How Full is Your Glass?

Is the news we hear and read about every day as bad as we think it is?

With a new Administration in Washington, there's a lot of uncertainty about exactly how and when the promised changes will take place.

As we consider our own businesses in these uncertain economic times, we need to keep a few basic principles in mind:

1. Keep Selling. Nothing is more important than focusing on the right things. Increasing the top line solves a myriad of problems. Nothing is more important than a laser focus on sales-related activities. When in doubt – sell. A good sales call can transform your day.

2. Effectiveness. Resist the temptation to severely cut your advertising and marketing budgets. A better strategy is to put tight controls in place that allow you to gauge the response and adjust your expenditures on a weekly basis. Work with your SEO/AdWord Specialist on developing your advertising strategy.

3. Anticipate Opportunities. In whatever form it takes, there is likely to be a large influx of government money this year as part of the new President’s economic stimulus package. Keep an eye on the horizon as this money begins to flow, and respond accordingly with targeted marketing strategies. Be in the right place at the right time when hiring begins to ramp up.

4. Touch Base with Customers. Remind your clients of the work you have done for them and the results you have achieved. Make it a point to hold face-to-face meetings periodically. Meeting in person says you are interested and gives you an opportunity to build the relationship. It also may alert you to problems you might be able to solve.

5. Ask for Feedback. Don't assume your customers are satisfied. Ask how you're doing and take their suggestions seriously.

6. Resolve Complaints Fast. If a client has a problem, fix it now. If you can’t, explain why not.
7. Resist Negativity. Crisis and difficult times create opportunities. Because we can do it better, faster, cheaper, many doors can be opened that were closed in more stable times. As you get into those doors, be ready to seize the moment.

Yes, times are challenging, but the objects are not as big as you think and in fact these times may present opportunities. The question really is:

Is your glass half full or half empty?

Rear View Mirror

Consumer confidence is at an understandably historic low and the news seems to get worse by the day. I have often thought about how the warning on your rear view mirror is like our current reality. You have all seen the warning:

Objects may seem larger than they really are

Although much of the news we hear today is not all that encouraging, we must realize that the media is there to get people to read the newspaper or magazine or listen to or watch their publication or station. The business model for the media is providing free content in order to sell advertising.

If we think about the motivation behind a media outlet - newspapers, magazines, TV, Radio, etc. - we begin to realize that what is being reported may be true, but how it is reported and the spin that has been applied, is to hype the story to grab and maintain your attention for as long as possible.

That is why when you are watching the news, the anchor exclaims, “Big drop in home prices! See how this affects you! Stay tuned for the full story after these messages.”

After returning to the program from the commercial break ,you continue to watch, waiting for the story about your home value, when the reporter again teases you with, “Next up, real estate prices plunge. How much has your home value dropped? This and other news after this commercial break."

The point I am attempting to make, is that most news we hear or see has a spin to it and an ulterior motivate, which is more than just accurately reporting the news. The motive: the more people that tune in, the higher the advertising rates.

Do not get sucked into believing that the news is as bad as what you read in the newspapers or see on TV.

As you look into your mirror, objects may seem larger than they really are. However, I believe there is a silver lining in all of this....full story in my next posting.

Marketing Idea

Jeff Hastings in Sacramento saw a TV ad for the local Home and Garden Show in Sacramento recently. He took four hours and paid to attend the show. Here is a portion of an email I received from him the other day:

“The show was huge….everything including the kitchen sink. I focused on speaking with larger companies in the following categories:

-Landscapers
-Plumbers
-Home Builders
-Remodelers
-Pool builders and maintenance
-Arborists
-General Contractors
-Heating and Air Conditioning
-Roofers
-Pest Companies
-Solar Companies

I must have spoken to 100 companies in 4 hours. I came away with 31 qualified leads, met a dozen decision-makers (business owners), and got referrals from the rest.

This is a highly efficient way to develop a lot of QUALIFIED prospects. It would have taken days to drive to each of these companies’ offices and get in front of them.

Everybody was down due to the economy, but talking about saving money on Drug Tests seemed to pique the interest of many.”

Three take-a-ways from Jeff’s experience:

1. Efficiency. Everyone was at one place. Great use of time.

2. Down Does Not Mean Out. A recessionary economy opens doors when we can do Drug Testing “Better, Faster, Cheaper”. This resonates with business owners.

3. Now What. The challenge now is managing to efficiently follow up with these leads or the time spent will be wasted.

You might wish to check out the schedule for the Home and Garden Shows in your area.

CAMPA Deliverables

The following is a partial list of deliverables that were discussed in the Regional CAMPA Meeting on January 17th - 18th 2009:

Deliverables:
• The final DOT program to be delivered in the next CAMPA meeting on February 5, 2009
• Begin to develop Standard Operating Procedures for the region
• Reasonable Suspicion Training by Rick Buckley/Supervisor training DOT and Non DOT by Rick Buckley on an upcoming Saturday in Sacramento
• Drug Pack training:
1. Consortium
2. Randoms
3. Accounting transfers
4. Advance procedural training
5. Online capabilities
6. List of clients
• Leslie’s, DNA, and Judge’s presentations posted on FranConnect
• Consider getting a family law attorney to discuss DNA procedures in a CAMPA meeting

The meeting provided an opportunity to focus on a variety of issues and to begin to comprehend the value and power of this group.

DISA

In our last brainstorming session, Jill Chioino mentioned that she is a collection site for DISA. She uses this as a door opener when a potential client indicates that they use DISA. She informs these potential clients that she is a collection site for DISA. She finds that this allows her to get into the door and to begin to build relationships.

Jill has provided the following information for CAMPA members to refer to if they wish to enroll as a DISA collection site.

The Collection site coordinator is:
KaShona Henry
Ph # 281-673-2404
Fax 713-481-8223
Email:kashona.henry@disa.com .

Physical address: 12600 Northborough Drive
Suite 300
Houston, TX

The web site is Disa.com.

Getting set up with this TPA will provide additional business for facilities that are near oil refineries. Jill also believes they have non-refinery business, with the "bread and butter" of their business being refinery accounts.

Benchmarking

The final success blocker is not benchmarking key success metrics in your business.
What is not measured cannot be managed. This is a critical axiom for our business.

What metrics are you measuring in your business? There several key metrics that every franchisee needs to be aware of and to manage in their business. Without accurate data, you will never achieve the level of financial and personal success you desire. Key measurable metrics are the number of sales calls, follow up calls, presentation, and new clients signed up.

Up to this point in time, not a lot of emphasis has been placed on gathering the data to create the metrics that can be benchmarked. The primary reason for not aggressively pursuing benchmarking in 2008 was because each franchisee had been focused on operational details and improving individual knowledge levels.

NOW ... 2009 is our Year of the Metric. In the next few months, you should begin to implement the ability to accumulate sales statistics, in order that this data can be assimilated into benchmarking metrics which in turn can be used as a decision tool to increase your client acquisition efficiency in the future. These metrics have three significant value touch points:

1. Enable you to make better decisions on a daily basis
2. Keep you focused on increasing cash flow
3. Create a bank of data and information for future valuation of your business

These concepts will be expanded on in the future.

The Operational Black Hole

Yesterday I discussed the inability to stay focused as a stumbling block to success. A second stumbling block to success in building a business is getting sucked up in various diversions that eventually lead to the complete inability to execute on the core mission of your business – client acquisition activities.

The following is a real life scenario in a business from a prior life of mine:

I met Jerry (not his real name). He had had a very successful career in the financial services industry. He was affable, experienced in general business, educated, and well capitalized. He had been in senior management and had owned a retail business earlier in his career. He was excited about the franchise and pushed very hard to get the territory he wanted, and then jumped in with both feet. He spent a lot of time building up his location, getting the computers and software in place, installing all of the equipment and did an unparalleled job in building a Taj Mahal location – nice, but much more than was actually needed.

During the pre-opening process, a crucial element he failed to devote ample time to, was pre-opening marketing activities, even though he was encouraged all along the way to follow the pre-opening plan checklist which had a dozen pre-opening marketing activities on the list. The pre-opening marketing activities on the checklist he did get around to, he did in perfunctory manner, always leaping at the chance to jump back in and focus on operational issues – even if 90% of these operational issues could have been done before or after hours, on another day, or by his newly hired Lab Tech.

When Jerry finally did open for business, you could have used his location for a bowling alley and not hit a thing with bowling balls, since there was no business. I think you can see where this is going. Over the next year, Jerry did get out and generate business. He was actually very good at it, but he remained so "anally retentive" on operational issues, that he always leaped at the chance to get involved in operational details vs. training, instead of delegating routine and repetitive operational elements of the business to others. He never achieved his financial goals for his business, because he spent too much time in the Operational Black Hole. However, because he was always busy and enjoyed the business, he was one of the happiest franchisees in the system.

I have often asked myself the question: Was Jerry successful? I guess it depends on your definition of success. Was he fulfilled and did he enjoy working in his business? The answer was an unqualified YES. So I guess he was successful in that sense of the definition of success. However, if you define success as meeting and exceeding financial goals, I don’t think he would deny that he was not as successful as he could have been in this part of the business.

What is your definition of success? Will you be able to keep out of the Operational Black Hole to achieve your goals and achieve financial success? Time will tell.

Entrepreneurial Success Blockers

Three key success blockers were mentioned in my previous Blog posting. They are:

1. The inability to stay focused on key concepts over long periods of time
2. The Black Hole of Operations clouds thinking and vision
3. Benchmarking is ignored

The first success blocker is the Inability to Stay Focused.

Every one of us has good intentions. I do not believe that anyone does NOT want to maintain a high level of sales activity. Yet, if the truth is brutally acknowledged, few of us meet even a modest level of consistent sales and marketing efforts. Why? By allowing distractions to preoccupy our time, until these distractions eventually dominate a majority of our time.

I am a history buff. Our family received a Christmas gift of the HBO DVD Video Series of “Band of Brothers”. This TV series is about a group of men that enlisted in the army during WWII. The story follows these men from their basic training which began in 1943, through the D-Day invasion at Normandy in 1844, through the Battle of the Bulge, and finally into Germany and their liberating the Nazi Concentration Camps. During the Battle of the Argon Forrest in the bitter winter of 1944-1945, the enemy attempted to create diversionary tactics prior to a frontal assault in an effort to catch the troops off guard. The field commanders had to stay focused and not allow their men to be distracted by these tactics. Keeping the troops on task was the key activity of the field commanders.

Being in business is no less challenging than being engaged in an all out war. In war, there are limited resources. In business, we also have limited resources and specific objectives to achieve. The enemy (business and personal distractions) creates diversions to lure us away from our core objectives. If we allow ourselves to be enticed into spending our resources of time and money on non-core objectives, we end up being casualties the same as if we were injured in hand to hand combat in war. Our business injuries are not physical injuries, but are rather in the form of lost opportunities and the draining of financial resources. The key to success is staying focus on our core objective – in our case, building a client base. Therein lay the seeds of victory.

The Band of Brothers was a part of the invasion forces that helped win WWII, and through their experiences, became a part of brotherhood that endures today. Our bond as members of the AccuDiagnostics franchise system will also, over time, create a similar bond.

AdWords CAMPA Meeting

On Thursday, January 15th, at 12 pm, the monthly CAMPA meeting will focus on reporting the metrics from the Google AdWord and SEO 2008 campaign. Please give your AdWord and SEO strategy for 2009 some thought and bring your questions to this meeting. Amber Christiansen, our Google AdWord Specialist, will discuss historical results for 2008 and make some suggestions for your consideration for 2009. There will be a group discussion on these issues in our Regional CAMPA Meeting on January 18th in Sacramento.

As you might recall, the administration of the AdWord and SEO project has been a CAMPA expense and the actual expenditures for AdWord advertising has been from each franchisee's ASAP Fund. This will continue throughout 2009 or until the ASAP funds are expended. After the ASAP Funds have been used, the advertising budget for the Google AdWord program will be paid from each franchisee's local advertising budget.

Check your email for Webinar information. There will be an online presentation during this meeting, so you will need to be near your computer.

C+ DA = ER

Consistency + Daily Activity = Exponential Results (C+ DA = ER)

I have rarely met anyone who will argue the point that if there are more marketing and selling efforts expended in growing your business, the results will yield far more than those accomplished with merely modest efforts. A few people I have known over the years believe fate and/or being lucky are key ingredients in the success of their business and begrudgingly acknowledge that hard work might be more important than the providence that has graced them. Although I believe in being lucky, I also believe that we create our own luck.

If the concept of C+ DA = ER is such a universally accepted principal that yields results, why is this formula not implemented more consistently and with the zeal of an Al Qaeda terrorist?

I have discovered three reasons for why entrepreneurs have difficulty in consistently following through on this key concept of business success:

1. The inability to stay focused over long periods of time
2. The Black Hole of Operations clouds thinking and vision because of operational distractions
3. Benchmarking is ignored

All three of these success blockers are linked together. In my next few Blog postings, I will share my thoughts on how to get Exponential Results in your business.

Winning

Every morning we get out of bed, shower, get dressed and head into the office or into the field for another day of business building activities. Day after day we meet with prospective clients, attend networking events, handle customer service issues, and are told “No,” or “Let me think about it” more times than we can count. Then, after all of this effort, a ray of sunshine breaks through the clouds and we know what we are doing is appreciated and we are rewarded with new clients who acknowledge their appreciation for what we do and how we do it.

Jeff and Carol in Sacramento shared a few of their recent successes with me this week. I thought you might enjoy hearing about these victories:

1) The first day of the New Year started with a $350 DNA test, followed by more than a dozen Drug Tests.
2) On the second day of the New Year, their office did about two dozen Drug Tests with an Average Sales Price of $30.00.
3) Next, their largest client called and said they love their service so much, that they were going to invite Jeff to their regional meeting next week to pitch to the five other elder care facilities they operate.

There is a key principal in play here:
The core principle of the AccuDiagnostics growth strategy is Consistency + Daily Activity = Exponential Results. I will discuss this concept in more detail in tomorrow’s Blog posting.

New Team Member

LA has a new AccuDiagnostics franchisee. Bob Duncan has joined the Western Region AccuDiagnostics Team. Bob hails from England by way of Florida. Bob has owned several businesses during his career and found AccDiagnostics to be a good fit because he wanted a business-to-business company vs. a consumer-oriented business.

Bob brings a rich blend of operational business experience to the table, as well as a keen sense for sales and marketing. Bob plans to open multiple territories over the long term and is well capitalized to be able to execute this strategy.

His daughter will be joining him in this new venture. She initially plans to master the operational side of the business and then venture out into the marketing side of the business.

Bob executed his franchise agreements in late December and is now actively seeking a location. We all know how exciting this process can be! With luck, Bob and his daughter will begin their classroom training at the regional training center in Sacramento in late March or early April, with the goal of being open for business in May. They will be joining us at the Regional CAMPA meeting on January 17th and 18th. This will be a time when we can all get to know them a lot better. They bring a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to the table and will add significant depth to our CAMPA organization.

A New Year

Yes, 2009 is here. I am confident that this upcoming year will bring new challenges and noteable successes our way. Personally, I took some time last Saturday and reflected on what I wanted to achieve this year. The older I get, the more reflective I have become on the importance of self evaluation and the setting of goals. I outlined five things I wanted to achieve this year. Last year I achieved three out of five. This year I am shooting for all five.

My methodology is one of small steps. I have a spreadsheet with my goals listed. I mark off each day that I do what I committed to do. Some goals are for 3x or 5x a week. Others are once a week or once a month; but each goal has a specific increment to accomplish on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

A brick wall cannot be built all at once. It happens one brick at a time. When you consistently lay one brick at a time, before you know it, you have a wall, then a room, and finally a house. The house did not appear spontaneously. It all starts with the first brick.

What are your bricks going to be for 2009?