Are You A S.M.A.R.T.I. Pants In Your Business?

Business guru Jim Rohn said “We want to set the goals that our heart conceives, that our mind believes, and that our bodies will carry out.”

So, how do you make this a reality for your business?

There is a simple, step by step formula that you can use to help you create meaningful and achievable goals, which will drive your business to the next level.

Watch the video below to learn how to be a S.M.A.R.T.I. pants in your business.

Click here to download your  S.M.A.R.T.I. template

Joint Ventures: How To Super Charge Your Business Growth – Part 2

In part 1 we discussed why a Joint Venture (JV) may be right for your small business and how to choose a JV partner to suit your business needs. In this article, we will discuss securing a good JV arrangement and how to ensure its success.

Securing Your Joint Venture Arrangement

Once you have decided upon your potential JV partner, it’s important to get to know more about their business.  It’s a bit like dating – you grow the relationship, and not ask them to marry you (ask for the JV) on the first meeting.

In order to put together an offer that is of value to them, the main question on your mind when you do meet, should be ‘How can I help the potential JV partner?’.  You will need to gather some information…

• Find out what the biggest challenges are in their business.
• Ask them ‘If you did have another challenge, what might it be?’ Drill down to get all the issues out on the table so you can understand their situation.
• What is the impact of the challenges on their business?
• What would benefit their customers – is there a particular need not being met?

Now that you know their challenges, you can formulate your offer.  The exact details of the what, when, where and how of your offer can be agreed upon once you secure the JV, but for now it’s important that you have some initial ideas in place.

• What benefits do the potential JV partner and their customers receive by doing business with you? Think about the answers from your information gathering. It must be compelling in order for them to say ‘yes’.
• What is your offer and how will you deliver it? Is it going to be a special deal on an existing product/service you have, or a newly created product/service especially for the JV? Your offer needs to be a deal that the potential JV partner’s customers can’t get anywhere else, and vice-versa.
• How will you market and promote the JV? Will it be in-store, off-site, online, an event or seminar etc.?
• How will you handle and distribute any monies received from the JV?
• Will the agreement be formal or informal?

When you are ready to present your offer, remember to mix logic with emotion – just like any sales situation.

Communicate to them the benefits that they will receive from the JV, such as: -

• The solutions the JV can provide to their business challenges.
• The solutions the JV can provide to any of their customers’ needs that aren’t being met.
• The positive impact the JV can have on their business growth.

Tip: Always submit the final proposal in person if possible so you can answer any questions on the spot – proposals don’t sell, people do.

How to Ensure Your Joint Venture Success

Once your JV partner has accepted your offer, you can begin planning…

• What needs to be organised concerning the preparation of products and services, marketing, and sales?
• What resources are required?
• Who will be responsible for each step in the process?
• What will be the deadline?
• What will your follow-up procedure be after the JV promotion?
• How will you gauge its success?
• Determine how you will test and measure your results along the way.

A Joint Venture can be very lucrative for both parties if you know why you are doing it for the mutual benefits.  Presenting your offer in a value-added way, and putting a plan in place, can increase your chances of securing and creating a successful JV.

All the best for your business!

Nicole Murray - Business Productivity Coach

Hot Chocolate Coaching

Joint Ventures: How To Super Charge Your Business Growth – Part 1

As a business owner, I am sure you want to grow your business year after year. There is a way to do this utilising the power of Joint Ventures. What better way is there to ramp up your sales than using the help of others, instead of trying to do it on your own? Here, we will explore why Joint Ventures can be great for your business and how to choose a Joint Venture partner.

What is a Joint Venture?

A Joint Venture (JV) is simply where two businesses come together for the mutual benefit of growing their businesses faster together, than either party could grow on their own.

Why Joint Ventures?

When you pair up with another business that has strengths where your weaknesses are and weaknesses where your strengths are, effectively you are complimenting one another and can become stronger together.

JVs can provide you with access to resources that you may not be able to obtain on your own. These could include: -

• New databases
• Research and development opportunities
• Marketing exposure
• Existing branding and reputation benefits
• New technology
• Innovation
• Skills, knowledge, expertise and assistance
• New markets – either local or global

A good exercise is to sit down and write out all your business’ strengths and weaknesses. That way, you know what you have to offer a JV partner and what a JV partner could offer your business.

Where do I find JV partners?

Look to people you already know first. They could be your own customers, suppliers, distributors, or other database contacts such as prospects and business contacts.

• Competitors – non-direct works best. For example, two consultants could JV; one specialises in marketing and the other financing. They are both consultants but their targeted niche is different and their customers’ needs could cross over without directly competing.
• Businesses that provide products or services that your current customers could benefit from.
• Businesses who have customers that you would like to have access to.

How do I choose the right JV partner for my business?

Some questions to ask yourself…

Do I like the potential JV partner as a person; are they of good character and integrity? You must feel some sort of rapport and trust. Are their products or services of a high quality? Remember if they are not, it can reflect badly on your business.

Do their products or services suit my existing business and customer profile? It makes it easier to find the right JV partner if you know the following about your current customers: -

• What are their personal likes and dislikes? Think about sports, hobbies, culture, entertainment, travel, clothes and transport etc.
• What is their age range, income bracket and do they have children?
• Where do they live and work – do they have a business?
• What are their buying patterns?
• How do they respond to your current marketing and sales approach?
• What feedback have they given you about your own business strengths and weaknesses?

Be sure to choose a JV partner whose business will compliment and enhance your customers’ experience, and help you to build a database for potential new customers.

Knowing why you want to JV and choosing the right JV partner can help to make your JV a success and in turn, enable your business to grow quickly. In part 2 of this article on JVs, I will discuss with you the steps to securing a good Joint Venture Agreement and how to ensure its success.

All the best for your business!

Nicole Murray - Business Productivity Coach

Hot Chocolate Coaching

Is It Time For Change In Your Business?

“If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always gotten.” A very famous quote by the even more famous Anthony Robbins.

Maintaining the status quo could be killing your business!

Standing still does not exist – you must be either moving forward or moving backward…and backward is never the best choice!

Making positive changes in your business is necessary to keep a forward momentum and this needs to be done on a regular basis.

Take some time out to review every aspect of your business

Staff recruitment and retention strategies – are you hiring the right staff for your business?

Do they share your passion to become successful?

Are you providing the right environment for them to maintain maximum motivation? Are you rewarding them in a way that is meaningful to them so that they will want to continue to give their best?

Staff training programs – Are you providing them with the training they need to help you to build your business? Staff are one of your biggest business investments so keeping them up to date and well trained is a must.

Business branding - Does the way you brand your business effectively tell your customers who you are and what you do?

Is your branding consistent throughout your business, or are you sending mixed messages to your customers? Is it time to review some areas of your business to bring them into line with the image you want to create?

Marketing strategies – Do you have a clear idea of what you are trying to achieve with your marketing endeavours?

Who are you trying to reach with your message, who will be your most likely customer, what do you want to tell them about your products or services and how is the best way to reach the right people with your message?

Are you current strategies achieving the desired result or is it time to make some changes?

Products and services- Are you up to date with the products and services your business offers to it’s customers.  Have you stayed current with the latest trends and are you giving your customers what they are looking for?

Pricing – Is your target market willing to pay the price you are asking for your products and services?

Are your prices too high or perhaps too low?

Have you reviewed your selling price to ensure that you are making an adequate profit margin?

Procedures – When is the last time you updated your procedures manual to ensure you have consistency in all parts of your business?

Consistency is vital to maintain a high standard and meet customer expectations.

Every staff member should be using the procedures you have developed to deliver the same results each and every time – whether that be when creating a product or delivering a service.

Appearance – What is the outside and the inside of your business telling prospective customers?

Perhaps it’s time to take a walk outside your premises and see what your customers see when they come to visit.

Is your signage clean and easy to read, is there rubbish on the ground on the way to your front door, are you easy to find, is your reception area clean, nicely furnished and welcoming?

All of these things send a message to your customers.  What would you like that message to be?

Expenses – when did you last check out what your expenses are and look for ways to reduce them?

If it hasn’t been in the last 12 months then you might want to take some time out to review things like wages, phone charges, EFTPOS, bank charges, internet costs, cleaning, marketing/advertising and any other area of your business that is costing you money.

Many suppliers are amazingly willing to negotiate if they think you might take your business elsewhere so there are definitely savings to be made. Maybe it’s time to pull out your last set of accountants figures to review the expenses in your business.

Ask yourself what is working for you and what isn’t in all of these areas.  What needs to dated, improved or even thrown out and started afresh?

There are many aspects of your business that will improve through positive change, but nothing can change unless you make it happen.

What can you do today to start making changes that will improve your turnover?

Begin by creating an action plan that will help you to make the changes necessary to improve your business.

There will never be a better time than right now to look at your business and determine what has simply become habit and is no longer serving you or helping you to meet your goals.

Remember to always keep and eye on the profit!

Pam Stellema

SalonSavy Specialist Coaching

Image courtesy of Microsoft Office Online

The Business Planning Disease You Need To Be Aware Of

Today I’d like to talk about the disease that can strike any business owner and which can cause major challenges and sometimes even possible business demise.

It is called business planning analysis paralysis.

Now my forte is helping people plan their businesses, so you are probably wondering why I am broaching this subject. Even though I am a huge advocate of business planning, over analysing your planning can create certain toxic conditions, namely: -

1. Indecision – switching from one idea to the next excessively and never settling on any particular direction. This can result is missing out on business opportunities, and reducing your confidence because you are constantly not trusting your own judgment. Indecision has seen many a person stop trying long before they have even given success a chance.
2. Procrastination – getting distracted and putting things off just ends up causing stress and frustration with little or no outcome. It certainly is a huge time waster, and in business your time is valuable, so you are effectively wasting money and limiting your business growth.
3. Indecision + procrastination = in-action.  Nothing is ever perfect so nothing ever gets finished. When you fail to take action it means that you aren’t out there testing and measuring your product or service. Without this you could be preparing a ‘perfect plan’ only to find you are way off course. Better to find this out earlier, otherwise it could cost you a lot of time, money and energy.  What is perfect anyway? Perfect to you may not necessarily mean perfect to your customers. You will only find this out by taking action.

Many years ago a wise person advised me that ‘when something is 80% done, launch it’ (some may even argue it should be more like 70%). Yikes, I can hear all the perfectionists out there scream. Yes, when I first heard that I almost felt sick. But I must say, it has been a valuable piece of advice. I always think of Nike’s slogan ‘just do it’.

More accomplishments have been made by taking a plan that is 80% done and acting on it, than waiting until it is 100% perfect. Unless you launch something you will never know. Plans always needs to be flexible. Market conditions change, technology changes, and customer’s needs and wants change – nothing stays the same.

It is possible to plan and take action at the same time. Taking small action steps is a great way to get started. You will most likely have to adjust your plan along the way, and taking small steps allows you to do this while things are still manageable.

It’s all about creating momentum.

To your business success.

Nicole Murray

Hot Chocolate Coaching

Image courtesy of Microsoft Office Online

How Understanding The Basics of Your Business Can Speed Up Growth

Please watch the video below, then download your copy of the Wheel of Business here. Enjoy!

Sometimes business can be complicated and other times it can be simple. Business owners sometimes spend so much time and energy on the complicated aspects of business that they miss the simple, more basic aspects that will help them to grow their business.

The basics (or foundations) are what create a solid base from which the business can grow.  One of the most basic things you can do is to regularly look at your current reality to determine the condition of your foundation. To do that you can use a tool such as the Wheel of Business.

This tool will help you to assess the various areas of your business so that you can get a snapshot of where you are today, which areas need improvement, and which areas are doing well.

It’s an incredibly simple tool to use, but very powerful. Your business may be performing poorly in one area and that could be affecting other areas in your business. If you don’t take the time to assess the connection between these areas, you may miss vital information that could be used to improve your business growth.

Awareness is the key to worthwhile change.

If you can use this tool with a trusted colleague or staff member, then you will get a more honest picture of your current reality.

Cheers,

Nicole Murray and Pam Stellema