Confused about planning?

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It’s no wonder business owners are confused about planning. No one knows what it means!  Ask 10 business owners to write down 5 words they associate with business planning and you’ll probably get 40 different words! The only words you’ll get in common are words like “hard”, “challenging”, and “difficult.”

I had a discussion the other day with an attorney friend who asked me, “What’s the difference between a business plan and a strategic plan?” Now even I had to think about that one.

Here are some “classic” definitions of the word Strategy (as in Strategic Plan.)

  1.  A method or plan chosen to bring about a desired future, such as achievement of a goal or solution to a problem.
  2. The art and science of planning and marshaling resources for their most efficient and effective use. The term is derived from the Greek word for generalship or leading an army. See also tactics.

There seem to be two major trains of thought here:  (1) having to do with the achievement of a goal and (2) having to do with military maneuvers. The thing that both of these definitions seem to have in common is that they are used to achieve a one-time result.

 

Here’s what I think:

If you’re spending a lot of time thinking up a strategy to achieve a specific result, and then using it only one time, it’s not much better than dumb luck! Here’s something more useful:

A Strategy is a repeated set of actions that produce a fairly predictable result!

Think about this.

According to my definition, if you have a set of actions that your business engages in on a day-to-day basis, consistently, repeatedly and regularly, you should be producing fairly predictable results. Now that’s what I call planning!

To give you a really concrete example, if a sales person makes 40 calls a day and, on average, gets 3 sales appointments and 1 sale closes for each 40 calls he or she makes, that wouldn’t this be a good sales strategy? Simply make 40 calls a day, and wait for the predictable result. Want more revenue? Increase the number of calls.

Now I don’t mean to tell you that this is easy. If it were, everyone would be doing it. But think about it – how many of us run our businesses on the tracks of those who have come before us and shown us how things work in our industry.

Success leaves clues.

And some of these clues come in the form of predictability, consistency, patterns that you can identify and follow, and systems you can put in place to make sure that these consistent steps are followed. That’s what I call being strategic!

If you are interested in taking your business through a strategic planning cycle please CONTACT US for further information.

Living Your Passion

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I’ve had a number of conversations recently with different people all dealing with the same challenge. Their question is essentially this, “How do I bring forth the best of me in a world that tries to pigeon-hole me?”

It’s kind of like when we were kids and our parents tried to encourage us in awkward places, “Just be yourself.”  What does that even mean, anyway?

By the time we become adults we’ve been sons, daughters, athletes, cheerleaders, scouts, club presidents, volunteers, employees, dancers, singers, whatever. We’ve become our labels!

For the past year, I’ve been morphing my business to align more with my core values, heart-felt passion, and desire to fulfill my life’s purpose. The results have been startling, if not shocking.

 ”Planning With A Heart” has been my brand name for years. In 2001 I authored a book by that name, and have branded my particular method and strategies for writing business plans and helping entrepreneurs develop their business roll-out. I’ve taught seminars, offered the coaching program, and now, am coming full circle to fulfill my passion as a business educator to empower more business owners to greater success in a world that is hungry for “win/win.”

“Planning With A Heart” is proud to offer “The Executive Experience”–a 3-day Immersive Adventure for Entrepreneurs. I’m offering an incredible package to people who want to participate in the re-launch of this interactive training and video product I’ll be creating. The program is a “business simulation” that takes you through the entire planning cycle, from vision and mission to product and marketing to finance and investors.

What’s different about “Planning With A Heart” is two things. First, it is a more intuitive, right-brained approach to business planning. Second, it encompasses both the inner person and the external actions and results. The reason is simple – for your results to change, you have to change!  For the results of an organization or business to change, the inner beliefs, attitudes, strategies, and mindset of the people in the business have to expand to allow the business to grow successfully.

In “The Executive Experience” business owners will have the opportunity to experiment with all of these elements, and more. While the format is to work on simulated businesses, the results I’ve seen in the past have been astounding. Real businesses have been started, and owners of existing businesses have made astounding breakthroughs that have enabled them to take their business to higher levels.

This is not a pitch. I’m just telling you what I’ve been up to. However, if you’re at all interested in learning more, please let me know. The website is still “dark” but we’ll be launching soon. So right now, I’ve got some amazing early, early bird specials going for both participants and sponsors. Leave me a comment or Contact Us here.

Economic Outlook: Moving Beyond Break-Even.

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In today’s Huffington Post article, Jerry Jasinowski writes about the outlook of businesses striving to thrive and grow in today’s uncertain economic outlook. He spent a weekend meeting with various CEO’s and assessing their concerns. Here is what they identified:

  • the European recession, and it’s ongoing impact on the U.S. dollar;
  • China’s continued bias against American business, especially regarding intellectual property rights;
  • dangers of inflation due to the ongoing “quantitative easement” policies in the U.S. and abroad;
  • ongoing high unemployment and the need for updated skills and knowledge training for American workers.

This particular group of CEO’s seems cautiously optimistic. They predict U.S. economic growth at about 2% to 2.5% for 2012, not enough to absorb the excess workers still seeking employment, but good enough for most companies to get by.

What is the saving grace for American businesses? According to this group of CEO’s, most companies have “dramatically reduced their breakeven points” and strengthened their balance sheets. What this means is that many companies have restructured internally to do more with less — reducing expenses so that for any given expenditure on marketing (or any other investment, such as inventory, or equipment) has a shorter path to recoup those expenses.

This is an interesting concept, if you’ve never taken the time to think about it. What is your business’s “break-even” point? In basic terms, it is the sales level at which you neither make money (profit) nor lose money. It is the absolute minimum sales volume you need to sustain in order to not go out of business.

Let me be absolutely clear here. Your break-even must cover both your variable and fixed costs. Variable costs are basically what it takes to make the product — you buy raw materials, hire labor in proportion to the amount of “widgets” you make. Fixed costs are things you must pay every month regardless of whether you make any sales or not–things like rent, utilities, salaries. There are a lot of accounting nuances here, but that’s not the purpose of this article.

Example. You manufacture t-shirts. They cost $5.00 to make and you sell them for $10.00. You sell 100 t-shirts a month. So, your “gross revenue” is $1,000. Your “gross profit” is $500. If your overhead (rent, etc.) is $500/month, then you are just breaking even.

However, if you just think about break even, you’ll never get ahead. Break-even is like treading water. It’s not swimming!  It’s surviving. If you want to grow, and actually thrive, you need to continually infuse your business with fresh energy in the form of capital, innovation, efficiencies, etc. For example, in order to reach new customers in new markets, or more customers in the same market, you probably need to increase your spending on marketing. But if you are just at “break-even”, you don’t have those resources internally.

One of the great resources Creative Money MAGIK has available is the ability to obtain cash lines of credit for start-up and early-stage businesses with less than 2 years of business history. This is a great resource in today’s economy, and at current interest rates, they’re practically giving the money away!

If you’d like more information about how to look at your company’s break-even, or how to access credit lines for cash, please CONTACT US here!

San Diego Business Planning Clinic March 24, 2012

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Creative Money MAGIK, Inc. is now offering a monthly business planning clinic in San Diego. The purpose of this monthly event is to offer local business owners and start-up entrepreneurs the opportunity to spend 3 hours a month working “on” their business, not “in” it.

The event is hosted by Barbara Leuin, Ph.D. Business Planning Expert. Barbara has over 30 years experience in business and economics, both as a university professor, and as an entrepreneur. She has built multi-million dollar businesses, and worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs writing business plans and raising first-round capital.

If you are local to San Diego, or know someone who is, please let them know about this event. You can go to the Business Planning Roundtable page in Meetup.com to learn more!

If you are interested in attending, RSVP here:

RSVP

Business Success Starts NOW!

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I’ve decided to give it all away!

Last September I put my own company through a “Business Makeover.”  The results have been nothing short of mind-blowing spectacular!. Now I’m working with a small handful of clients and they’re loving it too!

I’ve decided to put it all on video for you, so here it is!  Part I. More to come…

8 Steps to Business Set-up

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If you’re a new business owner, or own an existing business as a sole proprietor, you might be thinking about setting up a separate entity for you business.  If this is you, then you’ll want to download the FREE REPORT I just uploaded.

In it, I tell you all about how to create a business that is separate from you, and establish it’s identity simply, easily and affordably. There’s not much more than that, really!

Seriously, if you are operating as a sole proprietor, you might want to consult your tax and legal professionals on this subject. The key issues you want to discuss are:

  • liability protection
  • taxation issues
  • and privacy!

I’ll probably write a separate blog post to go into these in more detail. Suffice it to say, even if you are the owner of an existing business and you’ve got your entity set up, you still want to download and read this report.

One of the issues that almost never gets talked about is how to position your business to obtain business credit. I could write a book on this subject alone (and maybe someday, I will!) One of the very first steps is that the business credit agencies (yes, Virginia, they’re out there) must be able to find you in order to verify that you are a real business. Sounds simple… My free report will give you all the details!

CLICK HERE to download!

How To Infuse More Life in Your Business!

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A friend of mine just shared this joke with me and I just had to pass it on;

An old Italian gentleman lived alone in New Jersey . He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

Dear Vincent, I am feeling pretty sad because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days. Love, Papa

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Papa, Don’t dig up that garden. That’ s where the bodies are buried. Love, Vinnie

At 4 a.m. The next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Papa, Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That’s the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you,
Vinnie
—————-
The moral of the story is: Wherever there is a will, there is a way – so never lose hope :)
—————-

If you are like a lot of entrepreneurs in today’s economy, you may be wondering whether things will ever turn around. Will the “tight” economic conditions ever loosen up?

Folks, I’m here to tell you, “we have met the enemy, and they are us!” (Quote from Pogo)

For things to change I must change!  You create your own reality!

If you’re ready to get out of the doldrums, infuse more life into your business, regain the passion you once had, spend more time doing things you enjoy, making more money working fewer hours, then you are ready for Mastermind Coaching!

Just click on this link: Mastermind Coaching and SIGN UP NOW!

Who is A Typical Business Owner?

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And What Does He/She Want?

The Sad State of Business TodayWhen we talk about business today, are we looking at a plant that we’ve watered and cared for, only to wonder now if we can still keep it alive? If this is how you feel about your business today, take hope! You are not alone. In 2007, there were were 27.1 million non-farm businesses in the U.S., employing 117.3 million people and generating $30.0 trillion in business revenues. According to business surveys from earlier this year, more than half of all small businesses are “cautiously optimistic” about the future.
One of the interesting statistics I uncovered is that 65% of all business owners said they started their company because of personal passion. And even in today’s economy, 83% said that passion is still there today!
While there are still plenty of issues that are keeping business owners up at night, the chief concern being covering immediate expenses, 78% are optimistic that this year will be better than last, especially in their local economies.  Most of all, business owners want:
  • Confidence
  • Certainty
  • Time to work on their business, not in it
  • Greater efficiency (leverage)
  • More customers
  • More money!

If you’d like to download and read the full report, Click Here!

Creative Money MAGIK, Inc. is dedicated to empowering creativity and growth for socially responsible businesses.  We do this by offering information, education, training and support for enlightened business leaders.  For more information Contact Us.

The Importance of Personal Credit

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We live in a credit card-driven society.  Ever try to rent a car or check into a hotel without one?  Did you know that even your car and home insurance costs can go up depending on your personal credit?  Even some employers are now checking credit as an employment screen.

Sad but true, in today’s economy, a lot of people have had their credit trashed through no fault of their own.  One of the most obvious situations, which seems to be pretty common, is divorce or separation, where one spouse stops paying the bills and it affects the other person’s credit.  But here’s something more subtle:

Suppose you have a financial need or an emergency and you run your credit card bill up above 50% of the amount of available credit, and then you don’t pay it down the next month.  What credit card companies have been doing is lowering your credit limit if you use more than half the available credit.  Now, your “debt ratio” has just gone way up, and they take that as a signal that you are not as credit “worthy” so they raise your interest rate and up goes your monthly payment.  The scary part is that a credit card company can do this to you even if you ran up your bill on another credit card !  In other works, they can, and will, cut your limits and raise your rates across all the cards you own, even if you are not using them all!

How to get out of this financial dilemma?

I’ve found some tremendous resources that can help.  Check this out!

http://www.creditlinemillionaire.com/cm/?p=JV444&w=cvs

Business Tools: Your Unique Selling Proposition

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What is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)? (Also called a UVP—Unique Value Proposition.)

This is very closely related to the last blog I wrote about scoping out your competition. It’s also akin to the “elevator speech.”

Here’s the game: When someone asks you, “What do you do?” you want to have a ready answer that succinctly tells them the essence of your offer (product or service) and gets them to engage in a conversation.

Your USP is also a way to establish brand identity. For example, “Just Do It!” (Nike) or “When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight.” (Fedex) It’s the reason some customers will buy from you and nobody else.

Here’s a little history from wikipedia.org:

The Unique Selling Proposition (also Unique Selling Point or USP) is a marketing concept that was first proposed as a theory to explain a pattern among successful advertising campaigns of the early 1940s. It states that such campaigns made unique propositions to the customer and that this convinced them to switch brands. The term was invented by Rosser Reeves of Ted Bates & Company. Today the term is used in other fields or just casually to refer to any aspect of an object that differentiates it from similar objects.

According to Scott Sedwick of Hyperformance Media (http://www.hyperformancemedia.com/USP.htm)

The task of coming up with a USP can sometimes be tough. But every company needs to do this, it sets you apart from your competitors . . . it is one or more reasons why prospects should work with you, or buy from you, or do business with you, instead of your competitors, period.

If you’re struggling to come up with your USP, here’s a suggestion. Sit down with your team and brainstorm. Write down all the characteristics of your buyers that you can think of. Now use that list to identify the core problem that your product or service satisfies for these buyers. Now write a short sentence or phrase expressing how your solution solves that problem. Voilà! USP!

Planning With A Heart