Kevin W. McCarthy

The Professor of On-Purpose

Business

Are You Managing Your Profits?

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Profits are the lifeblood of any business. Without them, the business dies. However, the body of the business is your strategy, structure, and systems that are organized and managed in such a way that profit is the natural outcome.

It is so easy to get focused on managing to a profit that we forget the body of profit creation. Avoid falling into the pit of managing numbers and forgetting that profits are the result of a team of people being well led and organized to serve a customer base with sufficient value to produce a profit.
profit

Your profit and loss report makes a statement about what matters most in your business leadership. “Follow the money!” was the advice of Deep Throat, the Watergate secret informer. Following the money reveals much about the priorities of the business leaders and managers.

Your definition of profit frames your leadership and management methods. If net profit is only about the dollars and cents, then your cost of doing business is likely too high because you’ll have high turnover of team members and customers. Profitability is a financial as well as a human measure for adding and creating value. Ignore either one and your P&L will suffer. Invest in both and you’ve increased your probabilities for profiting.

Everyone profits when we recognize it is profits AND people, not profits or people.

Yes, financial profits matter. Integrating people and profits is the role of leadership and management, respectively. So how are you doing?

In the long run, your business’s valuation will reflect the attitude and excellence of the corporate culture you’re establishing. Short-term fixes (coupons and discounts) to stimulate profits are drug-like highs and can often undermine or compromise the core values of a business. This sends your best employees scurrying to the doors because it signals leadership panic plus a loss of stability and commitment to the people and brand promise.

Want to increase your profits? Increase your contribution, capacity, and capability to add value to your employees, customers, and stakeholders. Always look for substantive ways to create fundamental improvements in profitability. Everyone profits when we recognize it is profits AND people, not profits or people.

 


Are You Engaged In A Business Innovation and Re-Invention?

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Note: The On-Purpose Business Experience is now called ONPURPOSE@WORK. We don’t have any scheduled yet for 2017.

Business innovation and re-invention have sex appeal. Shoring up your market niche, refining your business processes, honing your marketing, improving your understanding of your customers’ needs, and becoming a world class expert demand hard work, attention to detail, and faith—in other words, not so sexy!

Business innovation is a great concept, yet in execution, I’ve generally seen that most businesses innovate and reorganize out of weakness and innovationboredom instead of strength and passion. That means they’re fixing what’s broken and calling it innovation when in fact the fundamentals weren’t in place as is. Hopping from idea to idea is symptomatic of an unsettled and non-strategic business owner prone to chasing squirrels or shiny new objects.

Have you gotten caught up in the frenzied strategy and talk of business innovation and re-invention? Innovation and re-invention make for sound bites, but they just don’t replace a good old-fashioned ethic of working hard, caring for the customer, rewarding the employees, and creating a better value at a better price that focuses on serving people extraordinarily well. Yet, capitalism works!

Small business owners—in particular—are susceptible to the allure of innovation and re-invention. I’ve advised far too many business owners over the years whose “grass is always greener” mentality prevents them from benefiting from years, sometimes decades, of investment and effort to build a business. I have yet to find a small business that couldn’t be improved by at least 10% if it just stopped talking about itself and actually marketed itself in its customers’ self-interest.

I believe everyone is a leader of something. It starts with their own life and radiates outward from there. I also believe that everyone has genius designed into them where they are amazing experts.  

I’m an Apple Mac fan. When you walk into an Apple retail store you’ll discover the Genius Bar where you can get help with your Apple purchases. Apple gets that people have a genius about them so why not get help from fellow geniuses?

Here’s an example from our local community. A few years ago Judith, my wife, and I walked Hamlet (our dog) to the Winter Park Farmers Market to browse and get some fresh vegetables. There was a gentleman, Mike Mannix, selling homemade organic vanilla bean extract. I asked Mike how he got involved with starting his business. Mike unraveled an amazing and romantic notion of vanilla beans in history, how they are cultivated and harvested in a few places in the world, and why vanilla beans were so expensive and special. Wow! Talk about a passion for his product. Mike may be one of the top 100 experts in the world in vanilla beans. Does it matter? To me, he was the #1 expert in the world. I trusted his expertise within 5 minutes of meeting him. Order from Mike at Mannix Vanilla.

You can be that same specialist in your business or industry—the person who is highly regarded by peers and customers alike for your expertise. Follow your passion, be odd, look crazy, see the world differently, be yourself, trust your instincts, make a difference!

Hey, look at me! I am the #1 expert in the world in helping people be on-purpose. That isn’t boasting; that’s quiet confidence because I’ve been at this since the late 1980s. I’m shoring up my business to go deep in order to help this message go more places.

How much more innovation and re-invention do you need? If you love what you do, then double down your efforts, pay attention to the details, and become a better marketer. Learn how to sell. The rest will take care of itself.

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Great tool: How do you go deep? In The On-Purpose Business Person, you’ll find The Service Model. Here is a method and model that will help you to look below the obvious front line of your business to get to the depth of building a sustainable and profitable business. For less than a couple of bucks, you can gain access to this tool and built-in instructions all on one page. Imagine having your entire business strategy and plan laid out on one page!

Use this tool to rapidly think through, structure, and show the relationship of the different hats you wear as the head of a business or a career. By the way, every job is actually a solo owner business!



What Do You Do? (The “Do Do Dialogue”)

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You’re at a business or social event and the inevitable question arises, “What do you do?” Now is the time for your “Elevator Speech” to kick in and smartly sell your product or service. Or is it?

Most often we tell the inquirer our job category (e.g., I’m an accountant, plumber, salesperson … ) or job title (VP, realtor, sales representative) and where we work. At this point, the conversation often goes relatively quiet as they offer an unknowing, polite, or perhaps perfunctory response about your work, “That’s nice.”

If you dislike your work, perhaps ending the conversation about your job plays to your advantage by avoiding a disheartening conversation. It may also be that the person was simply making polite conversation and has no real interest in your business.

The other extreme is the canned elevator speech where your tightly crafted unique selling proposition is flawlessly presented worthy of a Toastmasters’ award. You’ve rehearsed it over and over so now you’ve said it. What do you get in return?

“Oh! That’s nice,” again. Then the person walks away for fear of being sold or bored by a rehearsed jerk with robotic responses. You were insensitive to the person.

No one likes to feel stupid or feel like they are being sold. Under either approach, at best they only have a shallow concept of what you really do and how you truly make a difference for your clients or customers. In short, you’re either putting them to work figuring out what you do or you’re working them over with your sales pitch.

The Do Do Dialogue takes a bit of thinking on your feet mixed with some advanced preparation. The goal isn’t to sell or present. Rather it is to discover how you can help them, how they can help you, or what a referral or recommendation looks like for either of you. (Yes, some of us actually think that way from the start).

Assuming, however, that you are an on-purpose business person working in an on-purpose position, then you truly are interested in the on-purpose business approach of Doing More Of What You Do Best More Profitably. If that’s the case, then your response to their question just short-circuited an organic opportunity to earn a new client or gain a source of referrals or just make a friend.

Instead, what if you had a respectful and relevant response that actually got the person interested in what you do—or at least more interested—while providing a clear understanding of your on-purpose customer? 

In either a business or social setting, before you show up, think about where you’re going to be. Who you’re going to meet. This gives a huge clue as to appropriateness of response. If you’re at a neighborhood block party or the Chamber of Commerce Lunch, then you’re walking into different settings. Be wise to that.

Here’s the social setting response when asked, “What do you do?” I quickly assess whom I’m speaking with: a retired person, a young mom, an unkempt teenager, or a man in his working years.

“Do you know how many (retired persons, moms, teens, or working adults) often feel that their life is meaningless?”

Their response is typically, “Yes.”

Then I say, “I help my clients write their purpose in life and make decisions that are aligned with it so they are on-purpose rather than off-purpose.” The next question from them is typically, “How do you do that? Are you some kinda life coach?”

My response isn’t to directly answer their question, but to probe a bit further. “Why do you ask? Do you know someone who is looking to know their purpose in life?”

At this point they’ll talk about themselves or someone they know. Now I can probe further. “Tell me about that.” So rather than telling them I have a company that “does life coaching,” I model it for them by becoming interested in them.

In a business setting, I’ll assess the person but unless I know otherwise, I always assume they are a P&L business leader because that’s my clientele. I want them to get someone in mind who needs my help.

I’ll say, “Do you know how stressful it is for (business owners, sales people, executives) who are charged with making (a profit, sales, a budget)?”

Their response is typically, “Yes.”

My next “do question” is likely to be, “Does someone come to mind?”

Again, they’ll either self-identify or get someone in mind. Then, I probe further, “So what’s that story?”

Each of these series of questions has the potential to open up a powerful conversation about either the person or someone they know and just might introduce you to. 

Learn the “Do Do Dialogue” and you’ll transform small talk into engaging opportunities. Who knows, you might just gain a new client or a referral and truly do more of what you do best more profitably.

Subscribe for free to The On-Purpose Minute and On-Purpose Business Minute. Enroll by clicking here and following the instructions.

What’s Your Elevator Speech?

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The Elevator Speech or Elevator Pitch is one of the staples of sales training and business development. But is it really effective? In this classic On-Purpose Business Minute, conventional wisdom is challenged.  

In 2010, I was speaking at a leadership event with 550 highly successful independent health coaches. When I described the “Do Do Dialogue” (The On-Purpose Minute for next week) the audience was intrigued and asked me lots of questions during and after the event. When originally produced, this video along with the Do Do Dialogue were posted on a web page rather than my blog so I’ve posted them both for convenience.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin W. McCarthy

Are You Feeling Successful?

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Success! Everyone wants it. Olympic Games dramatically remind us that success on the podium with a gold medal is a vaunted position. The discipline of hard work, sacrifice, and a coachable attitude comes with a remarkable reward and distinction for the rest of the athlete’s life.

Success also comes with responsibility if we choose to acknowledge and embrace the opportunities it opens commercially and influentially. Whether it is in sports, business, or the home, success sets one apart as having garnered an achievement. There is the event itself, but true success can be thought of as what one does after the accomplishment.

Success in life, however, is rarely recognized when compared to the fields of endeavor in sports and business. The only gold medal most moms get will be in their choice of flour for baking. 

Several years ago I was working out at the local high school stadium by running the stadium steps. As I crossed the track to go into the stands, a young, extraordinarily fit African-American woman sat stretching. We smiled and acknowledged one another. Moments later I saw one of the fastest human beings I’ve ever seen in person move down the track in a 100 meter sprint. She was scary fast. At the finish line stood her coach with his stop watch in hand. As I jogged my up-and-down stadium steps circuit through the bleachers I watched this scenario replay out several more times.

Curious, I stopped to talk with her coach. “What’s she training for?” I asked. He smiled, “She got back from the Summer Olympic Trials and didn’t make the team. She has a slightly hurt knee and she’s mad at herself for not qualifying.” He excused himself for just under 11 seconds to time her as she swished by the finish line yet again in a Nike moment.

Success for her meant making the Olympic team, but it wasn’t to be. This young lady is no failure, however, unless she decided to limit her success to being an Olympian or winning a gold medal — fleeting accomplishments instead of permanent character qualities. She’s learning the power of setting goals, managing disappointment, working hard, being coachable, self-discovery, and much more that will serve her for life.

Years ago I was a speaker at a convention of general agents in the life insurance business as a non-industry expert. Also presenting was a general agent who spoke in his bold and glowing “How I did it” terms to the awestruck adoring throng of gathered general agents. He talked about reaching a billion dollars in commissions in one year. This man had the swagger and air of gold medal success. 

Afterwards, I waited my turn to chat with him. One question I asked him metaphorically knocked him to the ground, “Now that you’ve reached a billion, what’s next?” He had invested decades in this “impossible dream” and had reached his tallest imaginable podium. Panic washed across his face. He didn’t have a clue what to do next with his life! A couple of decades later I’m happy to report that he has created a business to teach other insurance agents what he learned so others can follow in his footsteps.

Back to our young sprinter: she may not yet have achieved her Olympic dream but the character, discipline, and willingness to be coached are life skills few people ever master. She’s learned to set goals, to discover her inner motivation, and to work hard. Success comes in many forms often with the rare blessing of the gold medal, but more often than not without the #1 in the world standing for one brief, shining moment. For the other competitors, success is often wrapped in the intangible qualities of having been in the game as a fierce competitor playing to a world class standard to the best of one’s ability. 

The popular movie Rudy is a bright example of how becoming a success can be measured on one’s own terms. Gold medals come and go, but golden moments last a lifetime and need to be cherished for whom we have become on the inside and how we pass along our life lessons. If we dwell too long on the agony of external defeat, then we risk becoming bitter and defeated as our identity was gold-plated. The true solid gold victory is that of becoming a better person on the inside and passing it along.

Success Modeled By Don Budge

As a former USPTA tennis teaching professional and ranked player, I had the rare privilege of getting to know and sometimes play against or with former world class tennis professionals. Aside from their remarkable physical attributes there is typically a marked difference in their thinking, attitude, and point of view. The game is simpler and clearer to them. They possess a quietness of mind and capacity to zone into the experience thanks to preparation and practice. Success, therefore, is expected. The champion, however, has learned to face on-the-court failure repeatedly in such a manner that the disappointment of loss is not failure, per se, but revelation of and a pathway of growth to the next level.

As a young tennis player I had a wonderful personal relationship with Don Budge, the first person to win the Grand Slam in one calendar year (1938). Mr. Budge told the story of winning a national championship one year and returning home in deep dismay. He realized his western forehand grip on his wooden racquet was his Achilles’ heel. In those days, it would be exploited by more advanced competitors and prevent him from reaching the next level. He called that his year of having permission to hit the (back) fences. With a rebuilt grip, his forehand stroke was solid and eventually he became the greatest tennis player of his era. Some forty years later, I had the pleasure to know and work with this true champion when I was 17 and 18. Some forty plus years after that, I still think of the character of the man even more than his accomplishments which included winning the Sullivan Award for Sportsmanship. Mr. Budge was the real deal through and through.

Find success by defining what is YOUR success. Apply yourself to it with your heart, mind, soul, and spirit. Certainly strive to create the external win. As important, acknowledge the internal win of becoming more the person God designed you to be and become. That’s the platinum medal that isn’t awarded but is earned as a lifetime achievement daily. That’s what it means to be on-purpose!

But don’t stop there! Learn to pay it forward and bring others along with you so they, too, can discover their genius and contribution.

Be On-Purpose!
Kevin

 

Who’s Reviewing Your Business Plan?

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So you’re making plans for 2017. Who’s reviewing your business? Who’s challenging you to think about things differently? Without a review, you’re at risk of management myopia. So who’s reviewing your business plan?

Heading into the new year provides a fresh start of sorts for your business. The holidays are here, but business tends to slow down in many industries. Now is the ideal time to be planning for the future, to make great strides in your business, to re-think, re-tool, and re-engage your team based on lessons learned in the first 11 months of the year.

Reflecting on the lessons of the year so far and projecting into the future are beneficial exercises. Committing your thoughts to paper provides your team (and you) with a blueprint for building the business.

Are you willing to risk an end-of-year review and make adjustments to your business plan? You better be! It will be some of the best time and money you’ll ever invest. An independent business assessment provides sight into your blind spots. This reveals danger spots as well as missed opportunities.

The closing days of 2016 can be some of your most productive planning days. Don’t blow it by being content or simply checking out.

Mark Goldstein, the president of the Central Florida Christian Chamber of Commerce, often says, “No one loves the creation as much as the creator.” As the creator of a business, isn’t it great to have such devotion and love for one’s work? Yes, but, as Mark so rightly points out, there’s a side to being the creator that can bite us in the long run. Blind devotion to our ideas can lead to folly.

What if you don’t have a business plan to review? That’s manageable! There are plenty of options out there to help you, including On-Purpose Partners.

Writing a business plan need not be onerous. Know the reason why and assess the context of your business plan. Sample business plans and templates are widely available on the web. Business plan software programs are helpful. Candidly, a formal business plan is typically overkill for most small business owners unless you are raising money or borrowing from the bank.

How do I write a business plan? Here’s a simple suggestion: in lieu of writing a business plan, create a strategic plan at the top level of your thinking using The Service Model from The On-Purpose Business Person. It will help you identify relationships of essential activities in each level. You’ll also discover gaps in your thinking that may have been hidden from you under the surface of business activity and customer service and care.

There are two prominent weaknesses in the “Process” level for most small and mid-sized businesses:

  1. Marketing and Sales
  2. People

Most entrepreneurs who start businesses often have an operations or technical expertise rather than a sales or personnel background. Pay particular attention here when creating your business plan! Get help here sooner rather than later by outsourcing to agencies.

No matter what, your business (plan) will be “reviewed” by the marketplace in terms of revenues earned. How well your customers receive and respond to your products or services will provide amazing feedback. Avoidable poor performance, however, is an expensive price to pay for just mindlessly heading into the next season.

Now, are you willing to have your business plan be reviewed? Before you invest and commit your time, money, energy, and team to a hope and dream plan, consider having your business, marketing and sales plan, and people plan scrutinized if not by me, then consider some of the resources below:

  1. A SCORE (Service Core Of Retired Executives) volunteer.
  2. Your trusted industry or business peer group and advisors.
  3. Me! I’m available to review your business plan and to help you refine it so you aren’t blindsided and have better success in the market.

Think you can’t afford to have your business plan reviewed? Think again! You can NOT afford to NOT have it reviewed. To paraphrase an old saying, “An ounce of planning is worth a pound of cure.”

We get annual physicals for our bodies, but what about the body of one’s work … the business? On-Purpose Partners provides an independent check-up on businesses to assess what’s working, what isn’t, and what to do about it.

Let me help you anticipate some of the land mines as well as focus your energy and effort on what matters most to get the results. I offer small business advisory packages starting as low as $1,000 for businesses with revenues less than $2 million. Email me to make the arrangements.

Employee Engagement: How Are Your Three E’s?

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Peter Drucker, the famous management guru, spoke of doing business with effectiveness and efficiency. Let’s add another “E” to the equation: Engagement, as in “employee” engagement. Learn to assess your career and business using these 3 E’s and you’ll be amazed what might be revealed about your career, team, or business. 

Engagement has more recently come to the forefront of employee discussions by The Gallup Organization. I admit to being a huge fan of their work on Employee Engagement. Twenty years ago, I had the pleasure of partnering with a Gallup leader on a client assignment, and I was roundly impressed. Several years back, I reconnected with their work again through a client’s company. Their books and StrengthsFinder survey are first rate as well.

Jim Harter, Ph.D., author of New York Times bestseller 12: The Elements of Great Managing, talks about the power of Gallup’s 12 questions at this Gallup site.

Team Engagement is one of the primary measures for a Chief Leadership Officer™. If you’re leading a business, then you need to get your head into this topic. Leadership of people is the future — engage with it! Be a CLO

Efficiency. Effectiveness. Engagement

Chapter 7 of Chief Leadership Officer will positively rock your take on employee engagement. Basically, the very use of the term “employee” dooms the engagement effort to failure. An employer-employee relationship is transactional. Whereas, engagement is relational.

Chief Leadership Officer – order your book today!

Who Cares About Leading The Business?

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Leading the business carries responsibilities. Being aPurpose of Organization business advisor and strategic management consultant for more than a couple of decades, I can tell you the single, simplest, most overlooked root of more problems in organizations is the failure to articulate, communicate, and execute based on the purpose of the organization (Po). Its absence is massively expensive; its presence nourishes the corporate culture for productive and efficient growth in people and profits.

Someone in charge, however, has to care. Is that you who is leading the business?

This lack of deep strategic clarity muddles every aspect of the organization. People, process, performance, profits, customer service, and operations are just a few of the functional areas informed by a potent, simple, 2-word purpose statement. 

Yet, purpose statements are amazingly misunderstood, unappreciated, and under-engaged. In businesses, I’ve seen the benefit of the leadership team knowing and executing on their purpose produce a 25% or more increase in sales and even greater percentage increases in profits. 

Are you finally ready to set a strategic cornerstone and write your purpose statement? Remember, it is just a beginning but an essential start. I recommend that all business clients first write their personal purpose statement before they do the business statement.