Small Business

What Makes for a Good Day’s Work?

October 19, 2017 By kwmccarthy

What is your measure for a good day’s work?

Chances are you know a good day when you have one, but do you have any specific measures that you could apply to your workday? If you don’t have specific measures, then is it any surprise that so many days are less than fulfilling?

A consistent comment I hear from business advisory clients is dissatisfaction and lack of personal productivity.

Because most of my clients are business owners, CEOs, and presidents, they tend to measure company sales and profits as the basis of success. Of course, that measure is really one for the business, not the person.

Today I’m turning to you to share your standard(s) for what makes for a good day’s work for you. Please use the comments section below today’s On-Purpose Business Minute to share your thoughts with all of us.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

What Is In Your September Plan?

August 17, 2017 By kwmccarthy

(This video mentions the year 2010. No matter the year, having a September plan is good for your business.)

Summer is almost over.

Many of us are just returning from vacation and others are just getting ready to close out the summer by heading on vacation. We’re executing on our family and personal plans put in place some months ago. Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?

Image via Wikipedia

September in the Northern Hemisphere provides a restart of sorts.

It isn’t like New Year’s Day, but in a sense it can function much like it because it gives us the opportunity to finish the year strong. September is a time to reboot the business.

From now until New Year’s Eve is a great stretch to really make strides in your career or business.

But you need a plan. So let’s talk about a September Plan.

With just a couple of weeks left in August, let’s get our heads ahead of the game and start making plans today for September through the remainder of the year.

What do you want to accomplish?
Who do you need to see?
What decision do you need to make?

Plan now and you’ll hit September in full stride and have the momentum to carry you through the fall and into the first days of winter.

Are You Managing Your Profits?

March 9, 2017 By kwmccarthy

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.

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?

February 16, 2017 By kwmccarthy

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 boredom 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.

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”)

January 26, 2017 By kwmccarthy

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.

Who’s Reviewing Your Business Plan?

December 8, 2016 By kwmccarthy

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:

Marketing and Sales
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:

A SCORE (Service Core Of Retired Executives) volunteer.
Your trusted industry or business peer group and advisors.
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.

How Do I Focus My Small Business?

July 14, 2016 By kwmccarthy

As you stare at the walls of your office, your mind swirls with a hundred different items on your mental To Do List. You haven’t got a clue what to do next because everything seems important. By default you open up your email so at least you’re keeping up with something. A couple of hours pass at the keyboard and your list is only longer and you’re further behind than when you began. A sinking feeling leaves you even more overwhelmed and disappointed with yourself. Ugh! How do I go about organizing the business? How do I get more focused and productive? I’ll deal with it … tomorrow.

Admit it, you know this scenario all too well. And it bugs you because it is sabotaging your business, your dreams, and your finances. With so much on the line, you wonder, How can I be so stuck?

Over the decades of working with business owners, this shallow pattern of performance is most often associated with an ill-defined or out of focus business. While brilliant ideas abound in your brain, there’s no blueprint to build the business. Would you hire a home builder to construct your house who didn’t have blueprints? Yet, you’ll build your business without the most basic of plans.

There’s a reason most SOHO (small office, home office) business owners don’t write their plans. It is called flexibility and responsiveness to opportunity. Unfortunately, keeping your options open typically results in a cycle of learning, but not one of earning. The secret to building your business is to create an economically efficient engine of profit. Once the engine is up and running, you can afford to invest in your other ideas. Depth, not breadth, is essential. This takes discipline and commitment … to a well designed, thoughtful, written plan.

Here are three On-Purpose^® tools to help you gain focus and sustain it:

Use The Discovery Guide to clarify which of your many options is the best. This “Want List and Tournament” tool is a free download and can be used for many situations, such as clarifying which opportunity makes the most sense for you and why.
The Service Model is a simple tool to map out why and how to design and build your business on one page starting with purpose.
My On-Purpose Folder is a self or small group guided process to develop your personal leadership capacity. When you’re in mental disarray, your business will reflect it too.

You may think you have a plan, but you may not. Candidly ask yourself, Just how is my plan working? If you’re not obtaining adequate results, speed to market, or profits, then please consider a small business advisory package. Let us help you bring order, focus, clarity, and direction to your business enterprise by guiding and documenting your business plan and model. Organizing the business is a couple of clicks and a few hours away.

Sales Growth? How Do I Improve it?

April 28, 2016 By kwmccarthy

Sales growth challenge?

What if you had a volunteer sales force spreading the word about your goods and services? Would your business grow? Of course it would. Unfortunately too many of us who are small business or solo owners aren’t clear in our minds about who we are, our ideal on-purpose customer, and our value proposition. In fact, we may not even have a workable mechanism to get paid for our goods and services.

You’re a few short questions away from having a sales force of people recommending your business and getting the sales growth you want. Write out your answer to The 3 Knows:

Know who you are — identity.
Know who you serve.
Know how you profit or add value to your clients.

Equip people to help you build your business and be willing to ask for their help.

Try this sales growth exercise to see how on-purpose your team is. Ask your sales team and sales support to respond to The 3 Knows above. Compare results and candidly assess how much alike or different the responses are. This will help you gauge just how clearly communicate the core sales growth strategy is for your business.

Another option is to ask five customers or clients to respond. You’ll learn a lot about how easy it is for people to refer or recommend you.

Participate in the economy, but don’t go to the pity party.

A sure way to kill your sales growth (and business) is to blame the economy. Here’s an easy target for slumping sales. The only problem is that it is a distracting and useless exercise. Blame is a losing strategy. You don’t control the economy. U.S. Presidents think they do, but they don’t. Instead focus on items that are under your control and that help to increase sales growth. You do have a degree of control over your economy. Answer The 3 Knows.

Tough times are even tougher especially when we allow ourselves to get distracted from what we do best. In my engagements with business owners, sales persons, entrepreneurs, and executives with P&L responsibility, their greatest challenges are almost always self-inflicted. They just don’t know what they don’t know.

That’s the value of a business advisor, especially one who isn’t an industry insider. We see your business differently. We ask questions. We don’t assume to understand. We’re curious to find out what’s working, what isn’t, and why.

A poor economy reveals what boom times hide.

Use the season of a sluggish economy to strengthen the business by focusing on what is on-purpose. Again the 3 Knows matter big time here.

Test the first of the 3 Knows. Ask someone what they do. Chances are they’ll offer up their title or role, e.g. “I’m a banker,” “I’m a salesperson,” “I’m a health coach,” “I’m a business owner.”

So what?

This lazy response reflects an underlying strategic issue of identity confusion. Don’t expect people to understand what it is you do.

Create your DoDo Dialogue. Here’s a fast, easy way to more rapidly and meaningfully engage a volunteer word-of-mouth sales force to send you referrals and recommendations. All because you “bothered” to make their understanding of what you do easily memorable, relatable, and frankly, more exciting. Don’t network for business. Instead, go to equip your volunteer sales force. By the way, be sure to ask them about their 3 Knows first. You’ll have your turn to share.

Watch your sales grow as you equip and inform rather than network and hand out business cards.