Posts Tagged ‘small business’

When it comes to good advice about how to build a profitable business, how many times do we need to hear something before we take it to heart and act on it?

For instance take the simple, and logical, idea that to build a profitable business you must offer – not what you want to sell but something people want to buy. 

Here it is.  One basic truth about building a profitable business, said in four different ways by four different teachers.

Michel Port:  Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most reliable system for Getting More Clients than you Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling.

 

“You must offer what your potential clients want to buy, not what you want to sell or think they should want to buy.  You must be able to look at your service from your client’s perspective – their urgent needs and compelling desires.”

John Jantsch:  The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself.

 

“The secret to selling more of just about anything to just about anyone,  …is not about your product or service – the trick is to help them get what they most want.”

Seth Godin  –  The Bootstrappers Bible:  

 

“I will sell by helping other get what they want. By identifying needs and fulfilling them.”

Michael E. Gerber: The E Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It.

 

 “In the development of your marketing strategy, it is absolutely imperative that you forget about your dreams, forget about your visions, forget about your interests, forget about what you want – forget about everything but your customer.

When it comes to marketing, what you want is unimportant.

It’s what your customer wants that matters.”

 

What are your client’s urgent desires?  What are their compelling needs?

Please list a few in the comments section and get the conversation going. 

Note: the above links are affiliate links.  If books about building a profitable business meet one of your urgent needs or desires, I am sure you won’t mind the small affiliate fee I will receive.  If reading and digesting the books seems like to slow a solution to your urgent need,  contact me: I’ve read them all and I can help.

Though I am tempted, the problem with curling up to read a book for the rest of the winter is, if I do, I won’t accomplish my objectives.  Momentum will be lost and my business will fail to thrive.  Having objectives, specific things I intend to accomplish, is an important part of building a business that is satisfying and profitable.

Vision and Goals

I have written many times about vision and the importance of setting goals, the difference between visionary goals and objectives is in the specificity. Goals are big and broad.  Objectives are one level down.  Objectives address the outcomes in very specific terms.

Be Specific

People who succeed at getting what they want know exactly what it is.  They know when they expect to achieve it and they know how they will recognize it when they get it.  They are specific.

People who dream in vague generalities with no clear outcome and no target dates, can be easily tempted back to reading their book.  After all, if you have no idea where you are going, any path will get you there.

In creating a plan for your business, you vision can be, and should be, expansive and idealistic.  Your mission should be short, powerful, and meaningful.  Your objectives – those things you intend to accomplish in order to realize your vision and mission – need to be specific. 

How to Identify Your Objectives

Think again about your current reality what is not right?  What is missing?  Where are the gaps between what is and what you want to be, do or have?

Apply specifics to both the vision and the reality.  Don’t flinch.  If you want to build a six figure business, write that number down: $100,000.  If you currently make $25,000, write that number down.  Do the math. Your number is $75,000. What do you have to accomplish this year to make an additional $75,000?  The what, the thing you must do, that is your objective.

Do not be intimidated but also do not be so unrealistic that you are not motivated. A million dollars is a nice idea but don’t start there.  Pick a number that is challenging and motivating then set your objectives to make that number.

In my next post we will look at how one clear business objective can generate other clear, meaningful and important objectives that will begin to focus your weekly activities on building a satisfying and profitable business.

I am a small business coach. I am all about a purposeful life, having an impact, creating something powerful and meaningful that changes the world for the better.  I am also, all about doing it well, getting it right, making it last.  One important step in building a great business is having a great business vision. Another important step in doing it right, is making your smart, vision oriented decisions based on hard data.

How to collect this data and analyze it is a leadership skill many small business owners must learn.

One tool I use to begin the process of collecting the hard data you will need to make informed management decision is a simple but powerful spread sheet I call the current reality analysis.  You can download a copy here.

As you complete the Working Miracles Current Reality Spreadsheet, you can address this data in two ways: as a snap shot of your personal finances or as a snapshot of your business health.  Both ways are informative. 

Assets

List all that you own that has value: your home, your car, your stocks and bonds, your 401K. If you want to beef up the bottom line, add the e-bay value of everything from your stuff animal collection to the spices in your cupboard. Only do this if you think it is a valuable use of your time.

Liabilities

List all that you owe: mortgage, car payment, credit card debt, school loans. Here it is a valuable use of your time to be detailed.  Don’t overlook anything.  If you owe money capture it.  This can be very emotional.  Take a Zen moment and let go of judging yourself.  Then vow to be brave.  Don’t flinch.  If the number is frightening remind yourself that until you know your enemy you cannot challenge him.

Income

List all the money that comes in: salary, dividends, child support. You know the drill. Include all the income that you report on your taxes and, if there is any, all the income you don’t.

Expenses

This is the hard part.  Getting a handle on expenses often requires digging into to piles of unopened bills, shoe boxes of receipts, and, even more difficult, facing what can be an uncomfortable reality.  Most of us have some expense category: alcohol, cigarettes, on-line poker, that we have not faced honestly until now. Don’t let a little discomfort stop you.  Truth is freedom.

Net Worth

Subtract what you owe from what you own.  The result is your net worth.

This is the number that represents your monetary value.  I know that your monetary value is not you, not important, does not reflect who you are, how you touch the people you love and who love you. I know your dreams are not about the money.  I also know that your business can not survive; indeed, you cannot survive without money.  Keeping an eye on this number is only one way of measuring success but it is an important way.

Truth: What’s it Good For

If you’ve done this work of gathering the numbers that reflect your current financial reality, you can now recognize some things you may have only suspected before.

• Are you living within your means?  Are your expenses less than your income?
• Is your debt affecting your quality of live?  How would things be different if you paid off your credit card bills?
• Are your assets truly assets? Are they worth more than what you owe?

Now that you can see the current reality and recognize the gap between reality and you vision for your life and your business, the steps you need to take become clear. And your motivation to change things becomes compelling.

In addition, once you’ve done the work to gather this data, you can refer to it as you make any number of important decisions about your life and your business.

Your business, while it may seem to encompass your entire identity, is not you. It is a tool, a system you’ve created to exchange value (your product or service) for value (money).  If the value you are receiving does not cover the cost of production and provide you with an income your business is a system that needs to change. Knowing the truth about current financial reality of your business will allow you to make wise business leadership decisions.

Here are a few typical questions that can be answered using this data:

• Should I quit my J.O.B. and go for it?
• Is my business making it?  Does it pay me a living wage, cover my debt obligations and make a profit.
• To increase profit should I increase income or decrease expenses, or both? How?
• How can I best invest the profit from my business to grow the value?

Creative Tension

For most people this hard look at the numbers is disquieting. It is a hard thing to recognize just how far we are from realizing our dreams. The human emotional response is most often tension and perhaps shame. This tension and the shame are valuable. You may feel uncomfortable but do not rush to relieve the pain. Use it. This tension is the magic elixir that generates the personal motivation to change.  Feeling the tension between what is and what could be – and vowing to change current reality to more closely align with your vision – will propel you to success.

Good luck and if you need help, call me.