1. Consider what you are doing that isn’t effective. Do you make many mistakes? Does it tire you out? Would you rather go to the dentist for a root canal than complete the task? Get real with yourself and stop doing these tasks. Find someone else to do them faster, better or cheaper than you can.

2.  Stop learning how to do things that aren’t high ROI (Return on Investment). I always tell people that I make it a point NOT to learn how to update my website. If I don’t know how then I won’t be tempted to try to figure it out. It’s a waste of my time and money to do it myself and I know better. There are very good website development businesses out there who could give you a cost-effective alternative.

3.  Become ruthless. It can be a lot of little seemingly insignificant things that add up to big time wasters. If you were determined to create more time for what’s important then what would you cease doing immediately? Buying office supplies? Figuring out whom to do your product distribution? Doing all those social marketing posts?

4.  Create an exit strategy. For the bigger roles that you are more integrated into (like project managing or handling the operations) you may need to follow the steps of many successful CEOs and create an exit plan from these tasks – what can you do over the next 6 months to replace yourself in that role?

5.  Change your mind about what’s important. If you are a control freak or regularly find yourself holding on to something because no one can do it as well as you, then it may be time for a reality check. I guarantee that in one Coaching Session I’d be able to find at least 10 tasks or roles that you could get off your plate. So start being realistic about what you can really accomplish and remove yourself from the rest of it.

Be willing to clear the decks of everything that is getting in your way of the most important things. When you look around at the people who really do enjoy a lifestyle business, who make consistent income in the high 6, 7 or 8 figures and are enjoying some level of sanity in the process, you’ll see that they never try to do everything and often they do very little. Sir Richard Branson said in an interview once that it is easier for him to run his multiple billion dollar companies today than it ever was to run a small company.

Something tells me he figured out how to remove himself from a lot of tasks! This analogy is important in realising that there is more to business than just doing it all yourself. You may actually start enjoying being in business again. Remember that with the right information and expectations communicated to others the tasks can be done just as well or even better than you. Try thinking outside the square and think of virtual assistants that can help with on- and offline tasks or even get interns to help out when certain tasks need to be performed, usually at no extra cost to you as these people need the experience.

Take the three primary financial components of your business:

• Sales
• Cost of Goods
• Overheads

Increase Sales by 5%

You may ask “How do I do that?”

There are three main methods of increasing sales:

• Increase  your customer base
• Increase the amount they spend
• Increase the times they return

If you could increase each one of the sales areas by only 10% over the next 12 months, you would increase sales by a strong 33%.  For example, if a customer came in to your store 10 times per year, and you or your sales team could encourage them to visit one more time in that year, there is a 10% increase. If they buy a $10 item and you up sell, cross sell or add on sell a $1 item to them that is another 10% increase. So achieving a 5% increase in sales is not that difficult. Increasing prices is normally a method  simply to keep up or ahead of inflation.

Reduce Cost of Goods by 5 %

You say “No way, that is too hard”.

How well have you negotiated your current purchase price of your products? What package deals have you arranged? What payment system have you organised to reduce costs? Have you joined or established a local buying group to increase your buying power? There are many more ways of making small changes to save the costs

Reduce Overheads by 5%

Too difficult?

When was the last time you as a business owner sat down and seriously pulled your overhead costs, contracts and agreements apart and searched or negotiated for alternatives, explored all options, and attempted to save in these areas of the business?

The key message to business is that there is a large amount of hidden profit within your organisation.  Explore these three areas and improve them by 5% and you will gain an increase in profit by over 60%.

As a business owner it is well worth taking one day out of your busy schedule to work on your business and not in it.

If you want to change your business and future around then call Tibor.

I have experienced a different mindset though as I coach a boys sports team both at national and international level. My experience is that those who don’t have a competitive spirit will not be selected for the team and will not achieve their highest ambitions. The guys who make the team are goal focused and want to know what the score is all the time. This “score” is knowledge about their abilities and that of the team.

Personally, I believe that competition is unavoidable and that we have come a long way since Adam and Eve because of competition. Where we used to compete for food we now compete on the sports field and in our businesses. We are striving to perform at ever higher levels to improve our situation. If we try to avoid competition we become complacent and mediocre. This picture, in my opinion, is somewhat true in New Zealand.

Now you say, “hold on Tibor”, my business is doing ok!

Well is it? Do you measure you business performance? Do you use indicators that measure revenue levels, profit, cash flow, return on investment and your marketing endeavours? These measurements will indicate whether the business is performing or not.

Like the boys in my sports team they are intersted in their overall growth but they are also very interested in the performance of the team as a whole. It is here that I ask the question: “why do business owners not share the performance of their business with their staff?” The answer many times is that it is “private information”.

I would like to contend that if you share the performance of the business with staff they will ultimately perform better. They will understand what it takes for a business to generate income and ultimately profits from which to pay their salaries and invest in future growth.

Ah!, I hear you say that this “information can be used against me”. Although there is a small possibility of that, I feel that if you wish to attract and retain good staff you need every opportunity to motivate and involve them in the business. You could find that you may ignite some competition between staff members to perform better than their peers. This should ultimately lead to a more profitable and productive business.

So go on, share the performance results of your business and see it grow.

Please call Tibor now if you want to learn how to motivate your staff and grow your business.

For clarity I am talking about street smart marketing skills and a cohesive, integrated, well thought out marketing plan that aligns with your businesses strategic and operational objectives.

Most business owners acknowledge the importance of these skills on an intellectual level. Yet when one examines their business, the picture is often very different.

Why is this so?

Well the reasons are many and varied and include:

1. Business is family run and they may not have the expertise to identify the businesses requirements in the marketing area.
2. The view of marketing is restricted to a limited number of media or channels e.g. Yellow Pages and TV ads.
3. The “marketing budget” is insufficient or “does not really exist or worse is seen as an overhead instead of an investment to further growth and profitability
4. There is no cohesive, well thought out marketing plan. It’s just fly by the “seat of the pants” decision making.

So you may ask, “Well Tibor, where do I start? I feel so overwhelmed and it seems such a big task.”

I recommend developing a Marketing Plan.

The purpose of this plan is to develop strategies and tactics to sell your product and services to your target market.

There are many important elements of a good Marketing Plan.

These include (list not meant to be exhaustive):

1. Your Goals
2. Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) or Unique Buying Advantage (UBA)
3. Your Target Market – do you know who they are?
4. Market Research – this should underpin/confirm the strategies and tactics you propose. Your research should include the qualitative and quantitative. Remember – the numbers tell a story and they don’t lie!
5. Articulating the Benefits (not just features) to your target market
6. Your Competition – who are they, what are they doing & what can you learn from them?
7. Your Marketing Tools – how will you promote your company, product and services to your market? Will you use networking, telemarketing, direct mail, media (paper, radio, TV) advertising, Press Releases; E-Newsletters etc
8. Your Marketing Budget: important because it helps you monitor and control your investment. (As an aside many companies allocate far too little to their marketing budget or worse still don’t have appropriate measures in place to monitor results of various campaigns)
9. Your Sales Channels – will you use in-house sales force; distributors; an online business etc
10. Your Merchandising: are you creative and adventurous (market maker) or a dull and boring (market follower). [Research indicates that 77% of impulse sales can be traced directly to merchandising]
11. Your Pricing: are your prices appropriate. My experience tells me that many businesses are doing themselves no favours in this area.
12. Your Positioning: how is your business perceived by your target market, your staff (& importantly your sales team) and/or your competition? Cheap, expensive or great value for money. Are you happy with how you are perceived or is their work to be done in this area?

Phew? I can hear some of you say – that’s a lot of work.

Indeed, a good marketing plan is not thrown together overnight. In fact it should be a “living document” and one that is constantly being reviewed. Why? Well since your marketplace is constantly changing must your strategies and tactics then be constantly reviewed in light of these changes? In fact market makers often anticipate or create the demand in the marketplace for their goods and services.

[An excellent thought provoking book about "demand creation" among other things is, "Unlimited Wealth" by Paul Zane Pilzer.]

So if you need help in this area stick up your hand and ask. After all, you would be far better concentrating on what you are good at and maximizing the return on it – rather than trying to do it all yourself

Now for a laugh

(Thanks to Noel Whittaker for this gem!)

Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the

family business. When he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed a wife with which to share his fortune.

One evening at an investment meeting he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away. ‘I may look like just an ordinary man,’ he said to her, ‘but in just a few years, my father will die, and I’ll inherit $20 million.’

Impressed, the woman obtained his business card and three days later she became his stepmother.

Women are so much better at estate planning than men

Next time I will talk about an important part of business, namely available capital and it’s importance in business growth.