One of my personal goals this year is to increase the amount of new business I bring to Roundpeg. I know that my chances of success grow the more I set  solid, achievable goals. I didn’t want to just “give it a shot” and hope for the best. Luckily, I have a plan. To accomplish my goals, I’m going to use…a cookbook.

Now this might sound a little odd at first, but hear me out. In order to make good food, it helps if you follow a recipe, which outlines the ingredients and the steps to prepare the dish.  If you follow the recipe and use the right ingredients, you increase the chances you’ll get what you expect. I see business success in the same way. By following a “recipe” (make this many calls a day, schedule this many appointments a week, etc.) I don’t have to focus solely on the results.  Just like in the kitchen, the results will come. I just HAVE to stick to the recipe.

I’m using a “cookbook” and documenting my progress for another reason: accountability. In our business, things move at breakneck speed. With a constantly changing environment, it’s easy to let sales and marketing efforts fall by the wayside. Having a cookbook sitting right on top of my desk forces me to hold myself accountable for meeting my goals every day.

I’m using a cookbook to meet my goals in 2011. What are you using?

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And if you missed my seminar with Nick Carter last week, here is just a taste of what you could have learned. Hope you will join me next time.

When I was in college (eons ago), I had a vision of my glamorous marketing career. I thought I would be selling business owners on cutting edge concepts and ideas. If the ideas were good enough, I thought, they would have no problem handing their marketing budget over to me. Here’s an example:

Me: “…so that’s basically my insanely brilliant marketing idea.”
Business Owner: “By George! You’re brilliant, Jay. Here’s one million dollars. Let’s make this happen! Also, take all the time you need. There’s no rush.”
Me: “That sounds lovely.”

The above example is what I thought would happen. Unfortunately,  business owners have more to worry about than whether something “looks pretty”. In fact, business owners typically care less about a creative concept, and more about measurable results.

At Roundpeg, as we work with small business owners the emphasis is always on the  potential results of a strategy first and the creative execution to support the strategy is secondary.  While a large corporation might be running five marketing campaigns at once, our clients typically run one, so our work has to be incredibly efficient and quantifiable. Personally, I like the accountability. It forces me to grow and improve every day.

What is the most important aspect of your company’s marketing? Do you value innovative concepts or quantifiable success to make marketing decisions?

We are excited to announce that we have two seminars scheduled for January of 2011. We’re bringing back two of our most popular classes, “From Random Strangers to Raving Fans” and “Forget Henry Ford”.

From Random Strangers to Raving Fans: This class will be team-taught by Lorraine Ball and Matt Nettleton, a sales coach at Sandler Training Trustpointe. The class will teach participants to “use a system to create the right messages for the right people at the right time.”

Topics discussed will include how important it is that sales and marketing support each other.  After all, the best marketing plan in the world won’t help you if you can’t seal the deal, and the best sales strategy won’t help you if you don’t have leads in the first place!

Check out the details below. Hope to see you there!

January 19, 8:00 – 10:00  a.m.

Sandler Training Trustpointe Offices, 6666 East 75th Street, Indianapolis

Seating is limited, so be sure to  register soon by filling out the contact form below:

Forget Henry Ford: 5 Easy Lessons for a Tough Economy: On Wednesday, January 26,  Nick Carter, President of AddressTwo and Jay Mattingly, Director of Marketing at Roundpeg will be teaching a seminar on how new business owners can navigate in the unsafe waters of a tough economy. The seminar will be held from 8:30-10 AM at the Trustpointe offices (6666 East 75th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46250).

New business owners know just how treacherous starting a new business can be. What many do NOT realize however, is that in addition to being filled with danger, the road to successful business ownership is also filled with opportunity.

In this FREE 90-minute seminar, Nick and Jay will help participants uncover some of the tricks micro entrepreneurs can use to maximize their chances of prosperity. Topics covered will range from why business owners shouldn’t buy ads to why they need to forget everything they know about the way big companies run.

Participants simply have to register. To sign up, fill out the registration form below:

Your Customer Has Needs You Cannot Fill

Your customer, whether they are an individual or a business, has needs beyond what you can provide. Understanding those other needs may lead you to cross-promotion opportunities or new services.

Think about your target customer.  What other products and services do your customers purchase on a regular basis. The providers of these products and services may be ideal strategic partners for your company. They may be interested in cross-promotion or possibly even joint promotions.

For example: A day-care center owner knows her clients (the parents of children ages two to five) need clothing, pediatric services, toys, and weekend activities. She identifies companies which provide these services in her local market. She even asks some of her clients who they buy from in these categories.

Using this list of potential partners, she approaches businesses with joint promotion ideas. An educational toy store or child party planner might be willing to engage in a cross-promotion, offering to trade coupons and discounts.

In addition, she allows her partners to conduct demonstration sessions at her facility. A new pediatrician is willing to offer on site check-ups once a week.

These additional services or activities create a point of differentiation for the day-care facility. They can also be used as source material for a press release which will catch the attention of a local newspaper.

As a small business owner, you may be own your own business, but you do not have to do everything alone. Finding partners who have a common goal:  Sell to the same person you want to sell to, can help you grow your business as you help them grow theirs.

Do you have a list of possible partners? Now is a great time to start building those relationships, and networking events, can help you find the right people!

Looking for some new connections?  Check out the next Starting Point Event.  The first Tuesday of Every Month at Champs at Keystone

Does your small business need a crash course in marketing?

Any good marketer knows that the best programs, plans, and decisions are based on the numbers. In this interactive, energy-charged workshop, we will help you understand the numbers which connect your marketing investments to your bottom line. You’ll learn to develop and implement affordable marketing plans based on your business objectives.

By the end of the session, you’ll know how to:

• Determine the lifetime value of a customer
• Use the lifetime value of a customer as the foundation of your marketing budget
• Allocate your marketing budget between retention and lead generation activities
• Transform your budget into an action-oriented calendar

It is January, so everyone is talking about resolutions.  We talk about resolutions every year, and as a matter of fact, we often make the same ones year in and year out.  Why?  Because by February 1, we have slipped back into our old habits.   So how do you create and stick to resolutions and goals? 

About a year ago, I found a post by Ben Barden, and got a few ideas on how to think differently about the process. I wrote about it last year, and didnt’ follow the advice, but I think I am ready to do it this year.   Among his suggesions: 

Don’t make resolutions for the whole year.

 If you only set objectives once a year, it’s quite likely that you’ll forget about them once the year is in full swing. You might give your resolutions a cursory look at points throughout the year, but you don’t feel much urgency because you have the whole year to do them. Then before you know it, it’s almost Christmas and you’ve achieved nothing. The New Year should not be the only time when you set resolutions.

One thing I learned in 2009, is that you have to be ready to adjust, and readust your strategy to meet the changes in the marketplace.  I expect it will be the same this year requiring savvy small business owners   to bob and weave along with the changes. Success will come from continually readdressing goals, resolutions and strategies to stay ahead of the curve.

While I have long term goals, I have broken the year into four parts, with resolutions and action plans for each quarter.  What about you?

It is hard to believe, but we have just seven weeks before the end of the year.  By now, most business owners (with the exception of retail stores) know how the year will end.   And, while the numbers are lower than years past, owners seem to be looking forward with optimism.

With glimpses of the recovery taking hold,  business owners  seem to believe success in 2010 will be their reward for surviving 2009.  I love the optimism, but I also know it needs to be supported with more than hope.

If you want a piece of the action in 2010, you need to start now.  In the last seven weeks of 2009 you need to build a foundation for your success next year.   Don’t wait for January.  It will be too late!   So what should you be doing in the last seven weeks of this year?   Here are seven ideas,  implement just one a week and you will be far ahead of your competitors by January 1.

1. Dust off your business plan or write a new one.
2. Design new marketing material.  Even if you don’t print anything till early next year, you will be ready.
3. Take a class, learn something new you can use next year.
4. Expand your contact circle.  Check out three new networking groups.
5. Call five past customers just to check in.
6. Make some news! Introduce new employees, host an event, launch a new product or service, and tell someone!
7. Audit your website.  Is it time for a change?  Do you need an overhaul, or just a few tweaks?

These are my suggestions, do you have others?

Come back tomorrow as my guest author, Robby Slaughter shares some of his end of year strategies.

The dilemma of where to focus resources and energy is not relegated to just small business owners.   When I worked for a division of United Technologies around budget time the conversations were always about the trade offs.

The R&D Department would argue we needed to  invest in new innovative products, to give us a competitive advantage.

The Sales Team wanted us to work on product revisions which would give us the lowest price in the marketplace.

And as part of the Marketing Group I was always negotiating for more money to improve the customer experience.

Who was right?  Which investment would separate us from our competitors?  And you can’t do all three, not really, because like the picture on the left the more you emphasize and move in one direction the more you move away from something else.  Trying to do all three equally well leaves you standing in the center, not really great at anything.

So how do you decide?  Back then the answer was simple, the Carrier Divion in which I worked  was built on almost 100 years of innovation  That is hard habit to break. And they wouldn’t, we were known for our technology. We were expensive, but we offered customers more in terms of products and services.  It was difficuslt when low priced comptitors came into the market and stole share because they were cheaper.  But when we tried low priced versions, we were not successful.  Our customers still wanted the same level of support, and quality at the lower price.

To be successful, you have to be known for excelling in something.   Innovation/Technology, Price, or Service.  Which will you choose?   Seth Godin had some interesting thoughts in a recent blog post,  (Creating sustainable competitive advantage) where he advised against banking on technology which will be copied.  He recommended:

• You can own something that’s hard to copy (like real estate).
• You can race down the pricing and scale curve, so it’s cheaper for you to do what you do because you have a head start.
• You can create switching costs, so that the hassle and cost of moving to a cheaper competitor is so great, it’s just not worth it.
• You can build a network (which can take many forms–natural monopolies are organizations where the market is better off when there’s only one of you).
• You can build a brand (shorthand for relationships, beliefs, trust, permission and word of mouth).
• You can create a constantly innovating organization where extraordinary employees thrive.

When we first started, I thought we needed to compete on price, offering a lower cost alternative to larger agencies.  And just like when I was in my UTC days, it was hard to walk away from the position which built the company in the early days. But I finally understand,  our real advanatge is not our price, but our expertise  and service.  For small business owners who want more personal service, we are fit.  If  they want a cheap website, there are plenty of other companies who will build one.   When they want to learn what to do with it, they come to us.

You can’t be be great at all three.  Where is you best position?

Written by Neil Chaggar

There are many ways to inform, educate, and communicate with people over the internet. However, there’s one medium that literally gets your voice across to your audience; it’s called Podcasting.

Podcasting works similar to blogging; however it can be far more effective if the presenter is an exceptional speaker rather than a writer or if the audience prefers listening to their media/feed rather than reading it.

Earlier this week, Lorraine expressed an interest in Podcasting  to compliment her written blog.

I was excited to work on this project since I already knew how useful yet simple this medium is to get your message across. I’ve listened to Podcasts in the past but didn’t know exactly how to set it up on our website; so began the Podcasting research.

I soon learned  many people choose iTunes to publish their Podcasts so they are easily available to anyone and everyone. In addition, there are many other things to consider before you can start Podcasting. To begin, you need to have a quality recording tool.  While most computers can record sound into a WAV file, you need additional software to  save your files as MP3s.

Turns out, there are many software options from which to choose from but finding a cheap yet efficient one was tricky. Finally, we settled on  Audacity, which is free and has decent effects and features, along with capability to save and convert MP3 files.

Another issue Podcaster face is choosing a third-party server where you can upload all your files and material along with RSS codes so  iTunes can publish your Podcasts. After looking at several website, some more expensive than others, we chose www.solidcasts.com, which allows users to have first 100MB of space for free and reasonable monthly prices for up to 20GB of space.

Now  we have all the precise tools and software to create and publish Podcasts, you can soon listen to Lorraine Ball has to say, literally. Furthermore, if you already publish Podcasts on your own website, feel free to check out the websites and software mentioned above to see if it can improve your Podcasting activities.

Neil out!

This is week two of our Ten Week Business Plan course.  If you would like to get reminders about all ten weeks, simply sign up for our eCourse and get a free business plan outline at the same time!

Introduction to Your Plan – The History and Position to Date

This section introduces the reader to you and your company; it outlines the competitive environment and states how your business fits into the market. Why did you start the business? How did you arrive at your business idea? Why will your business be successful? What have you done so far?

Vision, Mission, Value and Goals

Vision - This is a long-term view of your business. It is an optimistic description of what your company will look like in three to five years.

Mission - Why do you exist? What business are you really in, and whom do you serve?

Values - In this age of corporate and political scandals, it is hard to believe values matter anymore — but they do! What are the lines you will not cross?

Goals - What are the short-term and long-term goals of your company? Your answers to this question are some of the most important in the entire plan. Goals must be specific and measurable, and may include: sales volume in dollars or units, number of customers, size of company, and number of employees.

Business Structure and Management Team

The balance of this section is dedicated to the people who make up the company. The purpose is to give the reader confidence that the leadership has the talent, background, and necessary skills to lead the business to success.

Product/Service Description

Use simple, jargon-free language that will give the reader a strong picture of what you do. If you must use technical terms, be sure to explain them.

Find this interesting? Sign-up for the Business Plan in 10 Weeks newsletter or purchase “Business Map: A Practical Guide to Business Planning” by Lorraine Ball.

Your Assigment:

Start answering the questions in your outline.  Share a piece of your company background, what you do or why you think your idea will work in the comment section below.