Build Relationships that Last for National Entrepreneurship Month

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It’s only natural that we have the holidays on our minds this time of year, but I’ll admit the event I’m thinking of most may not be the same one you’re focused on. November is National Entrepreneurship Month and, as someone who works with small business owners on a daily basis and knows how hard it is to grow a business, I can’t overstate how much I appreciate the creativity, innovation and hard work of today’s entrepreneur. For me, November is synonymous with these self-starters who are following their dreams and doing business their own way. There are plenty of ways we can celebrate these entrepreneurial risk takers, and I think the best way I can show my appreciation is to provide a few tips for developing sustainable customer relationships that are critical to long-term small business success.

Starting your own business requires perseverance and determination. You are doing everything you can to increase visibility, and the next step is capturing the hearts and minds of your customers. The best way for you to grow your business into a healthy and sustainable future is by finding and retaining customers. A report provided by Bain & Company showed that increasing customer retention by as little as 5 percent boosted profits from 25 percent to a whopping 95 percent. Here’s what you need to achieve similar success.

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About the Author

H. John Oechsle joined Swiftpage in July 2012 and currently serves as president and chief executive officer. John came to Swiftpage with a 30 year track record of building highly profitable and sustainable revenue growth for emerging companies and established global leaders. John is an advocate for technology and education in Colorado and has been an active contributor to the Colorado Technology Association (CTA). He has been recognized several times for his involvement in the tech industry. In 2006 and in 2009, John was awarded the Technology Executive of the Year, and the Titan of Technology awards by the CTA. John was also awarded the Bob Newman Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Community by the CTA in 2011.

How to Make Money with a Blog

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So, you want to get rich off a blog. Maybe you’ve seen pictures of Marcus Frind, founder of free online dating site Plenty of Fish, holding up his check for $901,733 – money generated through Google’s AdSense. Or perhaps you’ve heard of Jeremy Schoemaker – they call him “Shoe Money” – who also posted a picture of himself holding a check from Google for a month’s worth of clicks: $132,995.

You’ve heard these outrageous tales of success, and you know that you have great blog ideas yourself. And you, too, want to get rich, quick.

As the founder of Today’s Growth Consultant and Income Store, two companies that collectively own over 200 income-generating websites, I regularly partner with industry thought leaders, CEOs, authors, and athletes to create a generous amount of blog content. Our websites are seen over 50 million times a year, and we’re currently under contracts to split revenues in the eight figures. I’m here to tell you, you can make money on a blog. But not if you are exclusively focused on dollars.

The bad news: the days of monetizing a blog simply by plastering it with ads were well over by about 2008. Back then, you could get $40 per CPM, where today, it’s about $2. Even if you decide to go that route, you’ll need a substantial amount of traffic to make it lucrative. If you’re new to the blogging game and don’t have traffic yet, that’s going to take a while to build. So, you probably aren’t going to turn into the next Marcus Frind or Shoe Money simply by pasting ads all over your blog.

But there’s another way.

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About the Author

Ken CourtrightKen Courtright, speaker and author of multiple best-selling Internet marketing titles, is the founder of Today’s Growth Consultant (TGC) – a two-time Inc. 5000 designee – that launched www.IncomeStore.com. TGC/Income Store partners with individuals, companies and private equity firms/fund managers procure, develop and manage revenue-generating websites at two times earnings. The company’s portfolio currently boasts over 400 websites that are seen approximately 100 million times each year. Ken may be reached online at www.TodaysGrowthConsultant.com.

Decision Makers vs. Influencers

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I’ve heard there are 5.7 decision makers for each sale, and ‘unknown’ influencers. Yet there is no difference between ‘decision makers’ and ‘influencers’.

  • If you want to move and your daughter is in her last year of high school and prefers to stay behind to finish the year, is she a decision maker or an influencer?
  • If your tech group isn’t available to implement an important new program until they finish their current work, would the tech director be an influencer or a decision maker?
  • If your company is going through a merger and the teams haven’t been merged yet, would the director of the groups that need training be an influencer or a decision maker?
  • If you think some of your folks need coaching, would these folks be influencers or decision makers?

See what I mean? ‘Decision Maker’ and ‘Influencer’ are arbitrary delineations. Until everyone who will touch the final solution buys-in, and any ensuing change is managed, no buying decision will happen, regardless of how well your solution matches their need. Think about that when you ask for ‘The Decision Maker’ or believe that the one person who showed up to your appointment is ‘The Decision Maker.’ There is never just one unless it’s a small personal item. And by focusing on this person as ‘The Decision Maker’ you’re actually delaying your sale.

Years ago, when technology was new, a coaching client selling golf carts with new type of visual GPS systems once bet me $20 that his prospect, the owner of a golf course, was the sole decision maker. They’d been having lovely, personal, conversations once a month for a year and my client believed he would eventually close due to the strength of their phone ‘relationship’. He knew they had a need that his golf carts could address. I disagreed: it was obvious to me there was another decision maker in the background that hadn’t been brought in to the conversation. With permission, I placed a call to the owner. Here’s how the conversation went.

SDM: I’m training with William. Seems you two sort of love each other but I’m confused. William tells me you love his carts and find them quite revolutionary. And you’ve been speaking for a year. What’s stopping you from buying them?

O: I do love your carts. But my grounds-keeper would kill me if I bought any. He’s afraid that if the GPS system breaks down we’d run out of carts for the golfers. So it’s not my call.

My client put his $20 into my lap. He’d ignored the fact that that until everyone whose job would be effected as a result of bringing in a new solution became part of the buying decision, no purchase could be made. (BTW, following the above exchange, I used the Buying Facilitation® process and facilitated bringing the grounds keeper into the conversation. Two weeks later the sale was made. But as long as the grounds keeper was not being brought into the conversation, he wouldn’t have. Buyers only buy when they can solve a business problem without causing internal havoc, not because your solution is terrific.)

It’s possible to facilitate the buying decision process by helping buyers recognize all of the people who must buy-in to a purchase. It’s not always obvious to them. And this must happen before buyers can buy. Having a need is merely one aspect of their problem set. And as an outsider, you’ll never know who all of the decision makers are or what sort of internal decisions must be made that fall outside your purview.

Remember that a buying decision is a change management problem; the sales model does not offer the skills to facilitate the sort of non-solution-based systemic change buyers go through (behind-the-scenes politics, relationships, timing, etc.) Pre Sales, and their process delays/stops your sale.

About the Author

Sharon Drew Morgen is a visionary, original thinker, and thought leader in change management and decision facilitation. She works as a coach, trainer, speaker, and consultant, and has authored 9 books including the NYTimes Business BestsellerSelling with Integrity. Morgen developed the Buying Facilitation® method (www.sharondrewmorgen.com) in 1985 to facilitate change decisions, notably to help buyers buy and help leaders and coaches affect permanent change. Her newest book What? www.didihearyou.com explains how to close the gap between what’s said and what’s heard. She can be reached at [email protected]

StrategyDriven Releases a Turnkey Business Performance Assessment Program

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StrategyDriven’s turnkey Sevian Business Performance Assessment Program provides business leaders with an immediately implementable process for performing in-depth evaluations of organizational performance.
 
Sevian Business Performance Assessment ProgramStrategyDriven released its Sevian Business Performance Assessment Program providing business leaders with an immediately implementable process for performing in-depth evaluations of organizational performance. The assessment program contains fully developed process procedures, forms and templates, performance metrics, how-to guides, and a library of best practices.

“The Sevian Business Performance Assessment Program exemplifies StrategyDriven’s commitment to providing business leaders with high-quality, affordable solutions,” explains Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our assessment solution embodies decades of experience in the evaluation of organizational performance; tested methods that have supported an unparalleled amount of performance improvement at companies both large and small.”

“In 2014 alone, Sevian Business Performance Assessments identified over $200 million in people, process, and technology improvement opportunities at four client companies,” continues Karen Juliano, StrategyDriven Vice President in charge of Sevian Business Program development. “Not only is this program cost effective to implement, but it yields real and immediate benefits.”

The Sevian Business Performance Assessment Program was developed based on decades of experience managing and improving complex business operations. This program was further enhanced through the first-hand performance benchmarking of leading companies throughout the world.

Sevian Business Performance Assessment Programs are fully customized to reflect client organization structure, positional titles, and common business terms. Each program contains all the components necessary to implement a fully mature program on day one – truly enabling

turnkey performance excellence. Supported by world-class software applications (optional), the program package includes:

  • Program Introduction establishing the framework for immediate program implementation, effective execution, and long-term governance.
  • Program Procedure containing specific step-by-step process procedures that are fully human factored to ensure consistent, accurate program execution.
  • Program Execution Guides providing detailed information on how to optimally perform major assessment activities including the use of program forms and models.
  • Program Principles, Best Practices, and Warning Flags elaborating on those core elements necessary for consistently superior program and process performance.

To ensure implementation success, Sevian Business Advisors provide onsite training and execution support when delivering the turnkey program.

The Sevian Business Performance Assessment Program is being implemented by StrategyDriven’s clients, including some of the world’s largest companies. Complete information regarding the Sevian Business Performance Assessment Program is available at: www.strategydriven.com/sbpap.

Can You Really Turn a Hobby into a Business? part 2 of 3

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Business Is Both Fun and Dull All The Time

Fun is a small word with a huge impact on our lives, so it makes sense that we’d prioritize injecting fun into our business lives whenever possible. And, if you’re thinking about becoming your own boss, the ability to capitalize on fun is definitely one of the advantages: you can wear whatever you want, play music while you work, control the tone and presentation of your product—you’ll be in control of a lot of fun, new components of your business.

However, even the most fun business is still just that – a business. There are a lot of decidedly un-fun and dull responsibilities that your business requires to remain successful and profitable. Finance, administration, inventory – these are all things most small businesses owners do not go into business to learn how to do. That being said, there are ways to help minimize the impact of these dull tasks so you can focus on the fun stuff:

  • Get a bookkeeper or an accountant from day one. Explain that you are a very small business on a shoestring budget, and that you don’t need corporate advice – you just want to get the basics right.
  • You’re going to want mobile and online offerings first, so find a bookkeeper who does the same. You’ll get the advice and help you need without spending time and money travelling to meet them in person.
  • Use an accounting app that your bookkeeper recommends. Every dollar you spend on your business counts towards your success.
  • Learn the basics of accounting, invoicing, expense management, tax returns, and cash flow. Accept that your success depends on it. You don’t have to be an expert but you will fail without mastering the basics of accounting.

For everything else you need help with, use sites like www.upwork.com and www.peopleperhour.com to get freelance help. These sites offer experts on demand and at an affordable price.

Do The Math and Get More Help

Fundamentally, every business needs to answer this simple equation to find success: revenue minus cost. To make sure your business is financially stable, start by figuring out how much income you need along with how much product you need to sell, and what your costs are. Then you’ll need to calculate how to manage the cash flow (the money you need to make the business work) as you ramp up. Keep going over these numbers.

If you are useless at numbers, don’t give up—get help! It’s a given that you will be weak in some areas of your business – after all, your passion for your hobby is not enough to keep a business up and running smoothly. The good news is that anyone in marketing, finance commercial management, product management, or your bookkeeper can help you. And don’t forget your friends and neighbours: your community includes people who will do things pro bono, provided that you can help them back. Be open to this. The social-first generation is all about mutual support (and that’s what makes it awesome!).

About the Author
Nick Goode is the Global Commercial Director of Sage One, Sage’s cloud accounting and payroll solution for start-ups and small businesses. He is accountable for the commercial, channel, product and marketing strategy for Sage One worldwide. Nick was previously Head of Sage One for Sage UK, and prior to that, Head of Marketing for the Accountants Division at Sage.