DSEF & CBBB: Is Your Business Plan Fractured? Focus and Execution are Key

DSEF & CBBB: Is Your Business Plan Fractured? Focus and Execution are Key

By Lance Trebesch
In a recent podcast, Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify, was asked if he feels that he is a visionary or a genius. He demurred, replying, “Absolutely not. For me it’s all about execution.”

I completely agree with this 27-year-old millionaire. Execution is everything. It doesn’t matter how many great ideas an individual, team, or company comes up with. Until you implement, you haven’t made any progress. Execution is what builds lasting success. Splitting your business’s energy among too many outcomes can hinder your ability to execute good ideas and achieve your goals.

Planning: Fragmentation versus Integration

Many organizations go through an elaborate planning process. But if your method is overly time-consuming, it takes away from more important work. More problematic, relying on the idea generation phase of planning frequently results in fragmented outcomes. When you try to achieve too many outcomes, your business starts to suffer.

It’s tough to execute your desire when your attention is split in a million directions.

Your Top Three Goals

One of the keys to execution is focus. You may want to achieve a hundred different things, but most of us find it impossible to focus on more than four all-important goals. In fact, four may be too many. I would suggest erring on the side of success: Choose your top three and pursue excellence uncompromisingly in these areas. A relentless focus makes a positive outcome all the more likely.

At www.TicketPrinting.com, we’ve found success by choosing three goals on which to focus:

· Customer satisfaction

· Revenue

· Products (improving our existing base or adding new ones)

It may not seem like a lot on paper, but accomplishing these three goals is our focus, and we devote one hundred percent of our efforts to their integration. It’s become our formula for success, and the hallmark of our company. Every year we add or improve hundreds of products. Every day we work to improve customer satisfaction. And every moment, we seek to increase our revenue. For us, a focus on executing these three goals is the key to prosperity.

What are your 3 goals?

Free e-book “Business Owner’s Road Map to Success.” It has over 50 pages of techniques for everything a small business owner needs to master, from business planning and ethical selling to a success mindset. It’s all there and it’s free for you. To get it, just “Like” our Facebook Page here: http://on.fb.me/KsIN6P Pass it on!

About the Better Business Bureaus
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How To Build a Long Term Business

How To Build a Long Term Business

When you start a business, you hope that it will grow, and ultimately succeed. If you don’t start out with the right mindset and the commitment to work your business for the long haul, however, you may be setting yourself up for failure.

Here are some suggestions to help you build your business for long term success.

Create personal relationships with your clients. Building relationships in business does not differ that much from those that exist in your personal life. Personal relationships grow out of having something in common, along with a sense of mutual trust, respect, and support. All of these elements are also required in your professional relationships. Ask your clients about their interests and find some common ground, such as a devotion to the same baseball team or a love for the performing arts. Once your clients can relate to you, a relationship can grow. With that connection, you become more than the owner of a business they frequent, and they become more than just another customer. The result: a loyal client who is likely to recommend you to others.
Ask for feedback and use it to improve. You should make it a habit to ask for feedback from your customers, employees, mentors, etc. This can be done in a variety of ways, especially when seeking out feedback from customers. Depending on the type of business, you can create an online or paper survey, speak to them face-to-face, or incorporate it into a courtesy call. After collecting their opinions, reflect upon your findings and use the information to improve. For example, when following up with a customer regarding a recent order, you ask her what she thought about how you handled the sale. The customer’s response is mostly positive, but she does state that she found the online ordering portion of your website difficult to navigate. It might be wise to ask other customers if they had the same issues. If so, take the time to update the site and make the ordering process faster and more convenient. Asking for feedback is not always easy, but it can be an effective way to build your business for the long term.
Build value that exceeds what customers pay for. You may or may not have much flexibility in terms of product pricing. What you can control, however, is the value of a product. Show customers how it will solve a problem, how versatile it can be, and what services they will get by patronizing your business. Customers are usually willing to pay a little more for something when the experience of it all exceeds anything they would get elsewhere. What do you have to offer that your competitors don’t? The answer to that question will help you build value into your products and services, as well as setting up your business to prosper for a long time.
Do what you are passionate about. You’ll never last in a business doing something you don’t care about. Owning a business takes creative vision, time, and a multitude of other skills to make it flourish. What will drive you to continue if you don’t enjoy what you do? Look deep into yourself when deciding what kind of business to build. Perhaps you’ve always had a flair for cooking and are passionate about eating cleanly and naturally. If that is something that you’ve made a part of your daily life, it would no doubt make for a potentially successful business idea. Our passions motivate us to succeed, so choose something that you love doing.

What else would you include in your recipe for a successful long term business? Please share your ideas below!

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Making a Road Map to Your Goals

Making a Road Map to Your Goals

Goal setting is a crucial part of realizing your personal and professional dreams. However, it isn’t enough to create these goals mentally; you must write them down. The act of writing down your goals gets the process off to a head start and gives your brain its own set of instructions. The more specific your goal is and the more details you provide, the more successful you will be at achieving it.

Here are some suggestions for mapping out your path to achieving your goals.

Give yourself time each week to clarify your goals. It isn’t enough to just write down your goals and bury the list away. Frequent review and adjustment of your goals should be considered a requirement of achieving the goals themselves. Spend an average of 10-12 minutes a day revisiting your goal list and making necessary adjustments to it. For example, say your list of goals includes revamping your website, seeking out more referrals, and creating a new marketing plan. By revisiting this list each week, you can assess your progress. You may realize that you have spent most of your time on your marketing plan, but have completely neglected the other goals. This time each week can also be spent adding specifics to each goal, like due dates and relevant numbers.
Spend enough time on weekly goals. If you set goals that you want to be met by the end of the week, you should be spending at least 50% of your time doing what it takes to achieve them by Friday. So if you put in an 8-hour workday, then an average of four hours per day should be set aside for weekly goals. Keep this in mind when setting your goals for the week. Will you be able to invest that much time? What do you have going on this week that might prevent you from accomplishing your goals? Set your goals high, but be realistic about what is required of you to meet a weekly objective. Always set yourself up for success.
Build relationships with people who can help you achieve. Win/win relationships are those that benefit each person. For example, as the owner of a hair salon, you may form a relationship with the boutique owner down the street. During prom season, you could cross-promote services and exchange referrals. A relationship like this provides benefits for both parties and helps to achieve sales and marketing goals. Make win/win relationship building a priority when you create your road map.
Embrace the good and drop the bad. We all make New Year’s resolutions, but many of us fail to stick with them throughout the year because we don’t commit to making those resolutions a regular part of our lives. When setting your long-term goals, focus on forming 3 good habits and breaking 3 bad habits a year. You may decide that you want your customer service follow-up to become habitual, rather than sporadic and on an as-needed basis. You may have sabotaged your past efforts because you tend to procrastinate, so commit to dropping that bad habit as well. When making your goal list, consider what you will do to make a desired behavior habitual and an undesired one a thing of the past.

Developing a road map to your goals provides you with a clear path and increases your chance of success. How do you map out your goals? Please share your ideas in the comments below!

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Achieve What You Want

Achieve What You Want

“Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.” This quote by the founder of Mary Kay Inc. and one of the most successful female entrepreneurs of all time, Mary Kay Ash, speaks volumes about the importance of mindset in business.

Everyone has weaknesses, but if you believe in your ability to overcome them, you will be able to achieve what you want and realize the potential of your business. Here are some suggestions for helping you succeed.

Visualize accomplishment. The power of the mind is often underestimated. While you’re lying in bed at night waiting to fall asleep, picture yourself carrying out a task and achieving the desired result. If it’s an important sales call or networking, have both sides of the ideal conversation in your mind. Regardless of the job at hand, visualizing yourself doing it successfully prepares your mind for success and builds the confidence you need to achieve it. Doing this repeatedly maximizes its effect, so continue doing it when you are in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, en route to work, or any other situation where you have a little downtime.
Practice! Actors don’t perform a play on stage for an audience on the first day they receive their roles and their scripts. They rehearse for weeks or months and work out any kinks in the production that prevent it from running as smoothly as possible. The same principle should apply to your business. Go beyond visualizing and rehearse that important sales call or networking. The more prepared you are, the more polished you will be, and the more competent you will appear to the other party. No one wants to do business with a person who doesn’t seem sure of themselves. Put in the time to practice your “role” to give yourself the best chance of success.
Implement a plan to overcome interruptions and offer ready solutions. Now that you have visualized success and have rehearsed your part, develop a plan of action for when things don’t go as planned because they rarely do. How will you respond to a customer’s doubt in your product? What will you say if someone has heard something negative about your company? If you have a plan in place to field objections and rejection, you will be less likely to have to think on your feet and risk saying something detrimental or giving the wrong impression. It’s impossible to be prepared for every possible scenario, but use your own expertise and outside resources to anticipate common objections and negative responses.
Assess results and make adjustments. Once you have completed the task, reflect upon how it went. Did you achieve the results you were hoping for? If the answer is yes, then pinpoint what you did right and how that helped you achieve. If the answer is no, identify where it went wrong and develop a solution to the problem. Use your results, both positive and negative, to make adjustments where necessary and continually increase your chance of success in achieving what you want.

By putting yourself in the right mindset and using your own expertise as well as outside resources, you are giving yourself the best possible chance of success. What else do you think should be added to this list? Please add your ideas to the comments section below!

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Why Are Customers Attracted to You?

Why Are Customers Attracted to You?

It’s no secret that consumers have many choices when it comes to where they purchase a product or service. In most cases, the same product can be found at a local retail store, a big box chain, and at several online marketplaces. With all this competition, it’s important for small business owners to recognize and appeal to customers’ attraction to your particular business. Giving them a reason to choose you is not as difficult as you may think. Read on to find out why you possess an edge over your competitors.

They trust you. You consistently provide an exceptional customer service experience. You’re attentive, pleasant, knowledgeable of your products’ features and benefits, and you’re always willing to go the extra mile. Not only that, but because customers are always dealing with you, a relationship can grow. Wouldn’t you rather shop with someone who knows you by name, asks about your family, is familiar with your product needs, and can even anticipate them? Most people are even willing to pay a bit more to have a shopping experience like this; if they know they aren’t being “sold to,” they will want to return as loyal customers because they trust that you have their best interests in mind.
They have a need for your product/service. This is where it becomes imperative that you know how to demonstrate to your customers why they need your product. Perhaps it offers little known but substantial health benefits, provides a solution to an everyday problem, or just makes life a little bit easier. Knowing how to educate potential customers is a major asset to your business because you will be able to attract new people all the time. Become an expert in what you’re selling and share your enthusiasm about the product with others.
It’s a great value. Value isn’t always about the price. Value is about the overall package. As stated above, customers are usually willing to pay a little more for certain things, and a product’s value will determine how much more that is. For example, your window treatments, although competitively priced, may not be the cheapest available. What you can offer, however, is a guarantee that the work isn’t completed until the customer is satisfied with the result. You also offer free lifetime consultations on any room in the house after the purchase of just one other window treatment. A service like that can tip the scales in your favor when a customer is deciding who to shop with. Find ways to increase the value of your products and services, and your customers will be more attracted to your business than some of your lower-priced competitors.
You help them through the buying process. Making the choice to buy something can be stressful for many people. All the choices of where to go and what to buy can be overwhelming to say the least. Do everything possible to help your customers make their way through the process from start to finish. Yes, there is a chance that they decide not to buy from you in the end; however, your personalized service will make a positive impression that likely bring that customer back to you in the future and even recommend you to others. Remember to listen, be patient, and offer your expert advice through every step of the process.

Why do you think customers are attracted to you? Please add your ideas to our list in the comments section below!

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DSEF & CBBB: 7 Tips for Optimizing Your Professional Profile Blog

DSEF & CBBB: 7 Tips for Optimizing Your Professional Profile Blog

By Lindsey Max

Mashable lists 7 tips for ensuring you have the best online professional profile:

1) Keep it up to date: Post as often as you can with any new changes, statements, or recommendations. Try getting a new recommendation once a month; or, if you receive multiple recommendations at once, spread them out in your postings.

2) Refresh your keywords and specialties: Find popular terms from job search websites that describe specifically what you do and integrate them into your profile. Be careful not to overuse these keywords, however, and be sure to include them in a natural way.

3) Be Everywhere: Create multiple online profiles, making sure your message is consistent throughout all of them. Participate in online discussions, post recommendations, and comment on blogs to get yourself out there!

4) Get the recognition you deserve: Don’t be modest! If you have received any awards or have had special accomplishments, SHARE THEM!

5) Diversity your professional and peer recommendations: Having recommendations from more than one group will add to your credibility. Don’t have all your recommendations come from your coworkers at your previous job, for example.

6) Request personal and professional recommendations: Ask for specific recommendations, but always remember to say thank you. It is very important to show your appreciation, and little things like a thank you note or a $5 Starbucks card may help more than you think.

7) Get involved in groups on LinkedIn and other job forums: Look for LinkedIn groups and job forums that relate to your specific career goals and get involved. Such groups and forums can be great ways to network with company executives and recruiters.

To read the full article, visit http://mashable.com/2012/07/17/optimize-online-professional-profile.

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Using Instagram for Your Small Business

Using Instagram for Your Small Business

Instagram is a photo-sharing tool that has recently exploded onto the social media scene. A free app that can be found on both the Apple and Android mobile platforms, it provides users with a novel way to connect with a whole new group of people.

According to Instagram’s website, “It’s a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your photos with friends and family. Snap a picture, choose a filter to transform its look and feel, then post to Instagram. Share to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr too – it’s as easy as pie. It’s photo sharing, reinvented.”

If you regularly take pictures on your phone and share them with others, you should consider using Instagram as a networking and marketing tool.

How you can benefit from Instagram:

Capture moments from your business events. Photos of conferences, openings and special celebrations can be filtered to capture the tone or mood of an image. These can then easily be sent right to a tab or album on your business Facebook page. Clients and contacts who visit the page will be able to get a feel for what kind of energy existed at these events and may be motivated to learn more about your business. And once you share photos from Instagram to Facebook, it’s easier to access and use these photos in other places, like Pinterest and your website, as well.
Make your business feel more real by taking and sharing photos from around the office, your production process, etc. Before someone signs on to work with you, they can get a glimpse of what it might be like to actually work in your business. What does a typical day look and feel like? These images can share many valuable details about the day to day of your business environment.
Share photos as subtle business messages. Your business can take pictures of happy customers for instant testimonials, parties, fundraisers, and training events to share with customers, contacts and team members. Share photos of people having fun with your products, too. By using appropriate tags, users will be able to find them easily. Remember that Instagram is a social network, so you should share these images as well as images that are personally important to you.
Connect with a new group of people. Use Instagram to browse other photos that appeal to your personal and professional interests. By following users who share such images, you can connect with a wider range of people who may become part of your broader business network. Remember to give as much as you get by taking the time to like and comment on images that appeal to you.
Engage with customers regularly by inviting them to share photos of themselves using your products on your Facebook wall. Encourage users to comment on photos and even hold a contest where people vote on their favorite every month. Instagram can be a tool that helps you keep an ongoing conversation about your products and business.

Maintaining a social media presence can be overwhelming if you try to participate in too many. Don’t rush to use Instagram if you don’t feel you have the time to invest in it right now. It’s a great tool for those who already enjoy taking and sharing pictures. Now you can use that passion to benefit your business.

Are you already using Instagram in your business? How have you benefitted from it? Please share your ideas in the comments section below!

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Four Ways to Improve Your Chance of Success

Four Ways to Improve Your Chance of Success

When you start a business, you no doubt take measures well in advance to maximize your chance of success. You write up a business plan, choose a location, and procure financing. Even with lots of research and preparation, it can be difficult to predict how well your business will perform.

Here are some tips on improving your chance of success.

Master your networking skills. Put simply, networking consists of building mutually beneficial working relationships. Effective networking will work wonders for your business in a variety of ways. You will be able to reach a wider customer base, exchange ideas with fellow small business owners, get advice from successful entrepreneurs, and even create professional partnerships. Start by contacting your local chamber of commerce, attending industry conventions, establishing your internet presence, and by getting involved in the community (volunteering, hosting events). You should consider networking to be a mandatory responsibility to the growth of your business.
Tune out negativity. Sometimes it is difficult to avoid hearing negative talk from others. Perhaps those around you doubt your abilities, maybe they’re trying to prepare you for failure, or it could be that they simply don’t understand your desire to be your own boss. The good news is that none of this matters. As long as you believe in yourself, you can succeed. Learn to tune out the negativity that others put out by creating positive self-talk, developing a mantra, and reminding yourself of your own strengths and accomplishments. Seek out others who share your goals and views and who will add to your self-confidence, not diminish it.
Keep taking risks. You’ve already taken the biggest risk of all by starting your business. You will be faced with a great number of decisions that carry some level of risk throughout your career as a business owner. Don’t be afraid to take risks just because there is a chance of failure or a setback. For example, a veteran small business owner decides he wants to broaden his exposure and market himself as an expert in his field. To begin, he has booked some local speaking engagements at vocational schools and community colleges. It’s risky for him to take time away from his business to try public speaking, something completely new. However, the potential for him to market himself as a brand can have positive impact on the business. The risk is definitely worth it. As long as you make educated decisions about your business and have backup plans in place in case of unforeseen events, risk-taking can lead to great success.
Hire wisely. No one is good at everything. You may be brilliant at interacting with others and face-to-face selling, but horrible with organization and accounting-type tasks. This is where it becomes extremely important to hire people who can make up for those weaknesses. If you don’t have a head for numbers, look to bring on board someone who is. You wouldn’t attempt to build a tree house if you didn’t know a hammer from a hatchet, so don’t do it with your business. Identify your weaknesses, and hire people who are good at those things so your business prospers.

Owning a business does require some trial and error, but if you are prepared with the important things and follow the above suggestions, your chances of success are greatly improved.

What else do you think should be added to this list? Please leave your ideas in the comments section below!

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How to Wow Your Customers

How to Wow Your Customers

You’ve most likely had memorable customer service experiences, both good and bad. How did your impressions of those businesses influence your decision to return?

A customer’s experience has virtually everything to do with whether or not he or she returns to your business. By providing exceptional customer service complete with the “wow” factor, you can be confident that you are creating a loyal clientele who will help you grow your business.

Here are some suggestions for how to wow your customers by going the extra mile.

Provide rush orders. This service can be especially helpful when a customer is seeking a last-minute gift or needs something in time for a business trip or vacation. If you are able, it’s a good idea to offer this service free of charge or for a discounted rate. Doing so demonstrates that your customer’s need comes first, and that person will certainly not hesitate to patronize your business again and recommend you to others.
Make special deliveries. You can do this to save a customer the shipping cost or even just to provide an extra convenience. Not many businesses make “house calls” anymore, so offering this service will definitely impress your customers. You could even promote this service when people are especially busy, like around the winter holidays or during prom/graduation/wedding season. Your competitors are probably not making door-to-door deliveries, so this will also give you a leg up on them.
Give small thank-you gifts. The best way to do this is to personalize the gifts you provide. For example, you might have a customer who regularly makes purchases from your line of all-natural moisturizers. She has recently announced she is expecting another baby, so the next time she comes in for her moisturizer, consider giving her a sample-sized bottle of your chemical-free baby shampoo. You’ll be thanking her for her loyalty and showing that she is more than just a sale because you’ve been paying attention to not only what she buys, but what is happening in her life, and how you can fill a need. She’s unlikely to forget you exceptional service.
Offer special discounts for special dates. Perhaps you take 10% off an order on a customer’s birthday, or give a voucher for a free dessert on a wedding anniversary. Again, it pays to get creative about how you can implement this service. You’ll be giving your customers an incentive to do business with you, and they’ll appreciate your desire to recognize their special day.
Get involved in their passions. If you can find a way to relate to what your customers are passionate about, you will be giving them a great reason to give you repeat business. For example, one of your customers has mentioned that he is putting together a fundraiser to get a local park renovated because he really wants his children to have a safe place to play. As a local business owner, you could donate a gift basket as a giveaway or even provide a service for the event such as free program printing. Your customers will always remember that you have something important to them in common, and will be impressed by your commitment to their interests.

How do you provide outstanding customer service? Please share your ideas below!

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DSEF & CBBB: Study Finds Cut-Price Merchants Less Reliable; Reflected in BBB Ratings

DSEF & CBBB: Study Finds Cut-Price Merchants Less Reliable; Reflected in BBB Ratings

By Holly Doering

Remember that scene in “Guys and Dolls” where the band girl’s grandfather gets a screaming deal on a street watch? And then it turns out to be fake? Well, online merchants who use dollar signs and advertise low prices in search engine results may be the equivalent of that street vendor. Loud voice, low price, but if it breaks, you’re on your own.

Researchers in a recent University of Iowa study performed 243 internet searches on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft for digital cameras made by major manufacturers and sold online. They looked at how search engine results on the first few pages correlated to merchants’ BBB business reviews.

The study found that merchants who used dollar signs in their Google results earned markedly lower grades from the BBB. In addition, many of the merchants who appeared only in the paid results received low marks from the BBB. Iowa’s Professor Gautam Pant stresses that this doesn’t mean all retailers in the paid results are less reliable. But it does mean that merchants who can’t compete on reliability can get more visibility by paying for results.

Pant also found a correlation between lower price and lower reliability. “Merchants who can’t compete on service attract customers using the lure of a good deal,” he says.

Remember, reliability is an important consideration when making a major purchase. You can always Start With Trust by checking the company’s track record at www.bbb.org. Selecting a purchase on price alone can lead to trouble.

The study “Can visible cues in search results indicate vendors’ reliability?” was published recently in the journal Decision Support Systems.

DSEF and Council on Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) fosters honest and responsive relationships between businesses and consumers—instilling consumer confidence and advancing a trustworthy marketplace for all.

All posts tagged business tips

DSEF & CBBB: Is Your Business Plan Fractured? Focus and Execution are Key

DSEF & CBBB: Is Your Business Plan Fractured? Focus and Execution are Key

How To Build a Long Term Business

How To Build a Long Term Business

Achieve What You Want

Achieve What You Want

Four Ways to Improve Your Chance of Success

Four Ways to Improve Your Chance of Success

DSEF & CBBB: Study Finds Cut-Price Merchants Less Reliable; Reflected in BBB Ratings

DSEF & CBBB: Study Finds Cut-Price Merchants Less Reliable; Reflected in BBB Ratings

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