Don't END The Same Way As This Small Town Restaurant

There is a restaurant in a small town near where I live that has recently been closed and "bought out" by a new owner. The original restaurant was seemingly a perfect match for the small town folk it set itself up to serve. Unfortunately, it didn't last.

Here is a short story about what happened and the lesson to be learned.

For a couple months the small town restaurant did VERY well. Any time of the day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it didn't matter. It was busy. People not only came in to try it out, but also because they enjoyed the fact that they had a "new" meeting place, to visit with all of their friends and family.

Bottom line . . . business was good. And it looked like it was going to be good for quite some time.

But, as is often the case with small businesses, especially restaurants, business started to fall off. Slow at first, but eventually quite rapidly. And with little word, the doors closed unceremoniously for the final time under the old management.

What Happened?

Depending on who you ask, you will likely get different answers to that question.

For example, if you ask the owners, they will blame the economy and the "cheap" town folk. from their point of view, it wouldn't matter how good or how cheap the meals were, there just wasn't enough interest in the small town for the restaurant.

But. . . if you ask the patrons, they will tell you a whole other story. A story of inconsistent product and deteriorating quality that seemed to be common knowledge amongst the town folk.

So, what was it? The customers or the business?

Far too often business owners make excuses for the decline of their business: the economy, the new business across town, finicky customers, and / or even cheap customers. And rarely face do they face the real truth - they aren't meeting the needs of their clientele.

The truth is, most customers (people like you and me) love to find a place that we can call our own - a business that we can rely on and that makes us feel like we matter. And if it is really good, we will brag about it to every one we know - not only to help the business grow, but to be the show everyone how great we are to have found it first.

Unfortunately though, in order for us, as customers, to come back, not just once, but again and again, we have to know what we are going to get - we have to feel like we are going to get the same service, the same food, the same EXPERIENCE every time we walk through the doors.

And that my friends, is what this small town restaurant failed to produce - a consistent experience each and every time people came back for a meal.

You see, when they first opened, it was the owners that did everything. They cooked, they waited and bussed the tables, cleaned, and of course managed the entire operation. The experience their patrons had and the meals they enjoyed were born out of the pride of the owners. But very rapidly, the business grew beyond the owners' capacity to support on their own and they were forced to hire help. And so, they did exactly that - they hired good, experienced help.

They hired cooks with previous experience in short order cooking and a wait staff that was fully capable. And they did so, because the one thing the owners didn't know how to do was teach anyone how to do it like them - nor did they want to take the time to learn how.

With the new staff, came a NEW experience for the customer. Not necessarily a bad experience, but DEFINITELY not the one they got when it was just the owners doing everything. And so, slowly but surely a lot of the original, reliable customers stopped coming in.

Although the owners noticed a small drop off in patronage, there were enough new customers that were coming in that seemed to like the food and the service with the hired help that the business was able to survive. And besides, the owners liked feeling like they didn't have to do EVERY THING all the time.

Unfortunately though, as months passed, and the bills continued to exceed the sales, the owners had a make a decision - cut expenses or go out of business. So. . . they decided to cut in two arenas, they reduced (just slightly) the quantity of servings (that seemed only natural since most plates had lots of food left over after the meals) and they cut their experienced staff and hired some high school students with little / no experience (heck if McDonalds could do it, so could they).

Although it might make financial sense to impose these cuts (and often it does create a benefit in the short term), good financial sense doesn't always mean good business sense. And as it turns out, it was the beginning of the end of the restaurant.

In fact, it was only 4 short months later that this decent restaurant in a small town, aching for a nice restaurant, declared bankruptcy.

The Lesson To Be Learned

What it came down to was the fact that the owners failed to realize one VERY important fact when it comes to business:

It's easy to get new customers to walk through your doors - all you have to do is promise them an experience that appeals to them. But running a business isn't getting them to come in once - success in business is based on the ability of the business to deliver the same experience the customer enjoyed, again and again and again.

In the case of this small restaurant, it wasn't that their food or service were bad, it was that every time customers came in the door, they didn't know what they were going to get. Literally, it was like walking into a different restaurant every time they visited.

So with each visit, the customers got more and more disenfranchised and frustrated, until one by one, each decided to stop patronizing.

And in the case of this small restaurant in this little country town, there just wasn't enough potential customers in the pool to keep it afloat.

The lesson is simple . . . quality is great to get people to come once. But consistency is the key to long term success. And the key to consistency in product / service is to build your business based on systems, not people.

Procrastination or Daily Commitment - How Do YOU Live Your Life?

Procrastination or Daily Commitment?

Here's a test for you . . .

This next month, be diligent about your lawn care and your house cleaning. Mow, trim, water and generally care for your yard regularly (once a week or so). Wash your dishes, do the laundry, dust, wipe the counters, and maintain your home consistently (every day or so).

Then the following month . . . do nothing for the whole month and clean it up on the last day of the month (if you even can).

When you are all done, think about what you just did and ask yourself a couple questions:

- Which one was easier to do?
- Which one felt better - made you happier?
- How did you feel when your family "popped in during the third week of each month"?
- At the end of the month, which yard and home looked better?

Do you really need to do this exercise to know what your answers will be? I don't think so.

Apply This Test To Your Life And Your Business

What if we apply this same idea to ourselves? Or to our relationships? To our customers and our suppliers and our employees?

Do you think putting a little effort in every day, or at least regularly (once or twice a week) would better serve you than ignoring the what matters most to you for months or years at a time?

Again, I know you know the answer. Unfortunately, knowing the answer and doing something about it, are two completely different things.

You can't just say you are going to take better care of yourself every day - physically, emotionally, intellectually, or spiritually. You must do it everyday!

You can't just say you are going to be a better Parent, Spouse, Friend, or Sibling? You have to commit to giving to the relationship regularly!

You can't just tell your customers that they really matter to you "Once in a Blue Moon". You have to show them!

And none of these things are easy.

You forget to eat healthy, work out, or set aside some time to read a good book.

You forget to give your wife a hug, just because you love her.

You forget that your kids are only going to be this age ONCE in their lifetime, until it's already past.

And you forget that if you don't take care of your customers and make them feel wanted in your business, then someone else will.

So, the question is . . . how do you do all of this every day (or at least regularly)?

That is the ultimate question, isn't it?

Believe it or not, it's simpler than you think it is. But simple doesn't equal easy. If it were easy, odds are, you'd already be doing it.

In my opinion, the answer is a SYSTEM - a process that you can regularly count on to keep you on track and not let you get away with not being who you say you want to be.

You need daily accountability that keeps you focused on your priorities when life gets in the way and overwhelms you with other things.

And because most of us can't do this on our own (as we prove daily), you need someone, somewhere, somehow that will call you out (objectively) when you don't do what you say you want to to get done. You need an accountability partner.

An accountability partner can be friend, a family member, a spouse, a mentor, a coach, a clergy, or even someone you barely know. But the key is that you need to be able to hear their inputs and respect them, without taking things personally.

They need to tell you when you aren't doing what you set out to do, but not in a judging way.

They need to help you stay focused and keep you on track . . . especially when you are drifting the most.

They need to be able to give you tools and techniques to get you back on track and encourage you when you need a little support.

But most important, they need to be there . . . even when you don't want them to be. Because at some point in the process of daily accountability, you aren't going to want to hear it any more. You aren't going to like being challenged any more. You are going to want to go back to not taking care of things . . . the way you used to do.

You are going to want to start cleaning house and mowing just once a month again with the relationships and things that matter most to you in your life.

And the only one that is going to keep you from going there is going to be your accountability partner.

So choose wisely.

If you want more information about how to put into place a system that will help you and your accountability partner stay on track, or if you are interested in finding out more about a life or business coach to help you with this effort, please contact me at coach.jj@impossiblefutures.com

To Change Your Business Simply Change The Way You Pay Yourself

One of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is they think that since now they have their own business, all they have to do is "the work that they love". And because they are usually very good it (not by their own admission, but by all of the people that know of their work), they think their business will grow and thrive like no other.

Oooh, I'm sorry to say, NOTHING could be further from the truth. Running a business is much more than that.

And there are two types of business owners . . .

Those that know this to be true.

And those that will soon find out.

You see, when you own a business, you no longer get paid to do what you love to do . . . Instead you actually get paid for selling your business and your products to your potential customers.

As an Entrepreneur, getting to do the work you love to do
is actually the reward for generating sales.

Not the other way around!

Sounds crazy, I know. But understanding this point could be the difference between success and failure of your business.

You see, we're all human and we will naturally do more of what we get rewarded for (or what we think we are getting rewarded for). So if you think you are being rewarded for delivering your product and not for the sale, then you will always want to do more of the fun work (what you love to do) and less of the difficult labor of sales and marketing (what you dislike the most and usually know the least about as a small business owner).

As an Entrepreneur, your NUMBER ONE job just is actually getting customers to choose you . . . not producing the product. You can only if and only if new customers choose you. And the problem is thinking about your business any other way is actually detrimental to the long term success of your business.

How do you change this mindset?

Believe it or not . . . it's simple. Start paying yourself to produce customers instead of producing product. Don't compensate based on production, compensate based on marketing and sales.

Build systems and a culture into your business that is based upon this model - it will carry over to your employees and serve you well for years to come - as you grow your business bigger and bigger.

Does it change what you get paid? Probably not. But making small changes in attitude and language can make all the difference - knowing (in your heart) that you earned the money from the sale, will drive you to make more sales. And hence grow your business.

Bottom line is that if you want to grow your business, you have to stop thinking like an employees and start thinking like an Entrepreneur. And Entrepreneurs making money selling, not producing. So rather than paying yourself to produce the product you have always produced, start paying yourself for generating new business.

4 Steps to Building and Evaluating Systems In Your Business

According to Dictionary.com, Systems are any formulated, regular, or special methods or plans of procedure.

Whether you like it or not - you have systems in your business. But they may not be very strong systems, and they may not be very effective systems. And in the world of business, the stronger the system is, the more consistent your product is, and most importantly, the more likely your customers will come back to you, again and again.

Literally, everything you do is a system. How you make your product, answer the phone or hire new employees are all systems. Unfortunately, even though you may have systems, if you are like most small business owners, they are haphazardly used and usually require the owner's presence / knowledge to make them work correctly.

So how do you improve on this situation, if you should choose to do so? How do you take your currently haphazard, "fly by the seat of the pants" processes and turn them into consistent reliable systems that both you and your customers can't count on.

The answer is easier than you think. Below are Four Steps to Building and Evaluating Systems In Your Business:

1. Document (write it down). When creating a system for your business, the first step is documentation - get it down in writing. I don't care how you do it, or even if how you do it is how you want to do it, write it down. Write down what you do, what you say, how you do it, when you do it, and if you can, why you do it. It does haven't to be pretty and it definitely doesn't have to be perfect - it just needs to be done. Most people get hung up at this stage, simply because they let perfect get in the way of "good enough".

As you will see, the process I'm going to lead you through is all about continuous improvement - for two reasons:

a. Nothing is perfect - ever. Even as you come close to having a perfect system, the market and or the environment that the system operates in will change and you will have to keep adjusting.

b. It's too much work to try to make it perfect. They say that it requires 20% effort to get an 80% solution, and 80% more effort to get the last 20%. Well what we want to do with our systems is get the 80% solution and then improve it as necessary to keep making it better given the existing conditions.

2. Evaluate (test it and measure it). Now that you have a system or systems in place, it's time to figure out what we are going to improve first. This requires evaluating the system - measuring the efficacy of the process that is currently in place. As much as possible those measurements should be quantifiable, but there may be qualitative measurements on occasion (but consistency of evaluation is important).

Fact of the matter is that you have limited time and assets. So it's going to be important to figure out where you overall system is broken (or not working as well as you want it to), so that you can leverage your time and money to generate the largest "bang for the buck".

The key here is to evaluate (test and measure) all of your processes to see what is working and what isn't. Sometimes you will make major changes to single process and sometimes you will make make minor changes to many processes. But for each change you need to ensure that you know if what you did helped or hurt the overall all system before it becomes a permanent change in your business.

3. Innovate. Now that you have all of your systems in place and you know which ones are working and which ones aren't, it's time to start improving them - taking them from what they have always been and start making them better.

This doesn't take rocket science - it just takes a little creativity and / or a little bit of imitation. Truly, if you want to be the best, you are going to have to be a bit creative, but if you are still far from the best in your marketplace, there is lots of room for improvement just by understanding better how you competition (or similar business in other industries) do well - and copying it.

The truth is the wheel was invented a couple thousand years ago - and I believe the patent has expired. So in most cases there is no need to re-invent it. Although the process / system involved in producing your main product may be unique, there is no reason you can't leverage other systems that other are using quite effectively.

4. Validate. And finally, now that you have improved your processes, it's time to make sure your new and improved processes are actually better than the ones you previously had. And that should be simple, since you should already have a measuring tool built into your system so that the you can see right away whether or not you improved or hurt the output of the changed system.

If you hurt the output of that process or the overall functionality of your business, then undo what you did and go back to the drawing board.

However, if you saw even the slightest bit of improvement, its time to go back the documentation step and start all over.


All too often, people make this process entirely too hard. They get caught up in fixing before they even write it down. Or they try to fix things without being able to tell if their improvements even made a difference. But if you follow these steps, you will quickly start to be able to take your business from being inconsistent in some or many aspects of operations, to soon becoming the best in your market at some or even all the processes within your business.

Four Steps To Hiring The Right Employees!

"No business can grow faster than it can find, hire, train and keep quality employees." Even though business growth is all about generating sales, the real success in keeping customers coming back is the ability to provide a consistent product - time after time. And no matter how good your marketing team is, if you don't have the right staff delivering your product to your customers, you will never grow at the rate you desire.

Real success in business depends on two things: great systems to provide consistency and motivated good employees to run those systems.

Below are four steps to help you increase the likelihood of hiring the best employees that both match the job description as well as be motivated and committed to your vision.

1. Create a Job Description / Positional Contract - Before you go out and hire someone - know what you want and what they are going to do. This should include, but is not limited to, a list of roles and goals for the position, how you are going measure success, and how they are going to be compensated.

Writing a job description is a difficult task. And it is the most often over looked step in the process. However it is also one of the most important. Take some time and commit to doing this step properly. The ground work you do in this step alone can be the difference between long term success and / or failure of you r new hire.

2. Generate a list of perspective candidate employees - Make this list as big as possible by advertising every way you can: Newspapers, Craigslist, job sites, etc. Also, don't be afraid of other non-traditional perspective employee gathering options including: asking your suppliers, your distributors, your employees, colleagues, and even trade associations. Get the word out every way you can. The key here is to make sure you give yourself as many options as you get to choose from. And in today's market, that should be easy.

3. Conduct a Three Stage Interview Process:

- First Interview - One of the biggest problems with employees is commitment. In order to gain commitment right from the onset of the process, make the beginning step in your "interview process" all about allowing them to choose you first. This means starting with a group interview / presentation.

Schedule all of your perspective employees to come in at one time (or if the group is too big for one session, schedule multiple sessions). This presentation is all about the company and the job being offered.

Truth is, this is much less an interview than presentation. It is where the perspective employee learns about the business and decides whether or not they feel they are match for your company. Not only do you tell them about the job, but also about the company - explaining the culture, your mission, vision, and commitments. Invite the applicant to ask the questions - promoting the idea that this is where they decide if they want to be part of your business

At the end of this presentation, give all the applicants an opportunity to schedule their second interview - if and only if, they feel that they are a match for you business.

- Second Interview - The second interview is a complete role reversal. Where as the first interview was the chance for them to learn about you, the second is where you learn about them.

This is your traditional interview where you conduct your question / answer interview finding out what you need to know about them, in order to hire them. It is where you ask everything that you want to know about them, their background and their future desires.

It is not however, where they get to ask any questions back - that stage is past. They should have already made a choice in their mind whether or not they are interested in joining and committing to your business.

*** It is at the end of the second interview that you should conduct your reference / background checks, validate applicant's information, and even conduct personality checks as you might see fit. This gives you an opportunity eliminate the bad hires / non-motivated applicants before you invest in this often quite costly stage of hiring.

- Third Interview - The third interview is all about the hire. Where you ask any final / follow-up questions. It is in this "interview that the compensation negotiations take place as well as the formal job offer is made.

4. Train, Indoctrinate, Train, Orient and Train Some More. Now that you have the best employee(s) for the job, it's no time to let down your guard. Now that you have hired your perfect match, it's time to orient your new employee into the culture properly.

You should have a process that walks the new employee not only through the training they need to do the job, but they also need to become acclimated as effectively as possible to the business culure itself.

Bottom line, there is no easy answer. And no hiring system can / will eliminate the chance of making a mistake. But with a system, you will reduce the likelihood of making a mistake that you may regret for weeks or months to come.

Build Systems and Empower Employees

Don't keep everything in your head and try to do things "off the cuff". Clearly define jobs descriptions, expectations and processes within your business - the principals, boundaries and guidelines that represent the company, its employees and its practices. Without these explicit words, a company can be easily taken advantage of, be distracted from its goals or simply get caught chasing its own tail all day.

Additionally, the real competitive edge in the next decade is knowledge and learning. Your team can only help you when they know and understand what the problems are - so share. . . everything. You'd be surprised where some of the best ideas come from.

Long term success in today's very competitive marketplace depends on many things, but two of the most critical elements are delivering consistency in your market promise (your product) and maximizing your most valuable assets - your employees. Both of those involve the implementation of writing guidelines, building systems and sharing everything with your employees.

Write guidelines. You might ask, "Why should I spend the time doing this when everyone in my company already knows what they are supposed to be doing?"

Why?

Because you can't afford not to.

I recently got that response from a client - not vocally, but I could read his body language - the rolling of the eyes. He has run a company for years where he hires specialists - already trained in the expertise that he needs. Surely there was nothing that he was going to provide them they didn't already know. Hire them, pay them and make sure they have what they need. And besides, I was asking an awful lot of him. It would take him a long time to write a operational handbook that gave his employees guidance on how he does things in his company. So, why should he?

The reason is simple. His customers, as well as almost every consumer out there, want to know what they are getting when they spend their hard earned money for his services. But that's not all. They want to know, each time they come back that they are going to get the same consistent level quality they got the first time. And just as important, they want to know that their friends and family, that they recommend you to, will receive the same consistent level of quality.

So, how do you make sure that each and every time your customers shop in your store, eat in your restaurant, hire you to perform the services you specialize in, they get what they were expecting - the exact same thing they got the last time they purchased from you? You got it - write guidelines and build systems.

Build systems. A system is, by definition, a group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a complex whole. Your business, no matter how large or how small is a system - a series of processes and people interacting to accomplish a mission - your company's mission. It's a system, whether you like it or not. The question then . . . is how well do you optimize your systems?

Building systems is about running your business "on purpose", not by luck. It's about following a few simple steps: Standardize, Measure, and Innovate (repeat forever).

- Standardize: The "systemization" process begins with making sure that everyone is doing the same thing, the same way - standardized. Everyone is using the same guidelines - whether those guidelines relate to creating your product, purchasing from suppliers, selling, managing, or cleaning the floors.

- Measure: Measuring comes down to quantitatively tracking what systems are working and which ones aren't working. It's taking an honest numerical (if possible) assessment of the current reality and comparing it exactly to what you want it to be.

- Innovate: The final step in the process (until it begins all over again) is innovation. Up to this point, you've standardized, and measured the outcomes, next, it's time to make improvements to the processes. It's time to answer the question as to whether or not you can improve the process, ever so slightly, and implement those changes.

Share Everything and Empower Your Team. As you begin to innovate, you will inevitably find that you don't have all the answers. You can't - simply because you can't be everywhere in your business all the time. The best source of innovation is often those closest to the problems - those on the front line, whether they're making the products, engaging with customers and suppliers or building your marketing plan. But these team members can't solve problems that they don't know or understand. So give them the number one tool that will give them the ability to help you - information.

The most powerful tool in today's business world, is an educated and empowered employee.

4 Principles of Recession Survival For Businesses

The recession is here - but that is no reason to panic. We have been through many downturns in the past and I can guarantee that we will see many more in the years to come. Business is cyclical. There are times of great prosperity - always followed by downturns. Followed once
again by - upswings!

It is what it is. You can dwell on it and blame it for all your woes. Or, you can take control of your business and make it work - in spite of the current conditions.

The truth is - the problem isn't the recession . . .

It's how you react to it.

Do you look at the current market conditions as a problem or do you look at them as an opportunity?

I, personally, believe they are an opportunity. And I believe if you approach things with the right mindset you can not only survive, but actually thrive. And, in doing so, set yourself up to lead your market when things begin to pick up again.

The truth is anyone can survive and grow in a booming market. When there is demand galore, it doesn't matter how you market yourself or how good your product is, someone will buy it. If the growth is strong enough, there are even people who will jump into the fray who have no idea what they are doing. As an example, look at the mortgage industry through the early part of this decade - it was filled with fat and unscrupulous brokers (just trying to make a buck).

But when the pendulum swings the other way - oooh, look out. To survive in a recession, you actually need to have business savvy (or at least understand some the basics of business), a quality product, and excellent customer service.

Look at the mortgage / banking industry now! Since the collapse of the housing market there are over 200 well known mortgage companies that have gone under (big and small) - declared bankruptcy and left the business. Do you think they are the strong ones - or the weak ones? It is true market "Darwinism" - and the herd has been thinned out.

There is no magic way to survive during a recession - it is simply doing the things that every business should do all the time, but most businesses are too lazy to stay focused on - when the cash is flowing in.

I've been working with small businesses from varying industries and marketplaces for the past two years. I've also been doing some thorough research on down-turned markets in the past and how best to survive them. The trick to surviving can be reduced to 4 Principles of Sounds Business. Those principles are:

- Cash is king!
- Take care of your customers or someone else will!
- Deliver a consistent product / service every time!
- Marketing the smart way!

But. . . before I break these basic principles down for you, let me give you one other principle that applies as much to life as it does to business.

That additional principle is that all things being equal - there is an inverse relationship between spare money and spare time. It's rare to have both - money and time. So when money is down, you need to take advantage of your available time to make money. And when business is booming, there is rarely enough time to do the things you want to do, but plenty of money to pay someone else to do them.

So when sales are down (as they usually are in a recession), and there isn't a lot of work for you to do "in" your business - that is the best time to work "on" your business. And prepare it for the long road ahead. That may sound obvious, but most people don't seem to take advantage of the slower sales / customer traffic to do the work that needs to be done o create new business both today and in the future.

You see, when sales are up, you tend have a lot excess money and very little spare time. So you spend, spend, spend to get things done. But when things slow down, the opposite is usually true. The trick is to take advantage of the slow time to improve your business - apply the four principals to your business, survive the downturn and prepare for the big upswing that is forth coming by having a better run business.

Now, let's break the original Four Principles down a bit further.

Cash is king!

In any business cash is important. But during a recession, the businesses that have a ready supply of cash are going to thrive more than any other. Why is this more important during a recession than during a growth stage? Basically cash is more important during a downturn because credit becomes increasingly hard to come by - everyone is hurting and Banks / Lenders understand the importance of cash more than anyone.

There are many cases when profitable businesses go out of business because they failed to manage their cash flow properly. Don't let this happen to you. Look at your cash flow and begin to figure out where you can make adjustments to both accounts receivable and payable to ensure a healthy cash flow throughout your year.

Take care of your customers or someone else will!

During a downturn, most businesses will struggle and many will go out of business completely. This means that when all is said and done, you should have more market share after the downturn than before - though your sales may fall off. So, just because you might start gaining customers from others misfortunes - or misgivings, the one thing you do not want to do is lose your existing client base.

Your current clients are today, and will be for the coming months, your life blood. Take care of them. Nurture them. And by all means, make sure they know how important they are to your business.

And if you see them starting to leave - stop them! Get them back in your store - at all cost.

Deliver a consistent product / service every time!

The truth is, whether we are in a recession or not, for most small businesses across America (especially following the holidays) sales are slow and time is plentiful. The early part of the year tends to be a "breather" time for many businesses from retail to manufacturing.

Retail sales are down, so most retailers are cutting back. And most manufacturers are either re-tooling or re-evaluating for the coming year. So, take advantage of the slower times to build the systems and procedures that will enable you to deliver consistent products / services regardless of your staff.

The trick to long term success isn't being able to produce today - but to be able to produce a consistent product today, tomorrow and next month. If you product is hamburgers, make sure that everyone tastes the same, and the experience the customer gets every time is the same. If you product is mortgages, and one of your marketing elements is turnaround times for brokers, then make sure you can consistently deliver what you promise.

This requires strategic planning - to not only make sure you can deliver today - but also making sure you can deliver consistently on your promise during spikes in business as well as slow downs.

Make Decisions Based on Actual Measurable Facts - Not Gut Feelings!

All too often, small business owners will tell me "sales are down". I have no doubt that they are. But . . . the follow-up up questions is usually, how do you know?

Now, if they are able to pull up sales numbers quickly, I'll take it one step further and ask them Why? or Where are they down? To that question, I rarely get an answer. And without it, the right solutions to the problem are very difficult to come by.

Let me explain. So, what if we are talking about a phone sales company. We look at the data and overall sales are down 10%. That's bad right? Could be, but what if the product you main product is selling for 15% less this year than last year and overall volume is up 3%? Is that bad or good?

Or, what if new customer sales is up 100% and repeat customer sales are down 25%?

What problem needs to be focused on then? Or what if those numbers were reversed - what problem should you come up with a solution for?

Everything comes down to numbers and looking at them objectively - no matter how painful it might be. But I can tell you this - it might be tough looking at the numbers now and facing the facts that they present to you - but it is far better to find out the real truth now, when there is time to fix it, than in bankruptcy court, when you can only say to your lawyer, "My gosh, if I had only realized that back in December 2008, things would have been much better."

Over the course of the next four months, I will be taking these concepts and drilling down deeper so that you can make sure you know how best to apply them to your unique situation.

Seven Steps to Small Business Success

According to the Small Business Administration, given the current rate of failure, nearly 85% of all small businesses started this year will fail by the end of 2014. That means that more than 8 out of every 10 entrepreneurs will have their hopes and dreams crushed and their financial accounts drained. But it doesn't have to be that way.

There are steps that every small business owner can follow that will help them reach their goals and do so, relatively easy. The following Seven Steps to Small Business Success are a cursory look at the simple steps that are often overlooked, but are so critical to survival.

1. Build A Solid Foundation. Every business (like your home) needs to be built on a strong foundation. Whether you are just starting out or you are struggling with the growth of your company, start by building or shoring up the foundation first. In business, your foundation is clearly defining "what you do", "where you are going" and "what is most important to you on that journey" - the answers to these three questions make up your Mission, your Vision and your Commitments, respectively.

2. Define How You Measure Success and Make Decisions Based on Those Metrics. Now that you built your foundation, its time to start figuring out how we are going to go from a foundation to the beautiful dream that is the vision. It's time to begin focusing on how we define, more concretely, what we will measure to decide if we are on the path to our dream. Its time to focus on your Metrics and Goals.

3. Create a Cohesive Team - Built on the Foundation of Your Dream. No one person has all the answers and can do it all - not in any industry. Build a team and define the culture of your organization.

Your team may include your family, your friends, your employees, a Business Coach, a CPA, an attorney, or anyone else that commits to help you reach your goals. Each member of your team, including you, needs to clearly know what they do, what they don't do and what is expected of them and that they will be held accountable - not to you, but to the team.

4. Write Guidelines, Build Systems, Share Everything and Empower Your Team. Don't keep everything in your head and try to do things "off the cuff". Clearly define jobs descriptions, expectations and processes within your business - the principals, boundaries and guidelines that represent the company, its employees and its practices. Without these explicit words, a company can be easily taken advantage of, be distracted from its goals or simply get caught chasing its own tail all day.

Additionally, the real competitive edge in the next decade is knowledge and learning. Your team can only help when they know and understand what the problems are - so share. . . everything. You'd be surprised where some of the best ideas come from.

5. Make the Sale. When it comes right down to it, you have to generate sales. If you are lucky, you will have a product that sells itself - but in the long term, that too shall pass. So you ask, how do I sell my product / service? Like every other stage of business - Start with a plan and then move to action. You need other people selling for you - employees help, but you want "raving fans" of your product and cheerleaders of your services. Get out and talk to as many people as you can - potential clients, business owners, friends and family. Join groups and organizations that are have potential clients or relationships with potential clients. Become a visible part of your market. Start with people that you know and that know you. It's not only okay, but highly encouraged, to start with friends and family as your first customers, and then broaden from there. People buy from those that they know and / or trust. So sales is about creating relationships and helping others see value in what you have to offer. And relationships take time. Most people don't want to be sold, but they love to buy - so listen and learn what they want, what they need, and what they value. But don't forget in the end to Ask for the Sale!

6. Take Advantage of Opportunities and Maintain Discipline. The most successful businesses maintain focus on their core mission and how it serves clients. Your core business should be a combination of what you do best, what you are most passionate about and what is what pays the bills. When opportunity comes knocking, and it will, you must have the discipline to make sure that it is aligned with your core mission and your strategic, vision before you jump on it - always think carefully before you commit your company resources to what may turn out to be a costly endeavor that takes you time, money and assets from what you do best.

7. Find an Accountability Partner. The "great" people and companies in the world find a way to do what the need to do, but don't want to do, to become who they want to be. Nearly every one of those that truly become great have an accountability partner to help them focus on the goal - the future they are trying to achieve. In sports, we call them coaches. In school, we call them teachers. Some of us have family (parents or maybe a spouse) and friends that hold us accountable to become who we want to be without becoming subjectively attached to the outcome. In recent years, the advent of the personal, executive, and business coaching industry has given us even more options. Whatever it takes - find someone who will stand in your future and believe in you even when you lose faith in yourself - someone who can make you do the things you know you should do, but don't want to do, don't know how to do or are afraid to do, so you can become the person who you dream of becoming.

For more about any or all of these steps, please contact email coach.jj@impossiblefutures.com for more information.

Posture to Grow Your Market Share

In an article in Newsweek published Feb 9th, writer Craig Barrett, states that market share is won and loss in times of transition. And WOW, are we in a period of transition!

Between the transition to a global market, a near complete redefinition of the marketing industry through the effective use of inbound marketing, and the current recession, there is more "opportunity" for growth than probably any time in history - for those bold enough to take the risk.

That's right, Capitalism is alive. For those willing to risk, there is a great opportunity for large rewards.

In the article, the retired CEO of Intel, writes "you cannot save your way out of a recession, you can only invest your way out." Unfortunately, we are looking for the wrong people to invest - it's not the Government's job to invest our way out - it is the responsibility of Businesses.

No matter what the size of your business is today, you should be posturing yourself for the growth that is coming - investing time, money and energy to position yourself for the inevitable upside of the market.

But what should you be investing in?

In my opinion, the answer is simple - Your Systems and Your People.

Your systems got you through the last phase of growth, and they are keeping things working through the downturn. But are they as efficient as you need them to be in the coming market boom? Are you postured to compete in a world class, global market? Are you ready and capable of handling growth of 100% or more annually? If not, when growth hits your business, will you collapse under the weight of your own potential? These are all questions you should be asking yourself and your staff.

And your people - are you leveraging their talents? Are you even postured to? Most businesses look at employees as expenses, because of the cost every pay cycle. But few leverage the real talent each individual brings to the table. And even fewer businesses really train them or work on gaining their commitment to the vision of the business. This is the time to turn your employees from expenses to assets.

These are very tough questions, that I believe every business owner needs to ask. But more importantly, they are questions that every business owner must answer. Because when the wave of growth begins (and it will hit), they will be more likely washed away, than be postured to ride the wave to new heights.