How secure is your business model?

In January of 2012 it will be 3 years since Circuit City went out of business?

This was a consumer-electronics retailer that had been in business for 60 years. I’ve been informed that sales had declined over the preceding years before the business finally closed its doors. At the time of the closing this retailer had over 30,000 people on staff.

What can we learn from Circuit City’s demise? I believe that the first indication of the challenges the company was experiencing could come from their Mission/Vision Statement. It stated; "To make sure that we are all working in the same direction, each of us must live and breathe Circuit City's values and use them as a guidepost for our actions and decisions."

Circuit City’s Mission/Vision statement said nothing. When I read ‘working in the same direction’ all that I can think about is - what nonsense.

Recently I was researching about how important virtues are to people. Would it make sense to have a virtues statement in business? That way you could outline and define the virtues that all staff members agree on and can follow.

When all staff members follow the same virtues, I believe that a company will have a much more secure business model. Let me give you an example. Let’s say that creativity was a company virtue. It would be wonderful to have staff contributing creative ideas to solve problems, wouldn’t it? Can you imagine how good the staff would feel about you accepting these ideas?

What virtues do you and your fellow employees need to put forward and follow to establish a more secure business model?

Do great things happen when we are open with others?

Do I need to explain what open means?

To elaborate on this I want to use a quote I read on a bottle of wine made by Open Wines, from Niagara Falls Ontario. The quote is; “Great things can happen when we’re open. When we begin to reveal our character, we start to make connections with others. We become open to new discoveries and experiences. We open up and be ourselves.”

I believe all of the above leads to honest or authentic connections.

Aren’t these the type of connections you want to have in business?

When can you start to be more open in your connections with others?

How are you doing today?

You’ve heard this many times and you may have said it to others.

To me this is a poor excuse for a greeting. I say that because what if the person you say that to is having a bad day? Do you really want to know how they are feeling?

Years ago when you heard ‘How are you doing today?’ you automatically thought - here comes the sales pitch. If that is still true, why would you want to put up a barrier before you even got to know someone?

Why wouldn’t you just be pleasant, have a soft attitude and be interested in the person you are meeting?

It is better to build rapport first, isn't it?

Do you work or own a family business?

Has it been operating the same for a number of years?

If it has, now is the time to re-invent your business model. I know that at least one person will be saying, ‘No, we can’t do that.’ If you chose not to re-invent your business model now, you do so at your own peril. I say that very sincerely because if you continue to operate the way you’ve always operated watch out as you will be crushed by your competition. Why can I say that?

Statistics show that most family businesses don’t survive beyond the founder’s generation. The reason for that is because the second generation business owner’s are too comfortable with what has gone on before. They have seen the money flow into the owner’s pockets with relative ease. I have seen how this flow of money stops with the next generation in a business.

If you don’t want that to happen the time is now. You need to take action or get some coaching on how you can re-invent your business so that you can be part of the 21^st Century.

What is one thing that you can change today that will benefit your company for the future?

What makes a company brilliant?

The Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur magazine recently posted this on their web-site and I would like to share with you.

“…our annual list of 100 Brilliant Companies, who have coupled genius and execution to fantastic -- and, in many cases, fantastically lucrative -- ends… The brilliance runs the gamut, from a deal site aggregator recognizing a void in a crowded sector to a service that simplifies the notoriously difficult process of creating an app.”

In the video she pointed out the following about brilliant companies, they;

• have brilliant leaders,
• innovate and re-invent old business models,
• have deep relationships and a deep understanding of who their customer is,
• have created a sustainable revenue model,
• are passionate and believe in what they are doing and bringing to their tribe, and
• are more guts than spread sheets.

What can you do to move closer to the model presented above?

Do you get any recommendations from your customers?

You may call them referrals or compliments, but do you get them?

In a 2010 study by Forrester Research, they found that 62% of online retail shoppers think product recommendations are useful and 15% of the people surveyed bought based on those recommendations.

The question becomes, how do you get these recommendations? I know that the first step to getting these is to provide an extra-ordinary service for your clients. That means providing more than they expected. Secondly, I know that you have to provide follow-up to these clients. This is a quick phone call to stay in touch, with no plan for asking for another purchase. Thirdly, you have to ask the clients how they feel about what you’ve provided. It does not take place in step two, it will occur a few weeks later.

Have you done all three of those steps? If not.

When can you start to take action on them?

Are you concerned about people stealing your business ideas?

I think that concern is totally unjustified, because most people don’t like new ideas.

Take for example this quote from Howard Aiken (1900-1973). He was a major figure of the early digital era. He is best known for his first machine, the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator. It was conceived in 1937 and put into operation in 1944. He said “Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.”

I think the problem is that there aren’t many new ideas being developed lately. Look at your own industry, have there been many new ideas or innovations? If there have been innovations, are all of you in the industry copying them?

Answer these questions;

• What can I do today, that will stimulate me to create new ideas for my business?
• What can I create that will make my business look different than my competitors?
  
  

Have you got a message from last years results?

If you have, what actions prove that you want to improve?

The biggest problem I’ve seen in my life is settling. Settling for me is accepting that your life is as good as it could be. It is saying to your self; ‘This is a good as it gets.” This is a sad statement, because if we live a life like that - we are not living life to the fullest. Maybe we have had some tough times but so what. Life is better when we have tough times and grow from those times. You and I need to stretch our vision of what we can achieve. By doing that life takes on a different meaning.

What can you do today to create something wonderful with your life to benefit others?

Are you a risk-taker, a doer or a maker of things?

All of those people are the entrepreneurs, are you one of them?

When U.S. President Obama was inaugurated he paid honor to the entrepreneurs in his first speech as President. Whether you agree with his politics or not, it is time for all of us in this world to step up to the plate and become more entrepreneurial.

We have to become doers; we need to take action, as that is the only way things get done. What plans have you put together for next year? What are two things that will improve your business next year than you didn’t do this year? Have you written these items down? If not, there is little chance that they will be accomplished.

Have you ever heard the line, what gets written down, gets done? It is true.

So what actions do you need to take to make next year better than this past year was?

Do you know the difference between a tactic and a strategy?

If you are not sure read on.

Tactics are the specific actions or series of actions that you take. Tactics will vary with the situation. A strategy on the other hand is a method or plan chosen to bring about a desired result. So a strategy is the long range business development goal, while the tactics are the ad, the sales call or an e-mail.

So why should you be interested in understanding the difference between a strategy and the tactics?

Tactics are what have been used by ‘sales’ people for years. Strategies are needed in today’s world. I say that because today’s buyers are intelligent and more informed. They want to get more than your product or service.

So what can you do today to plan for next year so that you are more strategic in your approach?

What would you think if your business was classified as not adapting to change?

What about if people said that you were inefficient and obsolete?

In a recent survey by a strategic brand and marketing company called Prophet they interviewed 5,000 US consumers. The question they had was; what businesses do you see as being on a deathwatch between now and 2015.

The businesses that made the list were; Eastman Kodak, Netflix, the U.S. Post Office, RIM (Blackberry) and Sears. What struck me were the comments of the people surveyed. They said that Kodak had bad product development, were not forward looking or adapting to change. The comments about Netflix were harsh; they don't know their own clients and they are not even clear with what they want as a company.

Kodak was started in 1892. Netflix was started in 1997. These two businesses are at both ends of the spectrum. If that is what people are saying about them, what are people saying about your business or your industry?

How can you show your potential customers that;

• you have great product development,
• you are forward looking and adapt to change?

How can you show that;

• you know your clients and
• that you are clear with what you want as a company?

The future is now. When will you start to improve your company?

What does it take to get the attention of prospective buyers?

For years I’ve been speaking about how effective writing will draw attention to your advertising.

At long last I can use an example from every day life.

A man named Weh-Ming Cho who lives in Eastern Canada used his writing skills to draw attention to his used snow blower. The ad on Kijiji is now an internet legend. The description of why people should buy his snow blower did not take the usual path. Instead he had fun with it and made statements that were bound to get attention. Isn’t that what all advertising should do? For example; the ad suggested that instead of murdering your snow blower owning neighbor in a jealous rage and getting out of shoveling for 25 years to life, you buy one of your own.

Mr. Cho got more than 1,300 responses. Now remember this is for a $900 snow blower. Can you say that your ads have brought in that type of a response?

If not, now is the time to either improve your ads or get some help. Contact me, so that I can help you improve your ads today. My e-mail address is timothygibney@sympatico.ca

You know you want to improve, so take the first step – contact me.

Have you ever seen a company advertising that they ‘will not be undersold’?

What a sad situation for that business.

If you have competitors who want to compete on price it is time for you to re-invent your business. I speak from a personal perspective on this. Almost 30 years ago I was getting trapped into the lowest pricing strategy by one of my competitors, but then I realized that I started the business as a ‘for profit’ business. What I did has had the greatest impact on my life and attitude since that time.

I reinvented our business so that there was barely a trace of what we were before. There was no trace of us being compared to our lower priced competitors as well. We reduced our inventory that looked like what the competition was selling, then started anew. We raised our pricing and were able to validate why our pricing was higher than anyone else in our area. Then we started to ask our clients after sale questions. Their answers reinforced what we had done and our sales results grew on the average 60% per year for the next 10 years until we sold our business.

What can you do today to improve the perception of your business and increase your profits?

Does anyone know what congruency means?

Congruency is the state achieved when there is agreement and the coming together for a purpose.

Recently I read article about a person who spoke to a large group of professionals. The speaker said some words that made no sense to me.

The speaker told the professionals that they needed to understand the mission of the organization they were working for. Then in the next breath he said that even if they don’t agree with it, they need to present the mission of the organization in a positive meaningful way.

This has lead me to the following question; ‘Can you disagree with something and present a positive message about it at the same time?’

If you don’t agree with the mission or the direction of an organization how can your present the message of the organization in a positive way. In fact how can you represent the organization at all? Staying with an organization in which you disagree with the core content will lead to a poor attitude and poor work.

Are you congruent with your organization? If not, is it time for you to do yourself and the business a favor. 

Just leave, you will be happier and the business will be more successful.

Has this past year challenged you and your actions?

Have your daily and weekly challenges decreased your self-confidence?

Here is an excerpt of a November 28, 2011 article in the Harvard Business Review by Leslie Pratch (a clinical psychologist). She wrote that “Self-confidence is one of the elements of active coping, a set of behaviors central to executive success…” So what is confidence?

Confidence is the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; or the state of feeling certain about the truth of something. So in other words you have to believe or be certain about something. In self-confidence it is a belief in your abilities.

How do you get self-confidence?

1. You have to know what your objective is in your life. This objective must be emotional driven. In other words it is upper most in your mind. You are thinking about the achievement of this objective every waking hour.
2. You have to believe that this objective is important and that by working at achieving your objective the world will be a better place.

What are you going to do today to improve your self-confidence?

Can you imagine how much more effective your marketing will be by improving your self-confidence?

Are you living up to your potential?

I know that I could do more, but thankfully my admission the first step to my improvement.

We humans have such a great ability to make blame others for what is happening in our lives. We make excuses when things didn’t turn out as we had hoped. And we deny that we did anything wrong when our life is a disaster.

We need to wake up! We need to quit lying to ourselves and start to take control of our thoughts. We need to take responsibility for our lives and the results we achieve. At conception we were given tremendous abilities that we aren’t using to the highest level. We have to quit settling for less that we can be or do.

So what can we do?

The first step of the eight step process to become more resourceful as a business person is to understand what you objective is. If you understand that, you have taken the first step to living up to your potential and being able to market your product or services better than you are doing now.

To get more information on the entire process e-mail me at; timothygibney@sympatico.ca

Do you like to listen to interesting stories?

I believe that the majority of people enjoy stories that are interesting. So why don’t we tell business stories that are interesting?

Is it that we think that people will be bored hearing our stories? Or is it that we think that stories don’t belong in business situations?

If you look at what effective marketers do, you will see how they describe their business in great detail using stories. They use words that will engage customer’s imagination; they use stories to make the purchase of their product or service meaningful.

What is stopping you from doing that with your clientele?

If you would like great information on this go to - http://www.corpstory.com/

This is the web-site for the author and pioneer in the field of business story-telling Evelyn Clark. She is recognized among her peers as the expert on storytelling for organizations. She has been featured in publications from Seattle to New Delhi, she has worked with global leaders in business, government and nonprofit organizations.

How do you feel about the tattoos that adorn the people you meet?

I find it interesting how our thoughts have changed about tattoos over the years.

Years ago it was mainly sailors that had tattoos. Then it appeared to be a form of rebellion. Now it has become more main-stream. These tattoos are very personalized and are a form of identity for those who choose to have them. Did you ever think that your business logo was a form of identity for your business?

Your business logo can say a lot about your business if it is well-developed and thought through. Recently I’ve started to develop a logo for a new business. I had to think about what makes this business different than my competition. Then I had to make sure it is easily understood and not to complex. Finally, it needs to speak to the customer’s needs in a ‘story’ form. That means when you are explaining your business you can address what you do by pointing out the logo and how it ties to your business purpose.

When you look at your business logo, what does it say to your customers about your business?

When are business owners and marketers going to wake-up?

That is awake from the self-imposed sleep that the majority of business owners are in.

According to MRI’s Survey of the American Consumer in 2009; 75.1% of women identified themselves as the primary shoppers for their households. Yet I wonder why business leaders don’t actively focus their marketing on professional women more often.

From my experience as a husband and business man I know that marketers know how to speak to mothers, but they miss the mark when they market to women in general. This approach is short-sighted considering that many women who have children don’t necessarily think like mothers when they open their wallets. Women are a distinct group and have changed with the times. They are more confident than ever with their achievements in business and in life. They are more than most business people give them credit for. So how can you wake-up and start to serve women from the place they are in?

I would make the following suggestions;

• Ask questions to understand their buying reasons.
• Listen to them intently.
• Ask follow-up questions to get further understanding.

The future of your business is at stake.

So when will you take action on this?

Are you the leader in your industry?

If you are, you need to remember what Will Rogers said many years ago; “If you're riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.”

I know that business is all about innovation and marketing. I say that because innovation and marketing is what Apple® Inc. is all about. Just look at the unique products they’ve developed over the past number of years. In fact if you want to go back 20 years think about how innovative the Sony Corporation was.

If you are saying; ‘It can’t be done in my industry.’ Think again, because if you are thinking that way some young upstart business is going to look at your business differently, innovate and then is going to market so effectively that you will wonder what happened.

So what can you do today to think with innovation and market more effectively?

Do you judge people when you first meet them?

Of course you do - everyone does.

It has been said that people will make judgements about you in the first ten seconds that they meet you. Yesterday I spoke about non-verbal communication and it’s affect on us. Today I am going to continue and show you items that people will judge you on. For example;

• The clothes you wear,
• The types of jewelry you have on, to
• The items you own from your car to the neighborhood you live in.

So does this mean that you have to become paranoid or become self-obsessed about all of these situations? No!  I am only informing you of these examples so that if you are not achieving what you wanted you can be more aware. That way you can understand why some of your prospects are not buying into what you are selling or telling them.

How can you take what I’ve told you today and fine-tune it to meet your long-term needs?