Category Archives: Business Planning

Team Resource – Your Insurance Agent

What in the world does an insurance agent have to do with managing your business and being part of your non-staff management team? Your agent is worth far more than you may want to believe.

Let’s start off by covering your most vital employee – besides yourself. Think for a minute who that person might be. Let’s assume it’s your sales manager and that she has been driving your bottom line for five years already. Do you have “Key Man” insurance to cover your company if something should happen to her? Your insurance agent can help you put together coverage to protect you and to encourage her to stay on board for the benefit that policy can offer. Insurance Umbrella

In another scenario, let’s talk about you and your relationship to your business and your employees when you are the office manager, sales person, production manager, human resource director, marketing vice president, and president of the company. Oh, and you travel a lot to trade shows or client meetings. Are you covered adequately if you’re involved in an accident and are unable to work for a month or two? There are important considerations, such as who will run the operation while you’re incapacitated, but more essential is where are the funds going to come from to keep the operation afloat while you’re out of commission?

Talk to your insurance agent about these concerns. At least once a year you should meet with your agent and do an insurance review. Ask if you have enough liability coverage for customers or employees getting hurt in your place of business. Talk to her about the changes in national health care laws and what your position should be on providing coverage for your employees. Do you have enough, and the right type of, life insurance on your life to take care of your family and the business?

Like your team’s legal counsel, your insurance agent is there to help you minimize the risks that can put you out of business. Yes, there are costs incurred with insurance policies, but consider the cost should a catastrophe occur and wipe out your place of business with inadequate insurance coverage to get you right back in operation.

Talk to your insurance agent about any concern you may have. Do you need product liability coverage? Does your facility lie within a flood plain? Are you planning a remodeling project, and do you need coverage for the contractor’s faults? Is your worker’s compensation coverage adequate? What about potential damage to your intellectual property rights? Some of these may be a stretch, but the point is that your insurance agent is a valuable member of your team and can give you answers to these and other insurance-related questions.

You should get to know your agent so you can call him whenever you have a question. You know you have the right agent when you do call, he asks more questions than you thought needed to be asked, and then either tells you you’re covered or you probably don’t need that kind of coverage. That tells you there’s a trustworthy relationship between the two of you, and that’s good.

Team Resource – Your Accountant

Now that the tax season has passed, most business owners have a tendency to forget about their accountants. This can be a costly mistake.

Your accountant – preferably a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or Enrolled Agent (EA) – is a vital member of your management team if you’re operating a business and don’t have an accountant on staff. A trustworthy accountant can prevent what you may read about in the news every so often, embezzlement from the company by a key employee who “intended” to pay the money back or had a gambling problem or …

Your accountant is more than that, though. They are there to prepare and review your financial statements, including balance sheets, profit-and-loss statements, and cash flow, among others. We advocate you meet with your accountant at least quarterly, but preferably on a monthly basis to stay abreast of your company’s financial status and cash flow. They can identify issues of concern and advise you what to watch for when you review your own statements. They should also offer suggestions about ways to control expenditures – the decision is ultimately yours – and may even provide insight on how to increase revenues.

They can reconcile your bank statements, handle your payroll, and prepare your quarterly payroll statements and keep you from incurring penalties on your tax obligations. Obviously, there will be fees associated with the services you choose to have your accountant perform for your company, but keep in mind that the cost should be more than offset by the money they save you and help you make in exchange for their professional guidance.

An example: A tavern owner was working with an accountant (not a CPA) who was letting the owner pay both the company’s share of FICA and other taxes as well as the employee’s share. In essence, the owner was giving his employees a bonus and incurring additional taxes for them because the accountant overlooked the problem. A CPA would have been obligated to advise the tavern owner against that practice and saved a lot of headaches, penalties, and money as a result.

Think of your accountant as a valued advisor. They are likely to know bankers who may invest in your business, or investment representatives who can build your retirement fund, and other professionals who can contribute to your team and grow your business.

Team Resource – Your Legal Counsel

If you have thought that the only time you need an attorney for your business is when you get in trouble, it’s time to eliminate that mindset. Professional legal counsel should be viewed as an essential member of your management team, especially if your firm lacks the size to have full-time corporate counsel on staff.

Scales of Justice

The problem is that most business owners wait until they are sued to seek out and use legal counsel, instead of preventing lawsuits by the wise and judicious use of a lawyer.

The first step is finding an attorney you trust. Talk to one you already know for advice and a referral to the correct barrister to fit your needs. Keep in mind it might be the lawyer you ask for the reference from who becomes your counsel. Knowing whether you can afford their services is less important than knowing they are able to protect your assets and save you money by avoiding legal action.

The second step is understanding what you need your legal counsel to do for your business. They can draft and review employee agreements and assist in handling employee grievances and complaints. They should draft and monitor your non-compete, non-disclosure, and confidentiality documents and insist that you use them diligently to maintain your intellectual property rights. Any contracts, leases, or other obligations you are considering should be reviewed by your legal counsel. Add in corporate by-laws, employee manual review, incorporation, operating agreements, and other legal advice and it becomes quite clear how essential your lawyer is to your management team.

Third, be clear on the role you want an attorney to play on your team. Discover their areas of expertise and their willingness to learn. If you plan on franchising your business, look for counsel with franchise experience or allow them time to study up on what is required. Their knowledge and experience obviously comes with a price, so that clarity is important and has value to your checkbook.

As you get to know your lawyer, make sure you tell them to let you know when you’re on the clock since most of them bill by the hour. Find out when the clock is ticking for such things as a 10-minute phone call or if they are responding to your E-mail so there are few surprises when the invoice arrives.

Fourth, talk to your lawyer about the steps you can take to avoid litigation in the first place, including proper treatment of employees, return policies, guarantees, product liability, vendor agreements, and any other aspect of your business that exposes your company to legal action.

Remember, your legal counsel is a vital member of your team and can be, must be, trusted to protect your assets. Take the time to interview several to find the right one to take care of you and your business. It could be the most important decision you make.

Ride for the Brand

There’s a lot of sense in James Owen’s Cowboy Ethics that relates tomodern business ownership, such as living each day with courage, taking pride in your work, and always finishing what you start. Make sense?

Your entrepreneurial spirit and drive to succeed gives you the courage to greet each day, and that belief in your product or service imbues that sense of pride. Napoleon Hill writes about winners never quitting and quitters never winning, so finish what you start. A half-hearted effort is just that, half-hearted and hardly worth doing at all.

Other aspects of the cowboy code were/are to do what has to be done. If a fire has to be put out before you leave for the day, put it out. If you’re in the food service business, you clean up the garbage whether you want to or not. It has to get done.

Along the same line, a solid principle is to ride for the brand. As the business owner, you live, eat, and breathe your brand – your business, products, and services. You represent your brand. You are selling it, even when you don’t think you are. The vision you create for your employees and customers should convince them to ride (act and be loyal) for your brand as well.

Think of Harley-Davidson as an example. Harley owners ride their motorcycles because they love the bikes, and they are extremely loyal to the H-D brand. Dealers and employees perpetuate the concept of riding for the brand. It’s the brand loyalty every business owner aspires to, or should want for their products and services.

Cowboys were hired on by the trail boss to ride for the owner of the cattle they were herding; the brand. Their life, in many ways, depended on their loyalty to riding for the brand.

The cowboy way of life and sense of ethics may seem archaic in a high-tech world, but the values these pioneers in the expansion of our country held still have merit. What follows is Owens’ entire list:

Live each day with courage
Take pride in your work
Always finish what you start
Do what has to be done
Be tough, but fair
When you make a promise, keep it
Ride for the brand
Talk less, say more
Remember that some things aren’t for sale
Know where to draw the line.

Happy Trails!

What’s In A Brand Name?

Okay, here we go with the marketing analysis of what constitutes a successful brand name. Is it the identity or the product behind it?

Allow me to start out with a professional football team that has made a least one Super Bowl appearance. For many years after that early appearance, the team compiled an unenviable losing record. A former client who played for the team provided some insight that relates to the team’s brand. When he signed with the team, the attitude of the players was more about when they were collecting their paychecks than if the team was winning. The end result was the team rarely won and was losing its fan base.

When the attitude began to change that if they played well, fielded a competitive team, and won more games, there would be more fan support and their pay would be greater, lo and behold, they started making the playoffs. They are now a serious contender consistently in their AFC division.

In this case, the product behind it was influential in the success of the brand.

Changing to a different product and a current client situation, there are many people who like to drink strong alcohol. In a lion’s share of cases today, the identity carries more influence in consumer patterns than the product. Significant advertising dollars are spent to create an image of the product that attracts consumers to drink and purchase the product. Think of the pirate concept behind a certain brand of rum. If you like, drink, and purchase that brand, are you buying the marketing concept or the rum? A discerning palate with an acquired appreciation of rum is less likely to consume that product when there are better rum products out there.

In these two examples, one is more about the product and the other more about the identity, or brand. The more closely these two can be married for your product or service, the greater likelihood you are to successfully market it and build your brand to the level it is capable of achieving.

How do you do that?

First, you must know your product or service from a different perspective; the viewpoint of your end user, the customer. You might think you sell camouflage hunting clothes, but in reality you are selling the ability of a hunter to blend into the surroundings where they hunt to increase their odds of bagging their prey. Your customer, therefore, is looking for a pattern similar to their hunting ground in a garment that is comfortable, quiet, and offers them the best chance of success in the woods.

Second, the better you know your customers, the more you can motivate them to use your product or service. Once they’ve bought, you want to keep them as customers and build loyalty to your brand. You want them to identify with your brand name and recommend it to others because of what they love about it! Even though it may not be the healthiest fast food restaurant on the planet, consumers flock to McDonald’s because they a) recognize the brand; and, b) know the products will be fairly consistent in quality and price wherever they see the golden arches. Brand loyalty strengthened by an identity that is reinforced by the product quality; you know what you’re going to get when you order at McDonald’s.

Third, build your brand. If you have started a business and sales are lagging, it may be your identity – the perception consumers have of you – that needs to be adjusted. Make the adjustment, but only after you’ve had someone help you with viable consumer research. Talking to a couple of friends is market research, but comprehensive research and analysis goes a bit deeper. Do some test marketing. Get people’s perceptions of your product and the identity you put forth; it may reveal you simply need to change the color scheme to increase sales. Get feedback from your customers. What do they like or dislike about what you provide? Some answers may enlighten you – what I refer to as a BFO (Blinding Flash of the Obvious) – while other suggestions may be of little merit. You have to make the ultimate decisions. Your brand is your ticket to adding revenue to your bottom line.

Does Social Media Work?

If you’ve wondered whether you should engage social media for your business, the April 17th edition of USA Today shared the results of a study you might find interesting.

Here are some of the key elements of the article by Oliver St. John for you to consider as a business owner:

The CEO of Manta, Pam Springer, is quoted as saying the negative impression business owners have about using social media is “…probably because they don’t know how to launch a successful social-media campaign…” She recommends connecting with other business owners to get advice, but only 36% of businesses do this.

There are resources available for business owners to connect with other owners and discuss topics such as social media. In Green Bay, there’s a networking group consisting of only business owners that meets the 1st Wednesday of every month at the Green Bay Yachting Club. There are other networking organizations for business owners as well.

The CEO of Crackerjack Marketing, Stephanie Schwab, is cited in the article as saying many small businesses “…just don’t have a place in social media.” She’s right in the sense you need not put your business in the social media environment because of peer or media pressure to be there. What she adds is that you need to know what you’re trying to get out of a social media campaign.

That’s common sense when it comes to marketing your business. Far too many business owners lack a strategy for marketing their products and services. If the only reason you advertise on TV is because the sales representative talked you into buying the time, you will either stumble into success or endure costly failure. You need to strategize and, as Schwab adds, use “…marketing techniques already proved to work, such as having a website.”

One of the business owners covered near the end of the article said social media hasn’t helped her business, which sells $5,000 to $40,000 pool jobs. She added, however, that out of the 200-300 jobs she does every year, three or four come from people online. Even at the low ($5,000 level) end, that could be as much as $20,000!

She gets most of her customers through referrals. That is the preferred way to get new business for most of us, and what business owners fail to realize is that they should have a strategy for that aspect of marketing their business as well.

I always find articles such as this one fascinating, especially when 61% of small businesses fail to see any return on their investment in social media. A similar article in Advertising Age, a marketing trade publication, a few years ago cited a study that showed roughly the same percentage (62%) of advertisers were dissatisfied with their agencies. What I’ve discovered and believe strongly in is that, as a business owner, you must take the time to think through what your business is all about; less about where you’ve been and more on where you want to be.

When that picture is clear, how you need to market your business also becomes clear. The proprietary process used at Brand Irons can walk you through the process, save you money over the long run, and add to your bottom line if you’re willing to change the way you’ve always done things.

To answer the question posed in the headline: Yes, if you have a strategy that is designed to reach your target demographic.

Fresh Perspectives

head-scratcher Stop and think about this for a minute: How has the market for your industry changed in the last five years?

Did your target demographic age out of being able to use your products or services? Has the target audience gotten younger without you realizing it because you’ve been mired in “the way we’ve always done things”?

Every six months, and maybe more often depending on your business, you should take a step back from your business and get a fresh perspective on it. Take a good, hard, long look at it. Consider how well your marketing efforts have been doing. Your sales should be driving production and keeping inventory low or at a level you can fill orders for 15 or 30 days, depending on demand. Advertising should be introducing you to new customers and, at least, hitting the break-even mark on the return for your investment.

Remember to take a look at your products and services. Have they remained relevant to your customers and appealing to your prospects? Crunch the numbers for which of those products and services generate the highest profit margins for your bottom line. Think about whether one of your products has reached the end of its life cycle.

The idea here is to avoid change merely for the sake of change, but if the offering has served its purpose and the profit margin continues to shrink, it may be time to shift your corporate emphasis to other products to meet emerging markets.

Ah, emerging markets! This is probably the most prolific reason to take the time to get a fresh perspective and think things through. A recent meeting with a professional in the HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) business drove this point home. The market for HVAC services amongst the 55 and older demographic had become stagnant. The audience had, in essence, become arthritic and uninterested in change when they’ve had the same HVAC company for their entire home-owning life.

This professional sought a new perspective and did some market research. Lo and behold, it was discovered there was an emerging market being woefully underserved. You may be able to guess the demographic, but out of deference to my friend’s research and marketing efforts, I will abstain from divulging secrets that would aid the competition.

The more I see business owners searching for answers to keeping their company alive or expanding their culture and growing the business, the more obvious it becomes that a fresh perspective is essential. When you engage a consulting firm such as Brand Irons, you get a different, customer-oriented viewpoint backed by research that can be critical to your long-term survival.

AGD’s – Attention Getting Devices

How long does it take you to check your smart phone when you hear the familiar “ding” that you’ve received a text message? If the phone is in your hand already, only a few seconds. If you have to find the phone, perhaps 30 seconds. And who knows how long if you have it on vibrate or can’t remember where you put it?

The point is that little “ding” is a very poignant and effective attention getting device, or an AGD for those of you into types of acronyms, like F2F for meeting someone face-to-face. That “ding-y” AGD is part of the reason text messaging is growing in popularity for business owners, and why texting has such a phenomenal response rate. Unless a text correspondence has ended, the sender or receiver is likely to continue responding until it does. And the end result is likely to stir one of the parties to action. Hence the effectiveness of flash mob.

Jamie's Baby

This banner from www.greenbayfloorrestore.com’s website is an example of an Internet attention getter; the client wanted more carpet cleaning business.

In more traditional methods of advertising, AGDs are as important, if not more so, than a strong call to action. Think of a direct mail piece that blends in. It looks like all the other direct mail correspondence in your mailbox and, most likely, gets recycled before it hits the countertop. We could spend an entire blog on direct mail, but as it relates to getting someone’s attention, that piece must stand out from everything else, be delivered at the right time, and pique the receiver’s curiosity enough to get them to open it and see what it’s all about. The odds are still in favor of it getting recycled, but if the offer is strong enough, it may survive.

Watch some television commercials, if only to see what grabs your attention. This can be important to you as a marketer and business owner if your target demographic matches your profile to some extent. Is the AGD a recognizable celebrity? A cute pet? Someone doing something silly or scary? Does the AGD tug at your heart strings, make you cry, or cause you to salivate for some reason? Most TV commercials, while they may seem longer, are only 30 seconds. That’s a short time to get a viewer’s attention, pitch the product, and call the observer to do something about it.

Music and humor can be attention getting devices for advertising your product or service. Beautiful images and sexual innuendo can also work, but the key to your success is using AGDs that reflect your image and convey your unique selling proposition to the targeted audience as clearly and succinctly as possible to GRAB THEIR ATTENTION … like yelling in an E-mail.

The fun part is that you’ll know yours when you discover it.

Unknown Facts About Consultants

Business owners avoid hiring consultants for a number of reasons:

They believe they can’t afford one;
They aren’t sure how they could use one; and,
They are clueless about what a consultant brings to the table.

Granted, there are consultants in the business world who are more concerned about how much they’re getting paid than the level of service they’re providing. Know they are the exception rather than the rule. A professional consultant will add more money to the company’s coffers than it costs to engage their services.

Think of professional consultants as your external team. You have your internal team, such as your vice presidents, sales managers, bookkeepers, operations manager, and other personnel. The consultant’s role is to augment those internal players with an independent, third party perspective.

So, here are the reasons why you should hire professional consultants:

Their job is to add value to your business endeavor.
They can help you enhance your bottom line.
They can fill gaps and serve your needs.
They have a strong relationship with you and your team.
They communicate with you on a consistent, open, and honest basis.
They complement and advocate for what you are trying to do.
Their task is to put more money on your corporate bottom line.
They are a great sounding board for helping you make smart decisions.

Here’s another way to think about it: Imagine your business and how it can be compared to a professional sports team. You pick the sport. Now, to win the championship in that sport – to be the best in your business or industry – you obviously need to have good or great players and a top notch team. You may be the greatest owner, but how would your team fare without a coach? Or an equipment manager? Or someplace to play? Or an opponent?

Your external business team includes a host of professionals, as illustrated on the star diagram. One to add would be an investment representative to handle your retirement, or exit plan, and that of your employees.

One member of the team is your accountant. Their job is to review your financial statements on a monthly basis and counsel you on cash flow, profit-and-loss, or other concerns they see in your income statement and balance sheet. They are also there to assist with payroll concerns and other issues that concern you, so use your accountant to address sales, expenses, and other aspects of your business … instead of letting things merely happen to you.

Your legal counsel is another professional available to you. Unfortunately, most business owners wait until a claim or lawsuit is filed before they contact their attorney. Your lawyer should review contracts, especially employment, confidentiality, non-compete agreements, and sales agreements to protect your assets. Few business owners realize that legal counsel can amend contracts written by a vendor or client to ensure that your rights and property are protected in a fair and equitable manner.

While you would like to avoid the costs associated with an accountant or lawyer, they are legitimate and valuable expenses to make on behalf of your company and the bottom line. Consider the loss you could incur if your accountant was incompetent and failed to discover discrepancies in your reported revenues. Or what damage might occur if you avoided having your legal counsel review a multi-million dollar contract that later resulted in an expensive trial.

Your business and/or marketing consultant can also be a valuable asset for your business. A company such as Brand Irons can augment skills that your company needs, either on a permanent basis or until such time as you hire a qualified and competent employee to fill the specific role. Putting together a financing package that is attractive to an investor is often best completed by an independent, third party such as a business planner. If they incorporate a sound marketing strategy as part of the plan, the odds of receiving funding increase significantly. They can also prove valuable in ensuring your advertising expenditures are done in such a way as to garner results.

Your insurance agent, and banker or private investor are also part of your external team and provide you with valuable insight to tactics that can save on the expense side while increasing revenue on the income side.

Your consultants bring additional resources and relationships to the engagement that you may ordinarily be excluded from even knowing about. They become an advocate for your business and your products and/or services; in essence, going to bat for you against the competition. They can answer questions and explain concerns you may have from a different perspective, and we have found that one of the best perspectives we can offer clients is that of their customers. You must always look at whatever you do in terms of your customers, for without them you are out of business.

Take the time to talk to your consultants and think things through: They exist to help you improve the bottom line and not to take away from it.

5 P’s of Business Success

Your definition of success is different than mine. Is the wino who scores a cheap bottle every day less successful than the sales representative whose achieves the goal of 10 sales in a week? It comes down to how you define success.

Success Key When it comes to owning and operating a business, defining success is still a personal choice, although there are certain keys that can clarify the definition. Here are five “P”s:

Passion. One of the first elements Brand Irons considers when taking on a new client is how passionate you are about your business. The passion gets you up in the morning with eager anticipation for what you can accomplish during the day. It motivates you to bring enthusiasm to every decision you make about the business. It energizes your employees and that passion for your vision goes right through to your customers. That passion for your enterprise sends you home at night encouraged by the results and excited about bringing it back tomorrow.
Plan. Various research projects have illustrated that people, especially business owners, who set goals and write down their plans are far more likely to succeed than those who feel goals and plans have little value. Take some time to think for a few minutes: Are you working in your business or are you taking the time to work on your business? Working on your business means you do some research, study your competition, talk to your customers and personnel, and develop strategies to enhance your bottom line. Try a different tactic and measure the results of how it worked. Consult with professionals and others in your field who have been successful in their endeavors. Think about things.
Perform. Your passion conveys a sense of urgency that follows the path you’ve laid out in your plan. Another critical element is to execute the strategy, which means you and your people have to perform. Your customers have expectations. They believe in and trust you. They know what to expect from your products and/or services. It’s up to you and your team to make it happen and fulfill those customer expectations. That’s why it is essential you stay in touch with your customers. Get to know them and their needs. What are they looking for, and is your company meeting those needs? How can you enhance service? Are there other products you could provide to help them solve their problems? Do what is expected of you … and then do a little more than that.
People. Whatever your business, whatever you market, and whether you have employees or it’s only you, everything you do involves people. Your customers are people; human beings with needs, wants, and wishes. Your employees are people with a need to feel appreciated, who want to have value and make a contribution, and wish to be treatly fairly and honestly. Your success in business is therefore wrapped up with people. That means you need to establish and sustain relationships with these people, especially your customers. Always remember that without customers – who are people – you have no business.
Place. The adage that it’s all about location is true, to a degree. If you operate a restaurant or a retail establishment, your place in the community can be a critical element in your long-term success. The same holds true if the primary place where your business is located is on the Internet. If your web presence is old, stagnant, and hard to find, even the most elaborate website is a poor location. Keep your place looking sharp. Your parking lot should be as safe, clean, and comfortable as your place of business. Your website should be up-to-date and your social media current and professional. Remember, marketing is about perception. If your customers think your place looks sloppy, that perception could reflect on your products and services as clearly as crystal.