photo by pshutterbug

Are you building your business on a shaky foundation?  When times are good, you can grow revenues and profits, even without a solid core for your business…however when times are tough (like the last couple of years), an unstable business is one that’s not going to last.

What makes for a solid and stable business?  Clearly you have to have a viable business model – the days of being able to ‘make it up in volume’ are long gone.  Can you make legitimate profit from what you’re doing or selling?

You have to have the right people in the right places – especially in a small business, there’s little room for error and any one person can have a huge impact (good or bad) on the outcome of your business.

Finally – a big part of your long term stability comes from your core values, your operating principles, the unique stamp that drives why and how you do business.

What does that mean?  Let’s look at an example:

It’s the time of year for sharing your 2010 plans, which we’re doing now in the Peer Group Advisory Boards that I run.  Nothing crystallizes a plan like presenting it in front of a group of your peers who know you well enough to challenge you on details and ideas that you might not really want to explore.

Anyway, we had a great planning presentation today from Courtnay Bradley at Square One Interiors.  Courtnay is still in the early growth phase of her business, but she’s starting to get some great traction – and there are several reasons why.  Although she’s been in the commercial furniture industry for quite a while, this business is her opportunity to create something that’s important to her – take what she’s learned from past opportunities and focus on how she and her target market really want to do business.

The outcome of all that thinking (although it’s still a work in progress) is the recognition of several core principles that define how she does business.

1.  Relationships

First and foremost, Courtnay is a people person – in my opinion you’d be hard pressed to find someone more likeable and trustworthy.  So it’s not a surprise that she is consciously building the importance of relationships into her business processes.  In a recent blog post she explains how It’s not Business, it’s Personal.

2.  Environmentally Conscious

A lot of people are jumping on the ‘Green’ bandwagon because it’s the trendy thing to do, but a quick conversation with Courtnay makes it clear that how strongly she feels about waste…and more importantly, all of the great opportunities out there for recycling used furniture and getting it to people that will really value and benefit from it.  That kind of passion and expertise makes for a potent combination that’s very attractive to the right kinds of customers.

3.  Customer First

She’s still working on the details on the best ways to build systems and processes around her customer first mentality.  Right now she’s in a position to be involved in all customer interactions, but there is soon going to come a time when that’s not possible and she knows that the essence of her customer service approach (which comes naturally to her) must be a foundation principle for anyone that works at Square One.

Find your foundation

There are a lot of businesses out there, but a major thing that will separate the winners from the losers are those building on a remarkable foundation.  You don’t have and you shouldn’t just do what someone else is doing…you need to find those core principles that are important and unique to you.  It’s not easy, but if you can find that foundation for your business and build everything else on those core values – you are going to have the opportunity for something great!

Conversely, if you’re building your business just to make money, you’re working with a house of cards that can easily blow over.

So what’s your foundation?  What do you believe that makes you stand out from your industry?  What makes you…well you?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this – share your comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business CoachSimilar Posts:

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This is the perfect time of year to sit back and relax.

Enjoy your family, enjoy your friends.

Take some time to purposely not think about all the stuff you normally think about.

Let your mind drift, play some games, read a great book, catch a movie…whatever works best for you.

It looks like we’ve got a pretty good shot at a white Christmas here in Kansas City – it hasn’t happened in quite a while…take the kids outside and do some sledding!

Here’s wishing you and yours a fantastic holiday season – shut down the computer, head into the kitchen and grab yourself a cup full of holiday cheer!

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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Maybe this has happened to you.  You’ve got a great idea for a new product or a new business – something you just know people are going to be lining up to buy.  You do some quick back of the napkin business planning and realize that you need to get the word out on your new brilliant stuff!  You need a website, or advertising or public relations!

The problem is that you’ve jumped directly to a marketing tactic and you’ve totally skipped the marketing strategy!

I’ve talked before about the importance of consistency when it comes to winning the marketing game – consistency comes from having a clear strategy for your marketing to begin with and then being able to stick to a plan.  However you have to have the plan first!

Not sure what I mean?  Here are 5 questions that will help you form your strategy first:

Marketing Strategy  – where to start?

I ran across a great marketing resource recently – The Reality Marketing Revolution, I haven’t had a chance to read the book yet (it’s back-ordered on Amazon) but I’ve heard good reviews and I did get to check out some of their other materials.

One of the things I really liked is their list of questions to consider as you’re looking at marketing your business or product.  It’s similar to the many conversations I have had with business owners.  However they’ve really honed it down to 5 straightforward questions that have to be answered if you’re going to have a strategy.

Question 1:  What are the company’s revenue goals over the next 12 – 18 months?

What do you really want to get out of this product or business?  If you don’t have a clear idea of how big this is going to be, then you can’t really determine how many customers you need, how large your reach is, etc.

Question 2:  Who is the exact target audience that will purchase your service?

The exact target audience…not everyone who can fog a mirror, but a detailed breakdown of what that audience looks like, acts like, thinks and feels if you can get there.  You have to know who you’re talking to if you’re going to be able to communicate with them.

Question 3:  What pains and problems does this target market have when they purchase services like yours?

You’re solving problems (or at least you better be if you want to succeed) but unless you’ve created something totally new, there’s an existing marketplace out there and they are likely unhappy with some aspects of existing solutions.  If they’re not unhappy it could be a tough market to get into (unlikely but possible).  You need to know what they’re not happy with:  An example:  Service Repair technicians that schedule an 8 hour window to come over and fix your appliances, cable, etc. 

Question 4:  What solutions does your company provide to cure those pains?

You have to provide a quality product or service, but to stand out you will need to do more.  You need to solve those other issues.  I know Joe’s plumbing will fix my sink, but I don’t know when he’s coming over and he always makes a mess.  If you can fix my sink and I can get a firm appointment and you’ll be extra careful not to leave a mess…then Joe’s out an existing customer!

Question 5:  How are those solutions remarkable enough to start a buzz and set you apart from the competition?

This one is tough – I’ve talked before about Shatto Milk as a great example of taking something common and doing something remarkable with it.  At Shatto they don’t really sell milk, they sell a premium drink with unusual and interesting flavors in old fashioned glass containers that both makes the drink taste fresher and is the epitome of green!  They sell milk, but it’s remarkable milk that people talk about and will pay a premium for.

Bottom line – you need to have a pretty good answer to all of the above questions if you want to succeed in the long run.  Have you taken the time to think through your overall strategy…before jumping into tactics?  If you need someone to talk you through all of the above – you might consider your local business coach! 

What does your business do to stand out and solve the problems people typically have with your industry?  I’d love to hear your examples – share them below.

Shawn Kinkade Kansas City Small Business Coach

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In the spirit of the season, I wanted to share some really cool ‘gifts’ that I ran across this week – fascinating, helpful, interesting and fun.  I don’t know if you’ll get stuff this cool at home during the holidays (apologies if I’m spoiling you). 

Gift 1 – the Gift of Challenge

Hopefully you’re familiar with Seth Godin – his approach is unlike anyone else on the internet.  I’d suggest that more people should emulate him, but I’m not sure it would work – he’s interesting and unique and he does some really cool things that are just him.

His latest cool thing is organizing a free eBook he’s giving away on his site.  It has some ties to promoting some charitable organizations, but mostly it’s a series of 1 page essays written by a very diverse group of authors and experts with a general theme of what they are all thinking about and doing now.

It’s called What Matters Now and it’s well worth the download – go check it out.

I especially enjoyed Hugh MacLeod, Howard Mann, Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell, Daniel Pink to name a few – who challenged your thinking?

Gift 2 – the Gift of Tech

Special thanks to Don Rossberg of KCDataworks – he was the first to point out Seth’s eBook to me and he also wrote a great blog post recently on the 12 Days of (free) Tech where he shares 12 online tech tools / gadgets that are free and more importantly really helpful stuff.  He covers everything from Xobni (check it out – highly recommended) to a way to print things easily and quickly to a PDF format.

By the way, if you are a business owner who’s struggling with the appropriate tech support and you’d like to work with someone you can trust, someone who can actually talk to you like a person AND knows what they’re talking about – you should meet with Don.  He’s a great guy and would be a huge benefit to any small business owner!

Gift 3 – the Gift of Ooooh and Aaaaah

One of the reasons why I like Twitter is that it’s a great way to find stuff that you’d never come across on your own.  It’s like walking along a beach and getting to see all sorts of interesting stuff wash up.  One of the things that washed up this afternoon was a really cool photography site that will grab your attention and make your jaw drop.

The first post is a set of 360 degree panoramic photos from stunning locations (like the top of Mount Everest)!  I’m not sure how they got some of these shots, but it is very cool (make sure to click through to get to the actual 360 shot).  You can find the panoramic gallery here.

As if that wasn’t cool enough – the same site has a set of extreme macro photos of Snowflakes, which are amazingly beautiful and a lot more varied and interesting than I would have thought – check out the Snowflakes here.

What cool online things are you sharing these days?  Share them in the comments below – I’d love to check them out.

Shawn Kinkade Kansas City Business Coach

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The ability to have a strong handle on what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and who’s going to do it is often the difference between success and frustration.  I know lots of talented, fun and overall really nice people who are…for lack of a better word…unreliable.  They mean well, but their follow-through, their ability to consistently get things done just isn’t there.

The thing about Personal Effectiveness is that it’s personal.  What works for me likely won’t work for you, at least not without some tweaking and vice versa.  Most people have some kind of system / process or tools to stay on top of things – it could be an elaborate system like Getting Things Done or as simple as as a stack of post-it notes.

Whatever you use, there’s some element that involves keeping a list of things that need to be done – pen and paper are great for a to-do list (and can be invaluable for thinking out loud) but here are some other interesting online tools worth looking into.

Sometimes Less is More

1. Teuxdeux

Seth Godin mentioned Tuexdeux in a recent blog post as a free super simple tool, and that’s exactly what it is and all it wants to be.  It’s online, you pick the day that you want to do what ever you need to do and then you check it off once it’s done.

No muss, no fuss – it looks very clean and efficient.

2.  Ta-da Lists

The developers at 37Signals have created their own version of a simple to-do list tool that they call Ta-Da Lists, a spinoff from their Basecamp product.  It’s free and easy to use.  I like the ability to create different kinds of lists – however they aren’t date driven, so it’s a different approach than Teuxdeux.

A great idea by 37Signals to act as a lead into their other products (and still add value).

Project Management Light

3.  Toodledo

Different people need different things and there are a lot of people that really want to break things down into details (or they’re working on more complicated stuff).  If the simple approach doesn’t work for you, then something like Toodledo might be more what you’re looking for.  Not only does it support collaboration, but there are also lots of ways to organize your tasks, prioritize and even track your time.

A much more powerful approach than just lists, but may be overkill for some.

4.  Checkvist

Checkvist is all about collaboration and support a teamwork environment.  There are tools to help you organize for the team, brainstorm additions and communicate what’s being done (or still needs to be done).

Lots of opportunities for supporting a team environment.

App that keeps expanding

5.  Remember the Milk

I have a client that’s using Remember the Milk – not only as a way to keep track of things he needs done, but also as a way to manage the workflow for the new employee that he brought on.  It’s an impressive tool overall, but what’s amazing is all of the support and interfacing they’ve built into it.  There’s a RTM app for the iPhone, and also for the new Android Google phones (which are really cool by the way) and support for all sorts of other online integration.

It’s not really geared for a team, but for an individual or small group that’s looking for a lot of flexibility, RTM is probably the app to check out first.

I’m planning on using some more automation and tools in 2010 – are you currently using any of these tools (or anything along the same lines)?  What’s worked for you?  Share your thoughts below in the comments, I’d love to hear you what you think.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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