Yelp and Your Business

Chance are high that you've never heard of Yelp, so you probably have no idea what it says about you. This is a mistake. Yelp is growing and it's growing fast, drawing more than 1.8 million users turn to it for information each month. In fact, I've found myself looking at top five search listings for Yelp on Google time and time again in the past couple of months. That's why I'll ask you again, what does Yelp say about you?
Yelp was launched back in 2004 by ex-PayPal employees Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons as a site that brought together San Francisco residents to help identify and review the most popular hangouts. The site has since grown to encompass nearly every major city across the United States as "Yelpers" work to find and review every business in town with a U.S. Postal address.

It works in much the way that Amazon.com reviews or Yahoo Local reviews work. The main difference seems to be the fervor and devotion with which members use the site.

Earlier this month, popular social networking site Facebook announced a partnership with Yelp's new "Hangouts application. The new feature will allow Facebook users to tie into Yelp's extensive database of location reviews to post a list of where the user will be heading on any particular evening. While the application has only garnered a few thousand users so far, it's bound to drive even more traffic to the already flourishing Yelp.

So how do you find out what's being "Yelped" about your business?
You can start by heading to Yelp and running a search for your business. If your business has a yellow page listing, then chances are high that it will show up even if you don't have any user reviews yet.

As you can see, Yelp pops up not only any listings that fit your search criteria, but also a map of the area with the business flagged and a rating and review snippet. Click on the business name and Yelp will take you to more detailed user generated content about the business.

Apart from traditional reviews, Yelp allows users or businesses to upload photos, to set a price range, share information about parking, payment types, business hours and so on. It's a good idea to start by running a search for your business and then checking to make sure this basic information is correct.
If it is correct, you may want to consider uploading some photos to flesh out the content area for your business.

If the data is not correct, you'll need to locate the text link that says "Edit Business Info" that appears above the "Send to Friend" button. This link will take you to a form that allows you to edit information about the business. (If you're the business owner, make sure to check the box that says so before you submit the requested changes to the Yelp moderators.)

Once you've submitted any requested changes to your listing, you may wish to check out the "Is this your business? Get involved!" link that appears to the left of the map. This area of the site offers up some helpful advice on how to use Yelp to your advantage as a business owner.

For example, it features a list of Do's and Don'ts with handy bits of advice like:

DON'T overestimate the impact of a single negative review. It happens to even the best businesses. In fact, in speaking to Yelp users, we've learned that negative reviews sprinkled in with favorable reviews often act to enhance the credibility of the positive reviews by illustrating the honesty and openness of the Yelp environment. That said, if you see a trend of negative reviews, you may want to take this feedback and determine if there is a way to improve your business.

and

DO use Yelp private messaging to thank reviewers for writing about your business - but consider waiting 48 hours before responding to any negative reviews as a cooling-off mechanism. Be sure to put yourself in the mindset of your customer, and recognize that your tone may come across as defensive, so tread lightly.
Yelp also offers up branded widgets for your web site that point visitors to Yelp reviews. In areas like San Francisco and New York where Yelp is becoming a popular spot to research businesses, these tags could lend quite a bit of credibility to a new business with strong Yelp ratings. The tags are free and the code for them can be picked up by clicking "Link to this Page" from your company's business profile page.

Yelp also offers paid sponsor packages that will allow you to update your listing with even more data or to promote your reviews in Yelp search results.
Basically, you need to treat Yelp like you would any other local business review site. Make sure that your business is listed, that you've taken the time to double check the information for accuracy and then consider whether or not it makes sense to increase your presence with a sponsored listing.

With Yelp partnering with sites like Facebook and ranking well for local search keywords in Google, chances are high that the site will continue to draw new users and will have an even bigger chance of impacting your bottom line.
Questions comments?
Tammy

Community Involvment and Your Business

By Tammy Wood

Local marketing can be extremely powerful, especially for a niche business; it can help you build a loyal customer-base and build your business through word of mouth. By developing and implementing a pre-planned local marketing strategy you will be better able to assess the success of your marketing efforts.

IE: This search was “Sacramento Area Blogs” http://www.sacramentotop10.com/Entertainment/Websites.html

IE: I live in a town called Lyman- but the locals call the area Skagit Valley, Woolley or even Punkin Center so I would do a search for those words and see what google gives me. More than likely what I am going to get is forums, community blogs, mom blogs and other local area connections, where I can join in and build a reputation in the local cyberspace.

• Become a part of your "community" in cyber space.
  
• Get external links to your site from other local professionals and associations- Just ask!
• Blog about local issues, interact with people who are writing letters to the editor, did you read an article about construction picking up in your area? Write in about the necessity of drug testing construction workers for the safety of the public and the workers themselves.




Include your website, blog, and email address in all your marketing materials no matter how insignificant it may seem.


Create local distribution lists and create email newsletters to update the community on your business. Offer your newsletters on your counter top in your store front. Be sure they are branded exceptionally well, your name, your phone number, your hours - it's all about YOU!

• Going on a mobile collection? Leave a newsletter/ brochure/ stack of business cards with whomever you come across. Drug testing is a necessity and you are the best choice for your local business'.
  

Where to Begin With Community Events:

1. Locate an upcoming fundraising event for example: visit www.cancer.org and search for upcoming events in your area.

2. Put together a team or volunteer your time at the event.

3. Purchase wearable advertising materials, a pin, a hat, a t-shirt, a lanyard that has your name on it

4. Contact the organizers of the event and see what you can do to raise funds.

5. Send a press release to local newspapers about your upcoming participation and your level of excitement in interacting with your community peers.

6. Take pictures for your site/ blog/ marketing materials

7. Another press release to local papers with images of you at the event and the total amount walked, raised, volunteered etc.

It doesn't have to be Cancer Fundraising, it can be any charitable organization that will get press in your community. While we would like to donate all our time to good causes, I realize it isn't possible- but at least one HUGE event a year will draw attention to your business, in a positive way.

Warnings:

1. Do Not SPAM the forums - It may be tempting to have every post that you make an advertisement for your business, it will not build a reputation for your success. Interact with the forum moderators, and active participants, become part of an online community in your own community.

2. Your signature line is a great place to advertise your business without being spammy.

3. Always check the guidelines with the community event organizers.

I am here to answer your questions!

Local Search on Big Three Engines

Using local search in search engines is an important item to keep up with. Everyone has a google account, but it needs to be located. So do this by doing a search in your local area for your location. See below for a breakdown! And as usual please let me know if you have any questions!


Bing!

So let’s do it.

To list your local business in Bing, head to the Bing Local Listing Center. From there, you’ll be able to check to see if you already have a local listing set up. If you do, you can modify it. If not, now’s the perfect time to create one.

Once you start creating/modifying your account. Bing will ask you to log in using your Windows ID. If you don’t have one, you’ll have to create one. From there, you’ll be asked to enter in your contact and business information, as well as a laundry list of supplemental information like additional phone numbers, Web pages, email address, hours of operation, payment methods, photos, etc.

There’s also a long section for additional information like your name, business description, specialties, affiliations, languages spoken, parking options, etc. It’s always in your best interest to create as complete a profile as you can.

From there, you can select up to six prioritized categories to place your business in based on associated keywords. You’ll also be able to supply information about features, hours of operation, prices, atmosphere, etc.
Make sure you fill these out the best you can so that you can take advantage of Bing’s great local search refinement options. If you list it as an option, you won’t show up for it when a user looks for it!

Google
Do you want your business to appear in the results for free? If so, sign up and get your business listed.
Create Your Google Maps Listing

In order to create your listing, you will need to have a Google account. If you do not have one, select “Create a new Google Account” on the sign in page.

Sign in to the Google Local Business Center to begin.
Once you are signed in, select “Add new listing”

1. Fill in the general information about your business. Select “Next”
2. Add a category for your business. Example: Restaurant

You can also add some optional features like:

* hours of operation
* payment options
* add photos
* add videos
* brands carried

You can also add Coupons by selecting the Coupons tab.
Once you are finished, select “Submit”
Verify Your Listing

Now that you have all the details of your business in place, you just need to verify your business listing. You have two options for doing this.

1. Validate by phone
2. Validate by mail

Validate by Phone (Fastest Method)

Choosing this method will allow you to choose a time (immediately or 5 minute delay) for an automated call to the number you specify. You will be prompted to enter the pin number provided on the screen.
Validate by Mail

If you choose this method, you will receive a letter in the mail (usually 10 business days) with your pin number so you can complete the validation process.

The process is complete. The listing should appear within 48 hours. It may not be on the front page so expand the map to find your listing.

Yahoo Local
To submit your site to Yahoo! Local, just click the Sign Up button, then follow the instructions to enter details about your business, such as your contact information and business category. After you submit your business information, please allow at least five business days for your listing to appear in Yahoo! Local.
Local Yahoo

Local SEO Using Classified Ads

By Tammy Wood
Promoting your business on Craigslist is very effective if you are on a tight budget or have no budget at all. Craigslist provides nearly everything you could want to find in any specific area. It is highly categorized by products and services. There are excellent search capabilities making it very easy to locate specific products or services.

Craigslist was created by Craig Newmark in 1995 to serve the San Francisco Bay area as a free classified ad service. By the year 2000 it had grown to nine cities. By 2009 it had grown to approximately 570 cities.
Commercial posts are only accepted by craigslist under the “Services” section. Here it is OK to advertise as a company that provides services.

Businesses can place an advertisement for an individual piece if they don’t make it sound commercial. Get the customer to call you. Be sure to categorize your advertisement correctly to reach your intended audience. Use specific descriptions, so your product can be found in a search.

Because craigslist.com has suffered at the hands of spammers the regulations for posting have become tedious. You can only post in your geographical area, confirmed by craigslist via cell phone or IP tracking, after you have created an account.

Where to begin?

• Visit: www.craigslist.com (locate your state and city)

• Create an account

• When advertising your business you must use “Services”- under services choose “Small biz ads” on the right hand side up near the top, click “Post”.

• You will be prompted to create or login to your account.

• Fill in the Posting Title (this is what will set your ad apart)

• Specific location- List your location

• Reply to: radio button, show your email address- use your domain (accudiagnostics.com or arcpointus.com) This will add a link online and show that you are a reputable organization.

• Posting description- Add your ad content. Be sure to spell check your content. Where it offers to insert an image, insert an image of your location. This also establishes that you are a real organization and legitimate resource for drug testing, dna test, or whatever you are writing the advertisement for.

• Once you submit your ad to craigslist, you will receive a verification email. This email contains a link. Click on that link to verify that you indeed intended for that advertisement to be placed.

Your ad will appear generally in fifteen minutes.

Warnings:
Double check your ad for errors or omissions.
Add your phone number within the advertisement
Do not cross post the same advertisement ( craigslist will call it spam and possibly flag you).
Use this tactic in general once every 7 days. Vary your topics depending on what you are hoping to promote (drug tests, dna tests, alcohol testing etc.)

*Bonus:
*After you find ad copy (wording) that works in attracting new business- copy and paste it in a separate document. This will speed up future postings.
* In Spanish speaking communities, be sure to mention you are able to communicate in Spanish
* Ask in your ad- be sure to tell us you found us on craigslist! You don’t have to offer anything for that, but it might be an idea in the future.

Let's Talk About Offline Marketing

By Tammy Wood
In our recent discussions I have introduced a few creative ideas for marketing that you can do on your own. I am going explain the benefits of one of the suggestions in this post, specifically WikiAnswers.com. Within that format there are 'categories' one particular category is called "Drug Tests", any questions pertaining to drug tests ( for this example) are in that category. Click here to view that page.

Using question and answer websites will provide three benefits:

1. It adds a link to your website on the internet, this link builds valuable 'link juice' on the internet. The more links you have to your website the higher organic ranking your site would be within the search engines. 2. Search Engines will now see your link in a different format. The format is using tags and keywords. The tags and keywords are 'anchor' text on the internet. This anchor text is also on your sites, these feed off each other and increase your page rank.
3. Answering questions in this format gives you the level of expertise in your professional field & drives traffic to your site.

So how to begin?

• Visit www.WikiAnswers.com
• Set up an account- use your domain name email address ( accudiagnostics or arcpointus) whichever you prefer.
• Search questions- using your keywords IE: drug testing, paternity testing, DNA testing etc. You do not have to be super explicit.
• Answer questions that are relevant to your field of expertise, without looking like an advertisement.

Here is a real question located on the site:

"If I did meth on feb 11th and on april 5th will you flunk a hair test by alot or is there a legal cut off limit that would make you safe"

Answer on site: "Stop doing meth and then you wouldn't have this problem! "

While accurate, it isn't a good answer and didn't assist the person at all. Let's look at another question located here: WikiAnswers.com

Question: Can Klonopin be detected in blood tests?

Answer: Yes, Klonopin® (generic: clonazepam) can be detected in blood tests, if the test includes a benzodiazapine panel.

If the blood test is being used to determine medical problems and treatment, it may or may not include this assay. If the blood test is being used for employment or other types of drug screening, it will almost certainly show up.

Sometimes labs report the presence of benzodiazepines (the class to which clonazepam belongs) as Valium® (generic: diazepam), another drug of the same class.

If a doctor has prescribed Klonopin® for treatment, take your prescription or your prescription bottle with you to the test, and the presence of the drug on your blood test should not be a problem.

This is a good informative answer, the only modification I will make to this is: "As the owner/ operator of AccuDiagnostics in Lancaster, I get this type of question all the time. " And of course in the "Reference Section" enter YOUR URL.

Throughout the site you will see both unanswered questions and answered questions. You can answer both- the availability on the site is to "improve" an answer. In the case of our meth question, there is a link ( on the right hand side of the question) when you click on it, it opens the question and the previous answers. You are than prompted to update the answer.

* BONUS
Once you have created an account, logged in and ready to start answering questions on the left hand side in blue are navigational tools for use throughout the site. The important one for us to focus on is " related links" clicking on that will take you to a form to insert YOUR link. This is because all your content on your site is relevant to the question. You can direct these to a particular page on your site or just to your www.AccuDiagnostics.com/location page, either way it’s a great way to add value to your search engine rankings.

What is Celibacy?

The lighter side........


Celibacy can be a choice in life or a condition imposed by circumstances.

While attending a Marriage Weekend, Fred and his wife, Diane, listened to the instructor declare, "It is essential that husbands and wives know the things that are important to each other.."

He then addressed the men, "Can you name and describe your wife's favorite flower?'

Fred leaned over, touched Diane's arm gently and whispered,

"Gold Medal All-Purpose, isn't it?"

And thus began Fred's life of celibacy..........

Planning is Easy. Execution is Hard

How many planning sessions have you been in during your career? How many New Year’s resolution have you made? How many times have you followed through with your best of intentions?

Why is it so easy to plan and so hard to execute?

One reason lies in the concept of inertia. Good intentions need inertia.

Unfortunately, the amount of inertia inherently found in good intentions is not all that great. Hence, when we embark on implementing any plan and an obstacle pops up, the momentum needed to push through or overcome these small seemingly small and insignificant obstacles is just not there. There is not enough inertia. In order to muster up the needed inertia, another factor needs to come into play.

In a recent NFL playoff game, the New York Jets won the game in part because of an important statistics: yards gained after the catch. This statistic is important because when a receiver catches a pass and turns up field there is usually one, two or three defenders there ready to take his head off. Many receivers opt to head for the sideline or simply drop to the ground when they see 1200 pounds of muscular beef barreling down on them. The exceptionally talented receivers have conditioned themselves to focus on getting one more yard – not a touchdown. Those receivers that do this consistently have impressive yards gained after the catch statistics and in some cases even break it for big yards plays and an occasional touchdown.

Is there a lesson here?

Consider this. Obstacles will always be there. What you do after you hit the first obstacle is critical on whether or not you achieve plan or not. If you do not focus on the yards after the catch statistic, you will never get through obstacles.

Case Study:

Your business depends on closing deals. You have developed metrics that show that in order to close a deal, you need to make 30 contacts and make 9 presentations to close three deals.

You have good intentions to get out and make your 30 contacts this week. You come into the office to get a few things done before heading out of the day. The phone rings. You take the call. Ten minutes later you get an email. You take the time to read it and response…20 minutes later you finally get out the door, albeit much later than you wanted.

You decided to drop by Starbucks to get a cup of coffee and bump into a friend. Nearly 30 minutes later, after catching up, you are back in the car. Oops, you forgot your call list for the day. Back to the office…..and so it goes.
Before you know it, it is nearly noon. You cannot call on prospect during lunch – heaven forbid. Back to the office with a commitment to get out before 1:00 pm but all you get sweep into the Black Hole of Operations and by the time you extract yourself from the office, it is nearly 3:00 pm. Your good intentions are sidelined by seemingly small obstacles that could all be overcome with very little difficulty, if you focus on how to recognize and push through them.

NFL receivers that excel in the yards after a catch statistic practice catching and turning up field until it becomes intuitive.

Moral of the story: Flawless execution takes commitment, focus and practice and turning up the field.

Deliverables

Our 2010 Regional CAMPA meeting was held on Saturday, Jan 23rd in Ontario, CA. The meeting focused on planning and setting financial metrics for 2010. Part of that process was a discussion on what could be done to remove some of the obstacles that may get in the way of achieve plan in 2010.

A list of three initiatives was agreed to. Your regional support group committed to crafting a strategy to work throught these with all CAMPA members. You will be hearing from John Lipp in a few days via email with an outline of these initiatives and deliverable dates.

John will also help you work out your plan for 2010 and set some of these metrics using the planning tool that was provided at the meeting.

Also, each of you should to do a personal inventory of what obstacles will keep you from achieving plan in 2010 and then decide on what can be done to ensure that this obstacles do not get in the way of your success.

Focus, Focus and More Focus

I received an email from one a franchisee recently regarding PrimeVendor.com a service that monitors govt. opportunities.

I responded as follows:

The CAMPA emphasis for 2010 is FOCUS.

The CAMPA mission for this year is profitability in the shortest time horizon possible. This means walking by some opportunities while devoting a lot of resources to others. This does not mean that those opportunities that we walk by are not good opportunities but that the time, effort or resources necessary to secure any meaningful business is not as probably as other opportunities.

Every hour of every day and a portion of every dollar that leaves your checking account should be focused on business acquisition. Without this focus, time and money may run very thin, if profitability does not arrive soon.

Gov't business had not been a sweet spot. I believe this type of business will be a significant part of our business in the future but the time and expertise needed is not a good fit or the best use of our resources in most cases. There are exceptions but as a general statement each franchisee has better ways to spend their precious resources to get business quicker and easier.

Focus, focus and more focus is the watch word for 2010.
n of every dollar that leaves your checking account should be focused on business acquisition. Without this focus, time and money may run very thin, if profitability does not arrive soon.

Why Metrics Are Important

“You cannot measure what you do not know” is a business axiom that is frequently overlooked and in some cases completely ignored. Often the entrepreneurial mindset is the “shoot from the hip” mentality. By nature entrepreneurs are creative thinkers and frequently push the envelope on conventional thinking and operate outside of the box. This type of attitude and thinking is very powerful, if it is channeled properly. The key is being able to harness this creative energy and then execute on it.

In professional sports, statistics and benchmarks is everything. Football draft choices are refined to a point that the difference between a first round and third round draft pick is a few hundredths of a second in the 40 yard dash or the ratios of passes thrown to interceptions. Metrics are used as a standard for predicting future success.

As we focus on reaching profitability this year, the varying degrees of success will be measured by how well the metrics of your business are defined and implemented.
The regional meeting will focus on five key component of benchmarking your metrics:

1. Defining
2. Executing
3. Measuring
4. Refining
5. Redefining

The objective for the next year is to focus on our daily metrics, execution and achieving profitability.

Is Your Ladder Leaning Up Against The Right Wall?

I had intended to follow up my last blog posting with a discussion on the agenda for the regional meeting later this month. However, as I started to draft this posting, it occurred to me that the entire purpose of the meeting was not about the agenda, which of course is important, because we need to ensure that we are focused on essential elements of achieving the purpose of the meeting. The purpose of this meeting is about identifying what are the critical things that need to be achieved to reach profitability this year.

To achieve profitability this year is about focus. Success in any entrepreneurial venture is rooted in understanding how to organize events and people to create a desired result. This will not happened unless there is a laser-like focus on the critical elements of success.

To orchestrate success three things need to happen.

1. Your ladder needs to be leaning against the right wall. Or in other words, you need to understand the crucial elements of success such as which vertical markets that are the most profitable in your territories. The market Bob Duncan is deriving success from may or may not be the same that Jill Chioino is having success with.

2. What are the events/tasks need to be focused on to ensure that you are climbing up the latter.

3. How can you make sure that you get to the top of the ladder in a timely fashion when it seems that there are so many distractions that cause you to stop climbing or even take steps back down the rungs on the ladder?

In my next posting, I will discuss “Why Metrics Are Important”.

Why Take the Time

Several franchisees have emailed and asked if it is necessary to take the time to attend the upcoming regional meeting on January 23rd. Yes, it is true that everyone is busy and there is always an issue of the expense of attending these meetings.

I responded to one such inquiry as follows:

This Regional CAMPA Meeting is primarily about developing metrics for business development. It is just too easy to let time slide by and rely on the “shoot from the hip’ strategy of marketing. This meeting is about each franchised location accepting personal accountability and committing to developing a plan and then executing it.

This year is the hump year. Everyone needs to make progress toward profitability. Everyone has their own breakeven point and line to profitability. In a startup mode, everything is usually about execution on the operations side of the business. After those early times in business, the focus needs to shift to the scalability of the business acquisition model and the execution of this model. Everyone’s attention needs to be concentrated and all of your resources focused on the single most important issue facing each franchisee - execution on a basic set of metrics (without excuses), the implementation and execution on a basic set of customer acquisition metrics to achieve profitability.
It is just too easy to blame all of the things that come up during the day, week, and month on why executing on the basics did not happen. This is the business equivalent of the “dog ate my homework” excuse of our youth.

The challenge is removing the obstacles and execute on getting and keeping new customers. The meeting is centered on three issues:

1. Developing business acquisition and other profitability metrics.
2. Understanding what has to be done to execute on these metrics.
3. Removing the obstacles that will block each location from execution on these metrics and developing a plan to remove and overcome these obstacles.

This process is no different than any business, sports franchise or individual that has achieved any measure of success goes through.

Next Blog posting: The Agenda

Business Planning

Years ago in my college business course work the conventional wisdom was to develop a 3-5 year business plan.

I have written detailed and lengthy 3-5 year business plans over the years that have included exhaustive financial, market and operational analysis. These plans have served as a tool to force market research, understanding of the financial metrics and a thoughtful analysis of operational strategies.

This type of business planning is certainly useful but today’s economic environment is so different that a business plan developed today often migrates from a useful tool to being dated in less than a year because the world we live in changes so rapidly.

Does this mean that business planning and all of the attendant homework is irrelevant? Absolutely not! What it does mean is that this planning tool needs to be a living document vs. simply a tool to secure financing, hire people and provide the initial strategy and tactics for the business. It needs to be updated quarterly, if not monthly.

Today’s business plans should serve as a compass that is reference frequently to see if the business is on course. Sadly, this rarely happens. Too often the static in an entrepreneur’s daily life is so great that the compass is never check because entrepreneurs often are so busy putting out fires they rarely check their compass.

CAMPA is going to focus on this key aspect of business planning for 2010. Prior to our regional meeting in a few weeks, John Lipp will work with all of you to assemble the key metrics of developing a business plan. During the regional meeting we will focus on things that will keep you from achieving plan and during the year work on removing these roadblocks.

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Often we do things that have an opposite effect. For example, you tell one of your children not to lick a metal post on a freezing day and they will likely to try it to see if what you said is actually true. Or, a standard response to a "Fresh Paint" sign is to touch to see if the paint really is wet.

In managing a business the best intentions often have unintended and far reaching consequences. For most entrepreneurs there is no greater unintended consequence than working hard and not getting the results because the ladder is leaning up against the wrong wall.

Planning for success in an entrepreneurial venture requires organizing activities and time to facilitate the greatest probability of success. However, there is one thing that stands at the front of the line when organizing time and events – focusing on the right things. Let me share an experience on how trying to do the right thing does not always end up that way.

Jim Arsons became a franchisee after being downsized from his 25 year stint in the corporate world. As he started his new business he spent 12-14 hours a day, five and six days a week. He loved and was passionate about his job and being his own boss was definitely better than working this hard for someone else.

However, his business just did not take off like he thought it would. He arrived each morning before 7:00 AM with the intention of preparing for the day and then get out and call on prospect and clients to generate sales. However, he usually never got out the door because “things happen” and he got sucked into a flurry of operational issues. Every day he seemed to disappear into the fabled Black Hole of Operations before he could get out the door.

Intent: Get into the office early and plan the day.

Consequence: Things happened and he disappeared into the Black Hole of Operations.

Solution: Plan the day at home before leaving for the day and come into the office later in the day vs. first thing in the morning.

Result: Dramatic change in sales.

Moral: Often we do one thing with the right intent but the opposite happens.
As you plan for the future, think about what you do and what actually is happening.

If you focus on the core aspects of making money, it is more likely than not that your bank account will grow vs. working hard and not having the right things happen and seeing your bank account slowly drain away.

THE 7 STEPS OF OUTRAGEOUSLY SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS # 7

OPTIMIZE, OPTIMIZE, OPTIMIZE

Successful entrepreneurs make money two ways: Increasing sales and managing expenses.

Increasing sales does not necessarily mean more profits. In order to make sales profitable, you need to know the profitability of each product or service you offered? Do you know what customers are the most expensive, demanding or time-consuming to serve? If you doubled your customer base, do you know the implications on costs, revenues and the operations of your business? Knowing these answers are essential in making sales growth profitable.

As sales grow, there should be a focus on reducing, or at least managing expenses, and to optimize and streamline operations. Seeking to make operations better, faster, cheaper is the holy grail of profitability by maximizing the performance/expense tradeoffs.

To optimize your business results, think highest and best use of your time, energy and money.

Next up…..Bonus thought.

THE 7 STEPS OF OUTRAGEOUSLY SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS # 6

MULTIPLY PROFITS THROUGH THE POWER OF LEVERAGE.

Many entrepreneurs build their businesses the organic way – without a lot of direction and taking what comes. Successful businesses grow their businesses by applying the power of leverage. They look for new ways to convert their current assets, operations and relationships into new revenue streams. There are three things that can generally be leveraged in a business.

1. Assets (e.g., yourself, employees)
2. Operations (e.g., your knowledge base, processes)
3. Relationships (e.g., your business network, customers)

By far, leveraging yourself is the quickest way to inject profitability into your business. Where do you spend the most time on a daily basis? My guess is if you tally up your daily Entrepreneurial Timesheets it would be weighted toward operational issues vs. sales oriented issues. Leverage is one of the most under-utilized principles for multiplying profits in business.

If you can figure out a way to spend more time in direct incoming producing activities such as being in front of prospective customers, seeing existing customers asking for referrals and networking your sales will reflect that reallocation of time.

Next up…..Optimize.

THE 7 STEPS OF OUTRAGEOUSLY SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS # 5

ADDING VALUE

Successful entrepreneurs are in the business of creating value. Their goal and mission in business is to develop and create value to their customers.
In creating value Step #1: Let your customers know they matter. Customers must feel that you not only want to make the sale but that they will be taken care of after the sale.

Where is your focus right now --- on adding value, or making the sale? Make "adding value" a business priority. When you do, your products and services will sell themselves.

As we begin a new year....these simple insights can reorient your thinking process to improve your business.

Next up……The Power of Leverage