Bon Appétit!

This week kicks off Restaurant Week in several cities across the country, including Kansas City. It is a great opportunity for restaurants to showcase their cuisine and entice food lovers to get out of the house and try a new establishment or revisit an old favorite.

In the KC metro, this also serves as a fund raiser for Harvesters as participating restaurants donate a portion of their profits at weeks end. The growth in popularity of this event over the last couple years has been impressive. So I encourage you to participate at least once.

Now for your “food” for thought…Some friends of ours recently returned from a trip to the Northwest. One of their stops was a hotel on the Oregon coast. They said it was possibly the nicest place they ever stayed. As we learned about the actual hotel, it became clear that it wasn’t the product (hotel), but the experience that catapulted this place to the top of their list. They showed us pictures of the rooms, the view of the Pacific, flowers, and more; all were impressive, but certainly not unique in that area. So what was it?

“The best things in life aren’t things.”

- Art Buchwald

Products and services are things. Creating “the experience”, was more about the details than the actual hotel or its location. One of the examples they shared was that one of them has very specific food allergies. During the reservation process the hotel captured that information. Upon their arrival, the chef had created not one, but several options to choose from for every meal during their stay. The combination of unexpected, appreciated and generous makes it the kind of thing that people will talk about!

“The Experience” creates an emotional connection, the actual hotel is just a thing; it simply can’t compete with human emotions. Combine a quality product or service with an emotional connection and you’ve struck gold.

Restaurants spend countless hours coming up with the perfect adjectives to describe the dishes they offer. As you read them, sometimes you can actually taste the food they are describing! But what happens if when you get there, your table isn’t ready, the restaurant staff is rude, it is too loud, too cold, or something else that effects your emotions? I think you already know the answer.

As you make your way to your favorite eateries this week, I encourage you to think about two things.

#1) What is it that attracted me to this restaurant?

#2) What is it that will bring me back? (Repeat Customer)

No matter how long or short your answer; #1 will be more about “the product” and #2 will be more about “the experience”. And, what is really amazing about this, is that no amount of bricks and mortar or investment can impact “the experience” more than the people in the business. I am not saying there isn’t a cost, because it takes training and commitment to consistently deliver a high level experience, but for the most part it is free, it won’t require a large bank loan to attain. All businesses, including yours, have an equal opportunity to deliver a great experience – but it has to be a clear focus and priority if you want to pull it off.

So get out and enjoy some great food this week! You are helping the economy and you are helping Harvesters. And while you are doing so, ask those two questions. Then take the answers and the inspiration back to your business and put them to work.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this – feel free to share any great dining experiences you had this week and why they resonated with you.  Leave us a comment below.

Chris Steinlage Kansas City Business Coach

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It takes real effort to stay sharp – in fact most performance (whether it’s you or your team or both) naturally degrades over time if you don’t do anything to address it.

It’s not rocket science, but this outrageous insight came to me this morning while I was shaving.

It turns out that I have this issue about changing out my razor blades…I just don’t do it very often.  Not for any specific reason, it just doesn’t cross my mind.

However when I do finally change the blade – like I did this morning…Wow!  Huge difference!  The razor doesn’t pull anymore.  No burns, no cuts!  The whole process is smooth.  It’s faster…and the end result is much better!  It’s a completely different experience (and outcome).

Realistically I should have changed the blade weeks ago…but I didn’t consciously notice that the performance was degrading.  The old blade technically still worked…just not as well.  Because I wasn’t paying attention my morning shaving process had become a lot less effective.

What are you not paying attention to?

The world moves fast and most of us are spending our time and effort just to keep up the pace.  We fight fires.  We deal with the squeaky wheels and basically ignore everything else due to lack of time or energy.

But while you’re ignoring aspects of your business, the performance is degrading.

How about that website that you built 3 or 4 years ago?  Is it still performing for you the way it did when you launched it?  (Did it ever perform for you?).

How about your back office systems?  Is there a better…maybe a more automated way to create invoices, take payments, communicate or deliver your services?  Are you spending a lot of time and effort on certain tasks just because that’s the way you’ve always done things?

Chances are, if you’re still doing things the same way you did a couple of years ago and you haven’t really thought about it, you’ve lost the edge and you’re not performing as well as you could in that area.  It’s not a significant enough issue to shut you down, but over time when many parts of your business aren’t performing well…you’ll have a major issue (kind of like death by a thousand cuts).

The good news is that when you finally do upgrade you are going to be amazed at how much better things work.  Technology, new ideas or processes, different employees – all of those things can lead you to a new breakthrough way of running your business.  It’s a never ending battle, but by consciously looking at the neglected parts of your business on a regular basis, you can get ahead of the game.  It’s not quite as easy as just putting in a new blade, but it doesn’t have to be hard.

As an example, I upgraded to a new version of Quickbooks not long ago and I was able to cut a few hours out of my monthly accounting work…not bad for a small investment.

How about you?  What’s some aspect of your business that needs a refresh?  What process needs to be sharpened or replaced?  What’s something that is holding you back (maybe more than you realize) that you could fix up?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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I was one of those weird people who actually enjoyed physics in college and in fact it still influences how I think.  Here’s an example…Newton’s First Law of Motion states that:

 ‘A body at rest tends to stay at rest and a body in motion tends to stay in motion – unless acted on by an external force.’

The application to business? If your business is stagnant, if you’re feeling stuck…if you’re not seeing growth or momentum, then you have to make a meaningful change (create a new force) to get a new outcome.  Momentum starts with making something happen!

Have you fallen into a rut with your business?  If things are going fairly well, it’s easy to let up and just kind of coast…and if things are challenging, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and just do what you have to to get by.  Either way, now is the time for you to apply an external force and make a change.  Invest quality time and think about how you’re going to get ahead…what can you do today to create momentum?

Hopefully the list below can help you brainstorm an idea that will work for you:

6 Ways to create momentum

Every business is different and unfortunately there’s not a one size fits all solution when it comes to growing your business, but it’s a safe bet that at least one of the ideas fits your situation and could direct you towards next steps.  Pick the one that resonates the most and take action!

Addition By Subtraction

It’s the biggest mistake a business owner can make – many businesses have at least one and maybe several employees that just don’t pull their weight.  In some cases they’re really nice people but they don’t perform.  Or (and this is even worse) they’re very good at the work but they’re poisonous to be around and no one wants to work with them.  Whatever it is, if you have an employee who’s a bad fit, if you don’t have the right people on the bus, you can build up serious momentum just by getting rid of them.

It’s always difficult to let somebody go but there’s no better time than the present to take some action and get that drag off of your business.

Question – Do you have an employee that’s holding you back?  What would it take to act on it?

Straight to the Bottom Line

Most business owners are under-charging for their services.  Even if you think you’re priced right, it’s worthwhile to at least consider raising your prices.  It’s unlikely you’ll lose business (especially if you haven’t raised prices in the last year or two) and it could have a profound affect.  Raising prices is the only thing you can do that will immediately go straight to the bottom line.  Yes there’s a risk of losing customers, but even if you lost some volume, you’re still likely better off from a profit perspective – check out this table to see the impacts (second page).

Question – How would your business be impacted if you raised your prices by 10%?  20%? 

Revisit Your Marketing

If you’re like most business owners, historically you’ve done some marketing and then you get busy and lose focus.  But you’ve got to have consistency if you want to win at Marketing!  What if you made marketing your strategic priority for the next 90 days and really invested time, effort (and money) into developing the right message and tactics?  Created a calendar to help keep everything on track?  Is it time to finally redo your website and establish some repeatable tactics that will consistently drive opportunities?

Question – Are you effectively communicating the benefits and the outcomes you deliver?  What would it take to amp up your marketing in the next 90 days?

Find a Referral Partner or two…

Everyone wants to get great referrals and one of the best ways to do that is to find a great referral partner.  Find a complementary business that sells to the same clients that you want to work with, someone who sees the world in a similar way to you.  Add in a little creativity around packaging new discounts or find a way to co-marketing and you’ve got a fantastic new sales channel that will help drive new business to you and your new partner.

Question – Who’s out there as a potential partner?  What product / service complements what you do? What would it take to set up a meeting?  Can you get the ball rolling this week?

Finally Get that Big Project Done!

Almost every business owner I know has at least one and usually several big projects that they’ve been ‘working on’ for an unknown period of time. It’s generally a wide range of stuff: 

• Marketing stuff like redoing a website, developing great content marketing or creating a great newsletter.
• Getting structured…hiring administrative help to free up time, delegating more, finding a difference maker sales person or employee.
• New Stuff like rolling out a new set of products / services or revamping the ones you have.

Whatever it is, what would happen if you really narrowed your focus and committed to getting that one big thing done in the next 90 days? You know it’s a great idea, you’ve been thinking about it forever…now is the time to commit to doing it.

Question – What project has consistently been on your to do list for a long time?  What’s been holding you back?  How would you get really get started on it?

Get some Help

Building momentum is all about taking consistent focused action on great ideas -  you’re capable of doing that on your own, but it’s a lot more likely to happen if you get some help.  Find someone who can help you frame things up, get clear on what your constraints are and help push you to make things happen.  Of course you could always look into a Licensed Professional Business Coach or maybe a  Peer Group Advisory Board, but there are lots of ways to find help – the key is to get someone who will push you and support you.

Question – Do you have resources or people you know who might be able to help you make something happen?  What’s the next step to getting them on board and helping you?

This list doesn’t even scratch the surface of stuff you could do and you likely have different opportunities, but the one thing that’s true in every case is you have to take action if you want something to happen. 

You want to grow your business – what are  you going to do to get the ball rolling?

What ideas do you have for sparking growth?  I’d love to hear them or any feedback you have on my ideas above.  Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

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Everyone starts their business with the intent to win…unfortunately many a well intentioned business owner gets derailed along the way and it all comes crashing down.  Sometimes the best way to succeed in the long run is to identify the issues…what’s driving you towards a potential train wreck and then focus on fixing those issues first. 

To that end, I spent some quality time with my clients and Peer Group Advisory Board members and asked them what qualities or traits were required for long term success as a business owner…and inversely what qualities would guarantee a business train wreck in the long run. 

That led to the following list.  It’s a pretty powerful collection and odds are you’re dealing with at least a couple of these issues to some degree…but as they say, the first step in solving a problem is admitting that you have one!

Check out the list below and see if you might be headed for a train wreck…!

1. Don’t ever change

You’re old school and proud of it – that’s the way we’ve always done things!  Change is hard.

2. Make it up as you go

You don’t have the time or the patience to document things or develop repeatable processes (waste of time) so you and your employees just  play it by ear.  Of course bringing on a new employee takes forever…but at least you’re not wasting time.

3. Blend in

You make sure that you look and sound as much like your competitors as possible.  You copy their ads, you mimic their products and pricing and you make sure you don’t stand out in any positive way.

4. Keep your head down

You make sure to focus all of your time on fighting fires and being a hero in your business.  Why waste time on long range planning, looking at things strategically or mapping out what’s most important for your growth.

5. Be strong and silent

Knowledge is power and you certainly don’t want to let your employees or partners in on what’s going on.  Your leadership style is command and control and minimal communication – you don’t have time for telling everyone what’s going on, if they’re any good they’ll figure it out on their own.

6. Wait for the economy to bail you out

This downturn is totally out of your control and there’s no point in working too hard.  Your best bet is to just wait for things to turn around and play the victim in the meantime.

7. Exit plans are for losers

Why would you need an exit plan?  You’re not planning on going anywhere and besides you could totally sell your business for several million dollars anytime you wanted to (even if you’ve never done a valuation on it).

8. Quick to hire, slow to fire

People are people, anyone on the bus will do – you’re just looking for warm bodies to fill a seat and they all perform the same way.  If you do have a problem employee, it’s clearly better to just leave them alone and hope they go away on their own.  It’s painful to get rid of someone and you don’t want to look like the bad guy!

9. Be a world class juggler

A master at multi tasking.  If you and your team don’t have at least 20 critical priorities to work on all the time, there’s something wrong…and you definitely aren’t going to waste any time writing things down or prioritizing – where’s the challenge in that?

10. Live on the edge…

No money in the bank and payroll due in 3 days?  No problem, you’ll pull a rabbit out of your hat just like you have the last 6 times this has happened this year.  Can you believe some people think you should have 6 months of emergency reserves in cash?

11. Aren’t rollercoasters cool?

You enjoy the thrill of the hunt, landing that big client or opportunity.  Then you have to do the work.  Then you realize the works over and you don’t have any money left and you go off to hunt the next one. Not for you that boring steady recurring and predictable stream of cash.

12. Your customers are lucky to have you

Your customers don’t have any idea how much trouble they put you and your employees through.  They interrupt you, they ask for things, they expect help and support – that’s crazy!

13. Your employees like money

Your employees don’t really buy into what the company is doing and they don’t really like to work very hard…and they don’t seem to care about anything (except maybe money), but they do like to hang out and complain, but that’s how all companies are right?

14. Average is good enough

It takes a lot of time and effort to create a high quality product or service…besides you can just tell people it’s great (even though it’s average).  They’ll probably buy at least once, which is good enough to keep things going in the short term.

15. You’re really busy

People call you all the time, but they clearly don’t realize how busy you are. They send emails, they try to give you referrals or try to partner with you…you even have potential customers contacting you with questions, but you’re so busy you can’t get back to them. 

16. Work has to come first…always

This owning your own business thing is really hard and if you’re going to be great, you need to throw yourself 110% into what it takes to succeed.  Your family and friends will understand you not being around and you don’t really need any time off.

17. The ends totally justify the means

Sometimes it’s a challenge to keep all of the stories straight, but that’s far better than the alternative of just being honest with people.  A few people might notice that you’re not completely above board, but who could they possibly tell?  It’s not like it’s easy to share complaints or stories with the world these days?

18. It’s all about the money

Can you believe people buy your stuff?  If you ever win the lottery, you’re never going to do this kind of work again, but until then as long as someone will pay you for it, you’re in.  You don’t have to love what you’re doing…do  you?

19. You are an island

You know what you’re doing, you never have any doubts or questions and you certainly wouldn’t benefit from someone or a group looking over your shoulder, keeping you in line and helping you.

20. You already know that

People actually waste their time on books, training, workshops and that kind of bunk!  You’ve been doing this business thing a long time and clearly know all there is to know – which is why you’ve got plenty of time for reality television!

Take an honest look at the list – do any of these remotely sound like your situation?  If more than a couple of these make you feel even the slightest bit uncomfortable, then you’re going to have a hard succeeding in the long run.

What train wrecking traits did I miss? Do you disagree with any?  How do you stack up?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade Kansas City Business Coach

Photo is from Paris in 1895 and is public domain – you can learn more here

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It didn’t start out this way. 

When you first started your business you had a dream, it was exciting…maybe even fun!  Sure there was a lot of hard work, but you can still remember the thrill of your first clients, cashing your first check and the quiet satisfaction of delivering on a job well done.  Unfortunately that seems like a long time ago.  Now you feel more like a caged animal…trapped by a business that demands all of your time and energy and doesn’t give much back in return.

You’re not alone – according to a recent study, only 40% of small business owners took a vacation last year – some because of lack of money, but many of them because they can’t physically be away from their business for any length of time!  You’re past the point when running harder means you go farther and faster – now running faster only makes the wheel in the cage spin harder!

Are you a slave to your business?  Here are some surefire ways to tell and more importantly what it takes to escape that slavery.

How to tell when you’re officially ‘trapped’

Never Ending Long Hours – As a business owner, you’re going to work hard, but you’re at least a couple years into it and the hours are getting worse with no signs of relief.

Gerbil Wheel Syndrome – Running harder doesn’t cause a lift in the business…or if you have to run just to maintain what you’ve got.

Touch Everything – Your business requires you personally to make every significant decision…nothing gets done without you involved,

No Practical Plan Forward – Planning on the lottery, or landing a huge and unrealistic client to break you out of the rut?  You spend all your time fighting the day to day fires without a strategic plan.

Stuck with Status Quo – You’ve stopped asking ‘what if’, you’re not proactively looking for better ideas…you hear yourself saying defensively “That’s how we’ve always done things”

There are lots of other potential symptoms but in general it can be summed up as ‘a strong feeling that you’re out of choices’…you know what you’ve got isn’t working but there’s no real options and the only thing to do is keep working harder and start it all over again tomorrow.

What can you do about it?

The good news is that most businesses can be saved – but you’ve got to break the cycle if you want different results – here are some ideas of where you can get started on making a change!

1. Get a candid review of your business model.

A big part of the problem may be the fundamental design of the business – does your business scale?  Are you strictly trading your time for money?  Can you get any leverage…with other people’s time or can you develop other streams of revenue?

It may be difficult for you to really look at your business in an honest way – enlist a business savvy friend (maybe even a Business Coach?) and have them give you some perspective.

2. Get clear on where you’re going

Assuming your current situation is NOT what you really want, then you must take the time to paint a better picture of the future.  Try projecting out 3 years to a future that’s attractive to you.  How are you spending your time in the business?  What’s the revenue and profitability like?  What’s your client base?  What’s different from today?  Without a clear picture / goal there’s no way to move in the right direction.

3. Get clear on your strengths

Right now you’re probably doing everything…or at least involved in everything.  However if you want to break free, you’ll need to focus on your strengths and let other people do things that aren’t a strength or that you don’t like doing!  The first step is to really understand where your talents are best used in this great business of the future that you’re planning.

4. Lay out an Organizational Accountability Chart

This is more than just an org chart.  Develop a fairly simple (but complete) breakdown of all the roles and responsibilities in your business and outline who owns those boxes on the chart.  Right now, your name is probably in most places…but that becomes a great starting point for planning what things could look like in the future.  Start with today, but also look at the next phase…what could you step away from that would free up your time and focus?

If you’re interested in learning more about this idea (and how to do it) – Contact us for a short whitepaper on creating this kind of planning tool.

5. Identify Opportunities to automate, systematize and delegate

In addition to your roles and responsibilities, you also need to build an inventory of your major business processes (the things you do to run your business).  From that inventory, which of those processes take up a big chunk of time or is painful? 

Are you spending 2-3 days a month on bookkeeping and invoicing your clients?  How could you improve that process?  Could you hire someone to do it for you?  (I know money is an issue, but if you had 2 extra days to prospect and sell…I’m pretty sure you’d bring in more revenue).

Identify the top 2 or 3 process candidates and figure out what it would take to streamline them or get them off your plate.

6. Take action…focused, planned and systematic action to make things better

Here’s the part where things generally fall apart.  Things are painful enough to drive you to come up with some projects, some initiatives that you know would help in the long run, but you can’t find the time or the focus to actually get them done!  Or maybe you just don’t know where to start or how to get started.  By the way – this is absolutely what Coaching is best at…helping you get things done.  The top recommendation is to get some help to make things happen.  However If you need to do it yourself, then lay out a reasonable plan, allocate time every week to move that plan forward, find a way to stay accountable and step by step you will make progress.

What do you need to do?

The business closure rate in the US is right around 50% within the first 4 years of being in business.  Most of the businesses that shut down had viable products and services, many were making money and most had business owners who were competent.  But they couldn’t figure out how to stop being a slave to their business! And without that breakthrough they eventually had to throw the towel in…it’s not a sustainable approach in the long run. 

You can break the cycle for your business…but you have to be ready to make some changes.

What about you?  Do you own your business or is it owning you?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this issue – drop me a line or comment below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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