Make 2014 The Year You Achieve True Business Transformation
During my weekly radio program this morning “Chazin The Dream” on the UR Business Network, I discussed the importance of taking risks, trying new things, and tossing away old habits in 2014 as a means toward achieving your personal, career, professional and entrepreneurial start-up goals. Make 2014 the year you achieve true business transformation.
For starters, make 2014 the year you finally embrace chaos and the fact that change is a true constant. to do so effectively, we must be willing to make critical decisions with less than complete information. While I don’t always suggest that my coaching clients take a READY-FIRE-AIM approach, I do tell them that you won’t always have complete information and a clear picture when you are forced to act decisively.
Therefore, make 2014 the year you embrace the mindset that opportunities will present themselves to you only if you are willing to make a gut decision to take advantage of unforeseen opportunities.
You take advantage of the unforeseen by making 214 the year you use strategic planning to maximum effect. Write a business plan, complete with many different scenarios. Ask yourself “IF” such and such happens, then “WHAT” do I do. For every given scenario, you need contingencies (options) so you list your Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, etc. actions you would take.
It is absolutely CRITICAL that you write it all down in your business plan! A plan that is NOT written down is a dream. You need a written plan to serve as your roadmap to follow, your blue print for success. By considering different scenarios to act when unexpected surprises pop up, you are doing contingency planningand risk mitigation to remove some of the threats from your business.
Toss away all the old habits. If something works for you, keep doing it. If it doesn’t…well Dr. Phil would ask “How’s that working for you!?” Said differently, Albert Einstein called the act of repeating the same act and expecting a different outcome the true measure of insanity.
Take glorious risks! If you are going to fail, then by setting wildly aggressive goals for yourself, even if you fall short of the stars you will still reach the moon. Make no safe or conservative goals. All your goals should be “STRECTH” goals that force you to act in new, different, and bold ways just to come close to achieving those goals.
Take a perasonality /assessment/skills inventory test, whether it is a DISC tool, Myers-Briggs, Birkman or another assessment. Let me know if you would like me to send you the personality survey I developed for my entrepreneur, start-up and small business clients. By knowing yourself, your values, strengths, core competencies and your willingness to embrace change and risk-taking, you will know when you need to hire outside expertise. You will also get a keener understanding of the types of people you an forge the strongest partnerships as business partners, clients, vedors, and your suppliers.
Learn a new language. Take up a new musical instrument. Pursue a new hobbie or follow your interests. Take out that gym membership. Make 2014 you achieve true business transformation by achieving a greater WORK-LIFE balance to maximize your sense of self-worth and derive pleasure outside of your business by doing more things that you enjoy.
Find a new attitude for achieving true business transformation. Researchers have found that 65% of everything that evey person says TO THEMSELVES about themselves is NEGATIVE. To avoid this pitfall, make 2014 the year we change our mindset from “CAN’T” to CAN! Make 2014 the year we say with much enthusiasm “I WILL” so we don’t experience the let-down and regret of having to say frequently I SHOULD HAVE, I COULD HAVE, or I WOULD HAVE, but…
Why not begin blogging to build your subject matter expertise as a means of achieving business transformation? Serve on a panel discussion. Try to get published in your local town newspaper.
Join new business organizations. Go to one new MeetUp group every THREE months. Embrace the unknown. Try out new marketing tools, make at least 2 new friends every month.
Fear of failure can be a debilitating force. Make 2014 the year to say: “I WILL fail so why not fail GREATLY! good is the enemy of GREAT, so it no longer helps to be good enough.
Make 2014 the year you finally decide to go after your DREAM job! Fight all those negative thoughts about why you can’t, won’t, or shouldn’t embrace the unknown and start your own business! If you are not ready to plan and launch a new business on your own, then find a partner or partners. Not sure if you can create a business from scratch? Take on side business to do out of the comfort and security of your home. You can always explore franchising as a viable option to dip your toe in the shallow end of the pool of entrepreneurship. Consider these steps baby steps on the path to entrepreneurship.
Make 2014 the year you finally achieve true and lasting business transformation.
Here’s to your success in taking new approaches to realize an entirely NEW YOU in 2014!
Ethan Chazin, The Compassionate Executive Coach, Management Consultant, Business Coach
> Plan > Launch > Grow Your Business.
Monthly Archives: December 2013
Show Client Appreciation ALL Year Long
Show You Appreciate Your Clients and Employees ALL Season Long
Earlier today during my weekly radio program “Chazin The Dream” with Rick Brutti on the UR Business Network, I lamented that most entrepreneurs, start-ups, and business owners fail to understand and value the importance of showing they appreciate their customers and employees. I talked about the many lost opportunities in building lasting relationships by waiting until the END of the year to say “Thank You” using a cold and impersonal e-greeting card.
Then lo and behold, just now I received a knock on our door. My dog Molly jumped up from her day-long deep slumber to bark at the door. Who was it that dared to interrupt her 23 hour nap? Our dog walker Giovanni came out in the rain to hand-deliver my baby a Christmas gift, as a sign of his appreciation for our business this year. Molly was so happy, she proceeded to run around playing with it for hours and tore it apart as a sign of her personal brand of client appreciation.
You can BET Giovanni is going to get our business next year.
Which goes to show how powerful an impact your efforts at demonstrating your client (employee, vendor, partner, supplier) appreciation can have on positive feelings about you and your business. This relationship-building through appreciation can have a major positive impact on how people engage and support you, especially in times like we face today with significant competition on all fronts.
There really are NO excuses for showing those that are most important to the success of your business how much you appreciate them. There are so many simple, inexpensive ways that you can show your client appreciation, employee appreciation, and thanks for support from your many stakeholders, the only limitation is your desire to treat people this way and your own creativity. Therefore, the question is:
“How come so few people invest the time and effort the ENTIRE year showing other show much they appreciate their support and business?”
There are sooo many opportunities to thank your customers for their business, not just when they buy from you (though that’s a great start!) The past five years have been extremely challenging to all businesses. How often do you call or visit your top customers to take them out for breakfast or lunch to learn more about their challenges and assure them that you are there for them?
How often do you allow your best customers to waive their past due accounts, set payment on their terms, or give them an allowance to push payments out or consider their accounts paid in full when they experience financial hardships.
Do you wish them happy birthdays or congratulate them on promotions, anniversaries or other key events? What do you do all year long to assure your best customers that you are an invaluable partner and will help them achieve their short and long-term goals to succeed?
Do you ever ask your best customers if you can ride along with them on THEIR sales calls, to learn first hand the challenges they face servicing their customers?
The same standards and guidelines should apply to your efforts at employee appreciation as a key differentiation in your business relative to the competition. How you treat your people has a direct impact on their productivity, the loyalty they feel for you and the degree of engagement they have in seeing to it that your business will succeed…or fail!
News flash…employees ARE not assets, they aren’t photocopiers with limbs to be “managed.”
How often do you show your appreciation to your people? no, a paycheck is not a sign of thanks. For many of your people in fact they see your compensation as forced servitude. It takes so little to unleash your people’s untapped talents and leverage their background and experience for long-term competitive advantage. Yet so many business owners fail miserably.
Start by soliciting their feedback on ideas for products, services and ways to improve your business. Empower them to serve your clients in ways that create constant compelling moments of “Wow!” customer care greatness. Allow them to work on their own schedules, set their own goals, give YOU reviews, bring their children to work, take their own days off. Appreciate them, reward, recognize and challenge them. Give them the resources they need to succeed, then get out of their way to let them shine.
Your people want to be engaged. By working for you they have already made the ultimate commitment to your business. Compensation is pretty far down on the list of things employees are seeking from their employee. They want to be treated with respect and civility, appreciated, listened to, rewarded, empowered, and trusted. How do you do this all year long?
The holidays and end of year are a great speed bump “TIME OUT” to revisit how you treat all the people around you and especially your client appreciation, from your family and friends to your clients, employees, vendors, partners, service providers.
At the end of the day all we have to go on for continued marketplace success in this cold and impersonal 21st Century global online competitive landscape is our reputational brand. The BEST way to develop and nurture a lasting brand is by building and maintaining meaningful relationships based on mutual trust and appreciation.
Sending a holiday e-card at the end of the year just isn’t enough to show your client appreciation. Begin working NOW to make 2014 the year you truly take advantage of the strong and lasting relationships you need to establish.
Here’s to your success maintaining those valued strategic business relationships in 2014!
Ethan Chazin, The Compassionate Executive Coach, Management Consultant, Business Coach
> Plan > Launch > Grow Your Business.
Business Networking in the Era of Entrepreneurship
The Power of Business Networking in the Era of the Entrepreneur
In today’s entrepreneurial society where more and more Americans are pursuing the path to business start-up, it is becoming critically important to be able to build strong relationships and community through business networking.
The internet, social media, and advances in technology all combine to give us the power and ability to meet/connect with people instantly all over the world, but the power of bringing folks together to connect with them face to face is taking on a new importance as more and more people feel more “disconnected” than ever. Following are strategies that you and should employ as you begin to develop your 2014 strategic networking plan.
MEET FACE TO FACE…ONLINE
Distance-based meetings, workflow tools and networking systems make it extremely easy to “meet” with people from all over the world. There are a wealth of free, low-cost and high-end conference call and video-conferencing services to choose from including Skype, WebEx, GotoMeeting, Intercall, Join.Me Pro etc.
SURVEY…SURVEY…SURVEY
It is easier than ever to gain feedback, survey customers, seek feedback on new products and services using social media to ask questions. Survey tools like Survey Monkey, Survey Gizmo, Cvent, etc. make it easy to gather feedback, test market receptiveness to your MPV (Minimum Product Value/offering, or the least finalized product concept you need to show people BEFORE you invest effort, time and resources in producing actual products.
Check out this great article on online survey tools.
You can ask questions with the folks you are connected with online using LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or…post surveys on sites like Reddit, start discussions in user forums and chat rooms, or get feedback on organizations from present/past employers on Glass Door.
MEET IN-PERSON AND WORK THE CROWD
As networking groups proliferate, thanks in large part to networking platforms like MeetUp, Hapening, Bizzabo, and ShockLogic as online and face-to-face meeting facilitation tools, there can be a backlash against participating in networking events as a whole. Call it the “TOO MUCH MEETUP SYNDROME.”
How to conduct effective business networking…
THE ART OF MAKING FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Find organizations such as trade associations that connect members who are your ideal customer or the people you want to meet with to help you grow your business. The list of targets to identify include influential members o the media (and top bloggers in your fields) vendors, suppliers, potential partners, investors, and of course best client prospects. Join those associations, Business Forums/Roundtables, or community business groups that have members you want to reach. Seek out a manageable number of MeetUp Groups (ideally no more than 6-10) in your area and really engage. Invite fellow members of the Group to connect with you through LinkedIn BEFORE you meet them at events you register to attend.
It is important to do research on the folks in your groups that you feel you can work with so when you meet them for the first time you can make a great first impression by talking to them about their background, ask probing questions to get into the heart of their background experience, and passions, and what they are working on. Discuss the challenges they face and their long-term career and business goals. THAT is how to make an extremely powerful and lasting FIRST impression. Remember it is so true that you only get ONE chance to impress people the first time you meet (up) with them.
When you work a networking event consider the 5-2-1 RULE. In the first 5 seconds you have to have prepared a meaningful and engaging description of what you do.
Example: “Hi. I am Ethan Chazin, the compassionate coach. I help people realize their life dreams of finding their ideal job or launching a successful business.”
This “introduction” to what you do should get them to think/say: “WOW! Tell me more. “ Then you spend a few (TWO) minutes explaining then you move on to talk about them. After about 20 minutes of engaging the goal of both people feel a connection is to schedule a follow up meeting (ONE HOUR) after the event. Thus … 5-2-1.
Immediately after the event, make an impression by sending a person note through LinkedIn or email explaining why you enjoyed chatting with them. If appropriate, explain how it might be beneficial to work together and offer a FEW days and times to meet (ideally as soon after the event as possible so your conversation from the networking event is fresh in each of your minds.
FOR SUCCESS DEVELOP A STRATEGY
The people that succeed in networking have a strategy for meeting the RIGHT type of people. I have developed a Strategic Networking Plan that I use with the entrepreneurs, start-ups, business owners and professionals that I provide business management consulting to. Four tips for developing your own strategic networking plan in 2014 include:
* Provide a comprehensive description of your IDEAL potential client;
* List all of the relevant Industries that your ideal customer belongs to and the key Industry Associations that serve these industries;
* List all of the business networking groups or trade associations that you belong to; and
* List all of the strategies do you currently pursue to find prospects, then qualify those leads in order to pursue in your new client acquisition efforts.
IT’S ALL ABOUT TRULY CONNECTING
Most of all, remember that networking is a very cold and impersonal term born out of computers connecting. Building relationships is all about connecting and then building ongoing relationships of helping people, sharing information, reaching out to them, offering assistance, sharing interesting articles, connecting them to people they can benefit from meeting.
Most of all…have FUN! Always strive to give. People will gravitate to you when your first thought is helping…NOT SELLING.
Here’s to your success with strategic business networking in 2014!
Ethan Chazin, The Compassionate Executive Coach, Management Consultant, Business Coach
> Plan > Launch > Grow Your Business.
Business Owner Holiday Cheer and Goodwill
Spread Holiday Cheer and Goodwill Starting TODAY.
Now that we have settled in from Thanksgiving, are in the midst of Chanukah and approaching the Christmas holiday, I would like to share some thoughts about how I teach my clients to spread much needed business owner holiday cheer and goodwill this time of year.
SPEND TIME, MONEY AND EFFORT PAMPERING YOURSELF.
Planning, launching, and growing your business is a never-ending grind. We spend so much time focused on serving others, from our clients to employees, to vendors and suppliers that we often think of ourselves last.
This can have the effect of wearing ourselves down to the point where we crush our spirit, stop focusing on how to grow our business, and lose sight of what we want to ultimately create to make the world a better place through our offerings.
Now is the perfect time to start focusing on ourselves. Spend a little time every day to set aside some quality YOU time. Spoil yourself. Buy yourself special gifts every so often, just because.
Take time out to completely unplug from the multitude of tasks required to run your business so you can recharge your batteries as you rekindle your passion and excitement for being on your own.
Get a manicure/pedicure, treat yourself to a massage. Go to the movies in the middle of the day. also, be sure to spend some much needed time thinking about creative solutions to grow your business. The act of setting aside quiet alone time to think in free-form mode is called visualization.
We ALL need quality time to ourselves, so why not make this Holiday Season the start of your practice of treating yourself to time alone, so you can experience the much needed feel-good moments to rekindle your passions and your sense of personal mission for what you hope to accomplish in 2014 and the years ahead.
SPOIL YOUR EMPLOYEES ROTTEN, BECAUSE THEY DESERVE IT!
For you business owners that have employees, this holiday season spend considerable thought, time, and effort revisiting just HOW VALUABLE your people are.
They are NOT assets to be controlled, managed, reduced, outsourced, contracted, and taken advantage of the way so many employers treat them.
Your employees are people that have made commitments to your business. They serve your customers. They promote your business, sell your products and services.
So, use THIS holiday Season to make it your mission to rekindle your employees’ passion for committing to your business.
Build excitement! Offer holiday parties with themes, just be sure to skip the alcohol. As a matter of sensitivity, try not to be short-sighted and force Judeo-Christian themes on them. Some employees that have grown up in other cultures and religions might get offended. Rather, ask for volunteers to form a Team that plans a holiday party to be as inclusive as possible and have a real sense of purpose to foster greater morale.
Be sensitive, thoughtful, and CREATIVE. Why not set up a team that decides what community activities and volunteer organizations your business can support?
Have them build a program that you agreed to fund. Set aside a budget just for this program. Launch the program this holiday season and commit to that social responsibility campaign for the ENTIRE year, from now through next year’s holiday season.
Don’t be a Scrooge! Open those purse strings. Give out holiday bonuses as rewards for their significant efforts all year long. Rather than stock piling cash, be generous and give raises. ‘Tis the season to award your people with promotions!
As we approach the end of the year it is the perfect time to create employee reviews with performance plans.
Start implementing 360-degree employee reviews. What!? You don’t have formal reviews? Well, now is THE PERFECT TIME to create them.
Have your employees review YOU and your MANAGEMENT TEAM. Tie employee bonuses to serving your clients, and taking calculated risks to grow your business. Reward them financially for coming up with creative solutions (even if those ideas are not implemented!)
Give them time off to be with family, allow them to set their own work schedules, let them bring their children to the office. The only limit to how much holiday cheer and employee good will you can create is your own creativity. But you MUST begin thinking what it takes to excite, encourage, reward and keep your people happy. A happy workforce is an engaged workforce and engagement leads to profitability through higher employee productivity.
YOUR CUSTOMERS NEED HOLIDAY CHEER, TOO.
What have you been doing all your to thank you customers for keeping your business in business? A holiday card or email just doesn’t cut it anymore. Give them what they want and deserve.
Let them dictate the terms of how they engage with you. Solicit their input by surveying them. Ask them what your business is doing that they enjoy, what could you do better. Make them the valued partners they already are.
Have them customize the offers you make to them. Rewards them with meaningful gifts that matter to them….do NOT come up with some uncreative GIFT CARD or POINTS program that they don’t want and will NEVER use.
Let them determine your return policy. Have them tell you what promotional campaigns they would find valuable.
There is so much to be thankful for, even despite these challenging times. By nourishing yourself and rekindling the excitement you felt when you first decided to launch your own business you can create enough good will and cheer to fuel continued success in 2014…and beyond. Start with your employees and customers and build from there.
Happy Holidays from The Chazin Group!
Ethan Chazin, The Compassionate Executive Coach and Business Consultant. Helping you unleash your full potential and plan, launch, and grow a wildly successful business.