Helping Those That Need Help!

This holiday season as the nation tries to dig out from a recession some of the most impacted will be those that help others. Charitable contributions are down significantly throughout the country and because of that many of those people that rely on the help of charitable organizations will be in dire need.

As you look at your business this holiday season I would challenge all business owners to find creative ways to help those organizations that help others. Whether it's financial or material contributions or simply contributions of time those organizations need your help this holiday season.

The Pinecrest Group and Ultimate Breakthrough Planning is going to do our part by launching a new program called "Coaching For Your Cause". In this program for everyone that signs up for our coaching programs from November 1, 2010 to January 1, 2010 we will donate 5% of the cost of the program back to an organization of your choice. And that contribution will be made in your name and on your behalf not ours!

I know that times are tough but anything we can do to help those less fortunate this holiday season, not to mention anytime makes the world a better place!

Business Planning on a Bar Napkin

I've just finished my new e-book, Business Planning on a Bar Napkin. It focuses on a simple method to create an executable business plan to help grow your business. The book is designed as the first step to help businesses create a strategic plan that they can use everyday to help them grow their businesses. If you use it paired with my published book, Ultimate Breakthrough Planning you will have all the tools you need to create your business success gameplan.

You can download a free copy of my e-book at www.thepinecrestgroup.com/free_stuff You'll find valuable ideas that can take your business from where it is today to where you want it to be tomorrow.

Providing Value to Your Customers in Your Service

I'm always interested in the response I get from my clients when I ask them if they deliver good service. Almost all of them say they do and then give me some examples of how they do it. However I get a very different response when I ask them how they deliver value in their service, most of the time I get a quizzical look that says, "What do you mean"?

Providing value in the minds of your clients or customers means that you have taken the time to put yourself in their shoes and have asked the question, "What would I want?" As you look at your service you need to make sure that what your perception of good service is and what your customers perception is are in alignment. Many times I have heard my clients say they give great service by doing something for the customer and then when I go back and ask the customer they say well yes they do that but that really isn't all that important to us.

I believe that one area of service that is critical is communication to your customers, not only when something good or bad happens but also as a means of establishing expectations. If you go about setting written service standards for your business but then don't communicate them to your customers you have done nothing to set the expectations and give yourself the opportunity to exceed those expectations.

Here are a couple of examples that I have recently encountered:

• I occasionally eat at a local Arby's and for a long time now they have been offering a special pick 5 items for $5.95. I thought this was great value and the last time I was there they had taken it off the menu, when I asked about it they said they had taken if off the menu because they were sending out coupons instead. As I was standing there waiting for my meal I must have heard 5 people ask about that special and all got the same response. Now it seems pretty obvious to me that the 5 people and myself could care less about the coupons that we didn't have, we wanted the special that was a value in our minds. They have lost at least one customer because they changed their value proposition.
• I have recently been working on a project with a couple of different companies and to get them to communicate with me on what's going on has been like pulling teeth. I am about to make a considerable investment in what they have to offer and yet to get them to answer an email, return a phone call or keep me in the loop as to what's going on has been virtually impossible. Here all I am asking for is a simple response and they don't seem to think that is important. Again in this case it may cost them a very good customer.

These are just a couple of examples of service that could have made my perception of these companies very different. When you don't get basic answers or perceived value you have a tendency to start looking at the other things that a company or business does and start wondering what else is wrong. So as you look at your service and create a plan that will help you deliver exceptional service make sure you put yourself in your customers or clients shoes and remember the old adage, "what's in it for me".

Where is the Common Sense?

Chicken little is having a hey day today! Between the economy, the auto industry, the mortgage crisis and swine flu the sky is definitely falling! Of course being the eternal optimist I have one big question; what the heck happened to common sense in the world today?

Let's examine a couple of these things:

• The economic crisis, no question it is here and upon us, the interesting thing is a little common sense could have avoided it. Where was the regulation of all the financial instruments that created the problem in the first place, Congress and both parties are quick to lay the blame but if one of the purposes of government is to act for the greater good of it's citizens then why wasn't good old common sense used in the regulatory environment, most of these designed financial instruments were designed out of greed and to take advantage of the system, a little common sense by someone might have brought out that realization.
• Here's my favorite one, swine flu! I saw yesterday that Ft. Worth was closing all it's schools for almost two weeks because of it and of course it's all over the media that we have a pandemic. I'm not quite sure what a pandemic is but right now this flu has accounted of about 160 deaths, each year the flu kills over 36,000 people in the U. S. alone, so does that mean we have an ongoing pandemic? Again a little common sense would tell me that if you take the normal precautions against getting sick you are probably going to be OK and even if you get the flu almost all of the cases have been mild here in the U.S. So like usual in the year of no common sense we overreact and forget about using some!

It would seem to me that what this country really needs to get moving again is simply some common sense, if it doesn't look right it probably isn't, if it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. And as far as the U.S. media and news goes they are the biggest culprit, because they like creating a frenzy and hysteria and so they report (sometimes skewed) on all of these issues and they get their so-called experts talking about the sky falling and next thing you know Chicken Little is all up in arms! Maybe we should just figure how to unplug them all for a month and get some peace and quiet! Now that's some good old common sense!

Ultimate Breakthrough Planning is a Finalist for Best New Business Book!

I just found out that my book, Ultimate Breakthrough Planning: The Business Funnel Approach is a finalist for best new business book by the Midwest Book Awards, click here to see more. This is a testament to all the work put in by my publisher Scarletta Press and to those that have reviewed the book and given it great reviews! Although is wasn't intentional the book is incredibly timely in that it really gives business owners a blueprint to help them get focus in their businesses. In today's economy that is essential and having a business plan that you will actually use every single day is clearly a way to get through this recession not only surviving but thriving.

I read an interesting article last night that some of the greatest companies have been started during a recession, Microsoft, HP and others came out of set backs and then looking at things differently and creating a business through an opportunity that came about because of the recession. Ultimate Breakthrough Planning takes you through a process to identify where those opportunities might lie in your business and then helps you create a game plan that can capitalize on them. This book can help any business whether it's a new business or one that has been around for awhile. I am thrilled that the book is being so well received but I'm most proud of the fact that I can help businesses find success in these difficult times!

The Fallacy of Business Planning

I recently read an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune business section that talked about how with unemployment up more and more people are looking into starting their own businesses and certainly during most recessions you see a spike in business startups. The article was stressing the importance of having a business plan and was going through the various steps of creating a traditional business plan and how important it was to have this document that painted a picture of your business so you would have something to use in working with you banker or investor. The article also went on to talk about the process of creating a plan and using the same basic format that has been used for years and years how this plan would really help you get your business off the ground. Herein lies the problem with this whole approach, the last numbers I saw said that almost 90% of all business startups never make it more than two years, with that being the case why in the world would we continue to stress the importance of this business plan format when it obviously doesn't work? I have worked with countless businesses that create very well thought out business plans that go into a lot of detail about what the business will look like however in those plans I have never seen a section on how we are going to execute the plan. The fallacy of business planning is that if you don't have one you won't succeed where the reality is that the format that we have been using for years does nothing but create a static document that gets stuck in a binder or file folder and is never used to help grow the business.

What I suggest and work with my clients on is to create a business plan that is all about execution, it gets the business owner clearly focused on the actions they need to do to make that business successful and keeps them on track by measuring those actions using key milestones. This business planning approach gives the business owner a much greater chance of success by keeping them clearly focused on strategies and priorities that will grow their business. I call the approach the Business Planning Funnel , this planning process takes the business owner through a specific progression on the priorities, strategies, tactics, and tasks and timelines that will allow them to create a true business action plan. With this plan and a good set of financials I would give them a much greater chance of success then the traditional business planning model will ever give them, and I'm guessing that their bankers and investors would also be very interested is seeing the how rather than the what of the business!

Business Planning vs. Business Motion Planning

I constantly get potential projects and clients that are looking for help growing their buisness and the first thing I ask them is do you have a business plan? Of course if they do they show me the standard business plan format that almost everyone uses and has used for 50 years. It has your executive summary, your financials, your market analysis, your product or service analysis and some projections. And it is typically prepared for their banker or potential investors. The problem with all those plans are that they are static documents they show what the business will look like at some point in the future but there is one major thing missing, how the heck are they going to get there? The major component that is missing is action or motion, what are the specific things they are going to do to achieve this picture they have painted.

A business motion plan gets them thinking about the how they are going to get there, this plan can be done very simply, it may just lay out the specific things they are going to do or it may break it into specific steps such as I talk about in Ultimate Breakthrough Planning: The Business Funnel Approach where I give you a road map to create a business motion plan.

In my book I talk about creating an active document, a blue print that will you will use every single day to grow your business. Forget about your standard business plan and create a business motion plan that will keep your business moving forward even if tough times! You can here more about my process here: Ultimate Breakthrough Planning book overview

Tired of Bad News?

I was the keynote speaker at the Duluth Business to Business Expo yesterday in Duluth, MN and got the opportunity to present to a group of business owners. I started my presentation with the whole idea that it is becoming increasingly difficult for business owners and anyone else to stay positive and upbeat in light of the constant bombardment of bad news by the media. If we do a side by side comparison of this recession to the one on 1981-82 it will show that this one is not really any worse than that one, however one big difference is the fact that in 1981-82 we didn't have the internet, we didn't have multiple news and business channels constantly overwhelming us with not only the news but their gloom and doom predictions. I never thought I would say this but I long for the days of election coverage and red maps and blue maps just so I don't have to listen to anymore gloom and doom.

I think the biggest challenge we all have is trying to tune out the distraction of the constant bad news and focus on those things that we can control, I have written about that before but I think today it is crucial in order to stay on task and do the things you need to do to keep your business moving forward. And look for good news, I hear stories everyday about businesses that are doing just fine and even having more success today than they did a year ago, so there are success stories out there, unfortunately those aren't nearly as appealing as the gloom and doom the networks like to cover! Maybe we all need to watch the clip of Howard Beale from the movie Network and proclaim in one voice to the media "we're mad as hell and we're not going to take this anymore".

The First 100 Days

In the past week we have witnessed the historic inauguration of Barack Obama as the nations 44th President. As he takes office we hear in the news much about what will happen in his first 100 days of office. He takes the helm in a tumultuous time with a suffering economy, two wars and the historical partisan politics. So how could that relate to your business?

I talk a lot about creating a laser focused game plan for your business to survive and thrive in these difficult times and as you look at the parallels of President Obama's first 100 days in office I find it an interesting comparison. He must move quickly and establish himself as the new commander-in-chief and in addition position himself and his administration as a new way of doing business. Like President Obama your business faces unique challenges right now, with the economy going south like snowbirds from Minnesota you need to decide what fast action you are going to take to keep your business moving forward. Have you developed an action plan for your next 100 days?  How will you make changes in your business and change the way you do business to set the tone for the next 100 days?  These are questions you must answer and answer quickly in order to survive and thrive in these times. 

I would suggest you sit down and work on 5 things you can do and control in the next 100 days that sends a clear message to your mind and to your team that you are not going to sit on the sidelines doing business as usual and wait for this to blow over. Think about what you can do from a marketing perspective, from a sales perspective and from a service perspective that rocks the boat over how you usually do things.  And once you have done that write down the specifics of how you will do it and assign timelines and communicate it to your team. Then execute and measure the execution so that it happens. 

Just as President Obama wants to get his administration off to a fast start in it's first 100 days you should think about getting you business off to a fast start in 2009 and take control of your business and focus on success, not worrying about those things you can't control!

The Winter Blues

Today here in Minneapolis it's 20 below zero and I had the opportunity to drive across Iowa and Nebraska the other day and observed the bleak winter landscape.  Winter is a little like what is going on in our economy in that at times it can get a little depressing.  As I looked across Iowa and Nebraska I imagined what the farmers were doing this time of year when the ground is white and frozen and likened it a little to what many businesses are facing right now.  The farmer in the upper Midwest right now is preparing for Spring, even though as he looks outside there is no hint of it he knows that in a matter of a couple of months Spring will be here and he will be back outside planting crops. But this time of year is just as important for him, as he is planning his crops, determining when and where he will buy seed and fertilizer, working on his equipment to make sure it is in the best operating condition before he needs it in the Spring.  

In today's economic environment it can seem like the bleak days of winter and yet every business must realize that there will be Spring and when that time comes it is essential that the business is in  a position to jump when things start moving again. In the event that your business is slow right now what are doing to make sure that when the business environment improves you are ready to capitalize on it. You should be making sure your business plan is set and have your business funnel ready to go and that all your tools such as marketing and sales are operating a peak efficiency so that your business can grow quickly when the environment improves. And have faith, it will improve, history has taught us that valuable lesson.  Stay Warm!

Tis the Season of Self Help!

About the first of December through the first of February it seems that my email inbox gets loaded with every self help guru out there trying to convince me to lose weight, stop smoking, make more money, have a better sex life, be a better writer and on and on.  Of course they are all preying on the fact that we will be making our New Year's resolutions and we will need their help to make those resolutions happen.  By the first of February they stop bugging us because they figure everyone has already fallen off the band wagon.

In the spirit of those self help gurus I would like to offer some simple ideas to you for making your business successful this year no matter what the economic environment and you won't have to buy anything, go to any seminars or click through 50 page sales letters!  Although there have been thousands of business books written about making your business successful there still remains only 3 ways to grow your business; more customers, more sales from existing customers and larger sales from existing customers. As you look at how you will survive and thrive in these challenging times it is absolutely essential that you look at these three areas to make sure that you are doing everything in your sales and marketing efforts to grow all three of these areas. Top business consultant Jay Abraham calls this the "power parthenon strategy" and by focusing on growing each of these areas you geometrically you can grow your business exponentially. 

Of course in order to do that you need a game plan or script so that it happens each and every time the exact way you want it to happen. Your first step might be to analyze your existing customers to look at their buying trends and figuring out how you can get more and larger sales from them. When I work with my clients I am constantly encouraging them to analyze why people buy from them and what else could they be buying from them.  Once you have looked at your existing customers or clients then you need to determining what you need to do to bring in new customers or clients, as you have heard many times before it is much easier to get more business from existing customers than it is to find new ones however you need to make sure that you are using a variety of different marketing tools to get new clients. You should have at least 5 different methods or tools that you are implementing to find and get new clients. And make sure one of those is an active referral system that lets your existing customers bring new ones in the door. 

As you look toward surviving and thriving in a challenging 2009 focus on these three ways to grow your business and you will have success!  And if you want to lose weight, stop smoking or anything else the self help gurus are selling I wish you luck!

Great Marketing Ideas for 2009

I've been getting a little R&R on the beach in Mexico over the last few days and on my way down I picked up a book in the airport. The book is the New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott.  This book has been a real eye opening experience for me in that I thought I was somewhat tech savvy when it comes to marketing but as I found reading David's book I'm just scratching the surface of what I should be doing to market my business, let alone help my clients market their businesses.  David does a fantastic job of laying out the new rules of marketing and how marketing firms, ad agencies and PR firms have done this in the past and how the world of the web, online marketing, blogs, news releases, podcasting and an assortment of other methods have made the old world of marketing and PR obsolete. I generally don't do book reviews in this blog however I have been so impacted by this book I believe I need to let everyone know that reads my blog that they should be incorporating the ideas in this book into their marketing plans. I spend a lot of time in marketing with my clients however I don't consider myself a marketing consultant rather I work with them to create the plans for their marketing that will help them achieve their business goals.  And one thing that became very evident in reading David's book is that I need to focus more on internet based marketing as I work with clients to help them create their plans. 

Internet marketing has come a long ways since it's early days and with all the tools available our there today if you are not taking advantage of some of these things you are completely missing the boat on opportunities to let people know about who you are and what you do. Any business plan should incorporate many of the tools that David discusses in order to get maximum exposure in the marketplace. The best part of this is it is relatively inexpensive and you don't need webmasters and programmers to do it. In my book "Ultimate Breakthrough Planning" I have an entire chapter on looking at your marketing systems and building a business funnel for them.  By taking some of David's ideas and putting them into your funnel you will improve your marketing dramatically.  The best part is that many of the tools David mentions we have typically thought of for large corporations, yet he gives some great examples such as an auto repairman on how they grew their businesses through some of these tools.  

In building your business funnel you should very definitely read David's book as well as visit his blog.  By the way David's not paying me anything for this in fact I don't know David and he doesn't know me however I believe his ideas should be used by every business to make their marketing efforts more targeted and more effective. 

It's a New Year, Again!

Once again we start a new year and if you're like me you're thinking about all the things you want to accomplish in this new year.  Of course this year is a little different because we all probably have some trepidation about what's going on with the economy and how it will impact our business in the coming year.  As we look at what we want to do in the coming year we typically start setting some goals and then maybe write down some things that we will do to achieve those goals but in most cases that is the extent of our planning for the new year. 

I would encourage you to try a different approach this year!  Rather than focusing on what you want to accomplish this year, try developing an action plan of the things you need to do each and every day in order to achieve those goals you set.  Create a plan that measures those actions, for instance if you need to ramp up your marketing to achieve those goals then determine exactly what you need to do from a marketing perspective; do you need to do more advertising, or more direct marketing or more online marketing and whatever it is measure the specific things you are going to do in order to do that.  In my book "Ultimate Breakthrough Planning" I have a whole section that talks about measuring key milestones and how if you measure and hit your key milestones you will inevitably hit your goals. As I work with my clients I constantly remind them that if you measure your actions and execution of your plan your goals will take care of themselves.  

Obviously we have a challenging environment this year however with challenges come opportunities and in order to capitalize on those opportunities and grow your business in difficult times you must have a laser focused approach to what you are going to do.