Proven programs that grow great businesses for great people who care.
PPP and EIDL are options to get things done in your business but there are plenty more if you look further than those related to debt or equity. These slides from a presentation to a local chamber of commerce will give you some ideas of what is out there. If you find more, let me know!
http://ownersview.com/wp-content/uploads/101-Ways-to-Fund-Texas-HUB-Expo-2019.pdf
Measure sales carefully to be profitable.
Your sales projection formula is key to more accurate financial projections and to the success of your business.
Sales projection formulas are always wrong. Here are six ways to improve them.
Do you have the right stuff to attract money, customers, and employees? It’s more than just having a good product or service. It’s about who you are and how you think.
Take this little 50 question self assessment and see.
Business Owner’s Success Traits Assessment
Don’t second guess yourself. Choose the answer that you most agree with.
The questions are based on the traits we have found are invaluable to building a successful business along with thoughts of experts E.M. Prince, author of 3 Financial Styles of Highly Successful Leaders, and Bernstein and Rozen, authors of Neanderthals at Work.
This is not meant to be statistically significant, just to get you thinking about your style of small business management from the 40,000 foot view.
The buy-in continuum™ is a hard road for any prospect — especially business prospects who have a lot to think about besides what you sell.
Before anyone buys anything, they have to complete their own buying or Buy-In Continuum™, process. This is true whether they are from the government, a non-profit, a consumer, or another business. From your point of view, you want them to accomplish this process and in a specific order. If they do, your sales cycle will shorten. It will result in a win-win for you both or you will be able to cull them as a prospect with a clear conscience that this was NOT the sale for you. [Read more…]
Stakeholders can be useful to you but can go wild as well. Photo by cone_dnm
Stakeholders: can’t live without them and sometimes can’t live with them.
They are customers, providers, allies, employees, colleagues, the government, the media, competitors, influencers and many, many others. After reviewing a stakeholder map example that had 105 entries, I came up with at least 50 more. [Read more…]
Partner or Strategic Business Alliance? Photo by Giorgio Montersino.
Get a partner or set up a strategic alliance — which is better for your business growth? Many business owners want a “partner” to share the load. Partners exert a lot of control no matter how little of the business they own. Use a strategic alliance instead to grow your business and keep more control.
“If we are together, nothing is impossible. If we are divided all will fail.” Winston Churchill
In 2005, companies reported that 18% of their revenue was generated through strategic alliances. The economy has changed but there are still thousands of alliances formed each year and are critical as we re-think business post COVID-19.
According to Ard-Pieter de Man and Dave Luvison, authors of Collaborative Business Models: Aligning and Operationalizing Alliances (from Business Horizons Volume 62, Issue 4, July–August 2019, Pages 473-482), “the big challenge is to align company interests with alliance interests”. This peer-reviewed article is definitely worth reading and thinking about especially for larger organizations.
It pays to know more and think more before deciding that a strategic alliance is right for you.
There’s a lot below the surface when it comes to Business Permission to Operate
Anthony Palomba didn’t know about the “Business Permission to Operate If Clauses” when he started but he does now. He started Thakgnosis, which means “to know peace” but he hasn’t found time for that as a new business owner. The business is located in Austin, Texas, but it would have been the same no matter where he was. The Business “If Clause” is everywhere and affects all businesses of every size.
What is this nemesis? Who is this desperado, this spoiler, who steals the joy of business ownership? It’s all the other “stuff” that is required in order to do business besides providing products and services to customers. The biggest culprit: compliance.
The Business Permission to Operate If Clause is translated and understood to mean “you have our permission to do business here if you….” (fill in the blank). It can be costly — as much as $83, 019 in the first year and it doesn’t get better. Older businesses spend 40 hours on average dealing with federal regulations and another 40 on state and local regulations. Non-compliance is expensive averaging $30, 651 in fines. These figures come from the January 2017 Small Business Regulations Study conducted online by the National Small Business Association. This doesn’t even mention the other certifications, requirements, orders from industry and professional groups who also control permission. It may be correct to be a little skeptical about the figures (only 1000 survey respondents) but whatever they are, they certainly impact the attitude and behavior of business owners like Palomba.
The Business Permission If Clause has been around forever — since commerce began. It is what gives every business owner the permission or right to have a business in a community and serve its people. It goes by over twenty-eight different names and 160 times more when you translate those into the major languages of the world. The two most common names “rules” and “regulations”. (See list below.)
Business Permission If Clause 28+ Terms
| • Regulation
• Ordinance • Order • Permit • License • Rule • Certification • Code • Law • Legislation • Licensing • Restrictions • Treaty • Evaluation
|
• Standards
• Statute • Goal/Objective • Practices • Procedure • Provisions • Requirements • Package • Audit • Policy • Act • Contract/Agreement • Tradition • International Terms for all of the above
|
Over twenty-two different groups plus international groups by country, decide external governance — not just the local, state or federal government control that permission. (See list below.)
Governing Bodies Who Control or Influence the Business Permission to Operate If Clause
| • City
• County • State • Region • Federal Legislature • Licensing Agency • Trade Association • Professional Association • Home Owners Associations • Regulators • Grant Providers
|
• Agency/Dept
• Location owner/developer • Audit • Chamber • Council of Gov (COGs) • Insurance Providers • Financial Institutions • International Agencies • UN • EU and other groups of countries who have agreements • Individual Countries (not including the US)
|
Big Problem: Keeping Up with Business Permissions
The biggest problem for new owners as well as more experienced owners is keeping up with all those names and all those external governance permissions. It is a moving target but something to add to the MUST DO Task list.
There are some general realities about them that are worth repeating to all businesses:
It’s easy in an election season to focus on the candidates and forget about what also matters to business — those neglected Propositions. Each one has the potential to become the next Business Permission to Operate If Clause because they affect your business, your workforce, your customers, and your community. Don’t do that. Do your homework. Pay attention to them and encourage others to really think about them before they vote.
There are 7 potential customer types you could have — Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Lead, Concrete, and RAW (Radio Active Waste). But you should have only the best, the Platinum Customer. They give you money and a lot more.
If you aren’t satisfied with the value of your current customers, make better choices by setting up a Platinum Customer Profile™ identification system. This is more than just “target” or “niche” marketing. The four parts of a Platinum Customer Profile™ are demographics, psychographics, behaviors, and geography. [Read more…]
Use the right customer attitude and point of view to stay on the right road to success.
Image by maxmihal from IStock Photo.
Your customer’s attitude is your guide to how you sell and how you market. It also helps you make decisions about adding to or changing the services and products you offer. Attitude is not all about a customer’s wants, desires or needs. It is about their point of view (POV)— at least as it relates to what you have to offer them. The good news is you can choose what is the best customer attitude and POV for your business success from three options. Then you can focus on attracting customers who have the right attitude match. This will make your business a lot better for everyone.
Texas is big on small business
The most current LMCI numbers from Texas Workforce Commission for small business ownership in the Austin – Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area or MSA (which actually goes from Georgetown to San Marcos) are encouraging. As of the latest data (December 2017), there were over 47,800 firms. Of these these micro businesses, businesses under 20 employees, represent more than 41,000 firms (about a 1/3 more than the 2009 number of 29,500 firms discussed in this original post) and the number continues to grow. (BTW, there are currently only 232 firms with over 500 employees in this same area.)
This is not unusual. When people get laid off sometimes their only option is to create a job for themselves by starting a business. And the Austin area has been extremely supportive of this. As a matter of fact, it has been used as a major way we have been able to work ourselves out of recessions – nine that I know of since we started in 1982. [Read more…]