SMALL BUSINESS LEADER July 2006

ISSUE #83
July, 2006

Can you believe 2006 is half over? I'm seeing lots of activity in the small business arena, and that's great. I do hope you're able to take advantage of the business that comes your way.

If you are feeling a bit overwhelmed, and are ready to take positive action to gain control, plan to join us for our F*R*E*E July 26th "Take Command of Your Business" Tele-Workshop, http://primestrategies.com/takecommand72606.

We had a fabulous group at the June Brain Exchange Roundtable. Our topic was Create the Right Technology for Your Business". Both our Guest Experts and our guests were eager to share experience and knowledge on this subject. E-mail management, security, data recovery and storage and remote connectivity were some of the highlights discussed. What was evident is that many small business owners are not confident in choosing the right technology or even know what questi0ns to ask. Better education appears to be the answer, so we're working on doing more in this realm in the future.

More Brain Exchange *pics*, http://www.smallbiztechnology.com/avantgo/2006/06/marian-bankers-brain-exchange.shtml.

This month's feature article is "Get the Results You Want". Those of you who have been with us for a while already know that Prime Strategies provides a business success system for entrepreneurs. The focus is on strategic planning, action and accountability for results. It's a system that leads to business success because, you, as leader of your business, grow along with the business.

For the past eleven years I've been in the trenches coaching, consulting and training small business owners. In that time I've developed and refined simple, easy-to-understand steps that have proven themselves, over and over again, to be the basic framework for a strong, profitable and successful business. I use these with my private and group clients consistently and am always blown away by the results.

These same principles and practices can be applied to any business, whether service, retail, wholesale, manufacturing or non-profit. They are the strategies and tactics that have been used by big business for generations (that's how they got that way), but translated and simplified for the small business.

For a long time I've wanted to offer another option for small business clients. I've been working on it for months and it's finally almost ready.

The new Prime Strategies Business Success System Course, the 9-Step Action Plan to Take Command of Your Business, will be ready for release later this summer. You'll be guided in applying these same principles and practices to your own business. It includes a step-by-step guidebook, interactive tools to organize your thinking and your actions, plus coaching audios to support you as you take each step in the system. And, it's risk f*r*e*e because it comes with a 100% satisfaction *guarantee*. Sign up n0w to receive the pre-launch notice and a very special deal, pre-launch@primestrategies.com.

To get your mind in strategic action mode, read this month's feature article, "Get the Results You Want". And plan to join us for the F*R*E*E "Take Command of Your Business" Tele-Workshop, http://primestrategies.com/takecommand7-26-06, on Wednesday, July 26th from 1 - 2 p.m. EDT. You'll learn action steps of the Business Success System and take the first step. To register, send a blank e-mail to takecommand@primestrategies.com. Come prepared to work "on" your business.

To your "business success"!

Marian Banker
Publisher
Small Business Leader
mailto:marian@primestrategies.com
http://primestrategies.com

NOTE: We have had to disguise some words in order to keep them from getting caught in the $pam filters. Please bear with us.

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FEATURE ARTICLE:

Get the Results You Want
By Marian Banker

One of the greatest enemies of getting the results you want is disorganized thinking and unfocused actions. Look at the image on the left.

What do you see? Disorganized thinking and unfocused actions. When operating in this mode, there's lots of activity, but little is accomplished.

To get the results you want, those assets and actions have to be aligned and directed, like the image on the right. Look at the strength and power these two elements add.

Entrepreneurs tend to have lots of good ideas, usually function at high energy and are often impulsive. But what has the potential for a solid business often falls apart for lack of organization, structure, focus and direction. Actions are frequently taken haphazardly and sporadic without a goal or a plan.

The objective is to align assets and actions so they all go in the same direction - toward your goals. The sequence of steps is to identify and organize your assets (the value you provide to the marketplace), create a clear message and then strategically plan and take calculated, directed actions designed to lead to your goals.

In order to get the Results you want, you must align your Goals, your Strategy, your Plan and your Actions. Actions implement the Plan, which carries out the Strategy, which leads to your Goals. Therefore, Actions ultimately should lead to Goals. To the extent that Results match Goals, your Actions have been on-target and successful.

Answer the following questi0ns to begin organizing and structuring a framework that will get you on track toward producing the Results you want.

Goals:
What results do you want from your efforts?
Total Revenue?
Sell X Number of products/services?
Generate X% of revenue from New Market?

Strategy:
How will you achieve your goals?
Identify and develop an untapped market?
Redefine brand for New Market?

Plan:
What are the specific tasks to be accomplished and by when?
In what sequence do they need to take place?
Who will be responsible for carrying out the Plan?

Actions:
How will you hold yourself and others accountable?
Weekly assignments and specific goal-directed actions.
Allot specific time for actions on calendar.

Results:
What are the measurable outcomes from your Plan and Actions?
Compare actual Total Revenue to Revenue Goal
Compare actual Number of products/services sold by target date to Product Goal.
Compare actual percent of Total Revenue from New Market

How close are the Results to the Goals? What succeeded; what didn't? Each time you repeat the process, you get better at producing the Results you want.

Let's look at a case in point.

With a background in retail merchandising, Jennifer started her business by purchasing quality overruns from women's plus size manufacturers and opened a small store near another retailer of plus size clothing. Her intent was to capture some of the traff!c attracted by the other store. She took out expensive ads in local papers and the yellow pages, but after six months still wasn't getting the traff!c or the $ales she had hoped for. She wasn't even covering her expenses. She knew she had a product that was needed and desired by her target market; she just wasn't bringing in enough business.

Of course, Jennifer didn't really have clear Goals, a Strategy or a Plan. Her actions were sporadic and without research. She was feeling very frustrated and considering giving up when she made the decision to organize her thinking and focus her actions.

To help organize her thinking she created a Market Research campaign and learned where and how her target market could be reached. Based on this research she created a marketing campaign that included specific, measurable Goals, a Strategy and Plan and specific Actions to carry out the Plan. He.re is an excerpted picture of her process.

Goals: (for one year period)
1 - $2,500,000 in revenue
2 - A customer database of 10,000 and 20,000 transactions at an average sale of $125.

Strategy (excerpt from Marketing Plan)
1 a) Create incentive for existing customers to bring or refer a friend.
b) Add online catalog.
2 a) Hold fashion show and invite the press.
b) Capture customer info, including e-mail address and send monthly promos.

Plan:
1 a) Offer high end accessory item for one referral, 10% discount on merchandise for second referral.
b) Use existing online catalog service and start with top 20% of items in each category (to test online market)
2 a) Select show date, assign coordinator and write plan for show (to include online show).
b) Offer raffle of high end accessory in exchange for attendee/visitor info.

Actions:
1 a) Jennifer selected an incentive item, ordered enough for marketing purposes, wrote and sent an introductory promotion to a targeted e-mailing list and existing customers. The incentive promotion was added to all marketing materials and promo coupons.
b) Jennifer directed research to find a suitable online catalog. Upon selection, she hired a web designer to design the page layout and a developer to set up the shopping cart and manage the site.
2 a) Jennifer assigned the Assistant Manager the job of coordinating the fashion show, which took place in the early Spring, prior to the Easter Holiday. The show plan included both an in-store and online fashion show of featured items.
b) Coordinator developed a data gathering f0rm and had it created in print (for in-store) and online. Database was updated to capture info being gathered.

Results:
1 a) Total revenue the first year was just under $2,000,000. (80% of Goal)
b) Total number of customers in the database was 9,800 (98% of Goal) with 15,500 transactions (78% of Goal) and average sale of $129. (103% of Goal)
2 a) The fashion shows (using customers as models) received some media attention and produced 380 transactions at an average sale of $115.. A fall fashion show using the same format produced 300 transactions at an average sale of $128.
b) E-mail promotions using the customer database attracted increased web traff!c to the catalog. 60,000 visitors produced 1,650 transactions and 280 new customers. 11% of revenue came from online $ales.

Conclusions:
Revenue results were 80% of Goal. Part of the shortfall was attributed to the fact that the online catalog took longer to develop than planned. Catalog revenue (11%) was less than expected. Average sale tended to be very close to target, so this can be used as a good gauge for future revenue projections. With early positive results from the online catalog, expansion of the catalog items and the overall product line should offer potential for additional revenue.

Jennifer was able to get her business on a solid footing with strategies and plans that she knew could produce the Results she wanted. You, too, can organize your thinking and focus your actions to get the Results you want.

Assignment:

Start by selecting the Results you want over the next 3 months (3rd quarter).

Select up to 3 specific and measurable Goals, with timeframes.

Create a Short Term Action Plan of 3 months (third quarter) and lay out the rest of the steps that correspond. Use the above example as a guide for creating your own.

Track your goals on a weekly basis and hold yourself accountable for taking planned action and assessing the results of those actions on a weekly basis.
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Ready to follow the proven Business Success System to "get the results you want"? Join us for the F*R*E*E Take Command of Your Business teleclass on July 26th, 1 - 2 p.m. EDT. Register by sending a blank e-mail to takecommand@primestrategies.com.

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