Small Business

Wholesale Prices: Buying At Wholesale Prices

2005-10-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

By Donny Lowy

Wholesale prices enables sellers to attain a high profit margin on their merchandise, which leads to higher profits on their sales.

But wholesale prices can also offer another advantage. This advantage is the savings that can be obtained by buying products at wholesale prices.

Why should you buy products at wholesale prices?

You will end up saving money on products which you regularly purchase at retail prices.

If you are interested in buying many of the items which you currently use at wholesale prices, you need to be ready to do the following.

For starters, be ready to buy in slightly larger quantities than you regularly do.

Most wholesalers are able to offer their wholesale prices because they expect to make their money on volume.

Since they are selling in volume they can afford to charge their customers less than half the price for most items that they offer.

These quantities are not usually large, but be ready to buy a dozen socks at a time instead of a single pair at a time.

The advantage is that even though you are purchasing a dozen at a time, your actual cost might be less than if you bought 3 or 4 at the regular retail price.

And since you will end up using all 12 pairs, your money has been well spent.

To make sure that you do receive the best wholesale prices shop around.

Wholesale prices can vary from one wholesaler to another by as much as 50%.

You can also obtain wholesale prices by using wholesale search engines such as www.wholesalequest.com

Even though most wholesalers have minimum orders, you can order an assortment of different items.

This way you are not forced to buy too many of an item.

I hope you enjoyed this article on helping you find the best wholesale prices for your personal purchases.

Donny Lowy is the CEO of the following wholesale and closeout businesses.

http://www.closeoutexplosion.com

http://www.wholesalecloseoutforum.com

http://www.wholesalequest.com

Flea Market Business: How To Outsell Other Flea Market Vendors

2005-10-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

By Donny Lowy

Flea market business. Does that phrase make you excited, but anxious at the same time?

If it does it’s probably because although you know that there is money to be made, you also realize how much competition exists in the flea market.

To make money with your own flea market business you need to have good quality flea market merchandise at low prices.

But the other ingredient that is often overlooked, is that you have to have the ability to outsell your competition.

How do you outsell your competition from other flea market vendors?

Think of what a dollar store would do to stand out from other dollar stores in the neighborhood.

You want to emulate this dollar store, and apply its strategies to your own flea market business.

Here are tips that you can use to outsell your flea market competitors.

Tip #1

Customer service is crucial. People want to be treated well, regardless of where they are shopping. Be the flea market vendor that is known for friendliness and helpfulness. Shoppers will be glad to buy from you, even if your prices are the same as other flea market vendors.

Tip #2

Always have an organized and pleasant flea market booth. Shoppers will enjoy visiting your booth if your merchandise is displayed nicely. Wouldn’t you?

Tip #3

Keep track of other vendor’s prices. Your prices always should be at, or below their prices.
Even if lowering your prices cuts into your profits you need to adjust them. You can always make up the lost profit on higher sales.

Tip #4

Be positive. Shoppers want to buy from positive sellers. Shopping at a flea market is supposed to be fun, make it fun for your customers.

Tip #5
Introduce a new variety of items. If shoppers know that you always have a nice variety of new products at your flea market booth, they will go to you first to see what new products you have.
Make sure that the products you introduce fit into your current merchandise. You want your customers to know you for a certain product category.

Donny Lowy is the CEO of the following wholesale and closeout businesses.

http://www.closeoutexplosion.com

http://www.wholesalecloseoutforum.com

http://www.wholesalequest.com

More Entrepreneurs Say 'Charge It' When Starting Their Businesses

2005-10-05T11:19:00.000-07:00

By Dr. Robert J. Lahm

Credit cards have become an increasingly popular substitute for traditional sources of capital, such as commercial loans from banks and venture capital. More and more new business founders are saying “charge it” to fund their start-ups and ongoing operations.

The Problem with New Businesses and Traditional Sources of Capital

Nascent entrepreneurs without an established business history or a track record of successful financial performance often complain about the difficulty in dealing with banks. It is not easy to appease bankers who want to see three or more years of past financial records, a positive cash flow, an established customer base and other historical indices of performance when a business is brand new.

The alternative for the startup entrepreneur in a formal lending process is to offer substantial collateral. What this means is that the business founder pledges something of value, ensuring that if the entrepreneur’s “best laid plans” fail to come to fruition (which is a good bet, based on high business failure rates), the bank has something to fall back on and a means to collect. To thicken the stew even further, one might consider that the liquidated value of some forms of pledged collateral may be far less than the value of the collateral under more favorable circumstances. An example of the above would be inventory or office furniture. How much can you get when you sell used office furniture at an auction? Suffice it to say that the bidders are at that auction as compared to an office furniture showroom for a reason: they don’t want to pay top dollar for anything that they buy.

Slip on a Pair of Banker’s Shoes

Chances are good that if you were wearing a pair of banker’s shoes, you would be reluctant to lend money yourself. After all, what is the “upside” for the banker? At best, a loan will be repaid in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in the lending agreement, with added interest at whatever rate the market will bare. Moreover, within the banking industry, there is a major obligation to thwart risk. After all, it’s not the “bank’s money” that is being lent—it’s depositors’ money, which has been placed under the care of the bank for safe keeping. Hence, if we are borrowing money, we want banks to be “easy”; if we’re depositing our money, we want it all back, and we want interest, too (sound familiar?). Venture capitalists, by contrast, might enjoy a better upside as they get to demand a “piece of the action,” if the business happens to take off. However, whether or not that will come to pass is still a big gamble, not too different than betting on horses at a race track (as some have suggested).

Stage Right, Enter: Credit Cards

The vast majority of businesses are formed by entrepreneurs who use some form of bootstrapping as a means to mitigate their need for startup capital (or because of limited access to traditional forms of capital). Bootstrappers have been known to utilize a variety of techniques such as bartering, drop-shipping, sharing space, locating in austere facilities (including homes, which has become a significant trend unto itself), negotiating, and “do-it-yourself” methods for accomplishing just about anything related to launching or running their respective businesses. These business founders have raised cash by mortgaging homes, using severance and retirement packages, negotiating payment terms, “paying Peter with Paul’s money” (e.g., by juggling internal cash flow), using personal savings, borrowing from friends and relatives, and using personal as well as business credit cards.

According to a Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy report, 71 percent of small firms obtained credit from non-traditional sources, mainly owner’s loans and credit cards. Another report published in U.S. Banker cited industry research commissioned by MasterCard, which found that almost two thirds (64 percent) of small business owners use “plastic for business expenses.” Office of Advocacy senior economist Charles Ou was quoted as having indicated that in the category of loans for $100,000 or less (known as micro-business loans), the increasing use of credit cards may account for nearly all of the growth in that category. It should also be noted that small women-owned firms, as well as those owned by minorities and Hispanic-owned firms, tend to rely on credit cards as the most often used type of credit.

Pros and Cons

Credit cards are a competing choice among others that may be available to someone who is starting a business. Abstinence is a choice as well. If one does not have the wherewithal to start a business, perhaps he or she should refrain from doing so. Analysis is divided on the issue. On the one hand, the popular and business press has advanced stories of entrepreneurs who have leveraged multiple credit cards to launch businesses that sometimes turn out to be highly successful, despite naysayers. Within the banking industry, small business credit card lending has become an attractive new market; this was enabled by new techniques which established a connection between one’s personal credit worthiness, and small business credit worthiness. On the other hand, bankruptcies have increased, businesses to continue to fail at very high rates, and the practice is risky, at best.

Dr. Robert Lahm is the founder of several businesses and Web sites, an entrepreneurship professor, a public speaker, and a writer. His typical topics include creativity and innovation, careers, start-ups, and small business marketing. Webmasters and other article publishers are hereby granted article reproduction permission as long as this article in its entirety, author's information, and any links remain intact. Copyright 2005 by Dr. Robert J. Lahm, EntrepreneurshipClearinghouse.com.

How to Multiply Business Sales by Up to 9 Times in Just One Week--Define the Customer Value

2005-10-05T11:18:00.000-07:00

By Alan Boyer

Do you know how much a customer is worth to you? If you don’t you should. It results in one of the biggest breakthroughs my clients have.

Once you know what an average customer is worth, one of the first things you’ll notice is that there is likely more than one type of customer coming to you.

We reviewed the average value of a customer for one of my clients, discovered that there were at least 3 different types of customers, each buying a significantly different average amount, some were buying only one time, and others were becoming repeat customers. Now we could clearly define who these people were, how to find them, and decided that some were not worth our time, others were our ideal target.

One of my customers, a construction franchise, had only done $60K of business his first year. It went to $500K the next just by finding the right customer based on customer worth.

When we started looking at what his customers were worth to him, the first figure was $1,500, an average of all customers. Then we saw that there were groups of different customers, some buying less than $1,000, some buying $1,000-$3,000 and some buying well over $3,000.

The ones buying under $1,000 were the hardest to deal with and had the lowest profit margin. The ones over $3,000 were coming back over and over, had the best profit margin, and referring lots of other customers. Their total lifetime worth was approaching $10,000.

This company had defined their customers according to the national franchisor’s suggestion, targeting a homeowner with total family income averaging $50,000. But the customers buying the most from them lived in a neighborhood where the average income was over $75,000. So, I suggested that they send their next mail only to those targets.

Another thing we saw was that the people buying less than $1,000 were the $50,000 average income neighborhoods. The $3,000 customers were from $75,000 neighborhoods, and the higher the income the more they bought, the more they came back, and they made more referrals.

They stopped mailing low income zip codes; these also had a very low response to their previous mail. They started targeting only higher income zip codes, and only to the $75,000 and up families.

The result: the immediate response was a 9 times increase in revenue on the very next mailing. The mail response rate went up 4.5 times, so they had 4.5 times more leads for the same dollars spent only a week before. And, those customers were buying more than twice as much. The total was 9 times more sales in just a week for a small change.

I’ve seen this happen over and over as a company starts to define how much a customer is worth to them.

So, define your average customer worth. Then track the actual results and see if there isn’t something you might learn from being able to segment your customers by their worth to you, total dollars on one purchase, total lifetime dollars, number of purchases, etc.

Alan Boyer, President/CEO of The Leader’s Perspective, LLC, is considered one of the world’s leading breakthrough specialists. He has worked with some of the worlds largest companies, on projects in the multi-billion dollar area, and with single proprietor companies. He has worked on many hundreds of projects with companies that have resulted in multi-$100 million savings or gains.

With over 35 years of business, quality, and process experience, he has catapulted businesses lightyears ahead in weeks. Some have doubled and some have jumped 10 times. He claims the key to that is:

Helping the business owners/employees develop the business skills

Helping them overcome the limitations and attitudes that they built between their ears (the self imposed limitations, I can’t, this won’t work for me, I’m different)

By helping them find the breakthroughs in their business and thinking

http://www.leaders-perspective.com

Helping companies worldwide reach further than they EVER thought possible. . . .FASTER

AlanBoyer@leaders-perspective.com

Franchising Looks Like Easy Money, Want the Truth?

2005-10-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

By Lance Winslow

So often I read in business journals some business consultant telling folks that they should franchise their businesses. Well sure franchising looks like easy money but it isn’t at all. Would you like to talk about the truth? Now then it is so unbelievably irresponsible for these media business consultants to advise folks to franchise their businesses when the truth is that the failure rate of those who franchise their businesses and become franchisors is 5:1. I therefore condemn those who recommend this.

Now those consultants who do not like this condemnation, I say to you; “Without a little sound and fury out there, no one would ever understand your point and therefore I must speak out in these harsh terms and condemnations.” Now then without some drama my comments would be drowned out the political correctness of the mass media and those self-proclaimed business consultants who advice such a tact. You wannbe business consultants with syndicated columns being the mass media in this instance.

Once a business consultant that I talked with, denied the failure rate and told me that I did not know what I was talking about. Yet, I built a franchise company myself started with a bucket of water and sponge at age twelve to a franchisor 180 units in 23 states and four countries and retired at 40 years old. I was not caring if the business consultant cared if my perspective was valuable, as I was concerned about his willy nilly approach and advice to the readers out there who had spent a lifetime building up a successful small business. He was willing to make a statement which could effect hundreds of woodbe franchisors; 80% will lose everything and be debt laden the rest of their lives, that is the reality of the stats on franchisors.

These syndicated business consultants want to give a perspective, I appreciate that really I do; That's fine. But they cannot get away with such bogus advice without a little high-energy comments from someone who knows. They maybe able to use their conflict resolution skills on would be commenters of their articles, but most of these syndicated business consultants are just writers, with no real experience in any of the industries they advise on.

One of these columnists writes articles for the USA Today and does a disservice to all those who read his column. Telling people to go off and franchise their business is silly. With such limited knowledge he should have been advising people to read the E-Myth or other such basic, basic first steps or set up manuals, million dollar bankroll or mention the myriad of rules and laws in all the different states, the exposure to over regulation and disclosure, competitive disadvantages to franchisors. It seems so ridiculous that such columnist writers are so uninformed and give out such screwy advice.

I have no problems dealing with someone's perspective, but you must be able to back up your advice with reality based experiences, observations and at least walking in one's shoes, even for a day? I cannot accept someone’s perspective if it is basic on fantasy and flat out wrong. It was as if this columnist jumped into my shoes and ran away with his advise and stated his perspective as reality in the USA Today.

"Lance Winslow" - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs

An Introduction To The Broken Windows Theory Of Business

2005-10-05T11:10:00.000-07:00

By Michael Levine

When is a dirty bathroom a broken window?

No, that’s not a riddle. It’s a question that could today be at the core of a business’s success or failure.

Answer that question correctly and use that answer as a beacon, and your business could dominate its competition indefinitely.

Ignore the solution to the puzzle, and you will be condemning your business to failure in a very short period of time.

The “broken windows” theory, first put forth by criminologist
James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in a piece called “Broken
Windows” in the Atlantic Monthly magazine in March 1982, explains
what a broken window is in criminal justice terms.

But the brilliance
of that theory goes much further than one interpretation. It can and
should be applied to business, too, and it can make a critical
difference- if American businesses will simply take the time and have
the courage to notice.

When Wilson and Kelling first unveiled the theory, the idea of concentrating on seemingly petty criminal acts like graffiti or purse
snatching seemed absurd: How would a crackdown on jaywalking lead
to a decrease in murders?

The broken windows theory states that something as small and innocuous as a broken window does in fact send a signal to those who
pass by every day. If it is left broken, the owner of the building isn’t
paying attention or doesn’t care.

That means more serious infractions...theft,
defacement, violent crime- might be condoned in this area as well.

At best, it signals that no one is watching.

This is the heart of the broken windows theory: Wilson and Kelling write that “social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all
the rest of the windows will soon be broken.”

Why?

Because the message being sent out by a broken window- the perception it invites is that the owner of this building and the people of the community around it don’t care if this window is broken:

They have given up, and anarchy reigns here.

Do as you will, because nobody cares.

Wilson and Kelling suggested that a “broken window”- any
small indication that something is amiss and not being repaired- can lead to much larger problems.

It sends signals, they said, that the bad
guys are in charge here; no one cares about maintaining some kind of
order, and anyone who wishes to take advantage of that situation
would be unopposed.

It leads to lawlessness, a kind of anarchy by neglect.

“Just as physicians now recognize the importance of fostering
health rather than simply treating illness, so the police- and the rest of
us- ought to recognize the importance of maintaining, intact,
communities without broken windows,” wrote Wilson and Kelling.

Years later, Wilson told me that the idea behind the broken windows theory “had to do with the responsibility of the police to take seriously small signs of disorder because people were afraid of disorder, and there was a chance disorder could lead to more serious
crime.”

Still, critics of the theory greeted it with skepticism, believing
that attention to small infractions would necessarily would necessarily
decrease the amount of attention that could be devoted to much more
serious crimes.

The same objection, in slightly less genteel verbiage, was
raised when Rudolph Giuliani, the newly elected mayor of New York
City in 1994, announced his intention to eliminate graffiti on subway
cars and move the hookers and pimps out of Times Square, to make
Manhattan more “family-friendly.”

Critics practically laughed in
Giuliani’s face, intimating that the “law and order” mayor- who had
been elected based largely on his experience as a U.S. attorney for the
New York area- was dealing with the small crimes because he knew he
couldn’t contain the larger ones.

They were proved wrong.

Giuliani and his new police commissioner, William Bratton, believed that if they sent out clear
signals to criminals, and to New York’s citizenry generally, that a
“zero tolerance” policy would be applied to all crime in the city, the
result would be a safer, cleaner city.

And the statistics bore them out:
Over the following years, the numbers of murders, assaults, robberies,
and other violent crimes all went down dramatically.

And it had all
started with graffiti on subway cars.

I can hear you asking, “What does that have to do with my business? It’s all about crime and criminals.”

That same theory is applicable to the world of business.
If the restroom at the local Burger King is out of toilet paper, it
signals that management isn’t paying attention to the needs of its
clientele. That could lead the consumer to conclude that food at this
restaurant might not be prepared adequately, that there might be health
risks in coming here, or that the entire chain of fast food out outlets
simply doesn’t care about its customers.

Given that scenario, it is not a stretch of the imagination but in fact a point of logic to conclude that the broken windows theory should be applied to business, as it was to the problems of crime in
urban areas.

Certainly, the perception of the average consumer is a
vital part of every business, and if a retailer, service provider, or
corporation is sending out signals that its approach is lackadaisical, its
methods halfhearted, and its execution indifferent, the business in
question could suffer severe- and in some cases, irreparable- losses.

This book is about broken windows in business: how they
happen, why they happen, why they are ignored, and the fatal
consequences that can result from their being allowed to go
unchecked.

It is meant as a cautionary tale, a primer, a road map, a
manifesto, and a salute to those companies that fix their broken
windows promptly.

It will explore not only specific examples of
broken windows, how they occurred, and what their long-term results
were but also the culture that creates an environment in which
windows are broken and left unfixed.

I believe that small things make a huge difference in business.

The messy condiment area at a fast food restaurant may lead consumers to believe the company as a whole doesn’t care about
cleanliness, and therefore the food itself might be in question.

Indifferent help at the counter in an upscale clothing store-even if just
one clerk- can signal to the consumer that perhaps standards here
aren’t as high as they might be (or used to be).

An employee at the gas
station who wears a T-shirt with an offensive slogan can certainly
cause some customers to switch brands of gasoline and lose an
enormous company those customers for life.

But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. I think we as a society
have fostered and encouraged broken windows in our business by
standing by and letting them happen. If the waiter at a local chain
restaurant is impolite, or even merely complacent, about our order, we
chalk it up to a bad day, one employee in one outlet of a large chain,
and we don’t send a letter to management or the corporate level.

Even
if we do change brands of gasoline after seeing an attendant in an
offensive T-shirt, we do not write or e-mail the president of the oil
company to alert him to the problem.

We are enablers to window
breakers in every aspect of every business. We don’t even necessarily
patronize those companies that fix their broken windows, if the less
attentive one is in a more convenient location or has a slightly lower
price.

That’s not to say we are all to blame when a company has
broken windows and doesn’t fix them, but it does mean we all bear
some responsibility to stand up for what we actually want and have
every right to expect out of a company to which we’re giving our hard-earned
money.

In a capitalist society, we can assume that a company
that wants to succeed will do its best to fulfill the desired of its
consuming public.

If the company sees sales slipping but doesn’t have
data from consumers as to what made them decrease their spending on
a retail level, the company will not necessarily know what to fix.

Still, corporations and even small businesses that don’t notice
and repair their broken windows should not simply be forgiven
because their consumers didn’t make enough of a fuss.

It is the
responsibility of the business to tend to its own house.

The owner of a
Starbucks franchise who decides that revenues are at a healthy level,
such that he or she can put off painting the store for another year, is
asking for trouble:

Yes, things are fine now, but when the paint is
faded and peeling and consumers are no longer getting the experience
they’ve come to expect, it will be too late to fix things with, literally, a
fresh coat of paint.

The time to repair broken windows is the minute
they occur.

It’s better, however, to prevent such smashed panes of glass to
begin with.

This book will examine the origins of broken windows into
two purposes in mind. First, we will see how the small things that can snowball into
large problems develop so we can best illustrate how to
repair the damage once it’s been done.

But it is equally important to
see how these things happen so that a smart business owner can make
sure to prevent them at- or before- the very first sign of trouble.

If you
have a policy to paint the store every year, you’ll never have to worry
about whether this was the year you waited too long.

In order to best understand how the broken windows theory relates to business, it’s important to examine the original theory- as it related to criminal activity- in some detail. Because of the brilliant thinking of Wilson and Kelling, “Broken Windows” illustrated a serious societal problem that was going unnoticed, and helped turn
around some of the country’s largest cities (including the largest of all)
by paying attention to detail.

It began with a program in New Jersey in the mid 1970s. The Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Program was meant to improve the
quality of life in twenty-eight Garden State cities, and it was to do so,
in part, by increasing the number of police officers on foot patrol,
rather than in patrol cars. Police chiefs, Wilson says today, felt that
such a move was not likely to lower crime levels, “and the police
chiefs were right: They didn’t have an effect on crime rates. But they
did have an effect- and in my view, a powerful effect- on how people
felt about their communities and their willingness to use it, suggesting
that fear of disorder was as important as fear of crime.”

Indeed, as Wilson and Kelling wrote in the Atlantic, “residents of the foot-patrolled neighborhoods seemed to feel more secure than persons in other areas, tended to believe that crime had been reduced,and seemed to take fewer steps to protect themselves from crime
(staying at home with the doors locked, for example).

Moreover,
citizens in the foot-patrol areas had a more favorable opinion than did
those living elsewhere.”

What does this all mean to business?

It’s not likely that having police officers walk the aisles of a Wal-Mart store will increase sales.
But it was the perception that something was being done to increase
order that made the difference for the people living in these New
Jersey cities.

In a business (as we’ll discuss in detail through out this book), the broken windows can be literal or metaphorical.

Sometimes a
broken window really is a broken window, and a new pane of glass
needs to be installed as quickly as possible. Most of the time, however,
broken windows are the little details, the tiny flaws, the overlooked
minutiae, that signal much larger problems either already in place or
about to become reality.

We’ll examine companies- huge ones, household names- that have failed to notice and repair their broken windows and have
suffered greatly for it.

We’ll also look at those that have made it a
priority to attend to every potentially broken window and ordered
plenty of replacement panes to make quick, seamless repairs.

The
lessons learned will be many, and varied, and they will have happy,
and not-so-happy endings.

Sometimes companies that deserve to be
rebuked for their laziness will go unpunished, but other times there
will be retribution at the hands of the public, which shows exactly
what happens when you give people what they don’t want.

What the public wants more than anything else is to feel that the business- retail or service-oriented, consumer or business-to-business-that work for them care about what they want.

Consumers are looking for businesses that anticipate and fulfill their needs and do so in a way that makes it clear the business understand the consumer’s
needs or wants and is doing its best to see them satisfied.

Broken windows indicate to the consumer that the business doesn’t care- either that it is so poorly run it can’t possibly keep up with its obligations or that it has become so oversize and arrogant that it no longer cares about its core consumer. Either of these impressions can be deadly to a business, and we’ll see examples of both as we
proceed.

If you run a business, and you truly believe that little things
don’t make a difference, you really should read this book- it may save
your business.

If you don’t run a business but would like to, this can be
the road map to your success. IF you’re merely interested in business
and wonder why one succeeds where a very similar one fails, perhaps
the examples contained here might help answer that question for you.

But it can’t be overemphasized that tiny details- the smaller,the more important- can indeed make a tremendous difference in a business’s success or failure.

Sometimes, yes, a company can make a huge mistake (the whole New Coke thing was less a broken window than a neutron bomb placed dead center on corporate headquarters),
but often, even those are foreshadowed by the little things that go, alas,
unnoticed.

A broken window can be a sloppy counter, a poorly located
sale item, a randomly organized menu, or an employee with a bad
attitude.

It can be physical, like a faded, flaking paint job, or symbolic,
like a policy that requires consumers to pay for customer service.

When the waiter at a Chinese restaurant is named Billy Bob, that’s a broken window.

When a call for help assembling a bicycle results in a twenty-minute hold on the phone (playing the same music over and over), that’s a broken window. When a consumer asks why she can’t return her blouse at the counter and it told, “Because that’s the rule,” that is a broken window.

They’re everywhere.

Except at the really sharp businesses.

Read on.

From Michael Levine's Ground-breaking New Book, Broken Windows, Broken Business-How The Smallest Remedies Reap The Biggest Rewards

http://BrokenWindows.com

Coffee Shop Business Plan

2005-10-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

By Randy Wilson

A coffee shop business plan is what you need if you are thinking of starting your own coffee shop. Coffee is in big demand all over the world – in fact, it is the second greatest revenue generating product in international commerce, next only to petroleum. A coffee shop business can therefore be very lucrative – but only if you do it right. If you don't, it'll only be a waste of your time, resources and money, and a setback for your dreams. So a comprehensive coffee shop business plan would help you to do things right from the very beginning.

Or perhaps you already own a coffee shop, and are wondering what you can do to boost sales. Or maybe you want to buy an already existing coffee business, and want to make sure that you run it right. You might even want to add a coffee angle to your existing business. Whatever your purpose, however you may want to become involved with the coffee business, you'll most likely want to have a coffee shop business plan in place before taking the first step.

There are certain vital questions to be considered. Will it be really worth it? Will you have adequate resources to see it through till you succeed? There are hundreds of varieties of coffee and coffee-based drinks; what drinks should you make? What equipment should you buy? What kind of location should you look for? Do you go it independent, or do you get a franchise from some big player? In short, you don't know too many things about the coffee business; where do you start? All reasons to have a Coffee Shop Business Plan in place.

First, you need to think about finance. Either you take a loan from the bank or you impress investors so they buy a stake in your business. In either case, you need to write an informed, coherent coffee shop business plan. This should include what you intend to do, how you intend to implement it, what kind of startup finances you need, what level of sales you're looking at, and how you plan to pay the (private or institutional) investors back. For a drive-thru, you should need something between $40,000 and $150,000. for a full-fledged coffee shop, however, it could be anything between $60,000 and $350,000, depending on your scale of operation.

To read a complete copy of this article go to Coffee Shop Business Plan and for other business articles go to Small Business Plans.

Indiana Mobile Car Wash Business

2005-10-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

By Lance Winslow

Do you live in Indiana? Are you looking for a small business to run; one, which is simple and easy to operate? If so, I sincerely hope all is well, in the Great State of Indiana and I have an idea? Have you considered starting a mobile car wash business, in which you would be the sole proprietor?

When is the best time to start such a business? Probably in March as the weather gets better. Not in October thru February, which I would say is a bad time to consider such a launching date, as the mobile car wash business would have issues with weather that a busy season fixed site car wash would not. Generally you run into problem with water freezing at under 17 degrees even with continuous flow or bypassing in pressure washers system. Even if you heat the water, at 12-degrees, the towels freeze to the windows and the soap makes ice-sickles.

It you were in the Southern part of Indiana, you might be able to get away with starting late in the season, but could expect at least 22-35 days of inclement no-work weather. Which is tough on a fledgling business, when you need the revenues to drive your business into profitability you see?

There are no franchises you can buy in the United States to start such a business, but there are a few companies which sell equipment. My company in fact is not selling franchises right now as we are enjoying the ability to keep all the money for our company and avoid the litigious-ness of the franchising industry. By setting up our own units we can avoid the brain dead regulators who think they know about business and free enterprise, most of which have an axe to grind on society. Probably because they have never worked an honest day in their lives and spend more time at the coffee machine than actually working.

With that said, no you cannot buy a franchise from us, and there are no mobile car wash franchises in the United States to my knowledge. There is one in the UK and one in Australia, but I am pretty sure none have registered or notified the State of Indiana to sell franchises there. You see the State of Indiana in all their glory in sports and auto racing is a pathetic excuse a free market model and thus for franchising of a mobile car wash operation. In fact if you are Black and attempt to run a mobile car wash business in Indianapolis, it is said that the iron fist of the law will come down on your business. The City of Indianapolis came down hard on mobile washers after the fixed site businesses complained they were taking away their business and were allowing wastewater to enter the storm drains. There are several news articles on this, as the State of Indianapolis does treat black Americans as secondary citizens and the record speaks to that point.

Whenever you start your own business, you need to know the truth and looking into the business climate and regulatory abuse before you sign the dotted line for a loan to go into business, think on this. The state of Indiana is a loser for a small business in my opinion.

"Lance Winslow" - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs

Time to Sell your Restaurant? Some Advice from Restaurant Consultants, Inc.

2005-08-31T03:04:00.000-07:00

By Kevin Moll

As a specialist in getting restaurants open, it is surprising how many people ask, “How can I get out of my restaurant?” Reasons for this question vary greatly, from a death in the family to a merger with another firm, to the end of a lease.

Selling your restaurant requires quality prior planning if you are going to realize the maximum value for the business. This planning is not much different when getting out than when you first got into that business.

What things did you look for when you bought your restaurant? Of course, profit was probably the key consideration, followed by a great location, a niche market, a solid system of operations, and a vision for growth. Aren’t these the same things you need to concentrate on if you are going to market your operation to someone else?

A strong focus on the basics, about twelve months prior to getting out of your operation can take you from where you are at now, to a maximum market value. Let’s look at some of the top areas you may wish to concentrate on right away:

1. Bookkeeping. A clean, organized and understandable set of financials are critical to the sale. A close friend once said, “A business with no profits on paper has no value”, and this statement is close to being very true. You will want to show where your income came from, what you spent on expenses, and what kind of cash flow exists. If you cannot show these numbers, all the profit in the world will not make any difference to a buyer if you cannot prove it. A professional accounting firm can give you feedback on how to structure your systems.

2. Profits. You simply must be profitable and there are ways to do it. By concentrating on your highest cost areas such as labor, food and beverage, you can make good headway by making your purchasing more efficient, watching your inventory levels, and what you are charging for your products. Obviously profit generation is a very large topic and worth looking at closely. Have you had an operations analysis done on your business recently? A restaurant consultant can conduct this analysis inexpensively and give you a list of things to work on.

3. Location. This includes making sure you have a lease that is of value to your prospective buyer, or terms on the real estate that will provide enough profit for the buyer at the end of each month. Imagine the interest level of a buyer who finds out that you have only 4 months left on the lease. Hard to get too excited about that, especially when most states require certain minimums on the lease terms if you are selling a liquor-beer-wine operation.

4. Appearance. Just like a home that needs “Street appeal” to get buyer interest, your restaurant is the same way. Fresh paint, neat landscaping, clean windows, an organized office, a clean kitchen…you get the idea. Put a checklist together of what you will get done each month, and by month twelve, you will have completed the list.

5. Legal. If you operate as a corporation, would you consider selling the stock in your corporation to the buyer, allowing you to simply walk away? For some sellers, this option may make sense. Seek the services of a qualified attorney on how best to structure your business for a future sale. While one structure may work for one type of operation, it could spell financial disaster to another. This is a good time to seek professional legal advice.

6. Staffing. If you have been running the operation on your own, doing a lot of the work yourself, are you simply selling a “Job” to the new buyer? Think about what your buyer will be looking for and set up your systems now for maximum value in the near future. You will want to hand over a smooth running, fully staffed, profitable operation to a buyer. Now, what the buyer will do will be anyone’s guess!

So far, we have concentrated on a twelve-month exit plan. What if you need to get out of your restaurant quickly, like thirty or sixty days from now? If your need is that pressing to get out of a business, you will undoubtedly have your reasons for this pressure. An immediate lack of profit, a terminated lease, costly repair problems or something else is triggering this pressure.

You will be hard pressed to realize the maximum price for your business if you are a desperate seller. It makes sense at this time to enlist professional services of a restaurant consultant to walk you through your options, and how you can get the maximum value out of the operation.

Should you simply hand over the business sale to a realtor or broker to sell? Not right away if you want the maximum long-term value. Prior planning, a vision for what type of transaction will best serve your purposes, and consulting advice on how to squeeze every last dollar out of that operation are all critical components of getting your just rewards.

Kevin Moll is a noted author and President of Restaurant Consultants, Inc. Specializing in restaurant startup ventures and troubleshooting, his services are available worldwide. He can be reached at 1-800-961-6005 or through the Internet at http://www.restaurantconsultant.org

Small Business Opportunities Magazine Business

2005-08-31T03:01:00.000-07:00

By Randy Wilson

A Small Business Opportunities Magazine is one of the new small business opportunities opening up everyday. More and more companies are looking to outsource for basic services, cutting their budgets in the process and increasing profits. With this happening globally, the small business opportunities available are increasing. This process will only benefit the company's bottom line, but will also open the door for more employees to own their own businesses and take control of their lives.

So where does one go to showcase their skills or to find a small business opportunity? Small business opportunity magazines is one place worth checking out. It is also a great place to make an investment to own a business of your own.

Magazines are a multi million dollar industry every year. Advertisers and consumers both will benefit from a well laid out small business opportunities magazine. Small business opportunity magazines have a myriad of information in them regarding new positions, new trends, and new industries for the small business owner. Having a magazine available to the small business and home based business owners would be a gold mine.

This magazine concept would be helpful to anyone looking to start a small business as well. Articles regarding how to start businesses, tax information, and investment estimates are all things that a home based professional will need to know. This magazine could be offered to anyone interested or already involved in a home based business.

Additionally, the companies and organizations looking to hire home based employees would then be your advertisers. MLM and other marketing strategies are continually looking for the next advertising boom and your small business opportunity magazine could be it. Advertisers are interested in reaching an eager market, and small business opportunities magazines would provide them with that.

Start up cost for you, as a self publisher of a small business opportunities magazine will vary greatly. You will need to find a printing house to print your magazine, or purchase the equipment to do it yourself. With all the computer software available you could do your own publishing quite easily. Deciding on the extent and scale to which you want to distribute is an important factor in cost as well.

To avoid the costly nature of publication, some small business magazines are being published on line as ezines (electronic magazines). Ezines offer the same benefits as regular publication, except that you avoid printing costs. Quality and timely delivery are still essential.

Even though ezines are a relatively newer market, they are widely popular. Ezines are perfect for email, which is how many telecommuters and home based businesses are communicating these days. Web space to house your ezine is going to be greatly cheaper than print, and of course there are millions of Internet users worldwide. Shipping costs will be zero and you can email links to your subscribers and advertisers virtually for free.

Clients interested in web based advertising will appreciate this twist on your publication. You will have access to a worldwide audience. Now all you have to do is get the news out that you have this publication to share.

Advertising for your magazine is going to be imperative. Looking through and communicating with web site owners of freelance and small business web sites is a good place to start. Trading advertising is also an idea. Offering an ad in your publication for promotion on a web site could be a good offer.

Do some research on ezines and small business opportunities magazines for price comparisons. Make sure that you are offering a fair value for your product. Advertisers on the Internet are looking for places to advertise. People looking for home based opportunities are looking for resources. There is demand on both sides of the spectrum, and you should be able to do well in this industry.

Randy has dozens of home based business articles at Profitable Home Businesses such as Start a Medical Billing Service.

Where Can People Find Information About Starting A Business?

2005-06-27T02:29:00.000-07:00

By Tim Guba

Approximately 200,000 new businesses are started each year. More people are expected to start a business for themselves this year than ever before. With economic fluctuations rippling through the business world, more and more people are getting laid off every day.

People often need help finding the information they need to become a successful business owner; especially first time business owners.

The following 10 points of information further explain the kinds of detailed, practical business information that are available:

1. Business Startups

There is tons of information on how to start a business, but almost nothing on starting a SPECIFIC KIND of business. We have scoured the Internet for just this kind of information and brought it all together in one, convenient, easy to use location.

2. Home-based Business

According to the latest census information (2002), the number of businesses with one or more owners but no paid employees grew nationwide from 17.0 million to more than 17.6 million.

Approximately 600,000 new businesses started in the United States. This represents a growth rate of 3.9 percent, an increase from 2.7 percent over the previous year. These are small businesses which make up more than 70 percent of all businesses.

They may be run by one or more individuals, can range from home-based businesses to corner stores or construction contractors and often are part-time ventures with owners operating more than one business at a time.

Are you one of these people? Are you thinking about joining the ranks of the self-employed? We have all the information you need right at your fingertips.

3. Money & Finance

Income, revenues, cash flow, P&L, balance sheets... If these terms are foreign to you, we have just what you need - the best information on money and finance for small business, step-by-step instructions that will lead you to the pathways of financial success.

The tools that help you build your business bigger profits in a shorter amount of time.

4. Taxes & Accounting

Are your receipts scattered around in several piles? Do you have them all saved in an old show box? We can provide you with information that can show you how to organize your financial records and take (some of) the pain away from tax time.

You’ll find accounting methodologies and techniques for getting the biggest slice of the pie and paying no more than your fair share of taxes.

5. Internet Marketing & Sales

Marketing & Sales is the lifeblood of any small business. We carry products that can help you market and sell your product or service like a seasoned professional.

There are books on Internet marketing strategies that can literally produce thousands of sales per week. Plus we have resources that can show you how you can sell and market anything online.

Don't know much about sales? We can help! We offer information on learning sales techniques that you can use in any business. Practical core selling skills that can be used anywhere.

6. Website Design

The core to any Internet business is the website. We have an abundance of resources that can show you the proper strategies to use when creating a website, how to go about actually coding in the website, graphics, audio, video, PHP, HTML, JavaScript, and much, much more.

We can show you how to take the mystery out of creating a website and turn you into a webmaster. It really isn't very difficult at all. And the more you know, the more you can do.

Learn how to create effective ad banners, use forms to collect customer email addresses, run user polls, use RSS news feeds, and hundreds of other great, profit enhancing techniques.

7. eBook Self-Publishing

The absolute best way to extend your knowledge, share important information on tightly focused subjects, expand your grasp of leading-edge concepts, and become fully aware of the surrounding vast universe of information that is the Internet, is through the eBook.

Our extensive library of ebooks cover a wide range of subject matter all geared toward the new, or soon-to-be-new, business owner. Learn how to create a hot-selling eBook in 7-days or less. Discover the secrets to ebook publishing success. Find out how you can make online profits in as little as 30 days; it's all right here. 8. Motivation & Inspiration

Fire, energy, and passion - these are the things that drive an entrepreneur forward. When the rest of the world says you can't and you believe in your heart that you can the drive to succeed is like a fire in your soul.

But, we are all only human, subject to disappointments, setbacks, and failures. When your have run out of steam and have stalled along the road to success, nothing goes farther than a little bit of motivation and inspiration.

Find the right message to rekindle your entrepreneurial fires, become inspired to move forward and carry on. Pick yourself back up, dust yourself off, and take those next few steps toward success. Re-ignite the passion that got you started, live each day for what you were meant to do, find the energy to push yourself to the peak and say "I have done it."

We have just the right motivational and inspirational products that can help you pull yourself up out of the blues and keep you moving on the path of enlightenment.

9. Newsletter

The newsletter is one of the most widely used forms of business communication in use today. They are typically jam-packed full of useful business articles, how-to guides, business news, guest columns, and thought provoking editorials.

Newsletters come in weekly, monthly and sometimes quarterly flavors. These publications cover a wide variety of subject matter from what's going on in Washington, SBA happenings, and the latest business rules and regulations to obtaining grant money to start a business, tax laws, and how we can better our lives through helping others, plus many, many more topics.

The e-InfoCenter Newsletter is a feature-packed value, and if you subscribe right now, you can get a 1-year subscription absolutely FREE.

Forget about keeping up with the Jones', try keeping up with the business world instead!

10. Business Startup Guide Kits

We carry complete business startup packages that can guide you throughout the processes it takes to structure, establish, and create a living, breathing honest-to-goodness business.

Learn how to start almost ANY kind of business, such as:

~ A Daycare Business

~ A Catering Business

~ A Cleaning Business

~ A Web Design Business

~ A Graphic Design Business

~ How to Become a Real Estate Agent

~ Becoming an Event Planner

~ Starting a Bed And Breakfast

~ Becoming a Professional Organizer

And there are many, many more. These Startup Guide Kits will show you everything you need to know all in one handy package.

With economic instability constantly rupturing the business environment, people find themselves out of work or forced into an early retirement. And with Social Security's uncertain future, what is a person supposed to do?

Starting and running your own successful business is probably the best answer. And where can you find the best information about starting a business in high-quality products, at an excellent value, with unparalleled customer service?

Just where can people find information about starting a business?

One of the best places is right on the Internet, at e-infocenter.com.

Tim Guba is the Executive Director of G/Media Technologies, LLC. He has started, owned, and operated several various businesses throughout his career. Having numerous certifications in the computer industry, he is highly regarded as an expert in Information Technologies.

http://www.e-infocenter.com/

Copyright 2005 Tim Guba. Please feel free to pass this article on to your friends, or use it in your ezine or newsletter. It's a shareware article.

Home Based Franchise Case Study

2005-06-24T23:01:00.000-07:00

By Lance Winslow III

Here is an interesting case study of a company, which franchised mobile car wash units. It started with the humblest of beginnings indeed. I can say that with complete knowledge because this is a company I started at age 12 years old. It was not until I was nearly 32 years old that we franchised my business. This franchise was great in concept but franchisees would not follow the system enough, they deviated from the plan in most cases. The franchisees that stayed with the plan did very well, the ones who did not, did okay, but could have done better.

Since this was our first try at franchising, we made the franchise documents too lenient and therefore it was hard to enforce standards. The customers were blown away by the idea of getting their car washed anywhere at anytime by phone call or e-commerce B2C. They love us, it is better than being the Fed Ex or UPS guy. If someone has not played sports or been involved in competitive events sometime in their life; we will not sell them a franchise. We want the Olympic style attitude. Because of this the Competition hates us, but only because I am so competitive since I was involved in sports and politics myself. Also in 1991 a car wash owner tried to run me out of business by lobbying to local politicians and lodging complaints to code enforcement, EPA, and County environmental control boards. This was the new environmental age and I was learning quickly about politics and business the hard way. Most Industry leaders representing our competition are clashing with us due to our drive, electronic Blitz marketing and bright yellow HERE I AM mobile car wash trucks.

At one point I had 53 Independent contractors in 39 cities washing cars. Kind of like a mini-franchise system. It was hard work. Soon I realized I was going to have to franchise this business. So we did in 1996-97. Upgraded everything, painted trucks yellow and allowed independent contractors to transfer in. Some did, most did not. Why should they sign anything they were already making money and it was all on a hand shake. I didn't blame them.

As the franchise grew we started allowing those franchisees who bought multiple trucks to have additional areas to expand into, giving us better marketing power to sing up bigger accounts in many areas. It worked. Then came e-commerce, upgrades and we took everything we learned and kept upgrading, unfortunately soon the original franchisees did not look anything like the newer franchisees; different equipment, training, marketing, CDROMS, business plan, new web site. And we needed to divide and conquer each market sector individually. We were washing golf cart, shopping carts, wheelchairs, ski lifts, silos, buses, trucks, cars and we got into a situation were there was too much work, and a challenge to hold onto routes and consistency.

We decided to upgrade the system. Since I had always owned the trade name myself we started another company WashGuy.com to divide up the markets and franchised all our ideas to allow maximum use of all my contacts, and the associates I had gathered and their skills. Then we would franchise each brand name by itself and let all the franchisees of all the systems work together trade leads and operate in harmony washing their specialty niche. The New Car Wash Guys; www.carwashguys.com would be part of WashGuy.com, which was going to acquire the franchise Car Wash Guys International, Inc. Unfortunately Car Wash Guys International did not have the royalty stream to service the franchisees properly and grow correctly so it was closed and all the franchisees in good standing were allowed a no franchise fee entry into the new system to be fair. Those that were not near current status on royalties were terminated prior to closing.

WashGuy.com agreed to take on the burden of keeping up those franchisor requirements in the previous Car Wash Guys International agreement even though it would be a loss. It would give the new franchise system a head start with franchisee numbers and make it easier to secure group discounts on products, and entice lending institutions to go with lower rates and better terms and prevent us from ever having to use sleazy leasing companies, with exorbitant rates causing a poor ROI for team members and slower growth rate for new trucks and to add to the franchisees arsenals. I did not charge a royalty, I charge per unit, so the more trucks the more royalties to grow the franchise. The only way for me to make more is if the franchisees have so much business they need more trucks to do the work. I win only if they win. If they lose, I lose worse; indeed a great incentive to work together and communicate. I even co-authored a book in which this was my main theme; “Franchising 101” Dearborne Publications.

This was a great franchise and growing fast. Our customers are anyone one that owns a car. There are on average 1.7 cars for every man woman and child in this country and so my potential exposure to this market is 5 times that of the cable TV Industry and twice that of cellular phones. Average car wash is $10 X 50 weeks a year. So of all my markets this is the most challenging of all. It will take twenty years to conquer. What I need is a 40-60 million dollar financed competitor to go and set up the major markets with mobile car washing so I can take all those customers away with superior service and more efficient operations thus lower prices. I need this competitor to teach my future customers how to do business with me and then I will slice and dice city by city as Car Wash Guys earn our destiny.

I started washing cars because I ran out of local airports to wash at since I had a 35% market penetration at all the near by airports and needed more to wash. Plus I got my drivers license. This was when I was 16. Boy I will tell you being a franchisor is the toughest business in the World and if you want to do it, you are nuts. I work 17 hours a day 7 days a week, no days off in 15 years. I can remember one three-year period I have skipped every third night of sleep, and follow up with a ten-hour crash. You have to give up everything to be a franchisor. For many Entrepreneurs this is simply part of the game, but for most they cannot deal with it. I understand that, accept it and challenge myself since there are no market leaders of any significance in my markets. We designed and attempted to build an LPG car wash truck to help the environment and worked on an aircushions hover system with electric motor. It did not work, it seems as an entrepreneur you are always doing stuff, some works, some doesn’t but you are always pushing the envelope, God Bless the entrepreneurs, I hope you enjoyed today’s case study as it is a chapter of my life as well as lessons learned in franchising. Think on this.

Lance Winslow

Preparing to Launch Your Small Business

2005-06-22T23:02:00.000-07:00

By Paul Evans

Small business owners often enter their field with great expectations. Unfortunately, reality strikes shortly afterwards. Here's how you can enter the entrepreneurial battle ground with confidence...

First, embrace the optimism but don’t be blind to the obstacles in your path. You set yourself up for failure when your expectations are too high. You should expect success. You should expect financial rewards. But you should also expect difficulties. There is a price to pay for success and sacrifices will be made. If you prepare yourself, you will not lose heart when the difficult times come.

Second, use this time to build and strengthen key relationships. Pre-conflict deployment is about more than planning and organizing. It is also about building a support network, a supply line if you will, of strong relationships that can sustain you through the battle in which you are about to engage. If you are married, use this time to draw closer to your spouse. He or she can be your greatest advocate or your biggest obstacle. A new business venture can put a strain on even the strongest of marriages, so solidify this relationship above all others.

In addition to strengthening your relationship with your spouse, build strong relationships with friends and mentors who will offer honest and objective advice. Surround yourself with positive and realistic individuals who can contribute to your success. And, on a very practical note, get to know a good banker, insurance broker, attorney, and accountant. If possible, develop a personal relationship with these professionals. You are likely to stretch these relationships to the limits during the initial stages of your business. If these individuals feel a personal connection to you, they are more likely to deliver when you need them.

The battle plans are drawn. The men and material are in place. You are about to engage in one of the most incredible, gratifying, difficult and terrifying experiences of your life. You should stop for a moment and take a deep breath. Remember what got you this far. Remind yourself that this won’t be easy, but tell yourself that failure is not an option.

Paul Evans is the executive creator for http://www.embattled.net - A site for small business owners with the will and desire to become wealthy. Join other small business owners at http://www.embattled.net/inv.htm

Overcoming Your Biggest Competitor

2005-06-21T23:09:00.000-07:00

By Mark Dembo

Before you read any further in this article, I'd like you to take a moment and write down who your biggest competition is.

OK, got it?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and tell you that no matter what company you wrote down, you're wrong. Here's what I'll tell you; no matter what industry you're in, no matter how long you've been selling, the biggest competition you face in selling is the status quo. The Status Quo; whatever it is your prospect is doing now – that's the key challenge you have to overcome in selling. Recognize this universal truth and you can become much more effective in your selling efforts.

To really understand why the Status Quo is such a formidable competitor it helps to explore a bit about the psychology of decision-making. According to psychologist and author Robert Cialdini “Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment. Those pressures will cause us to respond in ways that justify our earlier decision.”

Let's look at how this applies in selling. Getting a prospect to change what they are currently doing – even if you have a genuinely better solution - is difficult. Our natural reaction is to try to show how we what can offer is better, how we can save them money, how we can save them time, and so on. Yet, oftentimes the more we try to back up our presentation with facts and evidence, the more strongly our prospect will seek to justify and rationalize what they're already doing. Admitting that they made a bad (or less than optimal) choice, would create some real internal dissonance. The louder that dissonance the greater the search for rationalization and consistency becomes. This is particularly true if the decision made is a public one; the more people that know about the decision, the more the person who made it will seek consistency and resist changing.

For example, suppose you are selling a software solution that has been proven to save companies time and money – and you can document it. You call on the head of IT at a key prospect. He tells you that he has developed his own solution, which, according to him “does the same thing that your product does.” As you show him the proprietary features of your program, he even admits that yes, it can do things his can't, and yes, it would save time and money, and yes, the CEO would really like the access to information it would provide. Yet, he won't proceed with the sale. Why? Well, what you may not know is that everyone in the company knows that the IT Director (your prospect) has been championing how great his own system is, and that his line throughout the company is “Why buy when we can create this system ourselves.”

Even though he knows intellectually that you may have a better solution, he will do everything he can to justify his earlier decision; to do otherwise would cause great internal dissonance and discomfort.

So, then, how do you deal with this situation?

1. Recognize that your job in selling is to understand what people do – and to work with them to help them do things better.

2. Don't try to sell by showing that your product or service is better than the competitors' (or whatever else they might be doing).

Wait – that sounds inconsistent, you say. First you say that I should help him do things better, but I shouldn't show them why my product is better?

The seeming inconsistency resolves itself when you remove yourself from trying to “sell your product” and shift your focus to understanding what people do, why they do things that way, and what they're hoping to accomplish in the future. Your questions should be squarely focused on the prospect – not on you.

The best way to bring these seeming contradictory goals into alignment is to show your prospect how you can ENHANCE what they are already doing. By showing how you can enhance, in essence what you are saying is “Hey, you've got something that's working here, and I'm not going to upset your apple cart. My goal is to help you take what you've already got, and help you make it even better.”

By taking the approach to enhance you accomplish two important things. First, you are helping the prospect maintain their sense of consistency which will make you an ally. Second, by starting with this approach, you may make a small sale initially but you now have the door open to larger sales and the beginning of a long-term relationship.

As Cialdini sums up “For the salesperson, the strategy is to obtain a large purchase by starting with a small one. Almost any small sale will do, because the purpose of that small transaction is not profit. It is commitment. Further purchases, even much larger ones, are expected to flow from the commitment."

Copyright 2005 Lexien Management Consultants, Inc

Mark Dembo; President, Lexien Management Consultants
(http://www.lexien.com) Mark has over 20 years of sales, sale management, and business development experience, focused on improving the performance of individuals and organizations. Lexien Management Consultants provides sales training, consulting, and coaching services to organizations and individuals who are motivated to grow their businesses. Each month, Lexien publishes the Sales Success Newsletter.

Business Success - The 42 Greatest Business Tips

2005-06-20T02:33:00.000-07:00

By Peter Viliamu

What does it take to grow a business and run it successfully? The main ingredient is attention to the basics, operating with integrity and following the way other successful people have run their operations.

Here are StartRunGrow.com's 42 greatest business tips for you to follow:

Advisers - Make sure you talk to other successful people who have already done it. There is no sense in reinventing the wheel and learning by trial and error if you don't need to. Discuss it also with your family, especially your spouse. It's best to get their backing and support because you will need it.

Costs - Watch your spending. It's very easy for business costs to "run right into the stratosphere". Even when you start to make money keep an eye on your costs.

Capital - Don't start a business unless you have enough money saved up. You need to have enough to start up your business and to run your operation for a 6 month period (at least) until the business starts generating enough income to "fend for itself" and grow. Under-capitalisation by small businesses is one of the biggest causes of failure.

Use others - Know your strengths and weaknesses and fill in the gaps with people (such as your advisers or experienced employees) who have expertise in the areas you don't.

Court - Try and settle out of court if you can. Whatever your dispute going to court will cost you thousands of dollars for your lawyers as well as a huge amount of stress and heartache let alone loss of time and productivity. Avoid any type of court action if you can. Use negotiation, mediation or arbitration rather than litigation.

Next level - Don't depend on your friends and family. They can help you at the start, but they are not usually the people to get you on to the next level because of their lack of experience and skills.

Drawings - Try not to draw too much money out for yourself from the business at the beginning. If you take too much pay from your new venture it could impact on your cash reserves and leave the business with cash flow problems. Take out of the business the minimum that you need.

Realistic - Keep your feet on the ground. Don't chase blue-sky potential. Be realistic in all you do. Don't show off. Use your head at all times.

Good Products - Make sure you have good products and services. You can't have a business unless you are selling something that buyers want.There is no point going into the marketplace if your products and services are not up to scratch as far as quality or function is concerned. There are many competitors out there and it is tough to win, let alone survive.

Cash Flow - Watch your cash flow every day. Monitor the cash that comes in and that goes out. Your cash is essential. Once that's gone - you're gone.

Enjoy - Make sure you enjoy the business you are in. If you enjoy what you are doing, you will do it a lot better and a lot faster. It has to be something worth getting out of bed for.

Motivation - Because you no longer have to account to anyone but yourself, you must be self-motivated. Get out of bed early every day just as if you had to beat the traffic to work.

Determination - Unless you are serious and determined to succeed in your business you will find that little will be achieved. Be "dogged" determined and persevere.

Confidence - Be confident in your own abilities. If you have confidence in your ideas and skills there is no reason why you cannot succeed, even alongside the big operators. Get ongoing help, if you can, from a successful business friend and your confidence will grow.

Focus - Be focused. Don't be distracted. Keep your eye on the ball.

Over-deliver - Always under-promise and over-deliver. There's something about doing more for customers than what you had originally promised. It gives your business and you a good name and reputation.

Honesty - Keep your integrity. Don't do what many others do that involve cutting corners. Don't hide behind legal agreements. If it's yes then say YES, If it's no then say NO. Make sure your word is your bond. Keep honest and open. Nothing gives you a better nights sleep.

Customers - Focus on your customers. Looking after your customers and pleasing them should be your number one priority. Without customers you've got no business.

Skills - Make sure you possess the necessary skills to be able to carry out the type of business that you are contemplating or currently in.

Experience - Even though it is not critical, possessing a little experience in accounting or business or finance will be a great help.

Work - Work Hard. You will need to put in a few more hours at the beginning and for the first year or two. Tell your family and friends about this so they will understand and help you wherever possible.

Pay your bills - Always pay your bills on time. Get a good name for it. Be faithful in this area and your suppliers will be able to trust you when you need more credit at certain times.

Discount - If you pay early ask for a discount. In fact always ask for a discount when you buy anything. Most will give you a discount for cash. Discounts add up. No one pays the full retail price nowadays anyway.

Tax - There are many things you can do to minimise your tax. See a good tax specialist if your accountant doesn't specialise in this area. Never delay your tax payments because penalties from the tax department can be pretty heavy.

Records - Make sure your records are absolutely fantastic. Keep all your communication and emails. Keep every receipt. Take a copy of all documents. Lose nothing. They will "save your bacon" one day when you have a court case and you just happen to have a copy of that important piece of paper in your files.

Hours - Keep to proper hours. If you burn the midnight oil everyone looses out. Your family, your friends, your kids and you. You will not be rested so your performance will suffer the next day.

Learn - Get to know a little about business and the principles of finance, sales and profit. Read as much as you can on these subjects. Attend courses. Go to seminars. Learn and learn and learn. You cannot learn enough about business.

Staff - Take your time in picking good staff. They will be the biggest asset in your business. Promote only to character. Character is never wrong. Dismiss those who do not work as they will not produce. Reward those who deserve it. Treat staff fairly.

Golden Rule - Keep to the golden rule "Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you" - that never fails. And keep a smile on your face. It brightens everyone's day.

Accountant - Get a good accountant. Someone who knows "their stuff". They must be prepared to "fight" for you if necessary. They must be able to give you attention. They must not be afraid of the Tax Department. Get someone who specialises in small business. Make sure you can get along - that's critical.

Lawyer - Ditto as for Accountant plus they must be aggressive and be able to think on their feet. They must hate to lose. Get someone who can talk in plain language - not in legalese. They have to know all the tricks - legally. And they must be organised and sharp.

Partners - Be very careful about who you bring in as partners or shareholders. The wrong people will ruin you. They will betray you and try to take your business from you. Keep control of all situations at all times. Make sure you are the Governing Director in your company and draft a Constitution in your favour before these people come in. Retain majority shareholding and keep directorship within your family or trusted associates. Make no one a director or partner unless they are totally loyal to you.

Spouse - Don't leave your spouse or partner out of things. Men need to know that their wives have a special ability to see the details which they often miss. Woman's intuition? It's there and it works. Ladies, your man is great at seeing the big picture. Best working as a team.

Passion - Be passionate about what you do. You have God-given abilities and they'll show through in your passion. Keep your passion. When nothing else gets you through, passion will.

Live - Make sure you make a life and not just a living. Having a business should be long-term. It should be the investment for your retirement and an inheritance for your children and grandchildren. It has to be something that creates a life for you, not just a living.

Stress - Watch out for worry and stress. Keep a calm attitude. Try being laid back. Learn how to relax. Take care of yourself. If the business loses you it loses its most valuable asset. Tomorrow's another day remember.

Goals - Don't ever forget why you went into business in the first place. Now and then check up on yourself. What were your original goals? Are you still on track? Do your goals still excite you? If business no longer does it for you then it may be time for a change.

Health - Keep yourself healthy and fit. Lose weight if you need to. Work in an early walk or gym session daily. Don't diet but develop better eating habits and lifestyle. Shortcuts don't work. Get to bed before 10 so you can get in at least 7-8 hrs sleep. Make changes that would be with you forever. "There's no change if there's no change".

Rise Early - Start the day early. Get up before dawn while the family are still asleep. Wash your face, grab a "cuppa" and enjoy the morning. Have a quiet time for yourself and reflect on things. Be thankful for the new day. Rising early helps you to take control. Your mind is clear in the morning. Before 6 am is good. There's something about getting up early.

Joy - Keep happy inside. Go with the proverb "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine".

Family - Don't lose your family in your effort to get ahead. When you have become a millionaire it's not your money that will bring you happiness - it will be your family. Keep close to your kids. Be their rock. They need a secure hideout. Be the one person they know will always stand for them when no one else will give them a prayer. Love and respect your wife (or husband or partner) above all others. He or she is your greatest business ally. Value your family. Make sure they are there for you when you've reached the top by making sure you are there for them during your climb. Remember, No Business is worth it.

Never Quit - If you fall or have fallen get up again. Don't stay down. Bounce back. Look up. "Two men looked out of prison bars - one saw mud the other saw stars". It depends where you look, up or down. No matter what you have gone through there will always be hope. Without hope life is hopeless. Never give up - ever.

Copyright 2005 StartRunGrow
http://www.startrungrow.com

StartRunGrow (http://www.startrungrow.com) is a global online information organisation that specialises in creating, developing and marketing business help information specifically with the aim of "making business easier" for entrepreneurs around the world. The StartRunGrow objective is to become a dominant player in the business help arena providing end to end solutions for the millions of small and medium businesses worldwide who continue to struggle daily with the difficulties of starting, running and growing a successful business.

Choosing A Business That's Right For You

2005-06-14T01:58:00.000-07:00

By Tim Knox

Q: I really want to start my own business, but I have no idea what business would be best suited for me. I'm also eager to get started, but I don't want to pick the wrong business just because I'm impatient. How should I go about deciding what business would be best for me? -- Samuel J.

A: Before I answer your question, Samuel, I want you to reach around and pat yourself on the back for not letting your eagerness push you into making a wrong decision. All too often we entrepreneurs tend to let our impatience drive us to make decisions that we later regret. In business such haste can be very costly, indeed.

I always compare starting a business to jumping into a pool of freezing water. There are typically two types of entrepreneurs who take the plunge.

The first are the "Toe Testers." These are those cautious folks who just stick their big toe in the pool to gauge the temperature of the water. It is for these careful entrepreneurs that the phrase "testing the waters" was coined. Toe Testers enter the business pool slowly, a little bit at a time. The lesson to be learned from Toe Testers is to start slowly and don't feel like you have to wade in too fast. Ease into the business pool gradually to make sure it's right for you. Remember, many entrepreneurs realize that the business world is not right for them only after they are in it up to their necks. And that's when the term "sink or swim" takes on a whole new meaning.

The next type of entrepreneur is the "High Diver." These are those fearless souls who climb the ladder and dive into the business pool head first without worrying about the depth of the water or the dangers that lurk beneath the surface. It is for these entrepreneurs that the phrase "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" was coined. Quite often these entrepreneurial daredevils find themselves drowning in unknown waters or end up with their heads buried in the bottom of the pool.

Both types of entrepreneurs may find success, depending on how well equipped they are to handle the water they are diving into. Here are a few ideas to help better prepare you for the plunge.

** Let your experience be your guide. Start with what you know. If you have spent twenty years working as an accountant or you love to build wooden toy trains as a hobby, consider how you can take that experience and turn it into a successful business. You might also find a great business idea right under your nose. Look around your workplace. Do you see needs that are going unmet or can you think of a better way of doing something? If so, you might have the seed for a profitable business.

** Do what you love and enjoy what you do. I can't emphasize this enough. Many people start a business for the wrong reason: to get rich. While it is true that many millionaires in this country made their fortunes from their own business ventures, that should not be your sole motivation for starting a business. If you don't enjoy what you do, you will not be successful, at least not from a mental point of view. Sure, the monetary rewards can be tremendous, but the mental anguish of working in a business you don't enjoy is a high price to pay. I talk to entrepreneurs all the time who are running successful businesses, but are so unhappy as a result that they literally make themselves sick. If you don't enjoy what you do the business will become a chore, not a joy.

** Don't reinvent the wheel, just make it better. Many first time entrepreneurs assume that they have to come up with a new business idea to be successful. That simply is not true. Most successful businesses are born not of innovation, but of necessity. Instead of trying to come up with an idea that changes the world, take a look at the world around you and see where there might be a void that needs filling or a business concept that needs improvement.

Many successful businesses have been built by taking a traditional business and making it better. Domino's Pizza was certainly not the first to offer home delivery of pizza, but they were the first to guarantee it would be delivered piping hot to your door in 30 minutes or less. Amazon.com was not the first company to sell books, but they were one of the first that would let you buy books from the comfort of your own home while sitting in your underwear.

** Focus on a niche. Many businesses have gone broke trying to be all things to all people. The ability to offer a gazillion products under one roof is all well and good for Wal-Mart, but not for most new small businesses. Try to identify a niche that you would enjoy working in and think about starting a business therein. If you love to work outdoors, consider starting a landscaping business. If you enjoy working with numbers, think about becoming an accountant or CPA. When's the last time you had your gardener do your taxes? You get the idea. Focus on a niche and become an expert in your field.

** A franchise might be an option. Many new entrepreneurs consider buying a franchise operation instead of starting a business from scratch. Franchises are a good way to jumpstart the process because they have already done much of the hard work for you. They have proven the business model, established guidelines for running the business, spent millions of dollars on establishing the brand, etc. Buying a franchise is typically a very expensive and involved process that is beyond the scope of this article. The best thumbnail of advice I can give you is to thoroughly investigate the franchisor and the opportunity, use your own attorney to do the deal, and read the fine print in the franchise agreement.

** It's hard to swim in a crowded pool. If the business pool is already filled with other companies doing the same thing you want do, chances are you will fail in the face of established competition. To succeed in such a crowded pool you will have to do something to stand out from the crowd (and I don't mean greeting customers while wearing a bright red Speedo). If you can't quickly and easily differentiate yourself from a large group of competitors, you're better off choosing another business.

** Above all, take your time. Whatever business you choose to start, I encourage you to take the time required to make an informed, intelligent decision. Think about starting part time while you still have your current job (and income) to fall back on. Talk to friends and associates who use the product or service you will provide to see if they would consider become paying customers.

Remember, in business you can end up swimming in success or sinking in failure. The key to your success might just lie in the sensitivity of your big toe.

Here's to your success.

Tim Knox

Small Business Q&A is written by veteran entrepreneur and syndicated columnist, Tim Knox. Tim serves as the president and CEO of three successful technology companies and is the founder of DropshipWholesale.net, an online organization dedicated to the success of online and eBay entrepreneurs.

Related Links:http://www.prosperityandprofits.com
http://www.smallbusinessqa.com
http://www.dropshipwholesale.net

1-2-3 Steps To A Successful Joint Venture

2005-06-12T22:37:00.000-07:00

By Habiba Abubakar

A successful joint venture marketing effort is the goal of many small businesses, and is a great way to increase market visibility and profits.

Joint venture marketing is rising in popularity everyday, but it does take some skill, good planning and foresight to execute. Here are the steps a business owner should take to be successful in this arena…

1. Write down your goals and desired outcome

Be sure to have specific, measurable and action-oriented goals for your joint venture, along with a realistic time frame for their execution. These should be written down and easily accessible so that you can refer to them when implementing your action plan.

2. Analyze the target market you want to reach

Begin by reviewing your current clientele, then choosing the clientele you want to attract. Analyze your target market for buying habits, marketing trends, etc. Brainstorm other products and services used by your target market and determine whether there’s synergy with what you offer.

3. Identify potential partners who already serve this clientele

Think of potential partners that have influence and credibility with your target market. Remember that your network of business associates, suppliers, family and friends may be a good fit or can introduce you to prospective partners. Create a list of potential partners that offer the best expansion opportunities, and have the most desirable client base.

4. Determine your joint venture format

Do you want to offer a profit sharing format, or a reciprocal arrangement, or both? If you choose to pay your partner a percentage of the profits, then you will pay them a specific amount or percentage for each new client they send your way. If you choose a reciprocal arrangement, then you will systematically send clients to each other. Think of something that is of high perceived value to offer the clients.

5. Determine your budget

It goes without saying that you should control costs from the beginning of a project. That means you need to sit down at the start and list every item that’s required to carry out the joint venture.

6. Create an action plan and implement it

Once you’ve listed your potential partners, create an action plan. This should detail the steps you’ll take to approach them and implement your joint venture project e.g. "I’ll contact Joe Bloggs of XYZ Corporation on July 15th." To keep you focused, refer to your goals when creating and implementing your action plan. Also note that the details of your action plan will change depending on the pace at which the project goes.

7. Contact your partners and open the door for discussions

Make initial contact with your potential partners and set up a meeting. You can contact them by phone, snail mail or email, but phone remains the best contact method. At the meeting, keep your eyes and ears open to make sure the market fit is as good as you initially thought. Also, ensure that the "chemistry" is good between you and your prospective partners. Emphasize the benefits of your proposal.

8. Decide on either a contract or a hand shake deal

If you choose a contract, ensure that it specifies terms for review, and doesn’t lock you into any long term arrangement without specific criteria for profitability being met. If you choose a hand shake deal, be sure you trust your partner!

9. Launch your joint venture and test the results

Start small by doing a test run first. Write, print and send the endorsement letter and implement the tracking system. Make sure you’re equipped to handle the flood of new clients once you’ve set the joint venture into motion.

These steps are simple and easy to execute. If you follow them appropriately, you can look forward to having profitable, win-win joint venture projects! As with any marketing strategy, remember to test, tweak, track and review results until you find the best fit.

Copyright © 2005 by Habiba Abubakar and Emprez. All rights reserved.

Note: You are welcome to republish this article as long as the resource box at the end is included fully and unaltered.

Habiba Abubakar, a.k.a. The Profit Diva, specializes in helping small business owners who are struggling to increase their client base and are tired of earning mediocre profits. The tips in this article have been excerpted from her home-study program, "Joint Venture Profits For Small Business Owners."

To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up FREE for her revealing Mini eCourse, "The Easiest Way To Skyrocket Your Profits In 90 Days Or Less," visit http://www.profitdiva.com

Survival Tips For Your Small Business

2005-06-12T22:34:00.000-07:00

By James Burchill

No matter type of business you operate you've got to know how to keep your business alive during economic recessions. Anytime the cash flow in a business, large or small, starts to tighten up, the money management of that business has to be run as a "tight ship."

Pause Before Paying

Some of the things you can and should do include protecting yourself from impulse expenditures. We've all bought merchandise or services we really didn't need simply because we were in the mood, then we sort of "wake up" a couple of days later and find that we've committed hundreds of dollars of business funds for an item or service that's not essential to the success of our own business, when really pressing items had been waiting for those dollars.

Using Professionals

While you may think you cannot afford it, be sure that you don't "short-change" your self on professional services. This would apply especially during a time of emergency. Anytime you commit yourself and move ahead without completely investigating all the angles, and preparing yourself for all the contingencies that may arise, you're skating on thin ice. Regardless of the costs involved, it always pays off in the long run to seek out the advice of experienced professionals before embarking on a plan that could ruin you.

Your Financials

Your company's books should reflect your way of thinking, and whoever maintains them should generate information according to your policies. Thus, you should hire an outside accountant or accounting firm to figure your return on your investment, as well as the turnover on your accounts receivable and inventory. Such an audit or survey should focus in depth on any or every item within your financial statement that merits special attention. In this way, you'll probably uncover any potential financial problems before they become readily apparent, and certainly before they could get out of hand.

Advisory Boards

Many smaller companies set up advisory boards of outside professional people. These are sometimes known as Power Circles and once in place, the business always benefits, especially in times of short operating capital. Such an advisory board or power circle should include a lawyer, a certified public accountant, civic club leaders, owners or managers of businesses similar to yours, and retired executives. Setting up such an advisory board of directors is really quite easy, because most people you ask will be honoured to serve.

Once your board is set up, you should meet about once a month and present material for review. Each meeting should be a discussion of your business problems and an input from your advisors relative to possible solutions. These members of your board of advisors should offer you advice as well as alternatives, and provide you with objectivity. No formal decisions need to be made either at your board meeting, or as a result of them, but you should be able to gain a great deal from the suggestions you hear.

Joining Associations

By all means, join your industry's local and national trade associations. Most of these organizations have a wealth of information available on everything from details on your competitors to average industry sales figures, new products, services, and trends. If you are given a membership certificate or wall plaque, you should display these conspicuously on you office wall. Customers like to see such "seals of approval" and feel additional confidence in your business when they see them.

Free Advice

Whenever you can, and as often as you need it, take advantage of whatever free business counselling is available. Your local chamber of commerce or small business advisory will likely have numerous free publications. Most local universities, and many private organizations hold seminars at minimal cost, and often without charge. Take advantage of the service s offered by your bank and local library.

Direction Is Everything

The important thing about running a small business is to know the direction in which you're heading; to know on a day-to-day basis your progress in that very direction; to be aware of what your competitors are doing and to practice good money management at all times. All this will prepare you to recognize potential problems before they arise.

In order to survive with a small business, regardless of the economic climate, it is essential to surround yourself with smart people, and practice sound business management at all times.

Author: http://www.JamesBurchill.com

5 Steps To Success for Small Business Owners

2005-06-12T22:30:00.000-07:00

By Keith Longmire

Everyone wants to succeed in life. Most people want to succeed in business. And no one starts a business of any sort wanting to fail.

Yet the sad fact is that 80% of businesses will fail in the first 3 years of operation.

So what can you do to ensure your success?

Luckily these five simple (never confuse simple with easy), tried and tested steps dramatically increase your chances.

1. Vision

It might seem like management techno-speak or newage psycho-babble but all the evidence is that developing and articulating a vision for your business and life is a major key to success.

Take time out. Really think about what you want from your business and life.

Write it down.

A vision statement should not be long - it doesn't even have to be in words. If you think graphically then capturing your vision in a picture or diagram could be just what you need. You are striving for a short, to the point description of where you want to be in 1, 2 and 5 years time.

In addition to your financial vision you need to ask yourself some questions:

What will our major products and services be?
What will be our target market?
Will we be market leaders, followers or niche players?
What will our unique competitive position be?
How will we 'know' our ideal customer?
How will we be perceived by our customers?
How will we promote your services to our customers?
An old Japanese Proverb says,

"If you aim at a tree and fall short, you may only hit the ground.

If you aim at the sky you may hit a tree."

Make sure you don't set your targets too low.

Just before leaving the subject of 'Vision' - the number one key to achieving your vision is to communicate it widely. Make sure you tell your family and friends. Make it a central pillar in corporate literature. Include it in job descriptions.

The more you communicate your vision the more you demonstrate your commitment and the more likely you are to succeed.

2. Set Out Your Goals

Success means something different to us all. A self-made businessman worth millions of dollars would be thought successful by most. But if that businessman only rarely sees his family, never gets to play golf and spends all of his time on airplanes or in some exotic sounding (but usually antiseptic) hotel, is that really a success? Would that businessman think his life a success?

Possibly, possibly not.

But if that man had set himself goals for his business, private and social lives he at least has some way of measuring his achievements.

Your vision is all about 'what' you are going to achieve. Goals are about the stepping stones to achieving that vision.

Before starting on any endeavour - set your goals.

Make sure your goals are specific enough that you know when you have achieved them. "I want to make lots of money" is weak. "I am going to make $100,000 next year and $200,000 the year after" is much stronger.

The more specific and well articulated your goals the greater your chance of achieving them.

Don't forget to include your private and social goals. Many rich people complain that they have all the freedom that money can buy - but money can't buy the time to enjoy what they have earned.

An old boss of mine from my days in corporate consultancy once observed, "You can't buy back the years of your children's lives". He's right.

Make sure you know what real success would mean to you.

3. Plan, Plan, Plan

If the number one key to success in retailing is location, location and location, the number one key to success in business is plan, plan, plan.

Remember the 5 Ps success model - Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. (When I was taught this in the military there was a 6th P - for the sake of a mixed audience I have left this out. Use your imagination - you'll guess what it was :-))

If you've done your goal setting you know what you are going to achieve. The point of planning is how you are going to do it. Break each goal down into constituent steps needed for its achievement. For each step decide what, who, where and when it is to be done.

Be realistic and make sure that every step is achievable in the time set. Be prepared - when you plan-out all that you need to do, the amount of work can be daunting. Better to know this up-front than sale merrily into a venture only to find it is a huge monster that is going to take you a lifetime to kill.

4. Action Counts

I've seen some beautiful plans. Highly researched, well thought out and presented. I'll talk to a business owner and they'll say, "We've got a plan" and pull it out of the bottom draw of a filing cabinet somewhere.

"So, why aren't you using it", I'll ask. Nine times out of 10 the plan was produced to obtain funding. Lot's of really good work is done but once the money is obtained the plan is put to one side and ignored.

Big mistake. Taking action is the only thing that counts.

Every successfull business I have looked at has clear, current business, operational and marketing plans. It doesn't matter whether your business is offline or online. It's taking action that delivers the results.

5. Another 5 'P's to Success

Passion - You have to believe in what you are doing. No where is this more obvious than on the internet. You can spot the 'me-too' advertisers in a second. The people who succeed are the ones in have passion, who truly believe in what they are doing. Do something that you love.

Push - No matter how good your plan you have to provide a big push to get it moving. Your plan inevitably involves change. Achieving change takes effort. Think of it as if you were trying to move a boulder. To get that boulder up and moving takes a lot of muscle and effort. Once it is moving though it becomes much easier.

Persistence - Getting started is relatively easy. Afterall, you are all fired up with energy and enthusiasm at that time. Few things worth achieving happen over night. Instead, there will be problems, hold-ups and frustrations. Don't allow yourself to become disillusioned or demotivated. You need persistence.

Patience - Results don't happen instantly. Allied to persistence you will need some patience.

Profit - OK, OK it's trite. But follow the steps here, gear yourself to provide these 5 Ps and you will succeed. In business, profit is a measure of your success.

No one can guarantee your success whether in life or in business. But you can dramatically increase your chances of success through these five simple, very well established principles.

The question is, "WILL YOU"?

Keith Longmire is the owner of JKL Breakthrough Growth Solutions. His site is designed to provide tested, proven marketing and growth solutions guaranteed to make just about any business achieve rapid, sustainable growth.

Small Business Marketing Series – Choosing a Niche Market

2005-06-09T04:39:00.000-07:00

By Ben Botes

Many smaller businesses choose niche markets for various reasons and these niche markets can be very lucrative. This article will look at ways to identify and assess whether they are right for your business?

For many smaller businesses it is important to have a focused strategy which enables them to operate in a small part of a chosen market with great success. This has a further advantage of giving the smaller business a way to compete with larger organizations and achieve a level of protection against competition.

How is it Relevant to You as Owner?

As the owner of the business, you decide on the business strategy and make informed choices as to where the business will be going. Being clear on possible niche markets or a niche focus of your business can be crucial to the ultimate success and sustainable growth of your business.

The advantage of operating in a niche is that you can specialize in a small market and hence become a leading supplier of that specific product or service.

Niche marketing can be extremely cost-effective. For instance, imagine you offer a product or service that's just right for a select demographic or population group in your area, such as South Africans or students. You could advertise in newspapers or websites that focus on them, which have considerably lower rates than stations that program for broader audiences. So your marketing budget would go a lot further, allowing you to advertise with greater frequency or to use a more comprehensive media mix. Taking on a new niche can be a low-risk way to grow your business, as long as you keep in mind several important rules:

Here are a 4 steps to consider when choosing a niche market.

Step 1

The first step in almost any process is being clear on what you are doing. Processes like this can take time and money to complete and as a small business owner both time and money are valuable resources that should not be wasted.

Ask yourself: What do I want from this process, how exactly am I going to accomplish it, what resources do I need before I start, who will manage the process, how will I know when its done?

The steps to be followed in the first phase could be as follows. It may vary from one project to another.

Convene a meeting with the stakeholders of the project and identify the exact aim and required outcome of the project.

Assign a project manager to assist in the development for the project.

Identify potential team members required to support the proposed solution.

Convene a proposal review meeting with potential team members to identify: proposed creative approach; scope of work, potential number of effort days; resource requirements; technical requirements; and other issues to be addressed in the proposal.

Produce a work breakdown diagram, proposed budget and resource requirements list considering steps 2, 3 and 4 bellow.

Note:
This phase is extremely important. A good carpenter always measures twice and cut once. This step is about specifying what the measures will be.

Step 2
Doing Your Research

Analyse other businesses operating in your market and the products or services they offer. Do their products or services attract a wide range of customers or just a few targeted ones?

Use this analysis to decide what degree of specialization your product or service calls for. Will operating in a niche mean alterations to your product or service? Can you offer flexible service solutions?

Identify areas where customers’ needs aren’t already being met and look for competitive edge by adding features or offering a value-added service that isn’t currently available.

Conduct research to see if there is a group of customers that your competitors are failing to reach and consider how your product or service could be updated or adapted to attract them.

Explore how your customers buy from your competitors. Can your product or service be sold in a different way – over the Internet or through a mail order catalogue? Once you’ve completed this analysis use the information to identify customers that have things in common and things that make them different from others buying in that market. Then create a profile of these customers and use this as the basis of market research to ensure the niche is viable.

Step 3
Appeal to Your Customers

Now that you have a good idea of what your target group want, it is up to you to make sure that you appeal them. Meet their unique needs. The benefits you promise must have special appeal to your market niche. What can you provide that's new and compelling? Look for ways to tailor your product or service to meet the unique needs of your prospective clients.

Say the right thing.

When approaching a new market niche, it's imperative to speak their language. In other words, you should understand the market's "hot buttons" and be prepared to communicate with the target group as an understanding member--not an outsider. In addition to launching a unique campaign for the new niche, you may need to alter other, more basic elements, such as your company slogan if it translates poorly to another language, for example.

In instances where taking on a new niche market is not impacted by a change in language or customs, it's still vital to understand the key issues and how they prefer to communicate with companies like yours.

Step 4
Test and Review

Step four is to test and review. Always test-market. Before moving ahead, assess the direct competitors you'll find in the new market niche and determine how you will position against them. For an overview, it's best to conduct a competitive analysis by reviewing competitors' ads, brochures and Web sites, looking for their key selling points, along with pricing, delivery and other service characteristics. But what if there is no existing competition? Believe it or not, this isn't always a good sign. True, it may mean that other companies haven't found the key to providing a product or service this niche will want to buy. However, it's also possible that many companies have tried and failed to penetrate this group. Always test-market carefully to gauge the market's receptiveness to your product or service and message. And move cautiously to keep your risks manageable.

By now you should have a pretty good indication of which niche market you are going to focus on and whether this is the right market for you. Remember what you have learned from your clients, be responsive to them and trust your research.

Ben Botes is an author, entrepreneur and expert speaker on new venture creation. He is also the founder of http://www.my1stbusiness.com a web portal for 1st time business owners and entrepreneurs. Visit my1stbusiness.com today for the most extensive range of small business resources, courses, articles and tools, designed to unleash your entrepreneurial spirit.