As a business owner, it is essential that you stay on top of the finances in your company. After all, no business can get very far without a decent focus on the money itself. If you want your business to enjoy much success long into the future, then you need to make sure that you are taking a good look at the finances. The truth is, there are a few very common reasons that businesses experience financial problems. In this post, we will take a look at some of them. Looking at these should help any business owner put their own business into a healthier position. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the most common causes of financial problems in the business world.
It is often the way that young businesses find themselves buying plenty of equipment to get the ball rolling. This might seem necessary, but the truth is it often isn’t. One of the most common causes of businesses experiencing financial trouble early on is an overstock of equipment. It can easily happen, and it can cause more of a hole in your budget than you might at first assume. If you think your business might be suffering in this way, be sure to cut down. Sell some of that stock which you don’t need, and invest the earnings back into the company.
Paying Too Much Tax
There are few things as important as staying on top of the legal side of things. It goes without saying that tax is a very important part of this. However, it is often the case that businesses end up paying too much tax. While you certainly do not want to get into the trouble of not paying any tax, you should make sure that you don’t pay too much either. Doing so could land your business in some serious financial trouble before you even know what’s happened. Use the help of a professional like tax attorney Joe Callahan at MCC4Tax. That way, you are sure to only pay what you need to.
It is a very good idea to do everything you can to keep your business competitive in the marketplace. That much goes without saying. However, that doesn’t mean that you should place your business in any kind of financial jeopardy. In fact, this is often easily done without noticing. When you are introducing a new sale or promotion, ensure that you don’t take it too far. There have been cases of businesses essentially bankrupting themselves by being a little too generous. Remember: you want to please the customer, but you also want to keep on trading!
Trying To Please Everyone
The fact is,your business will be much more successful if it focuses on a niche. While it might be tempting to try and have something for everyone, it is often not viable. Chances are, you will just end up spreading yourself too thin. Avoid this at all costs by focusing on a central demographic first and foremost. If you have the resources, you can then expand as and when you need to.
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Every company has stakeholders, though a few with their own proprietary interests chart the course in their own vision, or lack thereof.
Within every corporate and organizational structure, there is a stair-step ladder. One enters the ladder at some level and is considered valuable for the category of services for which they have expertise. This ladder holds true for managers and employees within the organization, as well as outside consultants brought in.
Each rung on the ladder is important. At whatever level one enters the ladder, he-she is trained, measured for performance and fits into the organization’s overall Big Picture. One rarely advances more than one rung on the ladder during the course of service to the organization in question:
Culture and Mission. Values, customs, beliefs, goals, objectives, benchmarking.
Philosophy. Organizational purpose, vision, quality of life, ethics, long-term growth.
Value-added leadership is a healthy way of life that puts collaborations first. When all succeed, then profitability is much higher and more sustained than under the Hard Nose management style. Value-added leadership requires a senior team commitment. Managers and employees begin seeing themselves as leaders and grow steadily into those roles.
The ideal company could hopefully make the following answers to questions posed above, per categories on The Business Tree™, including:
The business you’re in. You’re in the best business-industry, produce a good product-service and always lead the pack. Customers get what they cannot really get elsewhere.
Running the business. The size of your company is necessary to do the job demanded. Operations are sound, professional and productive. Demonstrated integrity and dependability assure customers and stakeholders that you will use your size and influence rightly. You employ state-of-the-art technology and are in the vanguard of your industry.
Financial. Keeping the cash register ringing is not the only reason for being in business. You always give customers their money’s worth. Your charges are fair and reasonable. Business is run economically and efficiently, with excellent accounting procedures, payables-receivables practices and cash management.
People. Your company is people-friendly. Executives possess good people skills. Staff is empowered, likeable and competent. Employees demonstrate initiative and use their best judgment, with authority to make the decisions they should make. You provide a good place to work. You offer a promising career and future for people with ideas and talent. Your people do a good day’s work for a day’s pay.
Business Development. Always research and serve the marketplace. Customer service is efficient and excellent, by your standards and by the publics. You are sensitive to customers’ needs and are flexible and human in meeting them.
Body of Knowledge. There is a sound understanding of the relationship of each business function to the other. You maintain a well-earned reputation and are awake to company obligations. You contribute much to the economy. You provide leadership for progress, rather than following along. You develop-champion the tools to change.
The Big Picture. Approach business as a Body of Work, a lifetime track record of accomplishments. You have and regularly update-benchmark a strategy for the future, shared company Vision, ethics, Big Picture thinking and “walk the talk.”
Value-added leadership embraces these characteristics:
Prepare for and benefit from unexpected turns, rather than becoming victim of them.
Realize that there are no quick fixes for real problems.
Find a truthful blend of perception and reality…with sturdy emphasis upon substance.
Continue growing as professionals, questing for more enlightenment.
Have succeeded and failed…and learned valuable lessons from both.
Learn and do the things it will take to assume management responsibility.
Be mentored by others. Act as a mentor to still others.
Don’t expect status overnight.
Measure their output and expect to be measured as a profit center to the company.
Learn to pace and be in the chosen career for the long-run.
Don’t expect that someone else will be the rescuer or cut corners in the path to success.
Learn from failures, reframing them as opportunities.
Learn to expect, predict, understand and relish success.
Study and utilize marketing and business development techniques.
Contribute to the bottom line… directly and indirectly.
Offer value-added service.
Never stop paying dues… and see this continuum as “continuous quality improvement.”
Study and comprehend the subtleties of life.
Never stop learning, growing and doing. In short, never stop!
Key Messages to Recall and Apply Toward Your Business:
Understand the Big Picture.
Benefit from Change.
Avoid False Idols and Facades.
Remediate the High Costs of Band-Aid Surgery.
Learning Organizations Are More Successful.
Plan and Benchmark.
Craft and Sustain the Vision.
About the Author
Power Stars to Light the Business Flame, by Hank Moore, encompasses a full-scope business perspective, invaluable for the corporate and small business markets. It is a compendium book, containing quotes and extrapolations into business culture, arranged in 76 business categories.
Hank’s latest book functions as a ‘PDR of business,’ a view of Big Picture strategies, methodologies and recommendations. This is a creative way of re-treading old knowledge to enable executives to master change rather than feel as they’re victims of it.
Power Stars to Light the Business Flame is now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.
In the film industry, movies are products. For business owners, it is interesting and useful to consider what makes a new movie successful. How do studios today reach that incredible goal of one billion in total box office receipts? It’s quite simple; they build a buzz around the product. This is what you need to do with your product. The best recent example is Suicide Squad. Suicide Squad is Warner Bros product, and it’s just been slammed by critics. Should they care, should they be worried it’s not going to sell? Actually no, because they’ve already done their job. The marketing has built a buzz. There have been viral strategies in place for over a year. They’ve had millions of views on YouTube, and it came out as the top brand in a recent marketing event. All this points to one fact. Warner Bros have got themselves a hit, whether critics like it or not. This is a valuable lesson all business owners should learn. It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling a product of high quality, if you can establish a high demand, it will sell. How do you do this?
If you want to build a buzz around your new product or business, you should start by looking at social media. You need to use your social media networks in two ways. You should be connecting with your customers on a regular basis, and you should be releasing content that they want to share and view. You can use each social media network in various ways. For instance, on Facebook, you can create discussion or group pages. Groups can be powerful marketing tools, particularly if you fill the group with influential members. People who your customers will trust and will want to hear from. An extra tip is to not add these people to the group yourself. Rather, you need them to join independently. This is the best way to ensure that they are an active member of the group. They will generate the buzz around your business for you.
On Twitter, it is crucial that you use hashtags, although not in every tweet. This can get annoying. At the same time, though, it’s useful to know that hashtags make it more likely for content to be shared. If your content is shared, more people will be talking about your business or your product. It is an easy way to generate more interest in your company.
Live feeds are becoming more important as well. Live feeds are often used as a backdoor into the company. You can show your customers what is happening behind the scenes and make the business more accessible. If you can do this, it could be very valuable. Customers always want to see the people behind the corporation. If you have interesting individuals working for you, it’s a great way to build a buzz.
The key to great content that generates talk and publicity is to make sure that it’s targeted. You need to write and create content specifically for your target consumer. Think about the people who don’t need to be primed to buy your product. This is who the content needs to be aimed towards. You might be offering SEO services. If that’s the case, then your business is going to appeal to local and international entrepreneurs or business owners. You might also catch the interest of bloggers and website owners. Since these are your target customers, you need to think about what is appealing to them. The best way to do this is to create a context around your marketing. Business owners are probably unaware of the difficulties of SEO. By pointing things out such as Google penalties, you can persuade them to use a professional service. This is just one example of how content can get your business the buzz it needs. You will be offering your consumers the solutions to their problems.
You should be aiming for your business venue to be more than just space. It needs to shine on the high street, particularly if you are part of a retail company. It is all about offering customers more and taking your service that extra mile. If you own a physical space as a business, creating an online buzz won’t do the trick. You have to get the customers through the door to buy and to do that you may want to look at these great tips from The POET Companies. Agencies like this know what customers want and what they’re looking for. Once you have redesigned the space, then you can start generating a buzz around it online before it reopens.
We have already mentioned how the film industry uses marketing events to create a buzz. Every industry has the potential to do this, and it is a possibility that you should be looking into. A marketing event is the chance to make your company shine over other businesses. You can attract attention from investors and consumers at the same time. Obviously one of the key marketing events that you need to know about is a trade show. You can use a trade show to generate a buzz by showing off a new product or a new business model. Remember, though; trade shows are highly competitive environments. You will need to deliver something truly special to win the attention of customers and investors. One possibility is to utilize available technology. With the right tech, you can make your business seem modern and exciting. Even using older ideas could generate this effect such as 3D. 3D is fairly cheap tech these days, and it could bring your marketing into an entirely new dimension.
These are just some of the techniques you can use to create a buzz around a company or a product. As you can see, it is all about perception. If you alter the perception of your product, customers will buy anything. We have seen this time and time again in different industries. With the right marketing and promotion, you’ll always get the sale.
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As a Buddhist, I don’t understand why anyone would want to take another’s life or how it’s even an option. Yet so many in our country are feeling disempowered and ignored, targeted and disenfranchised and we haven’t yet created a dialogue to heal. In fact, we don’t even know how to hear each other. During this time of racial, class, political, gender, and education divide, of distrust and blame and victimhood, of killing and guns and violence, our inability to deeply hear each other is heartbreaking and costly.
I’m not going into the moral issues of Right/Wrong here. But I can offer my bit to make it possible to find solutions.
The Problem: How Our Brains Listen
During the 3 years researching and writing a book on closing the gap between what’s said and what’s heard, I learned how ubiquitous our challenge is: the distance between our subjective experiences and cultures makes it almost impossible to accurately hear others outside of our own ingrained biases, assumptions, and triggers. Indeed, words can’t be correctly translated when the intended meaning gets lost in another’s unfamiliar mind-set, culture, and history; the possibility of finding collaboration and reconciliation gets lost in our communication.
Heartfelt intent and tears aside, we’ve not been taught how to listen without bias. From the individual spots we each stand in, with our restricting viewpoints and hot-buttons, we pose biased questions and make faulty assumptions, overlooking the possibility that our Communication Partner (CP) may have similar foundational beliefs that we just don’t know how to recognize.
Unfortunately, our brain causes the problem. It translates what’s been said into what’s comfortable or inflammatory or habitual or or… and doesn’t realize it has misunderstood, or mistranslated the Speaker’s intent. So we actually hear ABL when our CP said ABC and we have no reason to think what we we’ve ‘heard’ is faulty. I lost a partnership this way. During a conversation, John got annoyed at something he thought I said. I tried to correct him:
“That’s not what I said.” I told him.
“I know what I heard! Don’t try to get away with anything here!
“But I didn’t say that at all!
“John, I was sitting right here. She’s right. She never said that,” said his wife.
“You’re both lying!!! I’m outta here!!” And he stomped out of the room, ending our partnership.
It’s pernicious: our brains select a translation for us, reducing whole conversations and categories of people to caricature and subjective assumption. But to distinguish what’s meant from what we think we hear, to experience what others want to convey when it’s out of our experience, we must recognize when it’s time to make a new choice.
How To Do How
We need a way forward to choose behaviors that maintain our Beliefs, Values, and Identity AND find common ground to listen to each other and come to consensus with action steps to help us all heal. I’m going to offer some steps for us to dialogue and reach win/win consensus. But first I’ll a few foundational truths:
Everyone’s experience and history is valid, unique, and guides their choices.
Others cannot see or feel what you see or feel.
Everyone has a right to the same basics: health, a living wage, good work, safety for our families, education.
All change, including adopting new ideas, is threatening to the status quo and will cause resistance unless there is buy-in at the level of beliefs.
We must
recognize common beliefs and values we can buy-in to without impairing our individual values,
feel safe in conversations when it feels like we’re speaking with enemies,
override our resistance and biases to find common intentions, compassion and outcomes,
be able to hear another’s intended message without overlaying our biases, assumptions, and habits.
I’ve put together a few action steps to begin to dialogue with those we’ve historically sat in opposition to. I also recommend that our conversations must work toward win/win. I call this a We Space.
1. Get agreement for a dialogue: It’s likely that you and your CP have different goals and life experiences. Begin by agreeing to have a conversation to do nothing more than find common ground.
“I’d like to have a dialogue that might lead to us to an agreeable route forward that meets both of our goals. If you agree, do you have thoughts on where you’d like to begin?”
“I wonder if we can find common goals so we might possibly find some agreement to work from. I’m happy to share my goals with you; I’d like to hear yours as well. ”
2. Set the frame for common values: We all have similar foundational values, hopes and fears – they’re just different. Start by ‘chunking up’ to find agreement.
“I’d like to find a way to communicate that might help us find a common values so we can begin determining if there are places we can agree. Any thoughts on how you’d like to proceed?”
“It seems we’re in opposite mind-sets. What might be a comfortable way forward for us to discover if there is any agreement at all we can start from?”
3. Enter without bias: With limiting beliefs or hidden agendas, there’s no way to find commonality. Replace emotions and blame with a new bias, just for this conversation: the ‘bias’ of collaboration.
‘I’m willing to find common ground and put aside my normal reactions for this hour but it will be a challenge since I’m so angry. Do you want to share your difficulty in this area, or are you ok with it and can help me? How do we move forward without bias?’
4. Get into Observer: In case you have difficulty overcoming your biases and filters, here’s a physiological ‘How-To’ that comes straight from NLP: in your mind’s eye, see yourself up on the ceiling, looking down on yourself and your CP. It will virtually remove you from the fray, and offer an unbiased view of your interaction – one step removed as it were. One way to do this is to walk around during the conversation, or sit way, way back in a chair. Sitting forward keeps you in your biases. (Chapter 6 in What? teaches how to do this.)
5. Notice body language/words: Your CP is speaking/listening from beliefs, values, history, feelings, exhibited in their body language and eye contact. From your ceiling perch, notice how their physical stance matches their words, the level of passion, feelings, and emotion. Now look down and notice how you look and sound in relation to your CP. Just notice. Read Carol Goman’s excellent book on the subject.
6. Notice triggers: The words emphasized by your CP hold their beliefs and biases. They usually appear at the very beginning or end of a sentence. You may also hear absolutes: Always, Never; lots of You’s may be the vocabulary of blame. Silence, folded arms, a stick-straight torso may show distrust. Just notice where/when it happens and don’t take it personally – it’s not personal. Don’t forget to notice your own triggers, or blame/victim words of your own. If their words trigger you into your own subjective viewpoints, get yourself back into Observer; you’ll have choice from the ceiling. But just in case:
“I’m going to try very hard to speak/listen without my historic biases. If you find me getting heated, or feel blame, I apologize as that’s not my intent. If this should happen, please tell me you’re not feeling heard and I’ll do my best to work from a place of compassion and empathy.”
7. Summarize regularly: Because the odds are bad that you’ll actually hear what your CP means to convey, it’s necessary to summarize what you hear after every exchange:
“Sounds to me like you said, “XX”. Is that correct? What would you like me to understand that I didn’t understand or that I misheard?”
8. ‘I’ statements: Stay away from ‘You’ if possible. Try to work from the understanding that you’re standing in different shoes and there is no way either of you can see the other’s landscape.
“When I hear you say X it sounds to me like you are telling me that YY. Is that true?”
“When I hear you mention Y, I feel like Z and it makes me want to get up from the table as I feel you really aren’t willing to hear me. How can we handle this so we can move forward together?”
9. Get buy-in each step of the way: Keep checking in, even if it seems obvious that you’re on the same page. It’s really easy to mistranslate what’s been said when the listening filters are different.
“Seems to me like we’re on the same page here. I think we’re both saying X. Is that true? What am I missing?”
“What should I add to my thinking that I’m avoiding or not understanding the same way you are? Is there a way you want me to experience what it looks like from your shoes that I don’t currently know how to experience? Can you help me understand?”
10. Check your gut: Notice when/if your stomach gets tight, or your throat hurts. These are sure signs that your beliefs are being stepped on. If that happens, make sure you get back up to the ceiling, and then tell your CP:
“I’m experience some annoyance/anger/fear/blame. That means something we’re discussing is going against one of my beliefs or values. Can we stop a moment and check in with each other so we don’t go off the rails?”
11. Get agreement on the topics in the conversation: One step at a time; make sure you both agree to each item, and skip the ones (for now) where there’s no agreement. Put them in a Parking Lot for your next conversation.
12. Get agreement on action items: Simple steps for forward actions should become obvious; make sure you both work on action items together.
13. Get a time on the calendar for the next meeting: Make sure you discuss who else needs to be brought into the conversation, end up with goals you can all agree on and walk away with an accurate understanding of what’s been said and what’s expected.
Until or unless we all hold the belief that none of us matter if some of us don’t; until or unless we’re all willing to take the responsibility of each needless death or killing; until or unless we’re each willing to put aside our very real grievances to seek a higher good, we’ll never heal. It’s not easy. But by learning how to hear each other with compassion and empathy, our conversations can begin. We must be willing to start sharing our Truth and our hearts. It’s the only real start we can make.
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]
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In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing business environment, leaders must stay motivated. Motivated leaders consistently seek out new ideas to improve the business and are very aware of what the competition is doing. They enjoy what they do and are willing to take risks. They set the example for others. When you have motivated executives, you have motivated employees.
If your executives seem complacent, here are three proven strategies to “zap” them out of their comfort zone and get them motivated again.
The Weakest Link: Call an executive meeting to discuss the budget. Announce that you are cutting an executive position due to financial constraints. Throw them a ‘curve ball’ by instructing them to select the person who they consider the ‘weakest link’ and should be asked to leave the team. Have them submit a name, along with the reason for their decision.
Once the choices have been made, each team member will be instructed to call that individual and explain the circumstances that led up to their decision. Only you, the executive group leader, will know this exercise is a training technique. You really won’t let anyone go, but it will shake up the team and make those who aren’t pulling their weight aware of where they stand in the eyes of their fellow teammates. This will motivate them to get back into gear and give the extra effort necessary to take up the slack.
The Presentation: Give each executive a month to prepare a strategic plan on how to double the size of your business in five years. Then, surprise them by setting up a panel of business leaders who will listen to their presentation. Presentations will be rated for quality and a winner will be selected. This tactic will show how well your leaders adapt to unforeseen circumstances, and denote the strength of their presentation skills along with the quality of their work.
Back to Nature: To motivate executives as a team, let nature help. Take them on a retreat to a mountainous area, take away all cell phones, then have them camp out for five days, sleeping three to a tent, cooking their own meals over a small cook stove. With professional mountaineering guides, divide them into two teams and take them on daily hikes moving their campsite several times. Towards the end of the week have them climb up the mountain to the peak. Equip them with backpacks, water and climbing gear and start the trek at 4 a.m. Make it a race to the summit to watch the sunrise.
This tactic will “zap” the executives out of their comfort zones and force them to work together. It is designed to have each person explore their capabilities and push themselves beyond their limits. It can be one of the most powerful “Team Zapping” experiences you will ever conduct. We know. We did it.
The three tactics above are not for the faint of heart, but they are for those who want to quickly and effectively “zap” their executives out of their complacency. The benefits will be a more motivated, energized group of executives who will, in turn, zap their teams… and your company will be better poised for the future.
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Power Stars to Light the Business Flame, by Hank Moore, encompasses a full-scope business perspective, invaluable for the corporate and small business markets. It is a compendium book, containing quotes and extrapolations into business culture, arranged in 76 business categories.
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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 (
Lorraine Grubbs recently co-authored 
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