Small Changes Will Move You Forward
As we emerge from one of the longest recessions in the last 50 years, many small business owners are unsure how to approach their business. What changes should you make to turn your business around and accelerate their growth. Some of the most valuable changes you can make ere operational in nature. For example:
- Focus on Customer Generated Revenue – This seems kind of intuitive, but the author suggests instead of looking for a loan go looking for more sales to fuel your growth.
- Use online invoicing and payment solutions. – Here the strategy is to accelerate payments to you. Although I pay a fee to process a credit card, it is nothing compared to what it costs to chase an invoice after the project is complete. Practice asking your clients if they ” want the miles” referring to the mileage points they receive when they use their credit card, as away of encouraging them to use their cards to pay you.
- Invest in technology - Upgrade computers, enhance software. Don’t spend frivolously, but don’t try to run your business with antiquated technology.
- Manage costs, but when you invest ahead of your competitors – While everyone else is still cutting costs, now is a good time to invest a little. It won’t take as much to leap out ahead as it would if everyone was spending.
What else would you add to this list?
The Economy is Coming Back, Are You Ready?
Something is different, in the last few weeks the phones are ringing more. My clients and friends seem to be in better moods and its not just the weather! The small business community is starting to feel the economic uptick. It is not just spring fever, there are real indicators that things are picking up, such as the improvments in GDP, housing starts, and the Dow Jones
Just a few statistics comparing Q1 2009 to Q1 2010. While not overwhelmingly positive, there is a clear indication the economy is moving in the right direction.
| Q1 2009 | Q1 2010 | |
| Dow Jones | 7,200 | 11,232 |
| Annual Housing Starts | 358,000 | 515,000 |
| GDP | -6.7 | 2.4 |
If you have been holiding back, waiting for things to get better, the time is now! Start investing now in your business. If you wait, the economy will pass you by!
Economic Lessons from the Donkey
In October, I wrote a post about the economy. I told the story of an old donkey which fell into a well. I hoped the tale would be a wake up call for small business owners who seemed to have fallen into a well waiting for the economy to turn around.
I was surprised by the responses to the post. Even six months later, the post has several readers every day. The message was clearly more compelling then I expected, so I decided to record it.
Today’s video created by the talented team at Another Cool Design, tells that tale!. What do you think?
And just to be clear, no animals were injured in the production of this video.
Roundpeg Video Blog #2 from Another Cool Design on Vimeo.
Jump Start Your Business: Planning Now for an Economic Rebound
The economy right now is tough. Everyone knows that, and almost everyone is in the same boat. So you have a few choices: you can mope and be depressed about our economic circumstances, or you can put yourself in a position to succeed when the economy inevitably rebounds.
Inc. Magazine’s excellent 25 Ways to Jump Start Your Business offers some great suggestions. Keep having meetings with prospective clients–even if you know that they won’t buy right now. Stay away from a hard-sell approach, and instead be sympathetic: “I know times are tough right now, but I still wanted to talk with you about your business, and find if perhaps there are ways that we could serve you in the future.” Build those relationships now, and they’ll pay off down the road.
Take advantage of the cheap labor market. With work scarce, even experienced workers are willing to take low-paying jobs, or even unpaid internships. Again, cultivate these relationships, and when the economy picks back up, you’ll have the option of taking on a full-time, experienced employee who’s glad for the help you provided them during a rough patch.
I know that it feels counter intuitive, but now is the time to be proactive. Now is the time to be taking risks and preparing for our economy to bounce back. Things will get better, and when they do, you’ll be ready while your competitors are left in the dust.
Economic Road Kill Video
I am really excited about the launch of my new Video Blog. This first one in the series looks at my thoughts on how entrepreneurs need to approach the external economy.
Roundpeg-Economic Roadkill from Lorraine Ball on Vimeo.
The video was shot and edited by Another Cool Design. John, Nathan and Victoria were so much fun to work with, and I think they did a great job of capturing my style and attitude with the graphics and supplemental images.
What do you think?
Episode # 27 Strategies for a Recovering Economy
After one of the longest recessions in the last 50 years, many of us have forgotten how to operate our businesses in an expansionary economy. But the recession is over, and it is time for a change in strategy! In today’s podcast I talk about the single most important strategy for small business owners in the recovery … consumer spending!
If you enjoy today’s podcast, mark your calendar, and join me at the Rainmaker Main Event on Tuesday, March 30th, from 5:30 – 7:30, as I explore this topic, in more detail. Till then, I hope you enjoy today’s episode of More than a Few Words!
Episode # 24 – I Will Not Be Run Over By The Economy
This is another installment of More Than a Few Words
As a small business owner, there are days I feel like I have been run over by the economy. There I am minding my own business, driving along, when along comes the economy moving full speed ahead in a downward direction.
It is easy to make excuses and let the impact slow me down! But I have big plans for 2010, so I konw I can not let the external factors like the continued sluggish performance of the economy distract me from my goals and objectives.
What about you? Do you have a plan to keep your small business focused? That is the topic of today’s pod cast!
Shop Local!
As the internet makes the world seem smaller and smaller, it is easy to forget that you are part of a local business ecosystem. As you make purchase decisions you choices impact the local economy. If, like me you are concentrating in a specific community, hoping to generate revenue from the community, then you need to put money into that community.
As consumers, we have power. Use it to actively support the businesses you care about and force change in the ones we don’t. Seth Godin summed it up well when he said:
If you don’t like what an organization stands for, work actively to spread the word and force them to change
AND
If you will miss a product, a service, a book, a site or a professional when they close up shop, stand up, speak up and bring them masses of new business.
This was the theme of my presentation at Rainmakers last month. ( I just got the video links) . The video is in two parts and it contains a serious call to support local businesses.
With this local focus in mind, I thought I would share just a few of my favorite local restaurants. These are places I would miss if they were gone. . I hope you will consider voting with your dollars this holiday season, paying them a visit, and helping to build a strong local economy.
No links to websites sorry, but more importantly I have listed address so you can check them out yourself.
Ocean World on 86th Street and Ditch. Some of the best and most reasonably priced sushi in town. The food is so good it is easy to overlook the mediocre service. It is usually busy, but not overcrowded at lunch time, 1/2 prices specials on Sunday, and always a long wait on Friday night.
LaPeidad 6524 Cornell Ave – Great, authentic TexMex. Fast friendly service, good food, reasonable price. Nice outdoor dining when the weather permits. When I need a TexMex Fix this is my favorite.
Kona Jack – Meridian and 96th Street – Not to be confused with the Kona Grill chain in Clay Terrace. This Indy tradition has a wonderful, diverse fish menu, and even sells fresh fish for you to take home and prepare yourself. Sharing a kitchen with Daddy Jacks, you can often convince your waitress to serve something off the menu from the other side.
Santorini Greek Kitchen – 1417 Prospect Street, in Fountain Square – Well worth the trip to Fountain Square for the huge portions, home-style Greek food, and great service. It is also the only place in the city that makes Eggplant parmesan the way I like it – I think you will too.
These are just a few of my favorites. What are yours? List them here, and more importantly, pay them a visit this month!
Local Economic Ecosystem
At the October Rainmakers meeting, I had a chance to talk about my passion for LOCAL business and the impact we make every day with our purchase decisions.
This is just a short excerpt from the program, the rest of the presentation will be available on the Raincast soon.
The Local Economy – by Lorraine Ball from Dave Anderson on Vimeo.
Friends Don’t Let Friends Buy Starbucks
The other night, I think I surprised a number of people with my presentation at the Rainmakers Main Event. Folks in the audience who are familiar with my typically motivational, marketing and personal development messages, were introduced to my other passion : local business!
In a brief 15 minutes I advanced the argument that as business owners, we need to go out of my way to support other local business owners. If we don’t support and promote these companies, they may not be there when we need them.
Asking the audience to think about the companies they would miss if the businesses closed their doors tomorrow, I was surprised by the range of responses. From local coffee shops and resutants, to a neighborhood dry cleaner and a web hosting company it was clear we as a group depend on these local companies and need to do more to insure their success.
And it just isn’t enough to talk about it. We need to put our money where our mouth is, and shop local. If we are annoyed when the ICVA hires an Ohio based marketing firm, then we have to stop drinking at Starbucks and support our local coffee shops. Erik Deckers explains the cost of this choice in a follow up post he wrote Wednesday morning:
In fact, out of every dollar you spend at a local business, 40 cents of it stays in the community. When you spend a dollar at the big chain stores, 13 cents stays in the local economy.
Every time I have Starbucks, a the majority of my expenditure leaves the Indy economy and heads to Seattle. Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the people of Seattle, but they aren’t sending me any money! So until I get a client from Seattle or those people simply start sending me money, I won’t be sending them any more! Look for me at LuLu’s and Hubbard and Craven instead.
Remember, Friends Don’t Let Friends Buy Starbucks!
