Marie’s Musings…

As many of you know, my business has grown in the last four years—almost entirely due to creating a clear vision, setting solid goals and bringing in people to help. And, I’ve had my fair share of virtual assistants and subcontractors who didn’t help as I would have liked them to. A few created more work for me than they actually helped. Just like you, I’ve also had clients that always expected more than they were willing to pay—you could say that they were demanding and high-maintenance. I run through the exercise below to help me determine how to continue moving forward. I hope that it helps you, as well.

Circle of Support – What people does it take to run a profitable business?

Circle of Support

Whether we run a large company with dozens of employees or our own solo business, we rely on a support team of vendors, customers, employees, contractors, and other associates to help us carry out our business goals. Here’s a fun exercise to discover the strengths and weaknesses of your business support team and how you can increase and strengthen the support you have. This exercise takes some time and shouldn’t be rushed. It’s a phenomenal tool when you are truly thinking about how to grow your business.

Take out a large blank sheet of paper and draw a small circle in the middle. Write your name in the circle. This represents you.

Draw a little larger circle next to your circle. Write your employees’ names and major functions in this circle. Draw a similar circle for contractors’ names and functions. If you have partners and/or affiliates, include them in a big circle.

Draw a small circle for your five largest clients, and write their names in the circles. Draw another small circle for your five largest vendors, and write their names in the circles.

Draw one more circle for your business mentors and coaches, and write their names inside the circle. If you have any more major groups related to your business, draw them now.

These circles represent your business and all of the people you rely on to get your job done.

Now, think about what groups you belong to that relate indirectly to your business. It could be a professional association, a licensing agency, or a networking group. Make large circles for each of the groups you feel connected to, and write some of the key names you know that are part of each of the groups.

Add a few more circles in the same way if you have more business associates to list or other groups that you didn’t add above. If you want to, you can also include your personal support team: the nanny, cook, gardener, esthetician, wardrobe consultant, makeup artist, nail artist, hair stylist, nutritionist, personal workout trainer, butler, chauffeur, masseuse, travel agent, and water boy. Okay, maybe listing the water boy is getting a little carried away.

The sheet should now represent all of the important people in your business that support you in one way or another. It’s a lot, isn’t it?

Now is where the aha’s come in:

• Take a look at your to do list and see if there are holes in your team that you need to fill. Are there job openings or are you ready to bring in more support? Back to your piece of paper, note the openings or potential openings with a yellow highlighter.
• With a green highlighter, mark the people who are most positive and supportive to you. You may want to let them know how much you appreciate them if it’s been a while.
• With a red highlighter, mark anyone who is costing you more than supporting you. It may be time for a change in team members.
• With a purple highlighter, list the five people you most look up to and can count on for great advice. These people should either be the ones who offer you expert advice or are ahead of you in business.

We’ll stop here, but you can continue selecting colors to evaluate the relationship of the people in your circles.

When you take a look at your relationship circles, what do you notice?

• Where are you and your business fully supported?
• Where could you use more help?
• Where do you need to make some replacements—people who create more work for you?
• What else do you notice about your business network?

Make a list of action items you can do to strengthen your business support network.

This is a great exercise to allow you to consciously evaluate and improve the ever-important support system in your business. When you have a great team, you can accomplish so much. If you need help with your strategic planning, budgeting and the creation of simple accounting systems, please call us.

Marie’s Musings

Are you meeting your personal and professional goals for the year yet? Sometimes we might need a little help, a little encouragement, a little accountability. One of my personal goals this year was to support the American Lung Association by participating in the Stair Climb at the Silver Legacy Casino. 36 floors and 10.5 minutes later I succeeded.

Marie Gibson set to participate in the Silver Legacy Casino Stair Climb.

Have I been training? You betcha! I train at Silver Strength & Speed  locally owned by Rob Conatser. I met Rob when he was attending the NSBDC’s NxLevel business planning class that I was teaching.
At the time, Rob was expanding his business and evaluating his original business plan. Three years later, Rob and his team continue to be one of the most popular trainers in Reno.

P.S. Although I successfully completed the stair climb, I’m continuing to train for my next event with Sierra Strength & Speed.

P.S.S. Rob has an inexpensive 8-week program starting Monday, May 7th at 6:15 PM. For more information, call him at 815-0735 or email: Rob@Sierrastrength.com

P.S.S. If you need help achieving your business goals, call us.

What is a client worth?

How much is the average client worth to your business? Not just per project or even per year,
but for the lifetime of your business. Calculating the lifetime value of a client is an eye-opening
exercise I recommend to every small business owner.

Repeat business

Let’s take several examples. A client who eats a $15 lunch at your restaurant every Monday is
worth $780 for one year and $2,340 for three years. It really adds up, doesn’t it?

A personal services business, such as a chiropractor, massage therapist, manicurist or hair
stylist has a similar business model where they can hopefully attract repeat clients. A client
who gets a $20 manicure once every two weeks is worth $520 per year and $2,600 in five years
and that does not include the tips. Grocery stores, hardware stores, clothing stores, and office
supply stores are just a few industries with similar models.

Large purchase with add-ons

Some businesses such as furniture stores, airlines, and computer sales rely on a larger but less
frequent purchase than some of the industries listed above. Many of these larger purchases
can be increased by adding service contracts, delivery charges, financing charges, and by selling
more items.

Some businesses will benefit from becoming aware of the lifetime value of their vendors,
partners, and employees. For example, contractors are often reliant on their subcontractors to
deliver great services so they can complete the construction projects. Landscaping firms make
great partners with nurseries and bring them much business. And employees who sell and close
large contracts can have a lifetime value to your business of millions of dollars in some cases.

Referrals

One way all businesses can increase the lifetime value of a customer is by counting the amount
of referrals the customer sends you. Let’s say Kathryn spent $500 with you. She was so
impressed with you that she sent three clients your way and they each bought $1,000. Kathryn
is now worth seven times what she originally purchased from you: $3,500. When each of these
new clients refer more people and buy more in subsequent years, Kathryn’s value to your
business gets bigger.

This might just have you treating your clients like Marie with appreciation for their smaller
purchases.

Multiple service lines

The more products and services you offer, the greater your opportunities for increasing the
lifetime value of your customers. Let’s say Kathryn buys a $500 product from you in January. In
May, she comes back and wants the $2,000 service you talked about in a newsletter you sent
her. She’s so happy she refers two clients to you that buy $1,000 apiece. What can start out as
a $500 client has now morphed into a $4,500 client and can easily mushroom into a five-figure
client by the end of the year. I’m sure it’s happened to you over and over again—perhaps
without you realizing the dynamics of these relationships.

Take some time this week to create a spreadsheet that shows you the lifetime value of your
clients. I’ll think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see how valuable your current clients really
are. If you need help with the calculations, let us know. We’re here to help.

Return on Investment

Have you ever gone through your list of things to do and looked for the easiest thing to knock out first? Have you ever been moody when you’ve looked through your tasks and said to yourself, “I don’t feel like doing that one, that one, or that one?” Do you have some items on your to-do list that have been there for a while (like months)?

If so, you’re not alone. However, you may be working on all the wrong things. One of the top time management secrets that smart business owners implement is to prioritize their tasks in a very special way: by the highest payback, and not by the biggest sense of urgency.

The hard truth is we may not be able to get to every single thing we want to do, especially for those of us who are creative business owners who have an idea every minute! You may have a lot of them captured on your to-do list and some may still be swimming around in your head. (We’ll talk about the ‘parking lot’ for your multiple ideas next time).

One of the ways that you can choose your opportunities and slim down that ever-growing list is to understand the concept of return on investment. For each task, how much money could it bring you if you did it? Some of the items that are not urgent but incredibly profitable are often the items we’re too exhausted to do once we complete all the required client and compliance work we need to do.

The successful business owner will make time for those profitable but not urgent activities. In fact, they will do them first thing in the morning before checking their email or returning calls. Here’s an exercise to try on your own list. Assign a dollar value to each task on your list in terms of revenue potential or cost savings. If you got to that task, how much could it save you or make you?

Then the fun starts. Sort your to-do list by this new dollar value column you just added. Sort the highest payback tasks to the top and the lowest payback tasks on bottom. What’s jumping out at you on the top of your list that you’re not getting to? Can you find a time on your calendar to do it this week?

When we step back and become more proactive about insisting that we get a return on our time for what we’re doing, we can make a really huge difference in our bottom line. It’s as simple as assigning some values to the tasks on our to-do list and then re-sorting them by that value.

However you identify them, the goal is to bring to your attention the highest potential revenue opportunities so you can act on them. Even if you only get to one more per week than you are currently doing, you’ve made wonderful progress.

It may take some discipline to resist tackling the urgent tasks. When we accomplish our urgent tasks, we feel needed. We love rushing to the rescue of clients that need us. When we attempt our high-dollar tasks, however, it may be a little uncomfortable, even scary. That’s why we avoid them.

Prioritizing is something we all have to do, since we live in a world that competes for our limited time. Prioritizing by highest dollar return on investment is something the most successful business owners do, even if it feels a little uncomfortable in the process.

When you do the serious work of choosing what is really going to move your business forward, you will see the changes in our revenue. If we can help you with any of your high-payback items, let us know.

Building Your Business Through Referrals.

People often ask me where I get the most business and coaching clients.  From social media? My website or my blog? Business networking? Nope…surprisingly, most of my prospective business coaching clients are referred to me by my current (and happy) clients.  The least expensive way for any business to get new business is through referrals—old-fashioned “word of mouth.” Yet many business owners simply wait for referrals to show up while spending time and money on other marketing channels. One opportunity that many businesses have, then, is to become more proactive about getting referrals. The question is how to do that most effectively; here are four tips for you.

1. Spread the word.
   Make sure all your clients know three things:
   1. That you are accepting new business.
   2. What you do and how to describe it to others.
   3. What type of clients you work best with….who is your perfect client?

   It’s not enough to simply say, “We’re looking for more work.” Everyone is so busy that when you make a request that is too generic, it gets lost. Instead, be clear about what you want:

   “Hi Ms. Client. I just want to let you know we are taking new customers. An ideal customer for us is a retail shop that has been in business in Reno for about five years.  Do you know anybody like that who needs whatever it is that you do?  We’d appreciate it if you let them know about us.”

   You can get the word out through a simple email or a face-to-face conversation. I’ve also seen a line or two added to the signature portion of an email, on invoices, on feedback forms, in surveys, and more.

2. Make it routine.At some point in your customer workflow process, create a step that clearly asks for referrals. It might be at the end of a project or sale, or after 30 days of working with a new client. The key is to make it routine. Here are some examples:a.  Ask the client for two referrals as part of the business contract. Let them know it’s a standard procedure. A dentist might ask for three referrals as part of being a client of his.  His clients know up front that providing referrals is part of the relationship.b.   Ask the client to provide a personally written testimonial letter to send to five other peers in the same industry.  Testimonial letters are great on your website.c.   Ask for referrals at the end of the engagement. Make this a routine, just like getting out the final invoice.
3. Provide incentives.Let’s take a great business strategy lesson from an auto mechanic, who hands out several referral cards when his clients offer to post a testimonial for him. The referral card is a card that the referral source puts their name on and gives to a prospect. The prospect cashes it in and gets a discounted introductory service. The referrer gets a discount on their next visit. It’s common in many industries, and something similar may work in your industry too. Be creative and think about how you might adapt something like this to your company.
4. Show gratitude.Be sure to immediately thank your customers and other individuals who refer business to you. It’s surprising how often this is overlooked; another consultant sent $100,000 of business to someone who never acknowledged it.  His reaction?  Never again.Send your referral sources a nice card or letter with every referral.  If they are a significant source of business for you, periodically treat them to a country club lunch, send them a gift certificate, or make a donation in their name to a favorite charity.

When you can boost your referrals, your revenue will go up while your marketing costs stay low. Try these four tips to rev up your referrals in your business. By the way, we’d love your business coaching and QuickBooks referrals!

Smart Steps to Fiscal Responsibility

Everyone seems to want our federal and state governments to be fiscally responsible.  How about our businesses?  Do you know the 8 Smart Steps to Fiscal Responsibility?  As our businesses grow and our schedules fill with serving clients, it’s easy to overlook how our personal financial needs might have changed. Here are eight best-practice tips of millionaire business owners and how they personally protect their wealth.

1. Move your money from banks to brokerage accounts.

Instead of having their money tied up at banks, most successful individuals hold brokerage accounts at investment companies. The advantage is that you can more easily invest excess cash in fairly low-risk interest- or dividend-bearing investments such as bonds. You can even use your brokerage accounts as checking accounts.

The bottom line is your money should always be working for you. Make sure you don’t have huge amounts of cash lying around earning zero interest. It’s harder these days to get a good interest rate, but not impossible, and every little bit helps.

2. Protect yourself with insurance.

I suspect everyone reading this has the requisite auto and homeowner’s insurance. The question is, are you fully covered for every contingency that could happen, and if not, are you willing to shoulder the risk? Just a few of the types of policies to consider include:

1. Personal: home, auto, health, disability, dental, life, umbrella, and many more.
2. Business: property and casualty, business services liability, director’s and officer’s liability, worker’s compensation, business interruption, auto, non-owned auto if you have employees driving for you using their own cars, health insurance for workers, life insurance for officers, and many more.

I recommend meeting with an insurance professional who can perform a risk audit to make sure you are aware of any coverage holes, especially if your business has grown significantly or your needs have changed.

3. Keep more of what you make.

There’s nothing wrong with paying the least amount of taxes that are legally required. The fourth quarter is when to make most of your tax-saving moves, so don’t wait until March or April of the next year when it could be too late.

Make sure you have a great tax adviser, and reach out to them at least once a quarter for ideas on how to keep more of what you make.

4. Hire slow, fire fast.

You’ve probably heard it before, but it’s more important than ever. It’s a good idea to run extensive background checks on all new hires. If the person is unknown to you, then you might consider a criminal background check, an employment verification, social security number match, and education verification.  Some companies are considering a social media search; however be sure to protect yourself from the legal issues of doing so.

If your state laws allow it, I recommend running a credit check too.

Risk of fraud becomes real when three things are present:

1. Opportunity due to poor cash controls (which is more common in small businesses),
2. Dire need, which has grown exponentially as life savings have been depleted and borrowing has increased, and
3. Rationalization in the employee’s mind.

You can really only control number one, but with a credit check (where it’s allowed by law) you can see if number two is present. Be careful, though; in many states, it’s illegal to make hiring decisions based on credit checks if the person won’t directly be handling money.

5. Create a bright future.

Pay your future self out of the earnings you make today. Set up a retirement plan so that you can maximize deductions and ensure a comfortable future for yourself.

6. Make it easy on your heirs.

It’s never a good time to think about what will happen after you’re gone. But especially if you run a business, you’ll want to not only have a succession plan in place, you’ll want to make sure someone knows enough about your operations to be able to slip in to do an orderly shutdown, a sale, or continue the operations. Something as simple as not knowing your passwords and pin numbers or the location of your accounts or contracts can wreak havoc on your grieving loved ones, not to mention business operations.

If your personal will is not up to date and your circumstances have changed, then it’s time to revisit documents such as your medical instructions, organ donation wishes, burial preferences and the like. Difficult, yes. But imagine these two scenarios: 1- your grieving family that doesn’t have a clue where anything is, what to do next, what you wanted, and the confusion that exacerbates the grief, and 2- your grieving family who has a clear checklist of where everything is, who to call for help, what to do next, and exactly what your wishes were in these emotional times. Which one would you wish on your loved ones?

7. Pay attention to your numbers.

I hear it over and over again: the people who become millionaires are clearly on top of their operational numbers. They know their business by the numbers, inside and out. A good accounting professional can help you develop the systems and reports you need to stay close to your numbers like the millionaires do.

8. Pay it forward.

When you’ve been successful, you can decide if you want to support causes that are near to your heart. This might mean helping people in need that you can relate to, volunteering, or simply providing a big tip to wait staff. People who are highly successful often create their own foundations and nonprofit organizations so that they can become champions of causes they believe strongly about.

How did you measure up on the eight tips to fiscal responsibility? If you know you have some work to do, mark it on your calendar, break it down into small manageable steps, and get started on building or protecting your financial prosperity. If we can help in any way, please feel free to call us.