Extraordinary Investing: Cash is a Tool…

As a business leader, one of the decisions that you will continually have in front of you is how to make the best use of the cash resources you have.  If your business is one where there is a lot of business going into and out of the business, such as in a restaurant or manufacturing, your goal is probably to get the best price on the components of your goods.  If you are in a service-based industry, you are probably focused on ways to develop your business more.

In either case, the fact is that it takes money to make money.  No Aepiphanni, there.

What many entrepreneurs fail to do, however, is to try to determine what they expect to get from the money that they are investing, and when to stop an investment that isn’t producing the results that they are looking for.  For example, if you became a member of a local networking group.  Why?  Probably because everyone said that you needed to.  That membership might cost to $365 per year, or so.  The benefits might be association and visibility in this group, blah, blah, blah.

However, the reality is that you’ve been a member of this group for a couple of years and have forged a number of relationships, but very few that have actually turned into revenue for the company.  Do you maintain the membership?  From a cost perspective, probably not.  Without having a clear plan of action and clear expectations for the group, it is difficult to actually say whether you should leave or not.

Determining what you want to get out of the group is not as challenging as you might think.  What drives your business is revenues.  Relationships and visibility are great, but it comes down to cold hard cash.  So if we are talking about networking, you should attach a dollar figure to it, say monthly:

• Client revenue per client = $1,000
• Cost of my time to be there versus working on client work - $150*4 meetings per month = $600
• Cost of the networking group = $300/year plus $6 meals = $25/mo plus 4 meals ($24) = $49
• Total cost = $649
• Out of every 10 people you meet, say you get 1 sale = $1,000.

Therefore, you need to meet at least 10 leads per month and generate at least one sale per month for the group to make sense.  Now, you could throw in additional costs such as cost of sales (collateral, time, meetings, coffees, etc) and bump your figure up to maybe $1300 per month, meaning you need to meet 40 leads and close at least 2 deals per month.

Having thought through the scenario in these terms gives you enough information to make a good decision as to whether or not the networking group is working.  Other types of investments need to take on the same thought process: what are my expenses around this event, including my hourly rate, what do I have to do in order to  drive revenue (the number of people I have to connect with in the networking group example) and how much revenue should I expect as a result.

Every decision you make in your business must be thought out this way, or you will quickly be out of business.  If you cannot determine what the return will be, then consider not making the investment until you can determine what the return will be.  Remember – your goal wasn’t just to get in business, it was to stay in business!

Be extraordinary.  Use cash as a tool.  Build an extraordinary business.

Aepiphanni Business Consulting: The Business Strategy People is a Strategy Consulting Firm dedicated to serving the needs of small to medium sized business leaders and executives. We specialize in helping leaders create extraordinary businesses.  We welcome clients in the personal and professional services industries, including Creative and Design Services, Software & IT Services, Professional Services and Healthcare Services.  As always, we welcome your comments, thoughts, questions and suggestions.  If you are seeking a business assessment, or have further questions about creating your strategy or developing your vision, please give me, Rick Meekins, a call at 678-265-3908, or email us at info@aepiphanni.com.

Labels: Business Decisions, Business Growth Strategies, Business Planning, Business Relationship, Business Strategy, Extraordinary, Extraordinary Leadership, Investing, Management and Leadership, Small Business Consulting, Strategic Planning, Training

posted by Rick Meekins, Principal Advisor @ 11:54 AM

Extraordinary Business: A House Divided

Have you ever worked for an employer or known other business owners who acted as though they were the expert on everything that happened in the business?  Do you remember or notice how the employees felt: that they were expendable, that they didn’t count, and they really didn’t care about the job – it was just a job?  They did not share the same vision, passion and beliefs that the owner had in the business and thus, there was a house divided.

Throughout history, we are reminded that a house, divided, cannot stand, meaning that a house that does not share a unified mission and vision cannot be successful.  Many companies are destroyed from the inside out, with members amongst the ranks deciding that they want things to be different so much so that they strike or they quit and start their own competing companies or they find ways to sabotage the company.

As a leader, you are solely responsible for:

1. Empowering your employees to make or participate in the discussions and decisions in which they have expertise and experience
2. Harnessing their strengths so that they can bring as much as they can of who they are to help drive the business
3. Showing them how they fit in the company mission and will help drive towards the vision
4. Keeping them involved through a communication strategy, wherein you provide regular updates of what is going on in the company
5. Valuing their ideas – have an innovation process for submitting, evaluating and implementing new ways of doing things in the company

If you can demonstrate to your employees how they are a valuable part of the growing organization, that they are truly stakeholders and that they are not expendable, you’ll find that they will be the bricks and mortar that keep your organization growing and moving forward.

Be extraordinary.  Don’t run a divided house.  Build an extraordinary one.

Aepiphanni Business Consulting: The Business Strategy People is a Strategy Consulting Firm dedicated to serving the needs of small to medium sized business leaders and executives. We specialize in helping leaders create extraordinary businesses.  We welcome clients in the personal and professional services industries, including Creative and Design Services, Software & IT Services, Professional Services and Healthcare Services.  As always, we welcome your comments, thoughts, questions and suggestions.  If you are seeking a business assessment, or have further questions about creating your strategy or developing your vision, please give me, Rick Meekins, a call at 678-265-3908, or email us at info@aepiphanni.com.

Labels: Attitude, Business Decisions, Business Development Strategies, Business Growth Strategies, Business Planning, Business Relationship, Business Strategy, Communications Strategy, Employees, Extraordinary, Extraordinary Business, Extraordinary Leadership, Idea Platform, innovation, Leadership Development, Management and Leadership

posted by Rick Meekins, Principal Advisor @ 9:34 AM

Extraordinary Business Life Cycle: Existence

“You can’t get where you want to go unless you know where you are starting!”

Many times, when businesses are started – they just start selling, often missing mundane tasks, such as planning and preparing for growth.  Of course, desperate times call for desperate actions; we work to make money, not to get stuck in, as my friend Ken says, “paralysis of analysis.”

Nevertheless, I would bet that many of the businesses that don’t last very long are those that never fulfill their Existence Level needs.  Those include:

• Clarity of what your business will do to serve it’s market.  How will your business make its money?  What product, service or feeling do you want people to associate with your business.  This is also known as the mission statement or purpose statement
• Clarity of what you want people to remember about your business once it’s closed.  While many people have an idea of what they want things to look like “when the business grows up,” that vision often takes some time, and begins to dim as the business grows
• Understanding of leadership strengths and weaknesses.  You might be a great inventor, but if you aren’t a great business person, and don’t surround yourself with great people, you are no better than a great sales person with poor order fulfillment capability.  It just won’t happen.  Leadership must be balanced out.
• Understanding of the target market: who are they? what do they need?  how do they buy it? what might they buy instead of what you are sell?  how much will they pay for it?
• Understanding of what you are selling: is it a product or a service, or a combination?  Your product or service is typically not all that is sold, but rather, the reputation of your company, the box it is sold in, the price point, service outcomes, etc.  Is your product for immediate consumption, or does it have a lasting impact?
• Understanding of the types of things that could go wrong in your company, and what you can do about it
• Understanding of company strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
• Relationships with advisors that could advise you on key areas of your business, including legal, accounting, banking and insurances
• Proper compliances, including certifications, insurances, safety measures, HR and employee issues, etc.

These are foundational to your business.  They don’t actually sell a lick, but they make sure that your business has firm footing for all of the decisions that need to be made.  However, many of these activities are those that are overlooked, and leave many businesses flapping in the wind.

Be extraordinary.  Start your business the right way.  Have a strong foundation.

Aepiphanni Business Consulting: The Business Strategy People is a Strategy Consulting Firm dedicated to serving the needs of small to medium sized business leaders and executives. We specialize in helping leaders create extraordinary businesses.  We welcome clients in the personal and professional services industries, including Creative and Design Services, Software & IT Services, Professional Services and Healthcare Services.  As always, we welcome your comments, thoughts, questions and suggestions.  If you are seeking a business assessment, or have further questions about creating your strategy or developing your vision, please give me, Rick Meekins, a call at 678-265-3908, or email us at info@aepiphanni.com.

Labels: Business Decisions, Business Development Strategies, Business Growth Strategies, Business Planning, Business Startup, Extraordinary, Extraordinary Business, Extraordinary Leadership

posted by Rick Meekins, Principal Advisor @ 9:24 AM

Building Relationships: Communications Strategy

Your stakeholders are the MVP’s (Most Valuable Players) to your organization.  Without them, you’d have an interesting hobby rather than an organization that you are running.  When we refer to stakeholders, we are talking about anyone or business that stands to gain as a result of the success of your business, including:
•    Employees
•    Partners
•    Investors
•    Vendors
•    Your community
Keeping them in the loop about what is going on in your business serves to build trust, loyalty, commitment and familiarity with your business.  A communications strategy (not just a sell, sell, sell strategy) is one way to make sure that you do this.

How many emails do you get per day that are trying to sell you something?  How many “free” webinars and tele-calls and partnership offers, disguised as sales tools grace your inbox, even hourly?  Contrast that to the number of value-added items you receive.  Which are better received?

Your stakeholders would be best served by value-ads (things that would be beneficial to that stakeholder), such as those articles, introductions and podcasts that could help them do what they do, better.  Knowing that they can be in regular communication with you without being asked to purchase something helps to build trust, and encourages them to learn more about you.

On the flip side, getting involved with their organizations or them helps to strengthen the growing relationship.  You’ve probably heard those dating or relationship stories where one party spends most of their time talking about and focused on themselves.  In the same story, 99% of the time, you hear that the relationship fizzles.  It will be the same with your stakeholders: if you spend all of your time focused on yourself or your company, they get disinterested, quickly.

A strong communications strategy is balanced; it addresses all of your stakeholders, individually, it gives and receives information about them, it provides value-ads for each of your stakeholders.  It is a combination of a number of different contact methods, from broadcast to personal, and uses a number of different medium, from emails to telephone calls to e-newsletters or print newsletters to meetings to personal cards.

Your communication strategy is one of the tools that will help your business grow, exponentially.  Because it is designed as a strategy, with regular communication and follow-up, you can give yourself goals with respect to how many people you will communicate with over any certain time period, and can measure how effective your campaign is.  Since it focuses on deeper relationships with people an businesses, it will be more effective than advertising, search engine optimization, search engine marketing and a pretty logo.

Be extraordinary.  Build extraordinary relationships.

Aepiphanni Business Consulting: The Business Strategy People is a Strategy Consulting Firm dedicated to serving the needs of small to medium sized business leaders and executives. We specialize in helping leaders create extraordinary businesses.  We welcome clients in the personal and professional services industries, including Creative and Design Services, Software & IT Services, Professional Services and Healthcare Services.  As always, we welcome your comments, thoughts, questions and suggestions.  If you are seeking a business assessment, or have further questions about creating your strategy or developing your vision, please give me, Rick Meekins, a call at 678-265-3908, or email us at info@aepiphanni.com.

Labels: Business Development Strategies, Business Growth Strategies, Business Planning, Business Process, Business Relationship, Business Strategy, Communications Strategy, Employees, Extraordinary, Extraordinary Business, Extraordinary Leadership, Leadership Effectiveness, Management and Leadership, marketing strategy, Process Improvement, Small Business Consulting, Strategic Partnerships, Strategic Planning, Transparency

posted by Rick Meekins, Principal Advisor @ 11:34 AM

Strategic Partnerships

The first time someone mentions the idea of a strategic partner, I would bet you kind of roll it around in your head, but don’t give it much thought – it feels like giving up part of your business, and that is the LAST thing you want to do. A quick segue – don’t let your ego cause your business to fail. By thinking you can do it all yourself, and that everything that has to be done can only be done by yourself will minimize both your capabilities – the abilities to get work done, and your capacity – the amount of work you can complete in a given time period.

Let me define a strategic partner. A strategic partner is a person or organization with similar values and beliefs to your own business, that has a specific complementary expertise that will manage a specific aspect or your business using their expertise for a fee. The short version is this person or organization will be your organization’s spouse. As long as you share a vision, are honest and respectful to each other and meet each other’s expectations (financial or service-related), you may have a long-term relationship.

Some things a partner won’t do would be to take you for granted, do something that would compromise your organization, not communicate with you and look out for its own self interest to the detriment of your organization. What makes it a partnership is that the honor and respect is reciprocal.

The quick and dirty – looking for a partner for your organization:

• Know your business – start with a business assessment. Make sure you have an understanding of how the role you seek to fill impacts your business – cost, personal service, intimacy with your business, etc.
• Know the role you wish to fill – qualifications, requirements, industry understanding, education, experience, etc.
• Know your business beliefs – what does your organization stand for?
• Know how much you can afford to invest or spend. While measuring the cost/benefit is often rather easy to do – strategic partners often save you much more money than you will spend, measure the actual cost in terms of actual dollars you can spend.
• When looking for an organization, look for one that you can have a relationship, rather than one that will simply add you in its long list of clients. Remember, while you might like the sales person, most people change jobs every four years or so. The person you started with will probably only be with the organization for so long.
• Keep your organization’s values in mind, and make sure that your partner’s values are similar.
• Be clear on exactly what role you want filled. Neither party will benefit if both parties don’t have full understanding of expectations.
• Have a statement of understanding or contract so that both parties will have clear understanding of what is expected. This is not in lieu of a handshake, if that is your standard operating procedures. The statement of understanding simply spells out what you expect of each other and serves as a point of reference as your organizations grow.
  Try to find an organization that is your “equal.” Remember, you want to be able to serve each other and understand each other’s needs and wants.
• Understand that barter (trade) and cash are viable assets. Recommending each other’s products and services serve to strengthen relationships and strengthen the relationship. Communication should be often and ongoing. Remember, you are working in each others’ best interest.

Choosing a strategic partner should be taken no less likely then choosing an internal partner for your organization, or a spouse. If you chose wisely, both of your organizations can grow together. As Colin Powell once said, “None of us is as strong as all of us.”

Be extraordinary.  Develop extraordinary partnerships.

Aepiphanni Business Consulting: The Business Strategy People is a Strategy Consulting Firm dedicated to serving the needs of small to medium sized business leaders and executives. We specialize in helping leaders create extraordinary businesses.  We welcome clients in the personal and professional services industries, including Creative and Design Services, Software & IT Services, Professional Services and Healthcare Services.  As always, we welcome your comments, thoughts, questions and suggestions.  If you are seeking a business assessment, or have further questions about creating your strategy or developing your vision, please give me, Rick Meekins, a call at 678-265-3908, or email us at info@aepiphanni.com.

Labels: Business Decisions, Business Growth Strategies, Business Planning, Business Relationship, Business Strategy, Extraordinary, Extraordinary Business

posted by Rick Meekins, Principal Advisor @ 10:22 AM