One of the most costly mistakes for small business owners is making a bad hiring decision.  Losing the money spent on recruiting, the time to interview the candidates, and the time and cost spent on employee training are a few of the major profit-squeezers that result from hiring mistakes.

Some entrepreneurs attempt to reduce risk by hiring family or friends-which in most cases proves to be the worst hiring mistake of all.  It is difficult for most people to accept the relationship transition from family member to employee.  Most often, those friendships will end in resentment and disappointment.  When a veteran small business owner tells you, “Never hire family!” you can bet he’s learned the hard way.

With a little skill and guidance, small business owners can learn much about potential candidates by understanding resumes.  When reading resumes, there are three great things to look for-and two traps to watch out for.

Hiring the Right People

When reading a resume, the three things to look for are:

1.  Industry experience

You’ll make shortcuts in new employee training if your new hire has previous experience in your industry.  You will see a faster return on investment with your new employee when he or she already understands what your customers want.  Prior industry experience also means he or she may have a business following that will result in added revenue for your business.

2.  Transferable skills

Very often transferable skills are as critical as industry experience.  Skills such as customer service, problem solving, sales and/or crisis management are valuable in almost every industry.  Before interviewing candidates, make sure you understand the five most important transferable skills needed for the position you are hiring. Keep those skills in mind when reviewing resumes. Candidates whose resumes showcase those skills should be considered whether they have industry experience or not. An industry can be learned, but great customer service or superb selling skills can only be acquired with time and experience.

3.  Accomplishments

When reading through resumes, look for applicants who write about their accomplishments.  These are candidates who understand the bottom-line initiatives of an organization. A resume that mentions saving time, cutting costs, and solving customer disputes represents someone who can handle your problems as well.

On the flip side, when reading resumes watch out for these two traps:

1.  Unstable work history

Pay attention to the dates on a resume.  While the life expectancy of a job isn’t what it was a generation ago, a string of short-term positions should be a concern. Candidates with too many jobs in too short of a time usually have excuses for all of them-sometimes even great excuses.  But good excuses aren’t the same thing as good reasons.  If you see a consistent pattern of instability, beware!  This may be a candidate who (1) doesn’t get along with authority; (2) loses interest in his job after time; or (3) is just plain inept.  Beware also of unexplained gaps in employment, which may indicate even more serious problems.

2.  Unfocused career path

While it’s quite normal for one’s career path to shift, candidates whose resumes show opposing career directions may indicate uncertainty about their career path.  Look out for candidates who have held contrasting positions like “sales” and “accounting,” or “account manager” and “librarian.”  This may be a candidate who doesn’t know what he wants in his career.  After working for you as customer service rep, he may decide he really wants to be a dog groomer!

With practice you’ll gain expertise at reading between the lines of a resume.  Remember the three great things to look for and the two traps to avoid, and you’ll save yourself valuable time, money and effort in hiring new employees.

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Deborah Walker, Small Business Coach helps entrepreneurs navigate the hiring maze with tips and suggestions on how to recruit, interview and hire the best employees.  Her veteran experience as a former executive recruiter gives her the unique perspective to help you avoid the pitfalls of bad hiring decisions.  Learn how Deborah can help your business at: www.RevenueQueen.com

What motivates you to market your business…the REAL motivation? Is it fear of not having enough money? Imagining the ripple effect of helping your clients live more authentic, vibrant lives? Looking at the photograph of an aunt who swore you’d never amount to anything?

All potent enough motivators, for sure.

What’s interesting to notice is whether your motivation is going toward or going away energy. That’s because when we are motivated away from something, the results we get tend to be erratic; when we are motivated toward, we get consistent, escalating results. Let me explain with two examples:

Leandra Leandra doesn’t like marketing and self-promotion, but she has to bring in a certain amount of money each month from her private therapeutic practice for teens. So each month, she trudges off to networking meetings and puts up a new article on her website. Some months, she gets a lot of response; other months, nary a call.

This is an example of away-motivated marketing. Leandra markets only to stave off the financial wolf at the door.

What gets forgotten in her marketing equation is how much she LOVES counseling teens. She’s marketing because she needs the money. Imagine how different her results might be if Leandra’s marketing was going toward her passion for working with teens.

Frank Frank has an accounting background; he started his career in a large accounting firm and then worked for several large corporations. He’s now a coach who works with self-employed people who aren’t comfortable with finances. It was a no-brainer, he thought, to leverage his experience in accounting when defining his niche.

His first year as a coach was quite successful. But this year, he’s been putting off his marketing tasks. Seems like everything is such a chore: organizing teleclasses, putting out a consistent newsletter, following up leads. Naturally, his business is not thriving; it’s not down the drain, but it pokes along rather than races, like it did his first year.

The problem is that Frank really wants to be coaching people considering leaving the corporate world to develop work they find more meaningful. His marketing got great results his first year out, because it was new and exciting to be out on his own. But marketing to his self-employed niche has become a “should”-one of the key signs of going away motivation.

Finding yourself engaging in a “should” or “must” or “have to” is a big clue that you may be engaging in the less reliable going away motivation. Think about it…is it any fun at all to do something because you “should?” Yuck!

A couple of other clues to going away motivation:

1. Using negations. I market my practice because I don’t want to lose clients. (What DO you want?)
2. Comparing. I market my practice because if I do, I’ll have more money and a better life. (This is a little trickier. Notice that by comparing, the focus is on what you don’t have right now, not on what you want.)

Going toward motivation is all about getting clear on what we want and then putting our marketing muscle behind that.

So…what do YOU want?

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Linda Puig is a newsletter marketing expert, a writer with nearly 30 years’ professional experience and president of Claire Communications, which provides high-quality, low-cost articles to busy professionals who don’t have the time or inclination to write articles. www.articlesforsale.net

“Nothing is so infectious as example.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

In conducting team building training and management skills training all over the world since 1995, I’ve discovered there are nine essential ingredients that consistently crop up in creating high performance teams. Listed below are the top nine beginning with communication.

High Performance Teams

9 Things a Leader Can Do To Energize and Motivate Employees To Extraordinary Performance:

1) Communication: Open, honest communication between team members and the team leader about an organization’s vision and clearly defined goals. Not to mention a team leader needs training in people skills and how to manage people effectively. Most team leaders are promoted based on their “hard skills” or technical skills, but it doesn’t mean they can create high performance teams. They must become effective at communicating, listening and resolving conflict. And everyone on the team needs training in conflict resolution and how to be an effective communicator. Each team member has been raised differently from childhood in terms of what’s acceptable communication. So training helps to keep the team leader and team members on the same page. The key is in becoming tactfully direct.

2) High performance teams possess purpose and direction. They have clearly defined goals, objectives and responsibilities. When I go into an organization and conduct team building training, team leaders tell me all the time how important it is for teams to understand their roles, expectations, and responsibilities. Team members want to know what specific goals and objectives they’re being evaluated on. Make sure the performance objectives are measurable, quantifiable, and in writing for accountability. Have goals and objectives for the team as a whole as well as for each team member and include everyone on these goals. For example, if team members are in sales, a goal states in writing that each of them are to develop ten new accounts representing gross sales of at least $20,000 by December 31 of this year.

3) A key component to high performance teams is active participation, accountability and sense of ownership on the team leader’s end as well as from the team members. Being a more powerful leader means being an involved leader. Participation and ownership also sets a precedent for what’s expected of each team player – teamwork. One contributor to low team morale is when one or two team members hide out in the success of the rest of the team. Everyone else is doing the work. I guarantee you this is not going unnoticed. Hold everyone to the same high standards. Start taking progressive disciplinary action if a team member is not doing his or her job. If you don’t take progressive disciplinary action you’ll lose credibility as a team leader who enables poor performance.

Effective Team Leaders Are Listeners

4) Trust between team members and the team leader. Effective team leaders are listeners. They solicit feedback truly be productive if there isn’t trust between the team members and the team leader. Always do and listen to employees’ suggestions and concerns. It’s difficult for a team to be productive if there isn’t trust between the team members and team leader. Always do what you say you are going to do. That one thing you promise your team that you can’t deliver on will be the one thing they remember.  Many employees don’t quit their jobs. They quit their team leaders and managers.

5) Strong, effective leadership filtering down is essential to effective team building and creating high performance teams. A team leader must possess the ability to coach. Having a “coach mentality” and helping team members to grow, develop and mature is a necessary skill. It’s part of your job!  Don’t do everything for your team members otherwise they never learn to do things themselves. Even if you’re thinking, “Well, if I want it done right I might as well do it myself.” Look at the word “team leader.” You are there to lead.

6) Proper resources, funding and training necessary to get the job done. Do you have the right people for the job? Your people are your most important resource. Have they been properly trained? Do they have the right equipment to do the job effectively? Training is an important part of team building and leadership. Employees tell me all the time they want additional training to sharpen their skills. They want to be given essential tools that will develop their skill set. It makes them feel valued and important. As if their organization is willing to invest in them for the long term.

7) High performance teams believe in equality and a shared vision, shared sense of purpose. Everyone has a sense of inclusion. Everyone treats each other equally, fairly and objectively. The whole team is included in goals and even social events.

8) Respect. The team leader has respect for the team. This boosts the confidence of the team members. They have respect for each other which leads to increased morale, productivity and a high performing team.

9) Willingness to share job knowledge, skills, and ideas. The team leader is the role model. If you’re willing to share knowledge and ideas, you’re training your team to do the same. Better yet, include “willingness to share job knowledge, skills and ideas” in team members’ performance reviews. If they know they’re being evaluated on these factors, they’re more likely to perform.

Another ingredient central to creating high performance teams: it’s imperative that both the team leader and the team have a positive attitude. As one group of team leaders told me, “A key element of any successful team is no bad attitudes allowed!”

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Colleen Kettenhofen is a professional speaker and author who has presented in 47 states and six countries. She is co-author of “The Masters of Success,” featured on NBC’s Today Show. Popular topics: leadership, management skills, difficult people, public speaking. For free articles and e-newsletter visit www.ColleenSpeaks.com Colleen is available for keynotes, breakout sessions and seminars. (800)323-0683 www.ColleenSpeaks.com

Over the years as a recruiter and resume coach, I’ve seen the consequences of poorly written resumes.  Unfortunately, most people don’t seek professional career help until they experience the frustration of a long and fruitless job search.  It’s surprising how many of their problems can be traced to the top five resume mistakes.

Top Resume Mistakes

#1  No resume focus.

The most effective resumes leave no doubt as to the job seeker’s career objective.  A one-size-fits-all resume gives the impression that the job seeker is uncertain of his career goal.  An employer once told me that if a candidate is interested in two completely different positions, he must not be very good at either.  If you have more than one career objective, you need more than one resume.

#2  Lack of marketing strategy.

Job seekers rarely see their search for what it is-a sales campaign.  Think of your resume as marketing material designed to create a powerful first impression and win a multitude of job interviews.  A resume coach can help you translate your career history into an effective marketing piece by selling toward the reader’s buying motives: solving problems, saving money, or increasing profits.

#3  No accomplishment statements.

95% of all resumes lack accomplishment statements.  These statements allow employers to visualize your contribution to their company.  A resume coach can help you move from a job description type resume to a resume with quantifiable statements that motivate employers to call you before their competition does.  These statements can dollarize your worth and increase your bargaining power.

#4  Lack of resume keywords.

These days, resumes are screened by both humans and computers.  A resume lacking in keywords runs the risk of being read by neither.  An average screening of a resume is 15 seconds or less, so more attention is paid to resumes using the same words found in the job description. Candidate-tracking software retrieves resumes by keywords. A keyword-focused resume will put you front and center.

#5  Incorrect resume format.

Basically, there are three resume formats: chronological, functional and hybrid.

Chronological:  The chronological is best known and easiest to write, a time-line style resume. This format works well if your objective is to remain in the same industry or occupation.

Functional:  The functional resume places transferable skills and accomplishments at the beginning of your resume. However, a poorly crafted functional resume can be confusing, causing the reader to believe the candidate has something to hide.

Hybrid:  The hybrid resume combines the best features of other resumes.   It showcases skills and accomplishments while maintaining ease of reading.  This is the best format for job seekers of all level, but it is also the most difficult to write, requiring thoughtful planning to identify the most critical transferable skills that will attract potential employer attention.

Once your resume is designed to avoid the top five resume mistakes, you will be well on your way to winning interviews and reaching your career objective.  How much is you old resume costing you in lost opportunities?

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Deborah Walker, Resume Coach, has spent years studying the art of fine resume crafting.  Her career-long focus on all phases of the employment process provides a solid base of knowledge for resume advice and coaching. Learn more about resume coaching at www.AlphaAdvantage.com

Ten seconds is all it takes to make a first impression – whether it’s your personal presentation or the first contact a potential client or customer has with your business through the telephone, website or other communication collateral.

Personal PR Makes a Difference

When they walk through their door – or you walk through theirs – your image is imprinted in the first moment.

Research has proven that 67% of first impressions are accurate. Your personal image tells the world who you are and where you are going. Your business image says the same. Every email, voicemail, and phone call you make creates first impressions that build your brand.

But it’s not just your logo or your business stationery that needs to look good. How you present yourself in person also says a lot about your brand. For many small business people or business entrepreneurs, you are your business and how your project yourself is vitally important to the success of your business.

How you shake hands, make eye contact, conduct yourself in social situations and the clothes you choose to wear contribute to your personal brand. Your image is like the weather. People notice when it’s extremely good or extremely bad. People shouldn’t judge us by our outward appearances but of course you know they will.  First impressions can indicate to a potential client, your sense of style, ambition and self-confidence level.

Another measure of your success in dealing with people is due to personality.

Your voice, way of talking, body language and the way you develop relationships with your clients all count towards giving you a ‘manner’. Your personal manner speaks loudly to other people. You may need to do some self-analysis on your plus and minus personality traits before establishing a self-satisfying public image.

Sometimes things like aggravating speech habits, lack of good manners, sloppy dress or grooming can be your worst enemies.

Punctuality, your tone of voice, these are the things about you that speak loud and clear to others. Make sure that they’re working for you.

I’m sure you’ve seen many examples of people who have had too much to drink at the office party and regretted things done or said. Perhaps not such good personal PR for career progression.

Maybe that date who sounded so promising on the telephone really let you down when you met and saw how badly dressed and untidy they were.

I’m not suggesting you need to have a complete makeover and invest a fortune in new clothes – but it is those little things that people notice.

You’ve no doubt invested a lot of time, effort and money into setting up your own business and learning many new skills – why not invest some time and effort into yourself – you’re worth it!

Business image – brand all letterhead, newsletters, email messages for a professional

Personal image – establish a strong visual image – develop your own style and personal brand. Be aware of grooming and professional dress sense.

Self image – get rid of bad habits, develop self-confidence and charm, walk tall and smile!

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Sue Currie, the director of Shine Communications Consultancy and author of Apprentice to Business Ace – your inside-out guide to personal branding, is a business educator and speaker on personal branding through image and media. Sign up for free monthly tips on personal and professional PR at www.shinecomms.com.au/ and learn more about how you can achieve recognition, enhance your image and shine.

5 quick ways to slow down the leaks in the money leaving your company so the money coming in can catch up

Bill Promptly

Ever find yourself so busy building your business and making deadlines that you don’t get around to billing on a regular basis? You’re not alone. In a consulting business I once owned, I often got so busy that every once in a while I forgot to have the invoices sent out until I realized I wouldn’t have the money for the next payroll. Seems like a stupid mistake, but it’s something that happens.

If you don’t already have a system in place, start (or assign an employee to start) billing for projects on a regular basis. When taking on longer-term projects or clients, negotiate in advance for regular payments based on time or upon reaching milestones instead of allowing the amount due to build up until completion of a contract.

Create Incentives for Faster Payments. Small businesses can sometimes significantly cut the time spent waiting for payment by offering a discount for quick payment. I have used this technique when necessary and have also been asked by customers if I offered that type of discount.

Basically I offered discounts of 1% or 2% for payment within 10 days. It is good for your bottom line and good for the business’s cash flow, too. The real bonus is that the customer thinks you are doing them a favor whether they choose to make the early payment or not.

Avoid Slow Pay/No Pay Customers

The best way to avoid cash flow problems because of customers or businesses not paying you is to weed out those slow pays/no pays before they become clients. So if someone is about to become a significant client or customer, do your homework.

Ask for, and check out, credit references.

Call other businesses that have had a relationship with the client. You might even pay for a credit check from an organization such as Experian or Dun & Bradstreet.

Consider Consolidating Your Loans

I know it’s often tough for small businesses to borrow money. It’s also surprising how some small businesses manage to get multiple loans.

If you have several loans related to your business, review the rates and terms on each one. You may be able to consolidate two or more loans into a lower-interest account and improve your cash flow.

Trim Your Inventory

If you can’t go to a “just-in-time” inventory management system like many manufacturers have adopted then how about “just-in-less-time”? Money spent on over stocked inventory is money that isn’t producing any interest or savings for you.

Copyright (c) 2007 George Sierchio www.actionbusinesspartners.com

Almost 50% of the new companies formed in the US and Canada fail within the first 3 years. Just because that happens to be the case, it doesn’t make seeing a business that somebody worked so hard for die any easier to watch.

I hope the following information will make an impact on curtailing the business death rate.

Why Businesses Fail

Under capitalization. Money is the root of all evil and it may well be the leading cause of small-business failures. Far too many small-business owners underestimate how much money they’re going to need, not merely to get the business started, but also to survive the inevitable up and downs that occur while trying to make a spot for themselves in the market.

Not having enough money from the onset of your business can start a spiral that you may never get out of.

Bad cash flow. This is the often-unseen relative of a lack of capital. Even businesses that move past the embryonic stage often collapse when incoming cash doesn’t at least offset expenses and other costs.

Your business can be making a ton of revenue but if the inflow of that revenue is less than the outflow of expenses, you have bad cash flow, which will spell trouble no matter how much revenue you generate.

Inadequate planning. Not surprisingly, this is the reason problems like capitalization and bad cash flow happen in the first place. It’s critical that you map out as comprehensive a business plan as possible, covering financial issues, marketing, growth and an array of other elements.

Granted, it can be time consuming, as a well-prepared plan can take weeks or months to complete. That time may also tell you that the new business venture or company expansion is not worth the time and money it will take to accomplish.

No target market. This is a two-part issue.
Part 1: Not setting a target market is a huge mistake made by many business owners, even in established businesses. Who will think your products/services are useful? It’s essential to develop a marketing strategy not merely to identify who might buy from you, but why.

Make certain your marketing strategy sets you apart so customers can clearly see why they would rather go to you than a competitor. More importantly, break down your target market as much as possible, especially if your product/service is not something used by a general audience.

Part 2: A solid target market should also keep you from making the mistake of trying to provide too many services or products, which will cause you to spread yourself too thin. Small, and especially new, companies often tend to look for a way to make money in any form they can instead of sticking to core products and services.

If this happens, the company will not be able concentrate already limited resources to selling and servicing the things the company was built for.

No competitive edge. Once you have determined a target market, now you have to make them know why you are special compared to the other guys selling the same thing. To gain an edge on your competition, you need to go into business with a Unique Selling Point (USP).

This is critical to gain some mustard behind the company and having something to exploit over the competition. Whether it’s a slightly different product or customer support that goes beyond your competitors; earmark that one element that sets your business apart.

Sometimes a “me too” operation works, but that usually happens when you are the first to bring a product or service to a market that has yet to be exposed to it. Figure out your USP and that will give you something specific to help market your company both online and offline to your target market.

Inadequate flexibility. This is where being one of the little fish is much better than being a goliath company. Big business has a lot of advantages when it comes to things that cost money and resources but they are fat and very inflexible. The small company has the ability to change directions on a dime.

Never forget to remain flexible. If a product isn’t quite right or a marketing campaign isn’t really flying, don’t be afraid to tinker. Making those sorts of on-the-fly adjustments is much tougher for the big guys.

Ignoring customer service. Don’t give the farm away and do tons of things free for customers or potential customers but be prepared to give a little extra. You and your employees should be looking to help out a customer when needed to show your appreciation for them providing a paycheck.

An overbearing customer is a problem but showing a little extra courtesy that doesn’t cost too much time and effort should be a given. That’s what keeps people coming back.

Trying to be everything to the business. As an entrepreneur or manager in a smaller company, you often have to wear many hats. The thing to avoid is wearing more than what fits on your head. Don’t try to be all things to your business.

If you can’t build a website, don’t try to become a website guru or do a half baked job, get some help. When a legal issue crops up, don’t rely on your self appointed legal skills to evaluate the legal ramification. Establish a long-term relationship with an attorney, preferably one with small-business acumen.

Great boss, so-so staff. A solid business with a knowledgeable, enthusiastic owner can often be brought down by inexperienced and unmotivated employees. Make certain your employees are well-trained, fairly compensated and somehow share in the desire that you have to be part of a great business.

Uncontrolled growth. This may make no sense, but it’s true; a small business that simply succeeds too quickly often pushes itself into an early grave. If your production fails to keep pace with demand or necessary expansion coincides with insufficient cash, the growth you dream about as an entrepreneur can actually threaten your business’ very existence.

Again, cover foreseeable growth in your original plan and track it adequately to make certain that it never gets dangerously out of hand.

Copyright (c) 2007 George Sierchio www.actionbusinesspartners.com

Here’s an interesting notion: Do you realize that there are mistakes you can make at various stages of your business’ growth that can be slowly killing it for months or even years if you don’t watch for them?

Well, these mistakes do exist and they are not just reserved for the rookie companies. Many working businesses, including those you might think are “successful” because they’ve been around for 10+ years, are often still making them… and are possibly losing a lot of money and/or wasting a lot of time in the process.

Although some of these big and sneaky mistakes seem aimed more at service type companies, they really do fit the bill for almost any type of industry. I’ve done my best with the listings below to give examples to prove it.

Small Business Mistakes

Underestimating Project/Service Time- This is a big one and it pertains to service companies as well as companies that sell a product. This is a service company’s bread and butter.

If you don’t estimate your time to perform each and every service in your repertoire, you will get burned and there is little you can do about it but bite the bullet and learn from it. The best way to estimate time is to do it once yourself or watch your best employee do the task and then throw in a little fudge factor on top of it. For product companies, time becomes an issue with logistics so be aware!

Not Knowing YOUR Company Numbers/Incorrectly Setting Prices- Notice I emphasized the word “your”. It’s a common mistake to use a competitor’s as your pricing gauge without actually knowing why they use those numbers. Think about the nightmare you will get yourself into if you take a competitor’s price, cut it by 10% and then start selling.

What if the competition has a bad pricing structure and is barely making money or even losing money?!?! What if your costs are more than theirs?!?! You can use competitor as a starting point but you can’t base your whole strategy on it.

Different industries have their own variables as far as costs go and you need to be aware of them for your project or product pricing. What you pay for a product you are going to sell is not the only cost to have in your head when you are pricing products. How much your labor and materials cost for a service is only a piece of an hourly rate. Employees cost more than just salary and not every employee is part of your labor cost.

Every company has insurance to pay for. There are tons of overhead expenditures that need to be part of your price. Oh, by the way, the big one that many people forget about in their price is the quality factor. What you include as “standard services” or “standard product features” as well as job site etiquette or in store service or warranties all need to go into your pricing. I’ll get to more on why in the next segment.

Not Charging for All of Your Time & Costs- This seems like a stupid statement to some but I bet most business owners will admit that they have given away a little too much of the farm at times. Hey, there is nothing wrong with giving a little extra here and there to show you care. But either way, that’s not what I’m talking about here.

What concerns me are those that put a lot of quality into their work or products or stores and do not cover the cost for it. As an example, say you run a service company and your competitors don’t do a certain standard service that you do. You can’t just undercut their price to steal a job; you need to have that cost covered in your rate and advertise the fact that it comes with the price upfront. Stores undermine themselves, for example, when they put more people on the floor for customer service but don’t charge for it.

These things cost you money and when your competitors don’t do them it costs them less money. Put out better service and then under price them, and your competition just has to wait a little bit for you to fall on your face so they can swoop back in.

As a business owner you need to believe that you are providing your clients worthwhile wares that deserve to be paid for. If you get the chance to explain why your prices are higher, then take that opportunity and do it. If they don’t like the fact that you include things that others charge extra for later or that you treat them better, then they are most likely completely price shoppers. You don’t want them as regular customers anyway. Trust me.

Not Getting Paid Fast Enough- That’s right, the old cash flow issue. As long as you are actually making enough money to pay the bills, this problem can be solved, prevented or at least made to be not as bad as it could be. Here’s the deal:

First off all, bill customers very promptly. It is very common for a small business to not have the procedures or systems in place to get invoices generated and out the door in a timely fashion (see the next segment for more).

Again, this would seem unlikely since that’s the reason why we are doing the work- to get paid. But it is very easy for the people responsible for getting this info to the billing people to be too busy to get it there or not have enough organization to give it to them the right way.

The second part to slowing down or stopping a regular cash flow crunch is to make the quickest payment deals possible with customers and the slowest possible with vendors and employees. If there is any way not to pay employees any more than twice a month, you better do it. Contractors always have an issue with this.

If you must pay weekly, then tell them before they are hired that they will be getting the first week held back, essentially buying you a week. It will help, I promise.

Part three involves credit. If your company can get a credit card, then get it. This allows for certain important things to be bought (that you can afford) that might come up during a cash flow crunch.

Better yet, especially if you have no choice but to deal with 45+ day customer payments, do your best to get a company line of credit. This is a must if you plan on selling to the government or doing commercial service work. These clients often have 60 to 90 day wait periods.

Failure to Have Solid Systems and Procedures in Place- Too many procedures (known as “red tape”) is the reason why many people start their own business in the first place. Unfortunately, having no procedures and systems in place at all is not an alternative. Depending on the type of industry, business owners must come to a happy medium or chaos and the unknown will ensue.

Some basic examples where procedures or systems are needed include billing, collections, payroll, hr (interviewing, hiring, vacations, benefits, job responsibilities, etc.), manufacturing, operating equipment, maintaining equipment, inventory, sales calls/visits and logistics to name a few.

Even a one person show needs to have some admin procedures in place. This will make it easier to hire temps and subcontractors and control what they are doing for you. Without at least a watered down version of a system or procedure to do everyday work, you will be to blame for causing many major headaches as your company grows.

I can’t emphasize how important this is for when you bring on new employees. I’m sure you heard this before, but I am also a big proponent of having an employee handbook even for one employee. It’s amazing the trouble people can cause business owners just because they allow you to pay them.

Spending Advertising Money Just to Say You Advertise- I would almost rather see my clients not advertise then to spend without regard to tracking the results. There is no point in a marketing campaign if you do not put things in place that allow you to measure how well the plan is working.

The other wasteful part of marketing that many people make the mistake of doing, is not tracking their previously successful campaigns. Why some people think that just because a $400 dollar a month ad worked once very well for one busy season, that it will automatically work every year after that is beyond me.

Spreading Yourself Too Thin- This is a classic mistake made by every entrepreneur. The key is to figure out when you are at that “wearing too many hats” point and start getting some help. The solution here is to know your strengths and to be able see when you are not performing the duties that demand these skills.

If you are the best sales person on the company, you can’t get caught up in day-to-day operations. If you do, sales will slip and eventually you won’t have any operations to worry about. Think about this to help you figure out if you are spread too thin: Did you really go into business for yourself to work 80+ hours a week?

Not Getting Help Soon Enough- Set goals to know when to hire people to take over where you are light on knowledge. Not getting help or waiting too long can kill a company. Most people who start a business do it because they are good at the technical end or the sales end.

If you know the best way to make a widget, then your strength is in production and that is where your time should be spent. Hire an outside company or consultant to take care of the sales and marketing and then hire inside when you can afford someone full time. Don’t be something to your company that you are not. It will only hold you back.

The three big issues people like to tackle themselves but usually are least knowledgeable about are legal issues, accounting/bookkeeping issues and daily operations issues. The odds are that these three things are your weakest link so if you don’t have a partner that has the background for these subjects, then be prepared to get help as soon as possible. It’s preferable that you do this before you start a business.

Although looking for these problems at any time is a good idea, the end of a year or season is an excellent business interval to make sure you are not making these errors. Take the time, or make the time, to fix these problems. If you don’t know how to reverse the problems, then get some help. If you really don’t have enough time to either figure out if you have these issues or know they are there and can’t break away long enough to do it right, then get some help.

Copyright (c) 2007 George Sierchio www.actionbusinesspartners.com

Direct marketing is, and will probably always be, one of the best ways to get a steady stream of new customers for your business. And that goes for any type business. Obviously you will need to make slight variations between one industry and the next, but it still works very well. More importantly, it is a very measurable form of marketing.

This is something any company that does not have a million dollar advertising budget should consider extremely important, since no marketing is worth doing unless you can measure the results.

Interesting Statistics

Allow me to give you a few statistics on why I like direct marketing so much for lead generation for any type of company. Below are average response rates for various types of marketing campaigns:

Direct Marketing Response for Lead Generation
Email- .29%
Magazine- .49%
Mail- 2.56% (6.1% with follow up)

Looking at these numbers, why would any business not employee some form of direct marketing?

Key Phases to Effective Direct Marketing for Lead Generation

There are a few important things to keep in mind when deciding to develop a direct marketing campaign.

#1- The list you are marketing to is the first key to your success. Narrowing down a demographic, whether business-to-consumer or business-to-business, is a must. The size of the list is up to you (10,000, 1000, 100 names) but the type of people you are targeting should be as tight as feasibly possible. The tighter the niche, the more expensive the list, but this will also avoid sending wasteful amounts of material into the mail that won’t go to viable prospects.

There is a fine line between how much you spend on the list and how much the mailing costs. For example, a somewhat narrow list of 1000 names may be worth sending a low cost postcard mailing to, but a more focused 500 names may make more sense for sending an expensive mailing.

Where do you find these lists? Well there are many different resources to find the broadest or most minute type of prospect. For large volumes or very specified groups of prospects, you should use a list broker such as sales genie/info usa, melissadata.com, etc.

For a list of lists and places to find them, go to your local library and ask for the SRDS (Standard Rate and Data Service). You can also find the SRDS online and sign up (for a fee) for their services.

#2- Focus on one subject. The worst thing you can do is to come up with a great list to market to and push everything you do on them in one shot. Even a catalogue company does not do this. Everything is theme based. So pick one burning problem and focus on that. This also may cause you to further break down a good list of prospects into sub groups that would benefit more from one solution or product than another.

#3- You need to get the marketing piece opened. Getting an envelope opened can be a challenge, but you can get very creative with the packaging to make it interesting to open.

What you want to avoid is making it look like pure advertising if possible. The easiest way is to use handwritten addresses or print them directly on the envelope. Stickers are a bad idea that scream “you don’t know me but I want to sell you something”. Actually, the return address should be pretty void of screaming the same thing.

You may want to consider not putting the company name on there until you establish a relationship. If you don’t need to know if the mail even got there, don’t even put a return address on the envelope. The only problem with this method is that you will not know if you have a bad address or not.

There are many other very creative ways to compel your audience into opening your marketing. An example would be to put something inside like a pen or a CD. Or you can use a bigger envelope or send a box.

These methods could get expensive so that expense should be offset by a higher margin product. You don’t want to spend $2 per prospect to sell something with a $4 profit margin… unless you have the ability to sell an incredible volume of them. You get the picture.

In the case where you want to avoid the “get it opened” issue altogether, then a postcard works best, but it is limited as to the amount of information that can go on it. This really needs to be developed with a graphic designer so that it catches the eye.

Additionally, everything must be said quickly and to the point since real estate on the postcard is limited. This is a great way to avoid accidentally including unnecessary “fluff” in the mailing.
Please note that postcards must be used to contact the correct audience.

I wouldn’t recommend trying to reach executives at large companies with a postcard but smaller businesses and consumers are good targets for this type of medium.

One other method is to use a single sheet of paper and fold it closed. It becomes a self contained package that has more information real estate than a postcard.

#4- Get the actual direct mail piece read. This is not rocket science but it’s not super easy either. The purpose of the first line in a letter is to get the reader to read the second line and so on. It should be aimed at a major pain point and not talk about what you can do but rather what the benefits in solving the problem are to the prospect.

Know the difference between a benefit and a feature. For example, a car that has automatic headlights is a feature of the car. The benefit is that it adds a safety feature to make sure your lights are on when they should be.

The focus of any campaign is on the benefits of solving the burning problem and then the benefits of your solution. You can talk about features but they must be followed up by benefits.

Make the piece easy to read by using short and concise sentences with a flow more like your personal way of speaking than formal writing. Examples and stories also are a good idea to include in any written piece. These types of things all generate trust and allow you to form a bond before you even meet the prospective client.

#5- You need a call to action. The reader must be asked to do something or the piece you have sent out is a total waste of time and money. Unless you have a mail order company, this mailing should really be a prospecting piece and therefore should prompt the reader to download a free report on the pain point, use the enclosed coupon, etc. It is usually best to not go for the sale immediately.

When you offer something for free, you can determine a good prospect when they actually take it and you can track it. Now you have begun a relationship (giving) and opened the door to selling something later (taking). You can’t easily take unless you give first. Being in the business of helping people and getting them what they need and want is the key to any successful and fulfilling business.

#6- You need to test your piece including the delivery package. One of the best parts about any direct marketing campaign is that it can be measured and tested.

Read the piece to yourself. If it doesn’t flow almost as if you were speaking instead of reading, consider revising it. Have others read the piece that have no interest in the subject as well as colleagues that understand the subject at hand.

Don’t forget to also test the entire package. Mail it to yourself to see how you react to it when it arrives. Send it to a colleague and don’t tell them it’s coming. If you don’t hear from them in a few days, you know you have some work to do on the package.

Once you think it’s ready, send it out to a small test group from the list you have developed for this campaign. Pick out about 10% of the list and see what happens. As long as the list is good (i.e. the names and addresses are valid), you can expect about the same result from a full blown campaign to the list.

#7- You need a SYSTEM. The best direct marketing piece in the world is worth very little if you do not have a process or system in place. This entails issues such as; tracking your success rate on the piece, having a follow-up sequence for those that did not respond and a follow-up sequence for those that did respond. Constant waves of contact will eventually produce a full sales pipeline.

Don’t Forget the “Waves”

The first pass is just that- a first pass. You really need to have 3 to 9 points of contact, or “waves”, in your system for it to be effective. Sometimes that also involves phone follow up and not just mailings or emails.

For each wave that involves a mailing, you need to follow phases 2 through 6 from above. Don’t forget to add in the proper tracking to all of the waves in your lead generation system.

Wrap-up

These are very basic steps to a direct marketing campaign. Every type of business out there can, and should, use some form of direct marketing/lead generation in their marketing mix. This includes low tech to high tech, B2C and B2B, retail to manufacturing as well as everything in-between.

Although a tight niche of prospects is a big key to any successful campaign, picking one subject to talk about and not going in for the kill immediately is really the most important thing.

Build a relationship with those interested in what you have to offer and they will sell themselves. Everyone likes to buy, but nobody likes to be “sold” on something.

Copyright (c) 2007 George Sierchio www.actionbusinesspartners.com

Featured post by Terry Kaufman from YourEnglishSuccess!

One day I went to HSBC to interview my customers and their non-native English speaking colleagues. I wanted to understand their communication case better and get greater insight into Anglophone and non-Anglophone interactions.

During one interview, I was amazed at how eloquently one individual, Mr. Boyer, clearly expressed the essence of Sustainable English:

“An environment is friendly when everyone understands the stakes, objectives, and viewpoints of others.”

As I was preparing my program and notes, I had originally defined it as:

An environment that is friendly towards non-native speakers – it consists of clear English, collaboration, and focus on mutual understanding.

Mr. Boyer expressed exactly what the communication-friendly environment has to offer, when it is implemented and fully operational.

Every native English speaker has the potential and ability to create his/her own personalized environment to accommodate non-native speakers.

Less frustration. More success.