This is an interesting statistic as it indicates that there could be a flood of businesses for sale with no potential buyers for these businesses in the near future. Why do I say this? Well, many of these smaller businesses that do ok for their current owners may not be up to modern business systems and practices. What I mean by that is that the potential buyer will be looking at businesses that have proper business systems set up as well as the potential for growth.

In the area of business systems it would be important for buyers to know how things are done in a business and that these aspects are documented. For example, how are  purchases of products ordered, received, distributed, etc. Another example may be what marketing system has been set up and how effective is it? Any potential purchaser of a business wants to know that the systems work and that they are efficient. New buyers want to spend more time generating new business than fixing or installing systems into a business.

No purchaser of an existing business would want to buy a business that has no upside potential. It is therefore important to identify markets that can potentially be tapped for future prospecting. If these markets can be easily identified then there is potential upside for the aspiring new owner and a potential increase in the selling price of the business for the owner.

To get around these issues it is important that business owners plan for their succession now and not once they have decided that it is time to change their focus. I have an on-line questionnaire that can help business owners understand the issues surrounding their business and help them identify them so that they are ready to sell at the right price. Contact me now to find out more.

1. An entrepreneur is an inventor. Not all inventors are entrepreneurs though. What do I mean exactly?, well entrepreneurs look at the world with open eyes and and asks “what’s missing?”. Once identified the entrepreneur thinks about how to fix this gap. What an Entrepreneur does next is to create a new business instead of new products.

2. Entrepreneurs do not buy business opportunities, they create them. Sorry guys, this includes franchises. You may be successful in a franchise, but your creative juices are stifled by the rules of the franchise. For the true entrepreneur who is creative he/she will be doomed to disappointment as the entrepreneurial passion is doused by the rigours of the franchisor. Franchises can become successful jobs for those that buy them.

3.Invention is contagious. People love the feel good factors involved when other people experience their invention (business). The more significant the invention the more likely it is to succeed.

4. An entrepreneur measures the success of the business by its growth. The faster it grows, the better the invention. It shows that people love to interact with this business. Those that do not experience this growth should not continue as less and less people will want to interact with it and will ultimately lead to financial ruin.

5. Everyone can become an entrepreneur. Everyone can create and develop an new invention if they follow their passion. In order to achieve this an entrepreneur needs to develop patience while developing the skill to drive the invention forward. This calls for the practice of developing new business ideas before actually implementing them. Entrepreneurs are made, not born.

From the above it is clear that many business owners are not entrepreneurs. Many business owners actually own a job that pays for their current lifestyle. It is important to realise that entrepreneurs create businesses for their clients and staff. They create a culture that everyone wants to be part of and are excited by it every day. When this happens the entrepreneur can stand aside and let his business boom with him/her only steering the business in the right direction.

The key to success is to answer all of the questions in enough depth that if a friend asked you to invest in this business, you’d say yes. Most importantly, make sure you record your business plan somehow…whether you write it by hand, type it into your computer, or put it on sticky notes on your wall. Keep it some place handy where you can refer to it when you are making important business decisions. And, make sure you review it monthly–or, even better, weekly–and update it at least annually.

1. Your Dreams: What do you want your business to provide for you? (think time, money, freedom, who you work with) Be specific–how much money, how many hours, when do you want to “retire”.
2. Customers: Who are your customers and what do they want/need?
3. Your Products and Services: What products/services will you provide to meet customer’s needs?
4. Markets: Where are your customers and what do you know about them as a group? “Where” might be geographic, it might be what kind of places they hang out, or where they go to find products or services like yours. What is their age, income, gender, hobbies, family structure, etc?
5. Your Style: How will you reach customers and what will you say? Your method of reaching customers needs to match with where your customers are–and with a message that they can relate to.
6. Competitors: Where else are your customers likely to get this need met? Find out all you can about how your competitors price, market, and provide service.
7. Your Uniqueness: How will your product/service meet customer’s needs differently than your competitors? Consider how your personal uniqueness impacts that.
8. Your Abilities: Of the skills necessary to run your business, what do you do well, and what do you need help with?
9. External Resources: What people/technology/services will support you in the skills you need help with?
10. Fulfilling your Dreams: How will your business provide the kind of working environment you desire, both in how much time you spend, how you perform your work, and how much money you make? Here’s where the rubber meets the road–make sure you can show how you will sell X amount of product or service at Y price, cover your expenses, and reach the goals you set in 1. Above.

Once you can answer all these questions, have it reviewed by some trusted, experienced professionals who will give you objective feedback. Consider a business coach, as one such resource

However, the savvy entrepreneur knows there’s still plenty of business growth opportunities and cash floating around; you just have to toss out your net and catch some of it for yourself!

Following are 7 simple business growth strategies you can focus on to build your and income and business in 2009:

1) Focus

As entrepreneurs, we’re creative, and we always have many ideas floating around our heads.  The problem is we may tend to become unfocused relatively easily.

Make sure you focus on ‘top priority’ activities every single day that will increase and generate income.  Follow the 80/20 rule and spend at least 80% of your time working on income-generating activities.

Use the other 20% of the time doing less important tasks when your creative energy naturally wanes during the day.

Quick Tip: Everyday write down three activities you will focus on to increase your income each day.  Spend 80% of your work time doing these tasks. Employ a business coach so that he can keep you focused on what is important to achieve in business.

2) Improve your website

Your website is your business’ entryway to the world.  People visit your website because they are seeking a solution to a problem they are having.  Your website needs to provide valuable information and resources to visitors to help them solve their problems, and not just be a pretty online brochure.

Your website needs:

1.      Attention-getting headline that grabs visitors

2.      A few paragraphs about how you can help them

3.      Leads them to the steps you want them to take

4.      Great photo of you (establishes a personal connection)

5.      Opt-in box in upper right-hand corner

Quick Tip: Think about what is your ‘Most Wanted Response’ from a visitor to your website.  Is your website clear in directing a person to take this desired action?

3) Expand your online marketing

There are many FREE ways you can do online marketing and drive visitors to your website.  Using a multi-faceted strategy to get them there is best.  Ways to do this are:

* Publish and distribute articles online

* Set up pages on Facebook, Twitter, My Space,

* Submitting online press releases

* Blogging

* Make a video and post it on YouTube and on your site

Quick Tip: Pick three activities you want to use to drive traffic to your website.  Do these activities every week.

4) Build an online subscriber list

Have a sign up form on your website and send regular e-newsletters to your subscribers with valuable information.  When you’re networking or speaking to a group, ask everyone to sign up for your list, as well.  This gives you an opportunity to market to them and build a value-added relationship that establish trust and increase your sales.

5) Do smart networking

Many people network all wrong and waste a lot of valuable time.  Network where you know your target client is already hanging out.  You can also meet others who already have a relationship with your target client.

Quick Tip: Build a business referral partner list.  Identify 10 occupational categories of people who are already doing business with your target client.

Identify 10 people you know or want to get to know in these 10 occupational categories (this equals 100 referral partners!).  Develop relationships and keep in touch, and watch referrals begin to flood to your door!

6) Build relationships through giveaways

To entice someone to sign up for your list, as well as give them a taste of your services, create a FREE giveaway item you can give to them.  The key with a giveaway is it has to be very valuable to the person receiving it, and has to help them solve a problem they may be experiencing.

This item can be a FREE special report, e-book, teleseminar, CD, simple workbook, case study, checklist, and video.

Quick Tip: Make a list of 3 free giveaways you can offer people to entice them to get on your list of warm prospects.  Look at the intellectual property or products you already have.  Can you condense some of it into free content for your giveaway?

7) Hire an Administrative Person

The administrative details that need taking care of in your business will eat up your income-generating opportunities and profits.

Quick Tip: Identify those routine administrative tasks that someone else can do.  Outsource them!

These 7 simple tips will help you build and increase the income in your business.  Be diligent about applying them, as well as tracking and testing your results.  Modify your activities, as you need to keep the momentum going and your income growing!

For more help on these and other business challenges please give Tibor a call.

If your products, programs, and/or services are not selling as well as you thought they would it could be there’s a mismatch between what your market wants and what you’re providing them with.  In other words, are you providing the solutions based on what YOU think the problems are rather than what your target market wants?  And how do you find out?

The answer is simple… market research!

When you think ‘market research’ it conjures up all sorts of images of telephone surveys, sending out questionnaires, and standing in the street accosting people to ask them questions (yes – I used to do this type of market research too ), and as a business owner it is crucial that you do your own ‘market research’ to find out what makes your target market tick, what keeps them awake at night, and what they’re really struggling with.

This process needs to be done on a continual basis – never stop asking your target market what they want – so that you can constantly provide the solutions to their problems.

Today, I’d like to share with you three simple strategies for conducting your own market research (that doesn’t involve standing around in the street!), and how you can put these strategies onto autopilot so that you’re constantly gathering information from your market.  All of these have worked very well over the past few years!

1. Ask via your sign-up page.  When someone signs up to your list, don’t just get their name and email address, ask them what their biggest challenge is too.  A specific question that asks:  What is YOUR biggest business headache?  Feel free to adapt this question for your own needs, i.e. what is your biggest [fill in the blank] when it comes to [fill in the blank].
2. Follow-up with an auto responder.  Once someone has signed up to your list, create an auto responder that goes out a few days later and asks the same question again.  Very often people may not have answered the question when they signed up to your list, and sending them an email a few days later will elicit a reply from them.
3. Create an annual or semi annual survey.  At least once a year it’s a good idea to survey your readers and ask them several more in-depth questions.  You’ll want to find out what their biggest problems are, what it is they want to learn more about, plus how they want to learn, or how they want their problem solved.  For example, you might find your readers prefer home study courses to teleclasses, or would like more interactive programs from you.  Putting together a survey is really simple, especially if you use a service such as Survey Monkey.  They do the analysis for you, so you get really valuable data.

However, for the data you get through steps 1 and 2 above, analysis isn’t as automatic.  Simply gather together all of your data and go through it periodically (at least twice a year) to see what your reader’s problems are.  You don’t even need to be a statistician to figure it all out.  Just print off all the responses and read through them, noting any common themes as you go along.

By combining all of this data, and implementing your market research strategy so that it runs on autopilot, you can then use this information to put your products and services together so that you’re providing solutions to your target market’s problems in the way that they want and need.

Remember, you are providing your market with what they want and need, not what you think they want and need.

I mean, really know?

Their likes, dislikes, what they’re watching, what they want, what they need?The people who are either buying your products and services or who could be buying your products and services are your target market. Understanding this market is essential to your marketing.

Actually, it’s essential to your business. Period.

Creating customer loyalty is already tough. And it’s going to get tougher. The only way you’re going to even have a chance to develop customer loyalty is to fully understand your target market.

But before you can understand your target market, you need to define it. Whatever you do, DON’T say your target market is “the general public” or “mostly women” or, worse yet, “anyone can benefit from what I sell.”

While that all may be true, not everyone is going to buy your product. You need to narrow it down to the people most likely to buy and market just to them (trust me, even Wal-Mart has a target market).

You can also have different target markets. Senior citizens and teenagers may both buy your product, but chances are they’re buying it for different reasons. Take cell phones. Teenagers buy them because they’re comfortable with having access to people wherever they go. My 90-year-old grandfather bought one for emergency use only.

Remember, people don’t buy products; they buy what the product will give them. They don’t buy a hair dryer; they’re buying a way to become more attractive. They don’t buy books, they buy the experience or the knowledge the book will give them.

Start by defining your target market. Have several? Define them all.

Now it’s time to get to know the people in your target market. The more deeply you understand them, the more you will reap the rewards in increased sales and loyal customers. One way you can learn to connect with your customers is through role-playing.

Here’s how to do this:

1. Read everything you can get your hands on about your target market. Demographic information, likes, dislikes, home environment, whatever you can find.
2. Create a “typical customer profile.” Take all those details and make a composite character.Let’s say your target market is composed of married women in their thirties with small children and a full-time job. So, from that, you create a typical customer profile — a 35-year-old woman with two small children who works as a loan officer at Wells Fargo and her name is Marci (giving your character a name is very important). She also has a dog, a husband named Larry who works as computer programmer and a house in the suburbs.

   It doesn’t matter if any of this is true or not, the point is to make this “customer composite character” as real as possible.

3. Now pretend to be Marci. Actually live in her skin. Think to yourself: “What would Marci do in this situation? What would she eat for breakfast? What would she think? How would she act?” Really try to get inside her skin.Don’t get discouraged if this doesn’t come naturally. It takes awhile to get the knack of it. Try this exercise for a few minutes over a few days — it should get easier each time you try it.
4. Once you start to feel comfortable with this exercise, then you can ask your “target market character” questions. What do you really want from our products? What needs do you want fulfilled? What are you looking for? Ask yourself while you’re in “character” and see what answers bubble up. It may help to write your questions and answers down.

You can also do this as a group exercise, with people “acting” different target market characters.

By really getting to know your target market, you can discover what matters to them and how you can meet their needs. Connecting emotionally with your target audience is a powerful tool. It will give you a huge edge over your competition.

If you or your company needs more “target practice” then call us now.

Most business owners and managers keep a fairly close eye on their marketing budgets.

And nothing throws a budget out of whack faster than advertising.

Advertising, or paying good money to get your message in front of your target market, still has a place in your marketing mix, although it’s not quite as effective as it once was.

If you’re going to advertise, you need to be smart about it — or you can quickly find yourself with a blown budget and not much to show for it. Below are seven questions to ask yourself before writing out that check.

1. Do you need to generate customers/traffic/leads/etc. right away? If so, then you better pull out your wallet. Advertising is hands down the fastest way to get your message in front of your target market. (You’re paying for placement after all.)

2. Do you have another way to get the word out about your business? For instance, do you have a customer database or an e-zine list? If so, then you might be better off sending an e-mail (assuming you have customers’ e-mails). Although technically e-mail announcements fall under advertising, I’m not counting it in this particular case because it’s more or less free (or very low cost).

Perhaps you have a good news angle and a good relationship with a reporter. Or you have a high-traffic Web site and/or blog. Or maybe you’re an active volunteer with a large organisation and can use networking to get the message out.

But if none of those really apply, then you’d better take a closer look at advertising.

3. Do you need to augment your other marketing efforts? Maybe you have articles featured on a Web site targeted to your customer base. Great when your article is front and centre and not-so-great when your article is buried in archives. A little advertising on that site can keep you in your target market’s sight all the time. Or maybe you struck gold and got a big article written about your company in the perfect trade publication. Fantastic for that month and not-so-fantastic for the other 11 months of the year. Or maybe it’s taking you longer than you’d like to drive traffic to your Web site. Advertising is good for speeding things along.

Frequency is king when it comes to marketing — if you’re out of your customers’ sight, you’re probably out of their mind when it comes to buying time. Advertising is a good way to beef up or speed up what you’re already doing.

4. Are other marketing methods not appropriate in this situation? Let’s say you want to have a sale. But your customer database is small (or non-existent). Your Web site has minimal traffic. And you aren’t going to get any bites from the media since having a sale isn’t news. What do you do? Run some ads.

5 . Would you rather save time than money? Let’s face it. Running an ad is easy. Other marketing methods are more time-consuming. If you want your marketing to be easy, then advertising is about as easy as it’s going to get. (Now there is a caveat to this one, because you can hire people to do some of those marketing tasks, such as updating Web sites, running PR campaigns, etc. However, not everything can be hired out so you still might be stuck spending time you don’t have.)

6. Are you planning to test a new campaign or a new product/target market? Running small, inexpensive ads can be a good way to test certain marketing aspects before launching big, expensive, time-consuming campaigns. If you want to penetrate a new market or if you have a new product to launch or a new marketing message to try, buy some ads and see what the response rate is. Another strength of advertising is control — you have total control over your test.

7. Do other marketing approaches never quite measure up? It happens. Advertising in one or two specific media outlets seem to generate more sales and more leads then anything else you’ve tried. If that’s the case, then don’t mess with it. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Creativity Exercise — Advertising and your business

Is advertising right for your business? Try this exercise and see.

1. What’s your biggest marketing challenge right now? Write it down.

2. Go through the above list of questions and ask yourself each one. Does it apply to your situation? If it does, write that down too.

3. Do some brainstorming. In what ways can you use advertising to solve your marketing challenges? What media would work best? Online? Print? Radio? Television? Direct mail? Something else? Make up an ad for a variety of media.

Now do the exact opposite. Think of ways advertising WON’T work for your business. Brainstorm at least 25 reasons why advertising won’t work for your specific situation. Be silly. It’s a good way to loosen you up.

4. Go back and reread both your pro and con lists. Now read your ads. Do you like what you came up with? Do any of them resonate with you, even now after coming up with your list of objections?

You may have just come up with your next advertising campaign.

If you need help with your marketing and advertising then please call us.

One of the best time-saving strategies I’ve implemented is my client conversion system.  You know the drill; a potential client comes along and emails/calls you asking about your services.  You spend time responding, maybe even putting a detailed proposal together, and then you never hear from them again!  Not even a thank you for your email!

This is one area that’s a huge time drain for service professionals, but one that is so important – you need paying clients so you have to spend time responding to them.

What if there was a way you could respond to clients yet at the same time not waste hours of your precious time on this activity only for it to result in never hearing from said client again?

Well, there is! And I’m going to share it with you in this article by giving you my three steps on how to create your own client conversion system.

Step One – Capture Their Name/Email Address

If a client comes along and they’re not quite ready to work with you, you need to have a way of capturing their details on your website so that you don’t lose touch with them – that way they’ll get to know more about you and your services, and when they are ready to work with you, you’ll be right there!

You do this by giving away a free taste of what it is you do.  This could be a report, audio, mini e-course, or some other type of freebie that is given away automatically in exchange for them giving you their name and email address.  This is known as building your list.  Once you have your list in place stay in touch with them regularly through publishing an e-zine.

Step Two – Have a Defined Process for Working with New Clients

Look at what you currently do when you receive an email/phone call from a new client.  Write down all the steps in that process, and come up with ways as to how it can be systemized.

For example:

Do you find that potential clients are asking the same questions again and again?  If so, set up a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page on your website that answers all of these questions.  (Hint:  this could also be your free taste that the client will sign up for.)

Do you require that all new clients have a telephone consultation with you beforehand to ensure that you are a good fit for one another?  How can this process be streamlined?

Or, do you require a potential client to fill in a questionnaire prior to speaking with you on the phone?

List everything that you currently do and come up with a system for streamlining the whole process.  You could also include elements that you would like to do but haven’t yet implemented.

Step Three – Put Your Client Conversion System in Place

Now that you have documented the process for handling enquiries you need to put your system in place that will allow you to handle client enquiries in the most time-efficient manner.

This is the system I use and recommend, and one that will filter those enquiries for you:

On your website tell clients what your process is for working with new clients, i.e. contact me to schedule your complimentary client consultation.

Have a contact form on your website that client’s can fill in when they’re ready to schedule a complimentary call with you.

Create an email template to respond to those clients who would like to schedule a complimentary consultation.  You can also use this template for those email enquiries you get, or as a script for a phone enquiry.

If you have a series of questions that you would like answers to before your call with your client put these together into a Pre-Consultation Questionnaire which you can send to your potential client ahead of your call.  (This again is a good way to filter the serious from the not-so-serious clients – the not-so-serious clients will not want to spend their time filling in a questionnaire prior to your phone call.)

Create a document/email template for your questionnaire – put it in a format that is easy for the client to email back to you.

When they respond to you to schedule their call attach your questionnaire, confirm the appointment, tell them when they need to return the questionnaire by (24 hours before the call is a good timeframe) and tell them what number to call you on.

Having a process like this in place will filter the serious from the not-so-serious clients, saving you a huge amount of your time and streamlining the whole client conversion process.

Remember: You are the expert at what you do.  Your clients are coming to you for your expertise, so lead them with your systems.  Tell them what your processes are.  Let them work to your systems.

For further help in selling your products or services please call Tibor.

Companies large and small are scrapping plans to introduce new products and cutting back on marketing. This is exactly the wrong thing to do. Now is the time to be bold and take action to grow your business.

Think about it. When are your prospects more likely to see and respond to your marketing – in boom times when they’re being bombarded with advertising and promotions, or in lean times when your competitors stop contacting them?

Now is the best time to grow your business. Your competitors are hunkering down. They won’t be contacting your prospects or even their own clients as often. Now it’s easier for you to get attention with PR, ads and emails.

If you paid attention to everything you saw in the news about the economy it could drive you to drink. But before you give up on your future, remember the majority of people in NZ – over 96% of them – still have jobs and are earning a steady income. Even if things get as bad as some pundits predict, 89% of people will still have their jobs,similar to the recession of 1982, which most people have already forgotten.

That’s the good news, and it gets even better. In a down economy, many, if not most people, have more disposable income. They get spooked and put off major purchases, like a second home. That means they have more money in the bank for everything else.

You’ve got a choice.

You can hunker down with your business and try to ride out this recession. If you do, there is a very good chance you’ll be making less next year.

Or you can take this recession as a challenge, as I am. You can use it to transform your marketing and your business and come out on top. Which is it? Are you aiming to be a winner or…?

Here are 7 ways to generate more clients and grow your profits

1. GENERATING AWARENESS: Introduce yourself to you prospects telling them what you do and how you can solve their challenges.
2. MOTIVATING PROSPECTS TO ACTION: Use your advertising material to stimulate contact or a conversation. Give them a reason to contact you soon.
3. ESTABLISHING CREDIBILITY: People won’t buy from you unless they feel confident about you. use your articles, books, interviews and testimonials from clients to establish your credibility.
4. CLARIFYING YOUR VALUE: People won’t buy from you unless they can understand, in their own terms, the value you are providing to them.
5. GETTING A COMMITMENT: Whether you are offering something for free or your product or service, you need to ask for and get a commitment.
6. PROVIDING SERVICES THAT INCREASE REVENUE: IF your products or services solve or satisfy a need, then you will sell.
7. MAINTAINING THE RELATIONSHIP: Remember to contact your customers on a regular basis so as to keep them informed of new products or services.

For your FREE e-book on the above, please contact Tibor Mackor via e-mail at tibor@bbstrategies.co.nz

If you would like to grow your clients, profits and business then call us now.

Every product or service you create and market should be designed to meet an apparent or perceived need of your target market. No need, no sales. High perceived need, high sales.

The same is true of your marketing. It should be focused on your prospects’ needs. Focus your marketing on yourself, and you’ll struggle forever. Focus on what they want, and you’ll get their attention and their business.

2. Relationships
Your biggest competitive advantage isn’t the quality of your products or services; it’s the number and strength of the relationships you have with prospects and clients. It’s the amount of confidence you command. So, where should your marketing be focused?

Focus 80-90% of your marketing efforts on relationship-building activities.

Typically, most marketing is aimed at getting the sale, not at building relationships or confidence. Big mistake! People need to first know you and trust you before they’ll buy from you. They need to be sure you’re the best company to buy from, and your product or service does what you say it does. Where confidence flows, money follows.

How do you gain someone’s confidence so he or she will buy from you? You help them get to know you through repeated contacts and demonstration of your expertise.

3. Profits
Most entrepreneurs and business owners’ attention is squarely focused on increasing sales when instead they should be focused on profits. This can be a fatal mistake, skewing your marketing efforts and distracting you from what you should be paying attention to.

Whether you are testing a headline, an ad, a sales letter, a website, an up sell strategy, or a follow-up strategy, the question you should be focused on is, “What will help us maximize our profits?” Yes, you could send out ten thousand postcards and get a few more sales, but if your response is low, your marketing costs are going to decimate your profits.

The solution to making more is to continually test and improve everything you do to market your business, so that each month, you’re generating more leads, more sales and yes – more profits

Do you need more help with growing your clients, profits and business growth then call us now.