need to facilitate change by designing flexible experiences for people in organizations to learn that "maybe there is a different way to look at this". Experiential learning such as climbing trees and playing games aren't just used because they are fun and help build relationships but because they work. Multiple and varied experiences must be used to inspire new ways of seeing and thinking about things. Reframing opens the mind to new beliefs and behavior.

Information and ideas are not enough they need to be engrained in day to day activity. You need to look at training options and ask what beliefs in this organisation may hamper or aid in achieving the desired outcome? How can our work environment be changed to support flexibility and greater productivity or what experiences will help foster changes in belief and behaviours? Team building is not an exact science but a cast of finding the best strategies available to bring out the potential in your team.

An Action Approach to Team Building By Action International Business Coach Michael Bedard

Putting together the "dream team" for your business can be as easy as taking an "action" rather than "information approach." With a plethora of training options open to employers it can often be puzzling when trying to find the strategies that are going to achieve results.

There is one basic rule to apply when considering your next team building exercise. "Dream teams" are not built through information or training alone. Seminars, competency training, reading books and watching videos are all helpful strategies but as the age old adage goes "action speaks louder than words." Being able to perform tasks during training is not the same as applying them on a day to day basis. Just as information does not automatically change behaviors. For example, we read about the dangers of smoking but many people still engage in this behavior.

Environment is one of the key factors in influencing your team's success. People base their behavior on their beliefs about themselves and their environment. Can they have a positive impact on their environment? Does this environment support positive behavior? Team members should feel that they have the capability to contribute in their environment. This means giving them the right equipment and environment to be effective is essential. It also helps if they feel safe to contribute their opinion and feedback in a supportive environment. But how do you find this out? You simply have to ask. Ask your team if they think there are factors in their environment which could be improved to help them be more efficient, productive or happy. Perhaps they may prefer music while they work, better light, or flexible hours. Many organizations have realized the importance of employee satisfaction on the bottom line. Workplaces now can include facilities such as childcare or the benefits of ergonomically designed work stations.

Can Your People Do it the Same Way You Do Part 2

Three 'Tricks of the Trade' for Creating Systems:

3. Make sure your precious systems are being used
As you create systems, build into them monitoring systems, so that at a glance you can see if they are being used. Changing the culture of your company takes time and there will be failures. Even when the culture has changed, it needs to be maintained; your monitoring systems will do of this for you.

4. Make sure your team members knows the positions they play
Unfortunately, it is normal for most team members to disagree on what needs to be done while at the same time believing everyone knows their job roles. Clear written and agreed upon roles will remove the need for 75% of systems. So start here.

By now you truly understand the best systems look very unimpressive� the genius is getting them to look that way.

The Coach's Official Cheat List of Popular Systems�
If you do not know them or when to use them ask your business coach for details�
� Checklist - tear off pad
� Checklist - laminated cards
� Checklists �numbered in sequence
� Checklists � memorize with acronym
� Quick Contact lists
� Job or Quote Pads
� Position Contracts
� Standard letters
� Team 'Code of Honor'
� Performance Standards
� Meeting minutes
� Procedure manual using photographs
� Procedure manual using videos
� Weekly or Job Budgets
� Wall Signs & Instruction labels
� Test & Measure Sheets
� Survey your competitors for ideas�

When you can run your business working a three-day week and your team can create systems for you�then you really understand this topic.

Can Your People Do it the Same Way You Do By Action International Business Coach Michael Bedard

Systems are your way of empowering your team to do large parts of your job just as if you were doing it personally. They can reduce your hours and stress by getting average people to do a great job�sound fantastic? Well, it is easy once you know a couple of tricks�

Three 'Tricks of the Trade' for Creating Systems
1. Work until it becomes simple
If the system is complex, then keep working! When you really understand something, and present it well, it will become simple. For example, written procedures can often be clarified by presenting them as checklists or tables.

2. Only write systems that make money (or reduce a big risk)
We are not the government and not in the business of creating manuals, so only create a system if it simplifies a task, improves quality, or speeds up a service. This will keep you focused. Forget your big company or corporate experience of many volumes that mainly gather dust. Rather, the trick is to start small and let it grow with time.

The Steps to Successful Sales Part 2

Qualifying
Qualifying is the factor, which has the greatest impact on the management of your time. You have to become skilled in sorting prospects. The greatest stress in your career will come from working with unqualified prospects, be it someone who refuses to buy at a fantastic price or someone who is not ready, willing and able to buy at all.

The Sales Process
The key to a successful sale is the ability to build rapport and trust with each customer. Meet, greet and build rapport, settle them on a model, garment or product to demonstrate. All the time check by asking trial closing questions, then ask for their business.

Remember to sell the benefits of your product speaking in their own linguistic modality. For example, talking to an auditory person about a car engine you would say: "Listen to that engine, doesn't it sound great?"� or to a visual person your could say, "You see how smooth that engine is"�

Follow up
This is the first step to the next sale to your customer or to obtaining referrals from them� First a thank you letter, then a 7 day follow up call followed by a call at least every 9 days. This will ensure a steady stream of referrals� All you have to do is ask.

Remember� Do what you most fear to do, and you will have the results you most want to have�