Tag: amp

What Is Web Hosting & Which Web Hosting Suits You the Best?

With the increasing trend of online shopping and e-businesses, it is not a surprise that the increase in the popularity of web hosting services is more than ever before. Even more interestingly, the rate at which small businesses are signing up for various kinds of web hosting services is breaking its own record every year. If you are new to online business, this might be a confusing thing to understand. This is why I felt the need to write this article where I can talk about what web hosting is and how you can benefit from its enormous features in order to promote your business and be successful.

First let’s discuss a little bit of history. We live in an era, where door-to-door marketing isn’t really possible in today’s ever-expanding societies and settings. With millions of households in even a small city, you can’t even think of successfully marketing your business unless you use online means. Hence, it doesn’t matter how great is the idea, product, or service that you are trying to sell, you can’t succeed without leveraging the power of internet and social media. You need to have an online presence where you can market your products and service and give them an exposure they deserve. This is where web-hosting services come into play.

There are quite a few services available in the market today to choose from. The question is: which one suits you best. Your business ideas and goals are most likely be different from other businesses and hence not any web hosting service can cater your needs and your demands. Therefore, you need to ask yourself a few questions before purchasing the subscription of any web hosting platform. The first question should be the storage space that is available at your disposal. You don’t want me to struggling in storing the high-quality photos and videos of your products. Hence you should choose a service that offers unlimited storage for your valuable content.

In terms of security of your intellectual property, you also need to ask how secure the service provider is and how long they are in business for. Don’t got for new-comers as they might disappoint you sooner rather than later. Always go with the names that are in business since a long time and hold a good reputation. Lastly, you should be questioning about the bandwidth that a particular service provider includes in your subscription. Bandwidth here is the amount of data your website visitors will be consuming by visiting your website. Once you run of allocated bandwidth, the visitors might face trouble accessing your website.

If you keep these key factors in your mind before buying a hosting service, you should be in good business.

Best Business Loan Options Guide: Learn About Several Funding Options for Businesses and Pros & Cons

Considering that there are so many funding options for businesses – including start-ups – these days, you really don’t have to settle with trying to get a bank loan in the traditional way. However, since every business is unique, the best business loan options for you might not be the same as those for your competitors or other businesses in your industry. It depends on your needs, goals, size of business, specific requirements, what kind of business you’re running, credit rating, location, your risk level, and so forth.

One type of financial option to look into is a term loan. This is a common form of financing with which you get a lump sum of money upfront, which you will be required to pay back with interest over a predetermined period. You don’t have to apply through a traditional bank, as there are plenty of small to medium sized online lenders in the 21st century. A great thing about this option is that if you qualify, you’ll get the cash upfront to invest in your business. The downside is you will likely have to put up collateral, and if you are a new business and lack a good credit rating, the interest rate will likely be higher.

SBA loans have always been popular with smaller companies, as they offer some of the lowest rates and long repayment terms. The repayment period depends on how exactly you plan to use the money. If it’s for real estate purchases, you’ll have a longer period of time to pay the loan back. If you need money as soon as possible, then you probably won’t consider SBA to be the best business loan options, since the application process can be long and rigorous and there is no guarantee your application will even be approved.

Don’t forget about lines of credit for business purposes. A business credit card can come with some great rewards as long as you make payments on time. They are usually unsecured as well so you won’t have to put collateral up. Of course, you’ll need to already have a good credit score in order to qualify for good terms. Otherwise, you might end up with additional costs such as draw fees and maintenance fees.

What Are the Best Business Loan Options to Consider

A few other business funding options to consider include:

• Angel investors

• Crowd-funding

• Factoring

• Purchase order funding

• Equipment loans

• Venture capital

Take the time to research everything and consider which options you’ll want to try. Make sure you have all of your financial statements and documents organize and ready to go, as well as a detailed business plan showing what you plan to do with the funds you receive.

You’ll find some of the best business loan options for just about any type of business in all industries with US Business Funding. This organization has helped thousands of businesses nationwide get the funding they need in a fast amount of time.

SWOT Unravelled – Discovering Your SWOT Strengths & Weaknesses

The SWOT analysis technique is used to summarize your strategic analysis which includes both your internal and external analysis. This summary is categorised into four categories. These four categories are Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Today, we will clarify for you the strength category and also provide you with a list of common strengths that you may find in your business.

The golden rule of Strengths: Strengths are characteristics about your businesses, they can only be identified in your internal analysis, as your internal analysis is the only type of strategic analysis that evaluates your business characteristics.

Now, let’s define strengths and take a look at the typical business characteristics that are commonly classified as strengths.

Strength Defined: Strengths are core capabilities of your business. They are areas where your business has an advantage over your competitor(s) that is valued by your customers.

In other words strengths are characteristics of your business that pass the better than your competitors test.

Recap Key Point: You will only find strengths when completing your internal analysis, A strength must be characteristics of your business.

Understanding Strengths

When completing your internal analysis you will find that your strengths will generally fit into two categories, tangible and intangible strengths. Let’s look at them both

  1. Tangible Strengths: A Tangible strength is a characteristic of your business that can be precisely identified, measured or realized.
  2. Intangible Strengths: An intangible strength is a characteristic of your business that can not be physically touched or physically measured

Now, we will look at examples of common tangible and intangible strengths that maybe found in your business.

Examples of Tangible Strengths

Your tangible strengths will tend to include characteristics about your business such as

  • Your physical assets including plant, equipment buildings and infrastructure
  • Long term rental agreements in good locations
  • Unique or market leading products
  • Access to sufficient financial resources to fund any strategic changes that you would like to make
  • Cost advantages over your competitors (This relates to your ability to provide the goods or service at a lower cost than your competitors. It has no reference to the sale price)
  • Volume, high volume can be a strength
  • Ability to scale volume up or down with relative ease

Examples of intangible Strengths

Your tangible strengths will tend to include characteristics about your business such as

  • The strength of your brand(s) such as having strong easily recognizable brands
  • Your market reputation, including a market perception that you are a market leader or an expert in your filed
  • The strength of your relationship with key customers, a strong relationship represents goodwill and is often seen as a strength
  • The strength of your relationship with your suppliers, again strong relationship can be seen as a strength
  • The nature of the relationship that you have with your employees
  • Any unique alliances that you may have with another businesses that compliments your businesses products or services in a way that is valued by your customers
  • The ownership of patents or proprietary technology can be a strength
  • A proven advertising process that works well
  • Having more industry experience in a field that requires some technical experience, including the skill of your managers, your collective industry experience and your profile in industry associations.

Where people often go wrong?

The first area where it is common to see strengths recorded incorrectly is in the language used to describe them. It is an easy mistake to write Macro Environmental observation up as strengths rather than opportunities, however this tendency should be avoided. For example “One of our strengths is a strong economy” this really is an opportunity and can be reworded as follows “The economic outlook supports growth”

And

A SWOT analysis is normally completed by the leaders in your business. In completing their analysis they are likely to position their leadership capabilities in with the other strengths. It is, of course, unrealistic for all leadership in all businesses to be able to pass the better than our competitors test. When faced with this self assessment it is best to look for indicators such as higher engagement scores, lower turnover, and higher customer satisfaction to validate where you place leadership in your businesses SWOT.

SWOT Strengths Summary

Your SWOT Analysis summarises the three strategic environments that your business operates in, they are your Macro Environment, your Industry Environment and your Internal Environment. You will only identify strengths during your internal environment analysis, this is because your internal analysis is the only area where you will identify characteristics of your business that pass the better than your competitor test. Strengths can also fit into two categorise they can be tangible such as plant and equipment or intangible such as patents.

Now you will have a sound understanding of strengths and how to identify them in your business.

Modern Financial Management Theories & Small Businesses

The following are some examples of modern financial management theories formulated on principles considered as ‘a set of fundamental tenets that form the basis for financial theory and decision-making in finance’ (Emery et al.1991). An attempt would be made to relate the principles behind these concepts to small businesses’ financial management.

Agency Theory

Agency theory deals with the people who own a business enterprise and all others who have interests in it, for example managers, banks, creditors, family members, and employees. The agency theory postulates that the day to day running of a business enterprise is carried out by managers as agents who have been engaged by the owners of the business as principals who are also known as shareholders. The theory is on the notion of the principle of ‘two-sided transactions’ which holds that any financial transactions involve two parties, both acting in their own best interests, but with different expectations.

Problems usually identified with agency theory may include:

i. Information asymmetry- a situation in which agents have information on the financial circumstances and prospects of the enterprise that is not known to principals (Emery et al.1991). For example ‘The Business Roundtable’ emphasised that in planning communications with shareholders and investors, companies should consider never misleading or misinforming stockholders about the corporation’s operations or financial condition. In spite of this principle, there was lack of transparency from Enron’s management leading to its collapse;

ii. Moral hazard-a situation in which agents deliberately take advantage of information asymmetry to redistribute wealth to themselves in an unseen manner which is ultimately to the detriment of principals. A case in point is the failure of the Board of directors of Enron’s compensation committee to ask any question about the award of salaries, perks, annuities, life insurance and rewards to the executive members at a critical point in the life of Enron; with one executive on record to have received a share of ownership of a corporate jet as a reward and also a loan of $77m to the CEO even though the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the US bans loans by companies to their executives; and

iii. Adverse selection-this concerns a situation in which agents misrepresent the skills or abilities they bring to an enterprise. As a result of that the principal’s wealth is not maximised (Emery et al.1991).

In response to the inherent risk posed by agents’ quest to make the most of their interests to the disadvantage of principals (i.e. all stakeholders), each stakeholder tries to increase the reward expected in return for participation in the enterprise. Creditors may increase the interest rates they get from the enterprise. Other responses are monitoring and bonding to improve principal’s access to reliable information and devising means to find a common ground for agents and principals respectively.

Emanating from the risks faced in agency theory, researchers on small business financial management contend that in many small enterprises the agency relationship between owners and managers may be absent because the owners are also managers; and that the predominantly nature of SMEs make the usual solutions to agency problems such as monitoring and bonding costly thereby increasing the cost of transactions between various stakeholders (Emery et al.1991).

Nevertheless, the theory provides useful knowledge into many matters in SMEs financial management and shows considerable avenues as to how SMEs financial management should be practiced and perceived. It also enables academic and practitioners to pursue strategies that could help sustain the growth of SMEs.

Signaling Theory

Signaling theory rests on the transfer and interpretation of information at hand about a business enterprise to the capital market, and the impounding of the resulting perceptions into the terms on which finance is made available to the enterprise. In other words, flows of funds between an enterprise and the capital market are dependent on the flow of information between them. (Emery et al, 1991). For example management’s decision to make an acquisition or divest; repurchase outstanding shares; as well as decisions by outsiders like for example an institutional investor deciding to withhold a certain amount of equity or debt finance. The emerging evidence on the relevance of signaling theory to small enterprise financial management is mixed. Until recently, there has been no substantial and reliable empirical evidence that signaling theory accurately represents particular situations in SME financial management, or that it adds insights that are not provided by modern theory (Emery et al.1991).

Keasey et al(1992) writes that of the ability of small enterprises to signal their value to potential investors, only the signal of the disclosure of an earnings forecast were found to be positively and significantly related to enterprise value amongst the following: percentage of equity retained by owners, the net proceeds raised by an equity issue, the choice of financial advisor to an issue (presuming that a more reputable accountant, banker or auditor may cause greater faith to be placed in the prospectus for the float), and the level of under pricing of an issue. Signaling theory is now considered to be more insightful for some aspects of small enterprise financial management than others (Emery et al 1991).

The Pecking-Order Theory or Framework (POF)

This is another financial theory, which is to be considered in relation to SMEs financial management. It is a finance theory which suggests that management prefers to finance first from retained earnings, then with debt, followed by hybrid forms of finance such as convertible loans, and last of all by using externally issued equity; with bankruptcy costs, agency costs, and information asymmetries playing little role in affecting the capital structure policy. A research study carried out by Norton (1991b) found out that 75% of the small enterprises used seemed to make financial structure decisions within a hierarchical or pecking order framework .Holmes et al. (1991) admitted that POF is consistent with small business sectors because they are owner-managed and do not want to dilute their ownership. Owner-managed businesses usually prefer retained profits because they want to maintain the control of assets and business operations.

This is not strange considering the fact that in Ghana, according to empirical evidence, SMEs funding is made up of about 86% of own equity as well as loans from family and friends(See Table 1). Losing this money is like losing one’s own reputation which is considered very serious customarily in Ghana.

Access to capital

The 1971 Bolton report on small firms outlined issues underlying the concept of ‘finance gap’ (this has two components-knowledge gap-debt is restricted due to lack of awareness of appropriate sources, advantages and disadvantages of finance; and supply gap-unavailability of funds or cost of debt to small enterprises exceeds the cost of debt for larger enterprises.) that: there are a set of difficulties which face a small company. Small companies are hit harder by taxation, face higher investigation costs for loans, are generally less well informed of sources of finance and are less able to satisfy loan requirements. Small firms have limited access to the capital and money markets and therefore suffer from chronic undercapitalization. As a result; they are likely to have excessive recourse to expensive funds which act as a brake on their economic development.

Leverage

This is the term used to describe the converse of gearing which is the proportion of total assets financed by equity and may be called equity to assets ratio. The studies under review in this section on leverage are focused on total debt as a percentage of equity or total assets. There are however, some studies on the relative proportions of different types of debt held by small and large enterprises.

Equity Funds

Equity is also known as owners’ equity, capital, or net worth.

Costand et al (1990) suggests that ‘larger firms will use greater levels of debt financing than small firms. This implies that larger firms will rely relatively less on equity financing than do smaller firms.’ According to the pecking order framework, the small enterprises have two problems when it comes to equity funding [McMahon et al. (1993, pp153)]:

1) Small enterprises usually do not have the option of issuing additional equity to the public.

2) Owner-managers are strongly averse to any dilution of their ownership interest and control. This way they are unlike the managers of large concerns who usually have only a limited degree of control and limited, if any, ownership interest, and are therefore prepared to recognise a broader range of funding options.

Financial Management in SME

With high spate of financial problems contributing to the high rate of failures in small medium enterprises, what do the literature on small business say on financial management in small businesses to combat such failures?

Osteryoung et al (1997) writes that “while financial management is a critical element of the management of a business as a whole, within this function the management of its assets is perhaps the most important. In the long term, the purchase of assets directs the course that the business will take during the life of these assets, but the business will never see the long term if it cannot plan an appropriate policy to effectively manage its working capital.” In effect the poor financial management of owner-managers or lack of financial management altogether is the main cause underlying the problems in SME financial management.

Hall and Young(1991) in a study in the UK of 3 samples of 100 small enterprises that were subject to involuntary liquidation in 1973,1978,and 1983 found out that the reasons given for failure,49.8% were of financial nature. On the perceptions of official receivers interviewed for the same small enterprises, 86.6% of the 247 reasons given were of a financial nature. The positive correlation between poor or nil financial management (including basic accounting) and business failure has well been documented in western countries according to Peacock (1985a).

It is gainsaying the fact that despite the need to manage every aspect of their small enterprises with very little internal and external support, it is often the case that owner-managers only have experience or training in some functional areas.

There is a school of thought that believes “a well-run business enterprise should be as unconscious of its finances as healthy a fit person is of his or her breathing”. It must be possible to undertake production, marketing, distribution and the like, without repeatedly causing, or being hindered by, financial pressures and strains. It does not mean, however, that financial management can be ignored by a small enterprise owner-manager; or as is often done, given to an accountant to take care of. Whether it is obvious or not to the casual observer, in prosperous small enterprises the owner-managers themselves have a firm grasp of the principles of financial management and are actively involved in applying them to their own situation.” McMahon et al. (1993).

Some researchers tried to predict small enterprise failure to mitigate the collapse of small businesses. McNamara et al (1988) developed a model to predict small enterprise failures giving the following four reasons:

– To enable management to respond quickly to changing conditions

– To train lenders in recognising the important factors involved in determining an enterprise’s likelihood of failing

– To assist lending organisations in their marketing by identifying their customer’s financial needs more effectively

– To act as a filter in the credit evaluation process.

They went on to argue that small enterprises are very different from large ones in the area of borrowing by small enterprises, lack of long-term debt finance and different taxation provisions.

For small private companies, these measures are unreliable and textbook methods for judging investment opportunities are not always useful in organisations that are privately owned to give a true and fair view of events taking place in the company.

Thus,modern financial management is not the ultimate answer to every business problem including both large and small businesses.However,it could be argued that there is some food for thought for SMEs concerning every concept considered in this study. For example it could be seen (from the literature reviewed )that, financial records are meant to examine and analyse corporate operations. Return on equity, return on assets, return on investment, and debt to equity ratios are useful yardsticks for measuring the performance of big business and SMEs as well.

The CEO’s Guide To Succession Planning – Managing Risk & Ensuring Business Continuity

Introduction

Once reserved for the upper echelons of senior management, and often viewed as replacement planning should catastrophe strike, today’s succession planning is being redefined. The discipline has broadened in both breadth and scope to become a central component of board-level strategy.

Succession planning focuses on managing risk and ensuring continuity across all levels of the organization – risk of untimely departures of critical personnel, risk of retirees taking their skills and knowledge with them and leaving nothing behind, and risk of losing high value employees to competitors. It does so by helping your business leaders to identify top performers within the organization, create dynamic “talent pools” of this critical talent that other leaders can leverage, and prepare and develop these high performing employees for future roles.

If this was easy, everyone would be doing it. The problem that exists today is that succession planning is barely automated, let alone optimized. This CEO guide provides five key tips for jump starting your succession planning efforts.

1. Automate and Reduce Costs

Today’s succession planning efforts are characterized by fragmented, inconsistent, paper-based processes. Indeed, 67% of companies are still primarily paper-based, according to a global survey conducted by SumTotal.

Conventionally, business and HR leaders will spend weeks or even months manually scouring different parts of the organization for information needed to build lists and pools of nominees and successors for specific job families or positions. The information required to generate the lists often includes self assessments, past performance appraisals (often paper-based), and 360 feedback. After a lengthy period of information gathering and aggregation followed by manual analysis (e.g., nine-box, gap analysis), the results are printed and collated into large three-ring binders for use in executive planning meetings. This time-consuming, inefficient, and costly process is still commonplace today.

To effectively transform succession planning from a manual, paper-based process to one that is systematic and technology-enabled, CEOs must focus on laying a solid foundation supported by strong executive leadership.

Program & Process Foundation

  • Establish dedicated management function (e.g., program management office) with CEO-sponsored executive leader or council (with senior representation from line-of-business, geography, and corporate HR)
  • Define core succession process along with key constituents and tasks at each step of the process; Clearly articulate touch points to other business processes (e.g., performance management, career development)
  • Understand implications of change with emphasis on managers & employees
  • Align program with broader business strategy
  • Determine initial scope (e.g., enterprise-wide, divisional)
  • Define processes independent of technology

Technology Foundation

  • Must support and enable key processes
  • Must integrate learning and development
  • Must link seamlessly to other business processes, especially performance management
  • Must be flexible and configurable to meet unique needs
  • Must centralize and consolidate key information and data
  • Must be easy for managers and employees to use

2. Drive Succession Planning Deeper into Your Organization

Many CEOs still view succession planning as replacement planning to designate successors in the event of a catastrophe befalling senior company leaders. Indeed, succession planning penetrates only the highest levels of the organizational hierarchy, according to survey data. Only 35% of companies currently focus their succession planning efforts on most critical roles within the organization.

Yet a most dramatic transformation is underway: 65% of the organizations surveyed plan to extend succession planning to all critical positions within the two years. Applying succession planning beyond the top layers of management is critical to retaining high performers across all levels of the organization and mitigating the risk of untimely departures of personnel in high-value positions.

The key to extending succession planning into the organization is to provide career development planning to employees. Indeed, fully 97% of business and HR leaders believe that a systematic career development process positively impacts employee retention and engagement. These leaders also believe that providing career advancement opportunities as well as dedicated development planning to employees are the two most important mechanisms for retaining high performers.

Retaining existing employees not only has the potential to minimize the effects of talent shortages, it also provides significant and tangible cost savings (since replacement costs range from 100%-150% of the salary for a departing employee).

3. Establish Dynamic Talent Pools to Improve Pipeline Visibility

Centralized talent pools provide CEOs with global visibility into their talent pipeline and overall organization bench strength. They provide a mechanism for ensuring that the organization’s future staffing plans are adequate, thereby reducing risk and ensuring continuity. To be truly effective, talent pools need to be dynamic in nature. For instance, if an employee is terminated, that person should be automatically removed from existing successor pools. Alternatively, if an employee closes a key skill or certification gap that had previously kept her from being considered as a successor, the pool should be updated appropriately. Talent pools that are inaccessible or not up-to-date are of little use to decision makers.

A key element of making talent pools accessible is in-depth searching for talent exploration. A talent pool is not much good if managers cannot easily view, track, update, and search for potential successors. Dynamic talent pools should take the guess work out of succession planning by aligning employee assessments, competencies, development plans, and learning programs. Proactive system monitoring ensures that as employees learn and grow, talent pools are dynamically updated to reflect the changes. It is this element in particular – supported by robust reporting and analytic capabilities – that helps CEOs make more objective staffing decisions and better plan for future staffing needs.

4. Promote Talent Mobility to Retain High Performers

Industry analyst firm Bersin & Associates defines talent mobility as “a dynamic internal process for moving talent from role to role – at the leadership, professional and operational levels.” The company further states that “the ability to move talent to where it is needed and by when it is needed will be essential for building an adaptable and enduring organization.”[1]

Talent mobility is:

  • A business strategy that facilitates organizational agility and flexibility
  • A mechanism for acquiring and retaining high performing and potential talent
  • A recruiting philosophy that favors internal sourcing over costly external hiring
  • A method for aligning organizational and individual needs through development
  • A proactive and ongoing approach to succession planning rather than a reactive approach

A systematic talent mobility strategy enables business leaders to more effectively acquire, align, develop, engage, and retain high performing talent by implementing a consistent, repeatable, and global process for talent rotation. Without a cohesive talent mobility strategy, CEOs face several risks:

  • Focus on costly external recruiting vs. internal sourcing
  • Wrong hires (cost can be 3-5x person’s salary)
  • Increased high performer churn
  • Reduced employee engagement
  • Reduced flexibility as business conditions change

CEOs should consider the following integrated processes – and a complete technology platform to support them – to promote and enable talent mobility:

  • Current workforce analysis:Includes detailed talent profiles, employee summaries, organization charts, competencies, and job profiles.
  • Talent needs assessment: Assess employees on key areas of leadership potential, job performance, and risk of leaving.
  • Future needs analysis:Development-centric succession planning to create and manage dynamic, fully-populated talent pools.

5. Integrate Succession Planning to Broader Business Processes

Succession planning is not a silo. It implicitly relies on other talent processes and data, especially assessments that provide a performance and competency baseline. Yet unlike a performance management process, which can be executed in a relatively self-contained fashion (assuming it has access to core employee data), the same is not true for succession planning.

Succession planning requires foundational data (e.g., competencies, job profiles, talent profiles, and employee records) and inputs (e.g., appraisals, feedback). Outputs include nominee pools, successor pools, development/learning plans, and reports. To facilitate the level of integration required to get succession planning right, a single, natively-integrated technology platform that centralizes key talent processes and information is required. With this single platform, the time to develop succession plans can easily be reduced from weeks or months to mere hours. The benefits can be significant: reduce costs, reallocate personnel from tactical activities to more strategic endeavors, and mitigate the risk of untimely departures of essential personnel.

Additionally, a single technology platform promotes the linkage of learning and career development to succession planning. By bridging these processes, nominees who are not ready for advancement can be assigned detailed development plans that guide them to improve the competencies and skills required for new job positions. Learning paths and specific courses can be established for employees to facilitate their career growth. By providing learning opportunities and development plans to employees, CEOs can take a more active role in promoting employee growth, retention, and engagement.

Finally, with a single system of record, reporting and analysis is vastly improved, since all relevant talent data resides within a single data structure. Strategic cross-functional metrics can be readily established (e.g., measure the impact of learning and development programs on performance). Reporting and analysis are key to the CEO’s success in managing employee resources and implementing strategies that support corporate objectives and initiatives.

Conclusion

Organizations can realize significant efficiency gains and cost savings by moving from a manual, paper-based succession process to one that is fully technology-enabled. The shift to a single technology platform facilitates extending succession planning deeper into the organization, since a well-architected solution seamlessly links succession to career development and learning. A complete platform improves senior management’s global visibility into the talent pipeline and bench strength, and promoting talent mobility to retain high performers becomes a viable engagement strategy. Succession planning, done correctly, is all about process and supporting technology integration. Without integration, succession planning becomes just another organizational silo.

Endnotes

[1]Lamoureux, Kim. “Talent Mobility: A New Standard of Endurance.” Bersin & Associates, November 30, 2009.

The 4 Major Components of Business Growth & Profit-Building Success!

Your business can be broken down into 4 segments or component parts.

I call these as the 4 MAJOR COMPONENTS of a business.

Through extensive research and study of the most successful businesses worldwide, I have likewise determined that there are 4 common focal points found in a successful strategic plan for Business Growth and Profit-Building. These common focal points, or 4 MAJOR COMPONENTS, are interrelated and can be made to fit together like the pieces of a puzzle.

When you clearly identify them in your own business, and then strategically harness their power to function cohesively, the 4 MAJOR COMPONENTS can produce EXPONENTIAL business growth. And that kind of business growth leads to an increase in bottom-line profits!

So what are these 4 MAJOR COMPONENTS to a successful strategic plan for business growth and profit-building?

Let’ briefly explain what these 4 MAJOR COMPONENTS are, and what they have to do with developing a strategic plan to successfully grow your business and increase your profits.

The 4 MAJOR COMPONENTS

MAJOR COMPONENT 1 is your business’ VISION, GOALS, & MISSION.

When you consider your business’ VISION, GOALS, and MISSION, your chief aim is broken down into 2 parts. First, you must carefully analyze and clarify what direction your business is currently heading in right now. What is your VISION for your business? What are your personal goals and business objectives? And finally, what is your Mission for your business? Do you have these 3 clearly set out? You need to in order to start seeing real growth in your business.

Second, you must determine whether you need to change course to develop the business growth you want and the increase in profits you need. Having clarified your VISION, GOALS, and MISSION, you will then know in what direction you want to steer your business to generate the business growth and increased profits that you want.

As you work through and implement any business growth plans, keep referring back to MAJOR COMPONENT 1, your VISION, GOALS, & MISSION.

MAJOR COMPONENT 1 is the guiding direction for your business, just like a compass pointing to “True North”.

MAJOR COMPONENT 2 of the business growth and profit-building process is your Business Operating Systems, Management, & Training.

I liken MAJOR COMPONENT 2 to the engine that drives a car. When you consider MAJOR COMPONENT 2 in your own business growth plans, you accomplish 4 things:

1. You undertake a review of your business’ engine; that is, your staff and contractors. How can they play a positive role in growing your business and increasing your profits?

2. You consider your hiring practices. How they can impact your successful business growth at the front end…, when you hire others to join you.

3. You evaluate and design your management and training processes to support the business growth that you are striving for. And,

4. Most importantly, you strategically develop the specific operating systems that your business must have in place to effectively and efficiently run your business; whether you, the business owner, are there on the job, or not.

Are you driving a sputtering jalopy or a precisely tuned race car? MAJOR COMPONENT 2 answers that question.

Once you’ve got MAJOR COMPONENT 2, your business systems, running smoothly, it’s time to start filling up the tank.

MAJOR COMPONENT 3 of your business growth plan is Strategic Marketing, Lead Generation, & Lead Conversion systems.

When you consider MAJOR COMPONENT 3 in your business growth plans, you must analyze your systems for servicing your current customers and clients, for identifying and obtaining more of your Ideal customers and clients, for marketing to your unique target market, and for converting more prospects to bring in more sales and increase your bottom-line profits.

Finally, a successful business growth and profit-building strategic plan must never leave out the all-important topic of MONEY.

MAJOR COMPONENT 4 of your business growth plan takes a hard look at Financial Position, Cash Flow, & Reporting.

In MAJOR COMPONENT 4, your primary focus is to review the systems that you have in place to know where you’re at financially, to handle your money, to control it, and to keep it coming in. What changes do you need to make in your financial operating systems to ramp up your business growth? Where is your money? How is it being spent? Do you have operating systems that you have designed and put in place to control expenses and costs? Is your money coming in consistently? What Cash Flow “production” strategies are unique to your business? Are there any other “production” strategies that you can implement immediately? Are there any other ways that your business can “manufacture” additional Cash Flow?

Well, there you have them.

Those are the 4 MAJOR COMPONENTS of a successful strategic plan to grow your business and increase your profits.

First comes knowledge. You have it.

Now, must come action!

So it’s time for you to take action.

ACTION STEPS:

Follow these 4 steps and get your business growth plans roaring like the powerful sound of a race car crossing the finish line in first place!

1. Write out on a sheet of paper each of the 4 MAJOR COMPONENTS of your business as outlined above.

2. Analyze each MAJOR COMPONENT in comparison to your present business operations.

3. List the focal points lacking in your business compared to each MAJOR COMPONENT.

4. Come up with just 1 action that you can take to improve in each of the 4 MAJOR COMPONENTS.

If you’ve completed the 4 action steps, then you’ve got some momentum going. Constantly focus on the 4 MAJOR COMPONENTS of your business. Keep working on improving in these 4 MAJOR COMPONENTS.

Because if you do, you’ll be developing a successful and proven plan not only to grow your business, but to increase your profits as well!

This article is an excerpt taken from the MasterMind Business Growth System, as written by noted Business Growth Expert and Attorney, Miguel Mendez, Jr., Esq.

Copyright 2008. Miguel Mendez, Jr. All rights reserved.

Presentation Skills & Public Speaking – 10 Tips to How to Design & Prepare for a Presentation

Top 10 Tips to help you Plan and Design and Prepare for your Presentation

Next time you are faced with the daunting prospect of having to write a presentation, try out these tips from Skillstudio and you’ll be surprised at just how effective they can be at helping to design and prepare for a presentation.

  1. Prepare Prepare Prepare – The more time you spend preparing your presentation beforehand the more confident you will be on the day.
  2. Get to know your audience. Put yourself in their shoes. What’s in it for them? What understanding do they currently have? Do they want a detail or strategic level talk from you?
  3. What’s the one key goal you want to achieve by giving this presentation? Make sure that this is clear to your audience at the beginning and end of the presentation.
  4. Split your presentation into a beginning a middle and an end. Use the middle section to develop your ideas.
  5. Remember the power of three. Wherever possible think of things in threes. eg three key points to make at the beginining, three key points to develop further in the middle and three key points to make at the end. Your middle can further expand on the three points with three additional points each. etc
  6. Brainstorm the likely questions you will be asked by your audience. Prepare answers using the Power of three.
  7. Try using a mind map to help you organise your ideas into logical chunks. The clearer your thinking is the easier it should be to understand when you are presenting.
  8. Avoid the trap of preparing for your presentation at the last possible minute. It will only mean you lose a night’s sleep – on the night before you have to present!
  9. Lead your audience through your presentation using sign-posting. Recap on what you’ve just covered and then use rhetorical questions to move onto the next section. Always summarise your main points just prior to the end of your presentation.
  10. Plan to end your presentation with a call to action, a request for a decision to be made, or whatever you believe is the most appropriate means to achieve your overall goal.

Surefire Ways to Pack a Punch With Your Ezines & Newsletters

Newsletters, or ezines, can be an extremely effective marketing tool for your business. It puts your name in front of your potential clients, regular clients, and peers while showing your expertise and professionalism. It’s an excellent means to both market and grow your business and also show your existing clients your creative abilities.

What’s an ezine? It’s short for electronic magazine. It’s those e-mail newsletters that you receive on a regular basis. If you are not sending one out now, seriously consider doing so. It can make a big difference in both your business and your bank account. For example, I know one life coach who sends out regular ezines. Lately she acknowledged that she started getting 30+ people signing up every day! When you think about those 30+ new potential clients a day, doesn’t it make sense to utilize this as a regular part of your marketing?

Now the only drawback is to ensure your newsletter is worthy of being read. I subscribe to a lot of newsletters, but find I regularly only read a few upon their arrival. When I decided to create my own newsletter, one of the first things I did was to look at those newsletters I regularly read and determine what it was about them that made me want to read them. What sets them apart from the rest? One of the most important things I discovered was that they provided me with valuable information to help me in my business. They often provided information I didn’t already know. For example, some newsletters provide tips on search engine optimization, affiliate programs, or software shortcuts. Since I’m always looking to grow my business, this information is valuable to me. You normally have knowledge in a given field that others don’t, when preparing your newsletter, think about what expert knowledge you have or can obtain that would interest your targeted market. Now that’s what you want to add to your newsletter.

In writing your newsletter, keep the following points in mind:

Your Readers

oKnow your readers and what they want.

oAsk your readers for feedback and how to improve.

oTalk to your readers. Don’t just put information in your newsletter; think about that audience out there reading your newsletter. How do they feel after reading what you’ve prepared?

Your Writing Style

oUse short, simple sentences; keeping paragraphs short.

oWrite clearly and avoid slang or profanity.

oUse humor and keep a refreshing tone to your writing.

oKeep your tone friendly, but also professional.

oHave white space between the paragraphs.

oUse small graphics whenever applicable.

oInclude your logo for business recognition.

oUse bold or italics for emphasis, but don’t underline.

oUse plain text. (12-14 point)

Headings

oEntice the reader with your heading to ensure they read the article.

oHeadlines should be slightly larger than the other text.

oUse bold or italics and a good font, but don’t use all caps.

Content of Newsletter

oContent is king! Just like on your website, it’s vital to have your newsletter or ezine packed full of useful information.

oProvide articles written by you and other experts.

oProvide any new services or features you’ve added to your business.

oProvide links of relevant press releases, articles, other sites, etc. This gives readers more information that they can review.

oProvide case studies, facts not known, etc. Sign up for Google News so that you can get information your clients might not have seen.

oProvide a collection of valuable small business tips, testimonials, etc.

oProvide a personal message from you. Many enjoy hearing how you are doing and what’s new happening in their life and business.

oProvide humorous quotations or jokes.

oContests / Polls / Freebies / Quizzes / Games!! Let the fun begin. Why not include something that makes the reader look forward to taking a break from their busy day to read your newsletter?

The Final Step — Proofing

oMake sure everything is 100% accurate with no typos.

oMake sure you have permission for any copyrighted material.

oMake sure if you have sources, you have credited them correctly.

Most ezines are “opt-in,” which means that everyone who receives it has actually registered to receive it–they want it already. Now the only thing you need to do is provide them great information that keeps them wanting it every month.

Choosing The Right Photos For Your Website & Online Brand

How smart companies use images to boost their online presence

You might think for an agency that does so much web design and blogging, we’re just writing and geeking out on code all day.

And that’s partly true – we do do a lot of writing and custom coding.

But part of being a good digital agency is understanding the role that visuals play, both in creating a website and fostering an online brand and presence.

Forget the old saying. Online, a picture is worth way more than a thousand words.

That’s why today we’re covering how to choose photos for your website and online marketing that will really pop and make potential clients remember you.

And don’t worry. Even if you don’t have the budget for a fancy photographer, there’s still plenty of ways to get great images for your website, which we’ll also cover below.

Using Images in Marketing

Humans are visual creatures, and that doesn’t magically change when we go online. That’s why using images for online brand marketing is critical.

Every image you share should invoke an emotion and represent your brand identity – whatever makes you, you. Sure, taglines and content are incredibly important (and critical if you want to rank on Google).

But images tap into and relay your uniqueness in an instant. In fact, neuroscientists at MIT have determined that it only takes 13 milliseconds to process an entire image.

So if you want to create a connection with your audience in an instant, then crisp, beautiful photos that represent your brand well are the way to go.

Today’s customers want to connect with authentic brands. The better you’re able to serve them stunning images that paint a picture, the more likely they are to become raving fans. And the more likely they are to become ambassadors for you.

In fact, a study from BuzzSumo found that articles using an image once every 75-100 words received double the social media shares as articles with fewer images.

Clearly, images matter, and can dramatically improve your website content.

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READ: Is Your Business Brand Identity Memorable Enough?

When thinking of your product or service what comes to mind? What do people envision? What characteristics do they attach to what you provide? And does it stand out from your competitors?

When building a memorable business brand, these are important questions to consider; otherwise, you risk losing valuable business because your brand isn’t differentiated enough from others who are going after the same target audience as you.

Your brand should invoke an identity, an emotion, characteristics and something that makes you, you. This is where that differentiation comes into play – tapping into and relaying your uniqueness.

Read more on our website

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Importance of Images in Web Design

Given the fact that at least 38% of users will stop engaging with an unattractive website design, using attractive images in your website is a no-brainer.

But images do so much more for your website.

First, images on your website can improve your SEO.

When Google scans your website, it looks at all your content, including your images. So good, optimized images can improve your Google rankings.

In fact, website content with images gets 94% more views than content without. So if you want more traffic, you need to use more photos on your website.

Using images properly can also keep people on your website longer.

And the stakes are even higher if you run an ecommere website. According to this Kissmetrics study , 93% of buyers consider visual appearance to be the most important factor when making a purchase!

And like we’ve covered, images also keep users more engaged.

Remember that people are busy, and they tend to scan through websites. Breaking your text up with shorter paragraphs, and interspersed with interesting photos and infographics, can help make your website more accessible and user friendly

Of course, this only works if you’re using images properly. This means using only relevant and attractive images, with small file sizes. It’s also best to use images of people as much as possible.

And remember, one of the most important elements of using images on your website or other online efforts is to ensure that you only use photos which you own or have the right to use, which we cover next.

How To Choose Photos For Your Website

So how to actually choose photos for your website?

First, think about the first impression you want to give. Create a brand guide that includes your brand colours and fonts, but also what look and feel you want your imagery to portray. And decide what types of images should and should not appear.

Ultimately, you want to be using high-quality images that deliver purpose and meaning. And it’s critical you have the right to use them.

If you have the budget to work with a photographer – great! Be sure to work with one who is willing to learn about your brand guide and work closely with you to create just the right images. This is one time where it really pays to be picky.

And if you don’t have the budget to work with a photographer – great! There are so many options for great stock photography available now, which can be much more affordable, or even free.

For paid stock photos, we recommend Depositphotos, which we’ve used for years without a hitch.

And if you’re just starting out and need to stick to free photos, check out Unsplash, which has a large amount of beautiful stock photos that are free to use, without attribution or permissions, for all commercial and non-commercial purposes.

When choosing stock photos, you need to be even more careful about choosing images that represent your brand well. Try to avoid stock photos where people are looking directly at the camera, which tend to be a bit cheesier and less authentic.

Finally, remember that visual clutter is actually a bad thing. Try to focus on using a few great images, smartly arranged. A good web developer can help ensure your website looks great and converts well, using just the right combination of beautiful images, captivating written content, and well-placed calls-to-action.

The better you’re able to use photos in your website and online marketing, the better you’ll be able to connect with your audience.

My team helps small businesses create just the right brand, along with website design, SEO and digital marketing. Talk with us to get started with an attractive brand that showcases your company perfectly.

To your business success,

Susan

Affordable & Effective Marketing Tips to Promote Your Business Online

There are many ways that you can market your business without having to spend a lot of money and if you know what they are, then you can get started. You can do this simply by creating some stunning content and having it posted on your blog or even by writing for an industry-related magazine. These are just a few of the many options that you can pick and choose from, so make sure that you are considering what options are going to be ideal for you.

Affordable Marketing Tips

Make sure that you are looking at the budget that you have for marketing and that you are thinking of how you can get the most for your money. Here are some great tips that can help you to save money or get marketing done at affordable prices, including:

• Creating some of the best and most unique content that is found on the internet and posting it on your blog

• Create your own My Business Google account to ensure the visibility on various sites like Google Maps

• Build an email list of interested customers and make sure that you are letting them now when new services or added or when you have a sale

• Write an informative article for one of your industry related magazines

• Attend some of the functions for local networking

• Sponsor or even co-sponsor a giveaway or contest

• Build an affiliate program for your loyal customers

• Write guest posts for some of the popular niche sites

• Comment on various blog posts

• Create a group and profile page on Facebook for your business

• Offer some free introductory products on your page

• Create some stunning infographics that you can use

• Create business cards that will catch the eye

• Host some classes locally

• Post free information on your social media pages

• Interact with customers on social media through comments, messages and more

• Buy advertisements on Facebook and other social media platforms

• Consider PPC as an option

• Offer discounts to people who subscribe to your mailing list

Think about these various ways that you can save money when it comes to advertising since most of them would be affordable and can fit into any budget that you might have. Find the ones that work for you and that would cover the needs that you might have, so start looking now.

There are plenty of ways that you can get effective and affordable marketing without blowing up your current budget. Think about creating some great content and posting it on your site along with writing guest posts for other industry sites. Also, you should make sure that your business is claimed on all of the Google Business tools and that you are updating the information as it changes, if it does. You also want to make sure that you are finding the right marketing technique that would work for you, including giveaways and much more.

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