Hello Everyone!

Well, the MyBusinessDashboard is now live! And with that, I have moved my blog to blog.dashboardtosuccess.com.

You will also find great tools for your small business:

1. Free Webinars

2. Downloads and resources

So come join us!

I saw a truck the other day that was wrapped bumper to bumper in bright yellow and red, for a painting company. It was quite a change from the typical paint-drip decorated white pickup with ladders you normally see a painter driving. What stuck out to me most was the marketing effort, again rarely seen in the painting business. It made me think that this business was a marketing business whose product is painting houses.

That led me to think about some past seminars I’ve given and blogs I’ve written about “What business are you in?” That question was answered in a short list of types of businesses, identified by the ‘need’ they fulfill for their customers. For example, the need for physical health can be met at a gym. This painter’s truck made me start to reconsider that angle. While I’m not ready to change my ideas completely, I am ready to start considering that we all need to be in one of three types of business:

1. I’m in the Customer Service Business! I’ve always said that Southwest Airlines is in the Customer Service Business. Their focus is on the passenger. I’ve even contended that if you were to take away their airplanes and give them, say, running shoes, they would continue on without a hitch, because they are in the customer service business and simply use their products to deliver that special experience. One of my favorite lines is, “We don’t want to tell YOU we have great customer service, we want YOU to tell OTHERS!” Know where that came from?

2. I’m in the Sales Business. Again, this business is not about the products, but is about building relationships with its customers. The focus is on creating a finely tuned sales machine that increases that top line each month and each year. When product is considered, it is designed with the sales process in mind. I might put Amazon.com in this category. They have built a great sales machine. They keep adding new products without a hitch because their sales system works so well.

3. I’m in the Marketing Business. Proctor and Gamble is in the marketing business. They know how to create products driven by their market, get it positioned right in front of them, and get the word out so that their customers flock to purchase thier products. They are not about the ‘best widget available!’ They are about marketing.

So, am I recommending that you become a Sales, Marketing or Customer Service Business? Yes! However, I’m not asking you to abandon your core strength, which is creating products that satisfy your customers’ needs. I’m simply recommending that you make one of the three methods central to your business. That way, you’ll get a steady flow of the customers you need.

Sorry…I couldn’t resist that title!

When it comes to marketing, one of the most powerful concepts is the Niche Market. I’ve found that many small business owners are reluctant to focus on a smaller segment of their market, for two key reasons:

1. They have a hard time actually defining that segment/niche
2. They are afraid they’ll lose potential customers that are outside that niche

Defining the niche is a tricky task, but your niche might just be sitting there waiting for you to run with it. Take a look through all of your customers. Is there a group that are just a real pleasure to work with? You know, the ones who pay on time and truly appreciate the value of your product/service! Or…Or! You might look at one particular product or service that sells the best. In either case, your potential niche might just be right there in front off you.

The second problem is a little more difficult. I completely understand the hesitance at taking your current efforts and, in a sense, REDUCING the size of your target. The key is to make a smooth transition from a general marketing campaign to a niche marketing campaign. I hate to do this to you, but look at the law industry (lawyers). It’s very rare that you see a sign for a law firm that just says, ‘Lawyer’ or ‘Attorney’. They all dig out a niche: accident law, business law, sports law, divorce law, bankruptcy law, etc. In fact, they likely carve it a little deeper by sticking to a certain geography.

The other thing to consider here is the shear size of your market. If you did some research and counted the size of your current market, I’m positive you’d find enough of them to start getting more focused and still have plenty to sell to.

The point is that a marketing message designed to target a specific niche will be heard faster and louder by its intended audience. Isn’t that something we’d all want from our marketing campaign?

I did a seminar last week for a group of Realtors and was surprised that many questions related to technology and running a small business. So, I thought I’d throw together a list of the key pieces of technology that get me through the week.

1. YouMail : this is a great voicemail system. You can program an outgoing message for each caller (based on their Caller ID). This can really create an amazing impression when they get to your voicemail and hear, “Hi John! Sorry I missed your call…” Usually, a first-time caller begins their message with a little left-over laughter. Additionally, you can ‘ditch’ unwanted callers and retrieve your voicemails via email — which is easier to control and saves precious minutes on the cell plan!

2. The Voice Recorder. This is a must for my business. Seems that I have most of my brainstorms while driving. It can be difficult to remember these great ideas w/o a way to record them. I use a $40 Olympus voice recorder to take down these notes. Now, if they’d just make it water-proof for the shower!

3. Electronic Organizer. I know there are many out there that need to stick with the good old hand-written calendars. For the rest of us, I really recommend a Palm-based organizer (ironically, I’m on a BlackBerry…). This organizer easily syncs with Outlook. The part I like most is the drag-n-drop feature on the calendar. Need to reschedule an appointment? Just drag it to the new time and drop it. Done!

4. Other online tools.

a. Surveys. Create you own online survey with SurveyMonkey.com, ZapSurvey.com, or Zoomerang.com.

b. eNewsletters. I switched from ConstantContact.com to Aweber.com, but both work great and are easy to use.

c. Financial tools. I recommend QuickBooks online, PayPal, and Google Checkout.

How about you? What cool technology helps you run your business?

In a few conversations this past week, I was reminded of a great quote (by Ross Perot and others): “If you want to soar like an eagle, you can’t run with turkeys.” Now, that sounds pretty mean, but the gist of it is a good lesson. We need to surround ourselves with people who help us achieve our goals. So, let’s look at what makes an ‘eagle’ :

Eagles:

1. Are experts that allow us to benefit from their expertise. This helps save huge amounts of time. I read an article in a science magazine about how a family unit will collectively build knowledge. They start to rely, subconsciously, on each other for certain expertise, knowledge, and wisdom. I know I sure depend on my wife for facts and wisdom on sociological and educational topics! An eagle in your circle will help you expand your knowledge base.
2. Share a genuine concern for our success. Would you want to surround yourself with anyone else, but those who really care about our success? These folks are more ‘partners’ than vendors, suppliers, or customers.
3. Have achieved some of their own success. You can tell they are on the right path and heading toward ‘great’ things. I think they tend to be very goal-oriented.
4. Are giving in nature. They will spend more time asking about you than telling you about themselves. They are also more likely to work within the community to make it a better community or to help others.
5. Always look to find the positive in given situation.

Now that you’re thinking about eagles, I bet you have a few in mind that would be good to bring into your circle. Just like finding a good mentor, give these folks a call, set up a lunch meeting, and just do some exploration to see if there might be a connection.

In one of my past businesses, there was another shop in the same industrial complex owned by an ‘eagle.’ The two of us really formed a strong bond, and he was instrumental to my success. To this day, if you ask him about our relationship, his answer would sound like I was the eagle, not him. Very selfless. I always found myself saying that I was more successful just by hanging around this guy.

Find your eagles and watch how high and how far you will soar!

Thanks to Kathleen Brown of Juice Plus+ (yes, I take mine twice a day) for sending me the story of the Apollo 13 Mission, where Flight Director Krantz says in the heat of the moment, “I want this mark to go all the way back to earth with time to spare. We never lost a man in space, and we’re sure as hell not going to do so on my watch. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!”

Not only is the F-word not an option, but I feel we, as entrepreneurs, should remove the F-word from our vocabularies. Because if you’re saying it’s not an option, then you’re at least considering it. Nope, I think our focus should be on the S-word, Success: Success is our only option!

If you’ve been to my Passion+Focus=Profits seminar, then you’ve heard my take on a famous Abraham Lincoln quote.

Lincoln: “You cannot fail if you resolutely determine that you will not fail.”

The new take on it: “You can only succeed if you resolutely determine that you will succeed!”

So, focus on success and take the F-word completely out of your vocabulary.

Thanks, Kathleen!

As small business owners, it is very important that we direct our companies toward a clear vision of success.   In order to do so, we need a well-defined strategy.  Here is how I define strategy:

1. Know where you are today
2. Know where you want to be tomorrow
3. Have a good plan to get from here to there.

In this blog entry, I’m going to focus on #2: Know where you want to be tomorrow.  This means having a vision of your success.  If you can envision your company as it will be at that moment you have achieved success, then you can start building that company today.

As you imagine your company the way it needs to be once you’ve achieved success, think about the following things:

1. How many employees will you need
2. How much are you doing in sales
3. What kind of profits will you need (gross and net) to feed the growth
4. What process and procedures need to be defined and implemented
5. Will you need more financing
6. What about your facility…will it need to be larger

If you can keep this vision in your mind (where you want to be tomorrow), then the third step above, creating a plan to get there, will become very clear.  At this point, you will know that you are creating a winning strategy.

If I asked you what success means to your business, how would you answer?  I think many of us small business owners view success as a month-to-month financial objective: I pay my bills and have a little extra left over in the account each month.  Some might get closer to the big picture, with a focus on net profits or sales growth or other growth.  It’s hard to argue that a business that makes a good profit isn’t a successful business, but I wonder if we can’t think a little bigger than that.

Here are two criteria I recommend for the success of your small business:

1. How much could you sell your business for today?  Would you be able to sell the business and have that retirement nest egg or the money you need for another exciting startup?  If you can build your business to a point that somebody else would purchase your cash flows, then you have achieved one element of success.

2. Could you franchise your business?  I’m not saying you want to have your business on every major street corner in America, but building a business that could be duplicated with ease is a sure sign of success.  If you have processes and procedures in place that would allow for just about any qualified person to step in and start running the business, then I think you’ve stepped right up next to success.  Many small business owners talk of hiring a manager to run things while they go play a round of golf or soak up the rays in Hawaii.  Building your own ‘franchise’ is the way to get there.