What was your customer acquisition goal for 2011?______

What percentage of customers did you retain?______

What percentage of customers did you lose?______

How many total customers do you have?______

How many of them were thrilled with your services? ______

                        Satisfied?________

                        Unhappy?________

How many new customers were acquired in 2012? ________

What percentage of new growth is this? ________

Where did they come from, what percentage came from which marketing strategy:

            Personal contact? ________

            Networking Event? ________

            Social Media?________

            Print? ________

            Ezine?________

            Because of a referral? ________

Where did the majority of these new orders come from?          

                        Within your city? ________

                        Another state? ________

What percentage of returning customers re-ordered?  ________

How often did you drop by, call, follow-up to receive

these returning orders?________

How many” touches” did it require for the order? ________

What form of touch worked best?  Percentage from:

            Personal contact? ________

            Social Media? ________

            Print? ________

            Ezine? ________

What percentage of customers come from your

target market? ________

What other industries land in your top 20% revenue?  ________

How many new customers make up your top 20%  ________

of your revenue?

How many returning customers make up your top 20%

of your revenue?   ________

 What other industries land in your top 20% revenue?  ________

 What strategies do you employ to follow-up with new and existing customers?

Do this kind of assessment, and I guarantee you’ll be astounded at what you discover.  With a few of my clients doing this process in January, they already not only discovered that 80% of their revenue in 2011 came from only 20% of their clientele, it was amazing to see that statistically they’re absolutely typical!  The value of this information is that now they know where 80% of their time should be spent moving forward. If you add to this mix, a few new strategies, continuous training, and a bit more evaluation, you’ll find yourself developing a system to stay ahead of the roller coaster so many find themselves on when marketing ineffectively.

Being a smart young entrepreneur or seasoned business owner means you develop the whole person. This includes taking not good, but great care of yourself so your mind is clear and your energy level high to strategize and create the business of your dreams.  And besides, it’s just plain time to mix it up and throw in some fun, so here’s my coaching tip for the month – eat GRANOLA!  Here’s a yummy recipe.

MIX THE DRY TOGETHER:

3 C. Rolled Oats                         1 C. Organic Fair Trade Powdered Chocolate  (great antioxidants

1 C. Millet                                    1 C. Dry Roasted or Regular Peanuts

1/2 C. Sunflower Seeds            1/4 C. Soy Powder

1/2 C. Sesame Seeds                 1 C. Chocolate Chips (add to mixture after cooked & barely warm )

MIX TOGETHER WET INGREDIENTS:

1 C. Hot Water

1 C. Cold Pressed Oil  (pour in oil before honey and it slides right out of the cup!)

1 C. Honey

Jar of Peanut Butter of your choice

Combine both mixtures, and if you’ve doubled the batch, as I always do, cook it in a Turkey Roasting pan 1/2 hr. at 350 degrees.  Stir, then turn oven down to 275 degrees, stirring thoroughly every 15 minutes.  If you like it chunky, don’t stir too much at the end, just enough so it doesn’t burn.  Usually done after an hour.  When the mixture is warm, almost cool add the chocolate or carob chips so they melt just a little bit. The least you cook this granola the more nutritional value you get.  The chocolate is Sweet Earth Organic Fair Trade we buy online.  Place in large Tupperware containers.  Enjoy!

ENTREPRENEURS CAN LEARN PREPAREDNESS SKILLS AND UNSHAKEABLE CONFIDENCE FROM MICHAEL JORDAN

Michael Jordan was being interviewed regarding how he would respond if he were faced with 0:01 second left on the clock at Game 7 of the NBA Finals, and his team is down by only one point.  He’s holding the ball at the free throw line, giving him two shots.  If he makes it, his team wins their first ever championship, but if he misses, they lose. The questions the interviewer, Susan Guzzetta, posed to him that day were the same ones I want to ask of you if this were your situation:

• How would you feel?

• Would you be nervous?

• Would you be distracted by all the opposing fans screaming, stomping and waving their hands, purposefully attempting to move you off your game by breaking your concentration?

“Michael”, she said “How do you handle an uncomfortable situations like this, whether it’s in basketball, business or life?”  And what he said, as business owners/entrepreneurs, we can take to heart and implement ourselves!   He said, “That’s easy, that situation wouldn’t bother me because I would have already disciplined myself to make sure I had already prepared for success in that or any other situation!”

Are you?  Are you disciplining and preparing yourself for success in every area of your life?  Are you hoping and wishing that this is the year that will be different, but haven’t made the plans necessary to see it come into fruition?  Or are you taking the steering wheel of life, and making plans, setting goals, and practicing the preeminent skills necessary for you to BE prepared to be a SUCCESS in 2012:

• Set GOALS in every aspect of your life and business, specifically high impact goals which will most affect the change or transition of your life/business

• Chunk them down to be bite sized

• Make a plan to accomplish them with a

• Create a date by which each goal be accomplished

Remember, without a strategy, you’re just wishing, just as you’ve done every year!  This is the year to take a wish and make it a believable PLAN of ACTION whether you’re a boomer, Gen X’er or Millennial business person!  Every generation needs an ACTION PLAN.  Then once you have this, don’t stop there, go one step further and hire a coach to hold you accountable, and to support and cheer you along the way.  Do each of these steps and I can guarantee, with this you will gain unstoppable confidence and will reach your goals in 2012.

Do you know what they are?  Better yet, do you exhibit them yourself?  Write next to each word/phrase giving yourself a 1-10, 10 being best on how you’re doing.  Then let others in your company do the same, ON YOU that is!  Hummm . . . who will take me up on this intimidating, but revealing activity? 

Leadership has been aspired to, examined, torn apart, written up in every literary form to man, but when you have to determine if your management team is exhibiting the needed behaviors to lead your business to greatness, where do you begin?   As well, how do assess and determine if your training has been effective in this area?   You need some kind of comprehensive list to go by.  Steve has synthesized and melded the work of others to come up with this list, and I think it’s a great conglomeration of “actions most needed for superior leadership competencies”, therefore providing a mirror to hold up, whether it be for yourself, or with your team leaders.  When it gets right down to it, you build collaboration, team work, and influence according to what you do, not by what you say you do.  As an Executive Coach, I would love to dig even deeper.  Assess what will make you better, and then hold you accountable, but it’s a post.  So take it as deep as you can – then when you need assistance implementing, call me, so we can talk about creating a strategic leadership plan specifically designed for YOU and YOUR SUCCESS!  We all need one you know.

So what do you think, do you disagree, or have something to add?  Leave a comment even if it may be controversial.

This list is taken from Steve Arneson – of the Leadership Examiner

1. Being a Role Model for Integrity and Ethics
2. Demonstrating Optimism and Positive Energy
3. Learning the Business
4. Establishing a Vision and Mission
5. Setting Strategy and Priorities
6. Hiring Great Talent
7. Creating a Culture of Customer Focus
8. Building High Performance Teams
9. Motivating and Inspiring Others
10. Delegating and Empowering
11. Listening
12. Communicating
13. Driving for Results
14. Managing and Evaluating Performance
15. Coaching and Developing Talent
16. Managing Complexity and Ambiguity
17. Managing Your Time
18. Evaluating Risk
19. Resolving Conflict
20. Driving Innovation
21. Influencing Others
22. Collaborating Across the Organization
23. Demonstrating Passion for Your Work
24. Being a Champion for Work/Life Balance
25. Keeping Things in Perspective (Humility and Gratitude)

So, who’s your hero?  Who do you know that exhibits more that is on this list than anyone else you know?  If you could work on one thing, you’d like to add to your leadership list, what would it be?  Now go to Marshall Goldsmith’s Library and learn the “Feed Forward” activity, and go to 3 people you know and trust wants your best for your life, and follow his instructions.  You’ll be glad you did!

Here’s to you, and your leadership development!

Sue The “Accidental Leader“

Taking the Accident Out of Your Leadership and Your Life and Instead Helping You Make it Intentionally EXCELLENT!

WHAT BEA SAYS ABOUT HER PROGRAM:

BEFORE YOU REGISTER:

This program is not well designed for the true beginner (meaning you have never touched a blog in the past.)  It is designed for a self-starter who enjoys weekly participation in a live group and who also enjoys self-paced online training via a library of training materials and video tutorials. If you are brand new to blogging, I recommend considering one of our blog mentoring packages below , which will help get you ready for the Become a Blogging Maniac Program.

ABOUT THE BECOME A BLOGGING MANIAC START UP PROGRAM

PLEASE NOTE: We will be using the WordPress self hosted (meaning the blog is hosted on your own domain) blogging tool for this course. You will need a WordPress blog hosted on your own domain.  If you use another blogging tool such as Blogger or Typepad, you can still benefit from the program, but the bulk of our materials presented will focus on using WordPress.

If you are in need of a hosting company that easily installs WordPress using a one-click installation feature, please contact http://Hostgator.com or http://BlueHost.com .

If you currently have your own website, and you would like to manually install WordPress to your existing website, please visit this link for installation instructions:

How to Install WordPress

If you want your blog to match the current look and feel of your website, you will need to hire your designer or contact Bea Fields at beafields@beafields.com for names of someone who can help you with this.

PROGRAM DETAILS AND DATES:

This Webinar is held on the following dates via webinar and telephone:  (PLEASE NOTE:  We are not going to be using Voice Over IP during these calls.  The telephone number is not toll free, so if you do not have unlimited long distance, I recommend purchasing a 1 cent or 2 cent per minute phone card with a company like http://callingcards.com or http://pennytalk.com ).

Call Dates:

Monday, October 24 from 1:00-3:00 PM Eastern

Monday, October 31 from 1:00-3:00 PM Eastern

Monday, November 7 from 1:00-3:00 PM Eastern

Monday, November 14 from 1:00-3:00 PM Eastern

Monday, November 21 from 1:00-3:00 PM Eastern

Monday, November 28 from 1:00-3:00 PM Eastern

(All calls are both video and audio recorded for later viewing)

Faciliator: Is Business Coach Bea Fields

Benefits:

The Become a Blogging Maniac Start Up Course is designed to teach you how to become fully comfortable with the set up and technology side of running your own website using a WordPress blog platform.  At the same time you’ll gain influence and credibility with your niche’.

For cost and all the details, click on the icon above.

The link above provides Sue with an affiliate fee, but does not increase your cost.

If you’ve been struggling to get your business found online then you don’t want to miss the presentation. (Click here for information on this teleseminar!)

Angela Moore , president of Six Degrees SEO shares the secrets to getting in front of your customers when they are searching for you. If you are tired of wasting money on marketing and advertising methods that don’t work anymore, find out what works now to draw your prospects to you and bring your business more business.

Gone are the days of the print directories and using expensive ads that you can’t track. When was the last time you used the yellow pages for anything other than a booster chair or doorstop? TV ads are so expensive, most small business owners can’t afford them and you have no guarantee that you will be seen by your prospects.  Radio ads are about the same, how do you know you are reaching your customers, how do you track your ROI? To top it all off, you pay for these ads for a short period of time and then they are gone.

Internet marketing has a much longer shelf life. Find out how you can take your current marketing budget and double or triple your efforts, track you ROI, and have longer staying power. The longer you wait to start your Internet marketing the more catch up you will have to do. Can you imagine where you would be now had you implemented an Internet Marketing strategy a few years ago. Don’t make the mistake in thinking that the time has passed. Only 26% of small businesses are really marketing on the Internet so you have a huge opportunity to claim your place on the Internet and get found. Remember the longer the delay the longer it will take to get found as you will end up with more and more competition. Join our presentation to see what you can do today to get started.  (Click here for information on the teleseminar, and to sign-up.)

Save Yourself a Lot of Headaches, by Putting the Correct Foundations in Place!

The next best practice for managing managers is:

1. Know them.  Find out what keeps them with you and your company, and in this position, as well as what would cause them to want to leave.

2. Regularly take time with them.  The best way is to have a weekly meeting to keep your pulse on what’s going on with them, and to discover who’s doing what.

3. Take the time to find out what motivates them, looking for ways to communicate special thanks and encouragement.  Give them a short survey and include a list of items they can choose from. i.e.

• Time off

• Gift card to ________________

• A spa treatment

• What’s their favorite candy or drink

• Do they like public praise, or would they prefer a sincere note of thanks.

• Tickets to a ball game

Then when you notice exceptional behavior, remember to reward them with one of the items they chose.  Positive reinforcement goes a long way.  Also, you’re modeling how to treat their employees.  This is influencing up!  Just go into any Starbucks and watch the level of confidence their employees display.

“I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any other ability under the sun.”  asserted John D. Rockefeller

The next important leadership item is the performance review.  I admire the Starbucks standards and systems.  With two grown children who have been shift managers with an accumulated 14yrs of experience with Starbucks, I have had a rare opportunity to study them from the inside.  They are a model organization regarding encouraging their employees and managers to “feel” like company partners.  I interviewed our city’s District Managers a few years ago, and they described a practice I have implemented with every company I consulted with since.  They not only have exception training with high standards, and detailed manuals for everything, but they do what is called “Skip Level Performance Reviews.”  For instance, they will skip the store manager and interview the shift managers (who are directly under the Store Managers) in order to ascertain just how well the Store Managers are fulfilling their responsibilities, and how they are being treated by the Store Manager.  This kind of accountability keeps the Store Managers on their toes.  Then the Store Manager will skip the shifts and speak with the employees about the Shift Manager.  This also gives one the opportunity to learn if the employees are thriving or struggling under this manager.  If you wait for them to come to you, it’s probably already out of hand, and will need time and intervention, which costs money.  If you do discover there is a problem, corroborate the truth of it by interviewing the other employees to discern if this is an isolated case between the manager and employee, or if it is necessary to either correct the manager, or possibly provide more training. Either way, take care of it, or it will grow exponentially and sabotage the culture of the office, and you will loose credibility and influence.   The Starbucks system of performance reviews works ingeniously, measuring how well they are fulfilling the expectations of being a manager!  As well, if the managers are responsible for certain levels of sales, the numbers never lie.  As well, how they’re creating raving fans can be measured by providing customer surveys.  Feedback, feedback, feedback provides concrete evidence! With the right systems in place, you’ll be able to keep the pulse of a place, knowing when you need to provide extra training and possibly need take a more hands on approach for a time.  Whether you have one or many employees, with the Starbucks systems in place, a company can run efficiently with scheduled, regular performance reviews.

BOOKS TO HELP YOU:

“Developing the Leader Within You” Dr. John C. Maxwell

“Developing the Leaders Around You” Dr. John C. Maxwell

“Love “Em or Lose “Em” by Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans

“The Boss’s Survival Guide” by Bob Rosner, Allan Halcrow, Alan Levins

When you hire your first office Manager, you can avoid a lot of problems by putting the correct foundations in place.  First off, the manager MUST be rightly positioned.  Making sure their behavioral style matches the needs of the position, and that the skills, knowledge, and training of the person fits their responsibilities.  A lot of headaches can be avoided right here!  Then, they must have a clearly written, and understood job description which includes:

• Their specific responsibilities

• Attitudes expected of them

• Compensation the company will be providing

• Holidays and/or days, and sick leave

• When performance reviews will be given to them

Continuing education should be provided so that they are continually upgrading their leadership skills.  This should include how much the company is willing to invest in their training and/or materials.  You can’t manage poorly communicated expectations.  Every time I go into a company to consult, or provide executive coaching, and the manager is frustrated with the owners, it is invariably these items which were loosely agreed upon, and not put in writing. If this is the case, you will eventually experience conflict over what the Office Manager expected and was told, as opposed to what the owner remembers he/she said.  They need to be given the company handbook detailing the

• Mission

• Vision

• Values

along with the job descriptions of the employees they will be managing.  They must have a crystal clear understanding of how to support, train, monitor and encourage their employees.  Problems can be averted by setting the correct foundations at the beginning.  Having a clear understanding of their responsibilities, will avoid any need to micro manage as well!

Done right, you will have more time to do the things you love doing, which is why you became a business owner in the first place!

End of pt. 1

The Key Benefits of Enlisting a Business Coach 

The other day I was meeting with a woman who asked me, “Sue I know what a Life Coach does, but I don’t know the purpose of an Executive/Business Coach?”  Well, it’s not counseling, and it’s not consulting, although I shift into this mode frequently.  The best way I can describe it is for you to think of a coach of an Olympic Athlete.  Now, that elicits exactly what we do, but for a business leader.  We are your greatest supporter, your cheerleader, and a bit of a velvet brick.  Our purpose is to ensure you become successful:

• To challenge, develop, and assist you in improving your leadership skills.
• Uncover and develop your unique leadership style.
• Provide essential feedback regarding gaps in your skills and abilities. Discovering feedback in a safe, private environment.
• Reveal so you can abort any self-sabotaging ways which would jeopardize your leadership and your job.
• Expedite the improvement of your time management and organizational skills.
• Help you to develop greater abilities in making appropriate, time bound decisions.
• Establish concrete goals for change and progress.
• Someone to hold you ACCOUNTABLE to do the things you know you need to do, to become the leader you aspire to be.
• A uniquely rich development opportunity to truly discover all you were meant to be.
• Have a non-partisan, non judgmental, objective third party who is an impartial sounding board.
• Assistance to execute key business initiatives.
• Help in balancing work and life priorities.
• Cultivate exceptional ability to influence those you lead.
• Development of your unique personal mission, vision, and values.
• Reduce turnover while building loyalty and retention.
• Successfully navigate the white waters of conflict.
• Enhance and fine-tune your decision making skills, learning to appropriately evaluate business risks, while navigating any politically entrenched environment.
• Inspire peak performance in employees by employing fresh leadership insights.

Contact Sue right now, with the e-mail below, to set up a complimentary Discovery Session to explore if Executive Coaching is right for you right now.  Sue will be doing the same, discerning if you’re a good fit, as a client, for her.  If all is compatible, we then co-create a plan that works specifically for you, and your specific needs. Contact Sue at AccidentalLeader@comcast.net for more information, and to set up our Discovery Session.

Five Ways to Get back into, or Stay in SDM, Success Driven Mode

Having lived with chronic physical issues, I live in the world of being frustrated with how little I’ve accomplished each day.  Even today, here I am sitting at the computer with my adorable co-dependent kitty draped over my shoulder wishing I had gotten more done.   We live in the desert where we have the most wonderful monsoon weather, which simultaneously creates a monsoon in my back.  (A monsoon is very stormy, violent weather)  Yesterday, I began the day filled with visions of all I wanted to achieve, yet as the day progressed, so did my challenges.  Now, you may not have a physical challenge, maybe you still have children at home, while attempting to work, or parents you’re taking care of, been there done that too!  Or, you may have some other issue hindering your output.  This said, I am truly a blessed business woman, and I’m sure you are as well, if you look hard enough to find those things to be thankful for.   So, how do I keep directionally moving forward toward my dream, when my body goes south?  Here are five ways to quit being frustrated, and coach and manage yourself to keep moving forward to be the leader you were meant to be! This is how to make a demand on yourself to stay in SDM -  Success Driven Mode:

YOUR COACHING MOMENT with Sue, The “Accidental Leader“:

1. Set your goals for the day the night before. Then be sure you’ve gone back and chosen the 20% that will give you the 80% ROI for your time and effort. PUT THESE ITEMS ON YOUR LIST TO DO FIRST.
2. Be sure to start your day off spiritually.  I spend time with the Lord in prayer and meditation on His Word.  The more I need to get done, the more I know I need this focus and centering in my life, and in my business.
3. Stick to your goals for the day – relentlessly!  Only substitute if it is the kind of emergency only you can do, that can’t be done by someone else, some other time.   Delegate otherwise, or delete altogether!
4. Be grateful at the end of the day for the small things you’ve accomplished.  Write them down.  I guarantee this will chase the grumpies away.  And while you’re at it, don’t compare yourself to the high performers, instead look at someone worse off than yourself, then take the time to be thankful that you have the strength, skills, and especially physical ability to do your dream job in this country.
5. Lastly, DON’T QUIT!  Just don’t quit.  Some day all this effort will amalgamate into something stellar, but you can’t quit.  Remember, quitters never win and winners never quit.