Key Steps to Small-Business Success
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Experts Share Key Steps to Small-Business Success 1 WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER OVERVIEW What does it take to grow a successful business? We asked some of the top business and success coaches to share their tips and tools on how to grow and scale a business. The next few pages are rich in hard-won ideas. From networking to understanding cash flow, each coach shares his or her insights and action items designed to help you move forward. Contents Networking Events That Get Results ...............................................3 Networking Is Still King .......................................................................... 7 Creating a Strengths-Based Company Culture ........................ 9 It’s Cash Flow, Stupid ..............................................................................13 How to Allocate Your Time and Resources for Impactful Marketing ...............................................................................................16 Product Market Fit....................................................................................18 Small-Business Success Story ............................................................21 NETWORKING EVENTS THAT GET RESULTS —ALAN MELTON Do you feel awkward or afraid when going to business networking events? You are not alone! Many people avoid networking events, and they miss out on valuable opportunities. Simply showing up at a networking event with your business cards is not enough. Successful networking requires planning and strategy. Here are some tips to reduce your stress and make your networking effective. What is your advice for small-business 3. Be ready to describe your ideal client. 3 owners? And how is that advice distinctly Know how to describe your prospects in terms important for small-business owners? of demographics. For example, “My clients are young married couples who live in working-class 1. Go with the plan to help others. The best neighborhoods in Charlotte, North Carolina.” way to set yourself at ease while networking is to focus on other people. Go with the mindset 4. Have a goal. You are attending events to that you are there to give. make contacts that will be mutually beneficial. Decide in advance whom you want to meet. 2. Have a 30-second commercial. Be ready to Arrive early and note the names and companies briefly describe the benefits of your product on attendees’ name tags. Position yourself or service (how it impacts your clients’ lives), without food and drink to meet attendees as not the features (what it does). Describe they arrive. what makes you unique and better than your competition. ForwardLine: Key Steps to Small-Business Success 5. Get introduced. Another advantage of Remember that people do business with those arriving early is being able to ask the host to they know, like, and trust. Serve your business introduce you to some of the guests who may contacts well and you will be on the road to be a good contact for you. Find out facts about great clients and referrals! the guests for conversation builders. What guidance can you offer to business 6. Don’t get into cliques. Remember your owners struggling to overcome obstacles goals for the event. Don’t waste major time with in mastering your advice? people you already know. Spend a few minutes Go in with the plan to give. Help as many with everyone you meet, but move on. You can people as you can and ask for nothing. This will say, “Excuse me, I need to freshen up my drink.” take pressure off of you to sell and can lead to new clients. 7. Take your business cards and a pen. However, don’t offer your card too quickly. If you Do you have any personal stories or meet someone who would be a good contact anecdotes to share related to your advice? for you, ask for their card. Once you have ended your conversation, write down details on their I have won many new clients I met through card. This will help you later to remember facts networking by helping them with a business or about them and will aid you as you begin your personal need. One business owner needed help next conversation. When people ask for your getting organized. I helped her, she became a client, card, provide one. But don’t give them more and has referred thousands of dollars’ worth of other than one unless they ask for more. clients to me. 8. Be a good interviewer. Watch how newscasters interview people. Listen twice as much as you talk. Keep good eye contact while the other person is speaking; don’t look around 4 the room. Nod your head, smile, and laugh where appropriate. Interject short responses from time to time to relate. Offer affirming and sincere compliments. Most people will ask what you do, but if they don’t, briefly describe how you benefit clients. 9. The most important thing: follow up! If you don’t follow up with your new acquaintances, you will have just wasted your time at the event. Send a card or make a phone call, inviting them for coffee or lunch to deepen the relationship. Anything else our small-business owners should know? I like Zig Ziglar’s famous quote, “You can get all you want in life by helping enough other people get what they want.” Go in with the plan to give. Help as many 5 people as you can and ask for nothing. —ALAN MELTON www.smallbusinesscoach.org Facebook: SmallBusinessCoachAssociate Email: [email protected] Twitter: SmalIbizcoaches 6 ForwardLine: Key Steps to Small-Business Success NETWORKING IS STILL KING —ROBIN CORRAL What is your advice for small-business owners? How is that advice distinctly important for small business owners? There is no substitution for networking, meeting people face-to-face and shaking hands. In this increasingly digital world, making human connections has become essential because there is more noise going on than ever before. Never underestimate how valuable it is to pick up a phone, set up lunch dates, go to networking events, and just introduce yourself to a business. What guidance can you offer to business owners struggling to overcome obstacles in mastering your advice? With everything moving to a digital platform, 7 we often forget what it means to establish face-to-face contact. Skype, Zoom, GoToWebinar, and similar platforms make it all too easy to close ourselves off. Set aside a specific time every week with the goal of meeting three new people. Go to a networking event, find a local business group related to your industry, or just go to three new businesses that might benefit you and introduce yourself. www.actioncoach.com Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: robincorral ForwardLine: Key Steps to Small-Business Success Anything else our small-business owners should know? For some reason, networking is often a hard thing for people to do. It will make you uncomfortable and maybe even scare you to some degree. That’s good. You need to push yourself past that and master this skill, because once you do, it’s almost impossible not to benefit from it in the long run. CREATING A STRENGTHS-BASED COMPANY CULTURE —RIEVA LESONSKY Once upon a time, employee What is your advice for small-business evaluations focused on identifying owners? How is that advice distinctly employees’ weaknesses and coming important for small-business owners? up with plans to improve them. A strengths-based company culture takes Today, however, the pendulum has a more positive approach. It focuses on swung the other way, and recognizing each employee’s strengths and businesses are increasingly creating applying those strengths productively at work. strengths-based cultures. Strengths typically come from our natural talents or ways of thinking and looking at the world. By cultivating those talents and combining them with training, you can enhance employees’ strengths. 9 ForwardLine: Key Steps to Small-Business Success Why have a strengths-based culture? Of course, you may not want to wait to find out your employees’ strengths. If that’s the case, There are many reasons to value a strengths- you can also identify strengths by conducting based workplace culture. For one thing, when aptitude tests, getting 360-degree feedback employees have jobs that use their strengths, from other employees about each person’s they can be more productive right off the bat. strengths, and asking employees to identify That helps your small business get an edge what they think are their own strengths. With on competitors. input from all these sources, as well as the person’s previous work history, you should be In addition, research has shown that a able to put together a pretty good idea of an strengths-based culture leads to greater individual’s strengths. employee satisfaction. According to Gallup, employees who report being able to use their Once you’re aware of your employees’ strengths at work every day are 8 percent more strengths, you can tap into them to assign tasks productive and 15 percent less likely to quit and projects at which employees are likely to their jobs. They’re also more likely to say they excel. You should also use your employees’ enjoy what they do each day. strengths to help chart their career paths with your business. Don’t be too wedded to Finally, a strengths-based approach to the specific job descriptions or roles; be flexible and workplace is extremely well suited for the team- give employees opportunities to apply their based work that most companies do these strengths at work outside their core job duties. days. Just like a football team, Help them discover how to impact the essence a workplace team with a mix of of your client’s product or service—not just the strengths is more effective than one that’s product features. Let them make your culture all quarterbacks. unique and better than your competition’s. How can you create a strengths-based Also, don’t let your judgment of their strengths 10 culture? become stereotypes.