Business management by the numbers. As a business owner, your company’s numbers are talking to you everyday. Are you listening? I know, you are probably going to tell me you are too busy to fuss over ‘the numbers’. And you might also tell me that if you are staying ‘busy’ then the numbers will take care of themselves. Really? Your business success is all about paying attention to and acting on relevant numbers. But are you paying attention to the right numbers? I’m not talking about cash flow or your P&L (that’s another day!). Today is paying attention to the basic numbers of your daily activity. How do you track that? Your ability to select and focus on improving them is the key to your success.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

1. List 3 ways that you generate prospects – how could you generate more? Once you find your prospect, what percentage convert to becoming clients?

2. What is your sales process (you do have a process, right?)? How long is your sales cycle?

3. What is the average dollar amount of your sale?

4. How many prospects do you have in your ‘pipeline’ today?

The answers to these questions help you to forecast your sales each month. The more accurate your answers, the more accurate your forecast will be.

You may tell me this is fairly elementary stuff. But would you really be surprised to know that many business owners never take the time to go through a process like this?

Have you done this recently? Take the time today and let me know what you found out!

Ever wonder why some businesses continue to grow and seem untouched regardless of the economy? In fact, I bet you know of a few business owners who have consistent bottom-line improvement, regardless of the market. What do they have that you don’t? Nothing. They simply follow a few key principles consistently. If you’ll consider doing the same, you can begin outperforming your competition immediately. Are you ready?

Keep a Positive Mindset

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of books and audio CDs on the subject of the importance of keeping your attitude and mindset positive. Think from the end. What do you want? What steps do you need to get there? Focus on the action – you have to do a bit more than just keeping positive thoughts. The action brings forward motion. You may be wondering how you keep a great attitude all the time? Frankly, you can’t. We all have upsetting or distracting events occur throughout our day. The trick is to catch yourself and turn your attitude around.

Have a Plan

You do have a plan, right? Start with one year and break it down into quarters. Then break that down into months and weeks. After you do that, think about what your company will look like in 5 years! Just imagine how powerful it would be for your company if every employee had a clear understanding of the company’s goals and what activities they must deliver on each week to help get there!

Understand your Numbers and Manage Them

In my experience, many business owners do not understand the most important numbers of their business, their bottom line. Are you selling at a profit? Is your spending within your means? Do you even know what you are spending your hard earned dollars on? In challenging times it helps to get proactive and creative. Is your landlord open to negotiating the lease on your building? Is your credit card interest rate climbing? Any early payment discounts offered from your vendors that you should be using? Are you paying for overtime because of poor time or project management?

Market with Purpose

There are two targets for your marketing efforts: one is focused on getting new leads or prospects, and the other on retention of your existing clients. Far too many business owners focus 98% of their time and resources on pulling in new customers. Considering the fact that it’s six times more expensive to get new clients, shouldn’t we spend considerable time and effort on keeping the ones who already know us, like us, trust us, and buy from us? The answer is a resounding yes! When you are ready to pursue new business, make sure you have a great system in place to track every lead that comes into your company. Your marketing budget could be better focused when you have the data to know which marketing strategies are successfully feeding new business your way.

Have a Sales Process

What is your sales process? ‘Winging it’ is not an option when you are in front of a prospect. Find out what their business pain is and then solve it. Track sales activity and the results. Take the action you need to keep your sales people focused and producing the results you expect.

Take Care of Your Customers

Now more than ever, you must delight and amaze your customers. If your customers aren’t saying WOW after an experience with your company, you aren’t there yet!

Be a Continuous Learner

Many professions require ongoing training and education. Make it your priority to read, attend seminars and workshops. Cross-train your staff. Create a culture that values professional education.

Seek Professional Advisors

Imagine the satisfaction of building a business that runs without you! Is it possible, really? Surround yourself with a team who will help you get there – your CPA, attorney, financial and advisor. And lastly, many business owners understand the value of having a business coach – someone who will help them build the plan and keep them accountable to it. It’s difficult to stay focused. The business coach will keep you on the path that you’ve designed. This is critical for your success.

Apply these ideas to your business with each decision you make, challenge you face or success you celebrate!

It’s About Time!

The big question in your business life is this – “What can you and only you do in your business that if done well will make a real difference?” This is a great question to ask yourself when you want to improve your overall effectiveness. The next question to ask is what are your highest value activities? Again, it’s about spending time on the things that matter most, not items that live on your ‘to do’ list. Rather than making a ‘to do’ list, consider making a ‘what matters most list’. Expect changes in how you look at what you think you have to do when evaluated this way. A final question to ask is what is the most valuable use of my time right now? This keeps your priorities in check and the low value activities off your list.

Answering these questions keeps you moving toward your goals and objectives because they help keep you in control of what you do.

The single most important driver in business success is finding, training and retaining the best people. Many businesses are wondering when the right time might be to start hiring again. News reports are peppered with stories of companies who intend to hire this year, and I’ve seen an increase in hiring activity in the local business community. Of course companies that stay focused know that the process for recruiting is an activity that never stops.

Many of the smartest business people I know tell me how difficult it is to ‘find good people’. I’m betting if you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’ve hired people who are great. I’ll also bet you’ve had the experience where the brilliant person you interviewed seems like a completely different person once they’re working for you. Does hiring success have to be this spotty?

Don’t get me wrong: there are no magic formulas for complete hiring success, but there are specific things that you can change or add to your process that will help you identify the ‘A’ Players.. Until you get this right more often, you’ll continue to suffer the consequences of employee turnover: low morale, interruptions in customer service and missed sales opportunities. And worst of all, you’ll continue to feel like you have to do everything in the business because you can’t find ‘the one’.

So how do you find these ‘A’ Players? First, look at your hiring process. You need to know who you’re looking for. Then, take a look at your organization, even if your organization is only you at the moment. See what needs to be done to improve your results. Notice that I’m asking you to start by looking at the big picture and job functions. What do you need to accomplish?

Next write a job description. Be exact. What are all the duties and responsibilities? The more specific you are now, the fewer misunderstandings you’ll have in the future. What characteristics, experience and skill set will the successful candidate possess? You also need to decide how to value this position. How much does it pay? There are many, many people who are looking for work. Get top talent for the dollars you intend to pay.

Many business owners find that as their businesses grow, jobs evolve based on what the person they’ve hired likes to do, not what the position description calls for. This can create a lot of confusion and dysfunction in an organization that’s in growth mode. A written job description can serve as the basis for future performance reviews and help keep the person doing the job they were hired for. I’m a big believer of writing something once and using it in multiple ways! In all cases, I believe you’re looking for someone who will have the work ethic, attitude and aptitude for the job that needs to be done, as set in the job description.

Where do you look for candidates? You can choose from sophisticated, integrated job websites, industry specific recruiters, newspapers, and networking. Many positions today are filled through networking. Once you decide to hire, your job is to set your ‘hiring filter’ in high gear and add this objective to your list when attending any networking event. What top talent is there in front of you?

So you’ve done all the prep work and now the resumes start coming in. This is where the real work begins. Break it down into phases:

· The resume review – You are looking for the applicable skills and experience you identified in the job description. Select those who meet your standards. Those who don’t should receive a polite note letting them know they were not selected. It’s polite business, and you’d be amazed at how many candidates will thank you for responding. Most companies don’t do this. You’ll stand out if you do.

· The phone screen – Write 5 or 6 specific questions you will ask each candidate. This is to start to get to know this person. This is also where you are eliminating people who do not meet your requirements. Be tough, fair and polite – you don’t want to waste your time or theirs. Listen more and talk less – you are looking for ‘A’ players. Ask questions that require specifics, not opinions.

· Behavioral assessments – There are a number to choose from. I use assessments with all of my clients hiring projects (the larger companies that I work with use a combination of them) and I wouldn’t want to conduct a search without them. They’ll help you to refine your search by helping you to identify behavior styles, traits and skills the successful candidate should possess.

· The first interview – Prepare in advance and write specific questions to be asked of all candidates. Again, seek experienced based answers, not opinions. If you google ‘common interview questions and answers’, you’ll get over 25 Million websites to choose from! Always ask some questions that are unexpected to help get a truer picture of the prospective employee

· The second interview and even third – These interviews are for your final candidates. Only two or maybe three get here. Here’s where you formulate individualized questions designed to learn more about the candidate.

This hiring process takes time and focus in any economy. But having a system like this will allow you to hire a person who has demonstrated an ability to do the job you want him or her to do. Is it perfect? No, but it moves you away from a subjective to an objective process that can be duplicated.

Once you implement a system like this, your company’s success comes from your ability to identify and hire real talent. You’ll pull ahead of your competition, and have the resources to deliver quality on all levels to your customers. Are you up to the challenge?

‘Tis better to Take than to Receive. Really? This kind of thinking can send your head spinning, but should it? Consider my take on these 5 ‘Takes’ and how you might use them to improve your business and personal results:

Take time to assess – Who are you? What do you want? What do you spend your time on? Do you take daily action toward the goals you set, the outcomes you desire and the future you see? Or do you just react to the day as it unfolds?

Take responsibility – No blame game here. Where you are, what you do, the actions you take (or don’t take), all belong to you and you alone. Say yes to the right things. Say no to the right things. Knowing when to say no requires even more discipline.

Take direction – Where did we get the idea that we have to go it alone or that we need to have all the answers? How did we ever come to the conclusion that being in business means that you have to be good at all the things that are required to run a successful business? It is one of the biggest mistakes that we can make. Decide what you want and who can help you. Surround yourself with people who have experience in areas that you don’t. Who do you know? Think about the people you’ve met at your networking events. If you don’t go to these events with the specific goal to meet people who can help you or who you can help as well as to meet people who may be interested in what you do, you are missing the point of being there. Engage with the experts and the results will speak for themselves.

Take Steps Everyday – Identify your goals and take one connected step after another according to your plan and realistic timeframe.

Take Action – The bridge that connects your thoughts to your results is action.

So go ahead, start taking today. It’s good for you!

Business owners, “You’ve got to ask. Asking is, in my opinion, the world’s most powerful and neglected secret to success and happiness” says Percy Ross, and I couldn’t agree more. And where should you be doing all this asking? Networking events are a great place to start. Networking should be one of at least 7 key marketing strategies that you have active at all times to fast track your business growth. But proper networking takes time and effort. People want to do business with people that they know, like and trust. That means you need to make yourself available to others for them to get to know you. And you need to reach out to others to get to know them. In both cases, it means you need to ask to meet with them, to talk to them and to learn from them. Why are we so afraid to ask? Is it because we are afraid of looking foolish or needy? Are we afraid to hear the word no? Are we afraid of being rejected? The reality is, that most times, the people you identify to reach out to are ready and willing to say yes! Yes to a business meeting. Yes to a phone call. Yes to the idea of exploring ways to work together. Yes to a strategic business relationship. This is what networking is all about. It’s sharing expertise, knowledge and time on a consistent basis to nurture relationships.

Please don’t confuse business networking with attending a meeting once or twice, handing out your business cards or collecting cards from other attendees (and then wondering why the phone isn’t ringing) with what true networking is. This scenario will leave you frustrated and feeling that your efforts are not paying off. And, in fact, they won’t be. Successfully building your network of people who know, like and trust you takes time and commitment. It takes time to first understand how you can be of help to others. It takes listening. It’s being genuinely interested in the person and in their business.

So the next time you are at a business after hours or other networking event and attendees give you their ’45 second’ introductions, be keenly interested in what they are saying. Can this person help you or your business? Could he or she help another business owner that you know? If you think the answer is yes, be sure to ask them to tell you more!

If you as a business owner worry that now isn’t the time to make changes in your business, think again.  Getting stuck in the ‘doing it the way we have always done it’ rut may feel safe but is safe going to grow your business?  Please don’t confuse getting out of your comfort zone with being reckless.  Getting out of your comfort zone might be putting a sales process in place for you or your sales people to follow so you can track real sales results.  Getting reckless is making calls to anyone just to  ‘make the numbers’.  See the difference?  The author of the following is unknown, but the words seem right on target. If you develop and nurture good habits, they in turn will make you. But like the weeds in a garden, habits that are not resourceful can take over your business. Make a decision today to pull those “weeds” and replace them with activity that supports you in your business:

I am your constant companion.

I am your greatest asset or heaviest burden.

I will push you up to success or down to disappointment.

I am at your command.

Half the things you do might just as well be turned over to me,

For I can do them quickly, correctly, and profitably.

I am easily managed, just be firm with me.

Those who are great, I have made great.

Those who are failures, I have made failures.

I am not a machine, though I work with the precision of a

machine and the intelligence of a person.

You can run me for profit, or you can run me for ruin.

Show me how you want it done. Educate me. Train me.

Lead me. Reward me.

And I will then…do it automatically.

I am your servant.

Who am I?

I am a habit.