Small Business Tips and the Latest News

Do You Need A Website?

I work with people in radically different industries, businesses of all shapes and sizes. I’ve run into some people who don’t have websites – which is totally counter-cultural here in the second decade of the 21st century. The conventional wisdom is that without a website, your business can’t even exist.

But some businesses thrive anyway. How can this be?

Here’s why you DO need a website:

• You need new customers to find you.
• Customers want to find out more about your products, services, or company, and want to conveniently compare you to your competition.
• You want to build an aura of stability, credibility, and professionalism.
• You’d like to maintain relationships with your customers, suppliers or partners in between your regular contacts.
• You need to reach a younger population who go to their phone and the internet as first resources for everything they do.
• You want to keep people updated with new information in an engaging way.

It almost seems as if this includes every business. But here are some great examples of companies that thrive in an off-line world:

I go to a small-town barber, whose advertising consists entirely of a downtown location and word-of-mouth. I’m not even sure that he has voice mail on his wall phone. The business isn’t growing, and that’s just fine with him. He’s having fun, keeping long term relationships, and doing great work.

You run across street vendors – like food trucks and hot dog carts – which are advertised merely by their physical presence. Sure, some now have websites because it’s become quite competitive, but many just live by their wits, talent, and creativity.

I talked with a guy who runs a machine shop which services some of the largest government suppliers in the country. His relationships are developed over many decades of personal interactions, responding to RFPs, and going to the right kinds of industry events. He’s using processes which have been developed over the last century, and it’s only strange outsiders like business coaches who would bother looking him up on a website.

Similarly, I had a great discussion with a gentleman who runs a service which delivers information to airline pilots. Because pilots don’t tend to have internet access while they’re doing their job, his products are based on printing and distributing paper. But we had some great discussion about how those customers rely on their smart phones when they’re on the ground! More and more, cockpits are becoming paperless environments.

I know truck drivers who are independent owner-operators, so they’re one-person businesses. They rely on others to schedule jobs and make contracts with customers, so it’s not important for them to provide a website presence outside that.

I’m not poking fun at these examples – in fact, they’re very real and can be incredibly successful. So here’s some reasons why a website might NOT be valuable for you:

• You’re entirely based on physical presence, and people wouldn’t particularly think to check you out online.
• Your industry has mature and well-established ways of interacting, and doesn’t want to be more open or efficient.
• Your customers are isolated from the internet, or don’t care about it.
• You can 100% rely on key partners to supply your marketing presence.

That said, the number of examples is gradually declining. When your competition finds a way to use websites, social media and smartphone technology to do a better job than you, watch out!

Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coach Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us

Cooperative Business Models For Coaches

I have just published an article in Choice Magazine, which is the premier publication for professional coaches around the world. In it I list the various forms of cooperative business models that coaches use, including of course our very own Small Fish group.

Check it out here

Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us

What's The Right Attitude In Social Media?

I was reading a great article today written by a friend. She observed that it can be difficult to know what resources are credible on the internet. Soon after that, I received one of those great emails (with plenty of exclamation points!) talking about how the earth isn’t turning and everything you’ve ever been taught is wrong. With a video and everything, so it must be right. Right?

I’ve been seeing a growing trend in social media, especially, where people get all excited about some new thing. They promote it to all their friends, starting an interesting discussion, and it takes off like wildfire. Before you know it, an idea has spread across the planet and everyone’s taking it as fact. We have a “meme” spreading.

Social media is great at this kind of thing.

The problem is, it can damage your reputation – personal and business – to be engaged in this kind of thing. You have to remember three key principles to these technologies:

• It lasts forever
• It spreads MUCH further than you’d think, especially if it’s weird or controversial
• It’s increasingly hard for you to be anonymous

Let’s imagine that you post a comment on a video, something like “you’re an idiot for doing this.” That’s a bit harsh, and probably not something you’d say to the person’s face. Going back to the three principles:

• People will see that comment months or years later. If you regret it next week, too bad.
• Your friends will see it, your customers will see it, a future employer may see it. If you ever take a role in the public eye, it’ll probably come out as political “dirty laundry.”
• People will be able to link it to you, to your company, to your employees, and to your industry.

How do you know how to behave in this environment?

First, talk to people with the same level of politeness and professionalism as you would do face-to-face. Second, act as though hundreds of people are in the room observing what you say. Third, don’t communicate emotional content in written form. And fourth, apologize for mistakes and misunderstandings. Communication is very messy, especially written – few of us are skilled enough to communicate accurately to a broad audience, and people will have interpretations that mystify you.

But go ahead and participate in social media – it builds your reputation and creates relationships.

Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us

Adding Services To Your Products

I had a wonderful discussion with a lady yesterday who has a small business that sells products for home crafters. She sells mostly to women who have that knack for creating great personalized gifts.

We talked about the services that she’s been adding to her lineup, so I thought you might find something that could apply to your business as well.

You’re selling widgets. Wonderful, world-class widgets, I understand. But you’ve been beat up by internet sales and big box stores – they just don’t have the overhead of your business so they’re undercutting your prices at every turn. If you match the prices, you’ll destroy your profit. But with higher prices, you’re losing sales. It’s a no-win situation.

Perhaps one reason why customers are running to cheaper suppliers is because you’re selling nothing BUT those widgets. Certainly the widgets are being used in something larger, which can open up a whole realm of possibilities for services:

• Helping the customer to never waste one widget - by always having the right one, having it delivered just in time, by removing errors in the next step of the process
• Taking on the next step of the process as well, whether that’s customizing the widget, assembling it into a larger machine, or just packaging it for future sale
• Growing the market for everyone, by leading the effort to convince everyone on the planet that they need to have “a widget a day”
• Removing some of your customer’s expense, perhaps by taking part of their load for end customer support or managing their inventory

OK, this talk about generic “widgets” can get a bit dry. Let’s go back to a specific example.

If you’re selling craft supplies, suppose you expand that to deliver workshops for people who are looking for neat craft ideas and to build their skills. This can help your business in several ways:

• If you’re delivering real value, the workshops can themselves become an income stream for you.
• Attendees can see first-hand that you supply much more than just the few products they were aware of.
• You can sell your supplies in conjunction with the workshop – not only what’s used in the workshop itself, but a package of products that the person can take home for their NEXT few projects.
• You will differentiate your business from competitors, thus forming a more personal relationship with your customers.

We have to look at this objectively, though. An amazing amount of this kind of information is available for free on Youtube. It’s not trivial to deliver a workshop and claim that customers can’t get the information elsewhere. But they DO get a hands-on experience, one-on-one assistance, and relationships with you and other attendees.

Try getting THAT with an internet or big box supplier!

Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us

Getting Serious About Multi Level Marketing

I had a great discussion this morning with a gentleman who’s a member of a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) structure. I talked about this in a recent article on my blog, but our discussion was sparked by my complaint about people who aren’t serious about their business. His question was straightforward: What does an MLM person need to actually DO? Those previous articles may have felt a bit philosophical, so let’s get down to concrete actions.

First, you’re going to have two driving business goals:

1. Make money on the product or service you’re selling

2. Sign up other people as your “downline” so that when they sell, you get a slice of their revenue.

In most cases, you get to choose the balance between these two. I know some people who have decided never to develop any kind of “downline” at all and devote their full attention to the product sales. That’s fine, IF the MLM structure permits you to do that, AND you can make enough income off just the other part of the business. Run the numbers and figure out if you’ll be able to succeed.

Second, you have to recognize that your primary job is SELLING. That’s a shock for many people who think that just JOINING the group will provide an income. Not true. And BOTH business goals are primarily selling. So you have to get good at it. Get trained. Set yourself some tough sales goals, and don’t let yourself off the hook. (By the way, this is a primary reason why many people hire a business coach – they’re tired of just PLANNING TO MEET their goals, and want to move to ACTUALLY ACHIEVING their goals.)

Imagine that someone else hired you to sell full-time, 40+ hours a week, and is just going to pay you pure commission. No salary; every penny you earn comes directly from a sale you make. Will your boss be satisfied that you’re working hard enough? That you have the expert sales skills? That you’re developing fifty new relationships a week that can lead to business?

Just because YOU are the boss, you shouldn’t let yourself off the hook. These are real requirements, and you MUST do them to succeed. If you’re unwilling to make that commitment, spend your time and money looking for a job with someone else.

Third, you have to know your products and services, and how they’re used by customers. I’m shocked at how many MLM representatives I see who have just the “brochure” level of understanding. “Here’s my product, here are the features and why you should buy it.”

Sorry, but if you’re going to develop relationships with customers, you have to know your products MUCH deeper than that. Here’s an example. I only drink decaf coffee, and have been approached by a number of representatives wanting to sell me an organic coffee substitute. The company’s so enthusiastic about their product and its health benefits that they haven’t given any clear guidance on its caffeine content. But every rep I’ve talked to, I ask about the caffeine. I’ve gotten all kinds of weird answers:

• “It’s never given ME a buzz, so it must be OK.”

• “I don’t know,” and then walk away.

• “It’s organic so it has no caffeine effects.”

I found exactly ONE person who took my question seriously and did the investigation. It turns out that their drink has about as much caffeine as coffee, and they don’t have a decaf version. Digging further, she found out that the company offers both caffeinated and decaf teas, and gave me some samples to try. It appears that all the other reps I talked to weren’t even aware of the entire line of teas, much less how that can address my caffeine sensitivity.

YOU are the face of your product to the customer. So you have to know it very well, because you’re guiding your customer to their best purchase. Asking for decaf coffee isn’t such a weird request that you can ignore it.

Fourth, you have to create a different strategy for signing up “downline” sales reps. It’s an entirely different process, because the person is buying an entirely different service. You have to find people who are suited to succeed in the business, and you have to sell them a BUSINESS MODEL rather than a product. You’ll be talking to different people, asking them different questions, and developing a different kind of relationship.

The hard part about all of this, honestly, is EXECUTING YOUR PLAN. You’re the boss, you’re the sole employee, and when you fall behind the entire business flags. It’s incredibly easy to never make a living at it, because your boss is a wimp and will let you off the hook. Sorry, if you’re trying to make an income, it’s going to take some hard work. You have to stick with it, day after day, week after week, month after month. It’s not easy, no matter what the MLM materials promised you.

If you’d like to talk to a coach about making this work for you, give me a ring!

Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us

I'm Profitable But Have No Money!

I’ve talked to many people whose businesses are struggling with a lack of cash. Even though the company looks profitable on paper, there’s no money to pay the bills. What’s going on here?

It’s not that you’re crazy or cooking the books. Although you certainly should look at the accuracy of your accounting, it’s likely that the problem is simply the TIMING of your cash. Here’s a typical scenario: You stock up your shelves with products, and in a month a customer comes in and purchases that. Sure, you got the markup, but the problem is that you had no money at all between the time you paid your supplier and when your customer paid you. This creates a timing gap, sometimes quite significant. When you look at the monthly or quarterly results, these timing distinctions can disappear.

In a services business, a similar thing occurs. You sign a contract to do some work. Over the next month, you deliver that work, paying your employees and incurring expenses. At the end of the project, you invoice your customer, which he pays the day before it’s due. We have a gap in the TIMING of your money, which is reflected by the balance in your checking account. You’ll get your profit eventually, but may not be able to buy groceries today.

There’s several approaches to fixing this, within some broad categories:

• Delaying your expenses

• Accelerating your revenue stream

• Reducing your expense exposure

• Restructuring your business model

Here’s a few specific ideas within each category:

Delaying your expenses

• Use credit cards, but only to the extent that you can avoid paying any interest

• Renegotiate payment terms with your suppliers

Accelerating your revenue stream

• Shorten your invoice terms, and develop systems which increase the likelihood of customers paying on time

• Reward customers who pay in advance or with cash

Reducing your expense exposure

Restructuring your business model

What are your best techniques for generating and conserving cash?

Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us

Why Business Is Like Music

I saw a presentation some years ago by a talented symphony conductor. One of his favorite quote was, “I’ve realized that the conductor is the only person in an orchestra who doesn’t make a sound.”

That’s the difference between leading a business, and working in a business.

An immediate reaction, of course, is that it’s easy to be able to afford the “overhead” of a conductor when you have a 100-piece orchestra. Fair enough. So let’s look at a smaller example.

When I was leading a group of church singers, we had between 5 and 12 people on a regular basis. As the director, I also took a very pragmatic role as one of the singers. I don’t have the talent to sing and play piano at the same time – that’s MUCH harder than it looks – but I sang, directed, and selected the music.

What was critical was to distinguish between these roles.

When I was director, my role was to lead group decisions, create and lead practices, and coordinate with the other music groups in the parish. My role as singer was clearly secondary, to supplement the others in the choir.

In the business world, a leader needs to clearly delineate his different roles – decision maker, strategic planner, salesman, customer relationships, and so on. As the company grows, employees will start taking the lead in delivering value (through marketing, sales, production, customer service, and so on) while the owner must spend more time on direction, decisions, and orchestration.

The challenge is that these leadership tasks may not feel like they’re delivering much value. If you’ve developed your skills in working with customers, it tends to feel less gratifying to spend so much time on trying to get a whole bunch of employees aligned.

The thing you have to remember is that your value in these higher level activities is multiplied by the size of the company. When you are able to motivate 15 employees to work together, your value is AT LEAST 15 times the effort you put into it. When you help five people in sales to be more effective, your value is AT LEAST five times if you just do the sales yourself.

Yes, these activities feel more “back office” than your people on the front line. Maybe you can do parts of their work better than they can. But nobody else can have the multiplying impact that you can. You’re the one who will help all the employees to create beautiful music together.

Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us

Is Free Advice Free?

I had a great discussion recently with a person who owns a coffee shop. She put out several queries in some LinkedIn discussion groups, asking for advice on how to bring in more customers. And in fact, a number of people were quite helpful.

Here’s one problem I’ve seen, though. When you’re asking for advice, especially in a public forum, you’re asking people who don’t understand your business very well. They know what you told them, and if they have REAL initiative, perhaps they looked at your website.

The other problem is that the people who are the most helpful are not necessarily those with the most knowledge. Sometimes they’ll have useful background, but often it’s just people who enjoy being seen as some kind of expert. Or maybe they’ve heard that they’ll sell more products if they participate in online discussions, and they’re just trying to build up their own visibility.

That said, I’ve seen numerous cases where people are very giving, with incredibly useful information. So I often do recommend to people that they ask for information online, as a useful way to get ideas and pointers to resources. But watch out for taking advice.

Imagine that you were walking down the street and decided to ask a random person, “I own a coffee shop – do you have any advice on how I can get more customers?” OK, that would be quite weird. But you’re probably not going to think that anything useful will come from this unless you know more about them, they know more about you, and you have an actual conversation. And even then, you might just take their observations from a limited point of view – if they say you should give away free cookies, it may have nothing to do with it being a sound business decision. Maybe they just like cookies.

When you’re connecting online, then, look for:

• Creative ideas
  

• Resources
  

• People you should talk to
  

But it’s YOUR business judgment that’s critical – don’t let someone else run your business!

I run into this fairly often, because people will tell me that they’d like their business coach to make the decision for them. I won’t do that. Instead, I’ll give my clients some tools, perspective and feedback so THEY can make their own best decision. And more important, to act on that decision to propel the business forward.

Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us

The Tele-Sales Disaster

I had a sales call today from someone who was attempting to have me buy an internet radio show to publicize my business. This was a great example … of how to completely blow a sales opportunity. Even though I’d evaluated a similar service a couple of years ago and declined to pursue it, I just might have been interested today. But it was not to be.

What went wrong?

• The nice lady started out by complimenting me on being well known in my industry, yet she didn’t know what that industry is nor the proper name of my company.
  

• When I asked how much the service costs, the lady answered with what was written on her script, which included no costing information.
  

• When I asked too many more questions, she sent me on to another gentleman, without asking my permission. All of a sudden I was speaking with “the closer.”
  

• At least he knew more about the service, and with some effort I finally persuaded him to give me the cost - $2000 for producing two shows and doing the publicity.
  

• At this point, he asked me whether I wanted to sign up to do a show on the 18th or the 24th. This struck me as just a little presumptuous, since I hadn’t yet bought into the concept that this is worth spending money on.
  

• He let me know that he didn’t have time to waste, that he had a deadline. Sorry, but his urgency isn’t my problem.
  

• When I told him that “I won’t spend money on this until …” he hung up on me mid-sentence.

During the call, I was checking out their website, since I was able to finally get the company name out of them toward the end. I’m not going to incorporate new strategic elements into my marketing strategy just based on a four minute phone call, especially if I’m betting $2000 on it paying off.

Interestingly, the original lady called me back a couple of minutes later, probably by mistake. Flustered, she asked me if the other gentleman had answered my questions. No, indeed, I was appalled and offended.

Now, BEFORE we all have a good chuckle about how screwed up some sales efforts can be, we have to think: Where are WE turning off customers and offending prospects? Perhaps it’s the sales clerk who’s having a bad day and can’t show interest to the customer. Maybe it’s the customer service rep who isn’t sympathetic to the caller’s plight, even though it’s not your company’s fault. Or it’s your website, which isn’t working properly and shows people that you’re not serious about your business tools.

These things are deadly, because you may not have any clue how many customers you’re losing every day.

Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us

Still Sparks Of Life In The Economy

One of the things I love about my business is that I get to interact with people in ALL kinds of industries. This helps give me a broader perspective on the world of business, and even on the state of the economy.

Recently I had a chance to lead a discussion with a group of software developers. It’s an exciting time for them, because business is booming and they’re struggling to find and retain great talent. Yes, this is a fairly rare exception, but I’ve seen a lot of other examples where the economy is now coming to life. Home sales (and things connected with that) are picking up, and there’s signs of optimism in home services.

I’m also seeing a lot of strength in the “buy local” mentality. My guess is that most of us know people who are struggling and out of work, so it makes us feel better when we’re supporting those in the community.

Mind you, there’s still plenty of other places where business is still dreadful. But I expect that this is what a recovery looks like – different industries will grow at different rates, and there may even be some sputtering along.

What do we make of this? Well, the first thing is not to lose hope. There ARE some bright spots, and they’re growing.

Second, make sure you meet customers where they’re at. Most people are very sensitive to conserving every penny, because the future is so uncertain. If you can adjust your products and services to make things more affordable, you’re more likely to succeed. You might even find that it’s a change you’d like to make permanent, if only because it might help attract new customers to your business.

And third, don’t make dumb decisions and blame it on “the economy” or “those idiots in government.” Make the best decisions that you can, then move forward and accept the consequences. Blaming others, especially faceless entities, is just giving control away for no good reason.

The economy is what it is, which is the rules by which business is played. It’s always been that way.

Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us