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the benefits of delegating

3/6/2020

Managers are often reluctant to delegate as many believe in the adage that “if you want something done right, you must do it yourself.” Although this may be true in some cases, a core component of leadership is getting work done through others.

Why do managers under-delegate? Although the number one reason why most managers under-delegate tasks is the fear of failure due to putting important tasks in someone else’s hands, there are other reasons too. Some feel that proper delegation takes longer than simply doing the task themselves, and others even question their own ability to choose the right person for the task. However, by realizing the benefits of delegation, it is possible to overcome these objections.

Four benefits of delegation:

1. It keeps You from multi-tasking/taking on too many projects at once.
Today’s managers are driven to succeed, and often take on more projects than they can handle alone. The fear of failure drives them to avoid delegation for fear that someone else will not get the job done correctly. When managers are juggling priorities at the same time, they are more likely to make mistakes.

2. It builds trust, open communication, and engagement among team members
Another benefit of delegation has to do with building trust, a feeling of openness, and engagement among team members. Leaders who fail to delegate adequately often have employees who are afraid to take initiative or who feel apprehensive about bringing new ideas to the table. Managers who delegate tasks adequately help to build trust and that trust is driven even further when those managers remain open for communication and listening.

3. It stimulates creativity and develops skills in your team
Those who give their team members the freedom to tackle delegated tasks in their own way are empowering their team and giving them a creative license. These employees become driven to succeed, not only for themselves and their own futures but also for the future of their employer. What’s more, this personal initiative can lead to creative breakthroughs, which can benefit everyone involved, and it helps team members build some very specific skills along the way.

4. It creates a positive business culture
Perhaps the best reason to delegate tasks to others has to do with the type of business culture a leader hopes to create. Delegation helps to boost team morale, improve efficiency and productivity, and promotes enthusiasm, innovation, and cooperation.

Although delegation is vital to the success of any company, it is important for managers to remember that it is not a way to push off unsavory tasks to others. What’s more, leaders should never micro-manage delegated tasks. They should delegate effectively and offer communication and support but allow for autonomy and creativity at the same time.

benefits of a one-stop shop

6/22/2019

The concept of being a one-stop shop is one that has long been considered by companies of all sizes. There are always pros and cons to any change, however, there are different ways one can set about being all-inclusive. A lot of this depends upon your business.

Keep in mind that you do not want to stray too far from your relevant industry. Example: I would never consider adding a service such as auto detailing to my marketing services – it makes no sense! Although I am sure many of us have seen examples of that in our world. But you do not want to be known as the “jack of all trades, master of none.”

There are times when it makes sense. As I mentioned in a recent article, “Are You an Owner or Entrepreneur?” there are two ways you can grow your small business:

You can grow vertically, which means you can buy, recreate, or become partners with those vendors or businesses you sell to. An example may be a business like myself in marketing partnering with an SEO company and then creating a company or using my same name to offer their services in conjunction with mine. This is not the same as just having another partner to whom you refer business. This is an opportunity to expand your current portfolio and attract a larger audience.
You can choose to grow horizontally which means buying or starting another business relating to the one you already have. Example: A restaurant owner who starts a catering business or an event planning service, keeping this business separate from the restaurant. This is an opportunity to refer to other services while still retaining control of each entity.

Or, you can also choose to partner with other businesses, making an inclusive partnership which allows you to only refer them in their industry, and they in turn only refer your industry needs to you. However, beware when partnering with someone that you are not putting yourself in a position where this relationship is more conducive to them than you.

Benefits of these “one-stop” opportunities

An introduction of new revenue streams to make more money from the same customers.

More comprehensive offerings to differentiate you from the competitors that may not be able to offer the same extensive range of products and services.

The convenience factor which allows customers or clients to have everything done in-house rather than having to deal with numerous suppliers. Consumers appreciate ease.

One-stop shops breed greater customer loyalty. When clients and customers subscribe to a broader range of products and services, it’s harder for them to move their business elsewhere.

Expanding business activities to incorporate a more comprehensive range of goods and services does require efficient coordination, and it does take care to ensure company resources aren’t spread too thinly. For a smaller, more flexible business, however, becoming a one-stop shop that provides customized “packages” for its customers and clients can really help differentiate it from the competition.

marketing is entertaining

2/15/2019

That’s exactly right, what better way to use your acting and talent than to market your business! I do it all the time. And I am going to share some of the top tips I use to be entertaining and grow my business at the same time.

1.  Tell Stories – We all use stories, both personal and professional, to illustrate a point. Remember, facts can be boring but using stories can make you interesting. Your clients and prospects want to learn more about you – What better way to earn their trust and loyalty.

2.  Something to Talk About – You want people to talk about you, all positive of course. The best way to get that happening is to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Start talking about how different and unique you are and soon everyone else will be talking too. The best possible position to be in is to have your clients bragging about being your client. Be a celebrity. Everyone will want to be part of your celebrity world.

3.  Engage your Clients – If they’re engaged, they are enjoying themselves. When your clients feel like part of your business, it makes it very difficult for a competitor to steal them away.

4. Host Events and Parties – Have contests, surveys, private sales, loyalty rewards, customer outings, networking events, family fun events … any event that involves your clients and prospects. People want to have fun and it will be fun for you, too. Make sure you share the news and take pictures for social media too.

5.  Calendar Marketing – Here’s where you become as big a part of your clients’ lives as they are of yours. Share events on a calendar. Make their events as much a part of your life as yours are. Why not? Showing up at events will introduce you to a whole new set of prospects AND it will instill loyalty in your clients. Plus, you can share their events on your social media and even publish an online calendar. Another fun way to use calendar marketing is to promote some obscure holidays or annual celebration days and find those that are relevant to your clients.

6. New Client Experiences – After you have closed the sale, do not sit back and relax. Now is the time to “wow” them…again! Make them realize that they made the correct decision in choosing you. You can:
• Send a handwritten “Thank You” card
• Blog about them or post it on Social Media (with their approval)
• Send them an unexpected present (and not a pen or anything with your name on it)
• Make them another offer they can’t refuse
• Make a customized “Thank You” video
• Donate to a charity in their name

Put some thought into creative ideas and watch the repeat business and referrals just float your way.

7. Be unpredictable – Pique their curiosity. If you keep them wondering what’s next, I guarantee they’ll keep coming back to see what else you are up to.

work while the sun shines

9/21/2018

When agriculture was the secret to survive, farmers understood the value of sunlight. You could only work while the sun was shining so a typical day was from sun up to sun down. When the sun went down, you stopped working. Whether you wanted to keep working or not, you had to stop. You were forced to stop.

Sunlight was the key to success. And you only had so much of it.

Thousands of years later, the science of agriculture hasn’t changed all that much. You still have a limited amount of sunlight in which to work. Despite modern inventions and automated technology, we have not figured out a way to improve the practicality of getting things done while there is still time to get them done. That truth is relevant in any industry at any time.

You might be tired. You might be sore from working hard every previous day for as long as you can remember. You might be depressed, angry, or too financially strapped to focus on the task ahead of you. But as long as you have sunlight, you have an opportunity to change things.

You have the possibility to do enough, fast enough to reap a harvest you could only otherwise dream about. Sunlight is all the inspiration you need to change the course of history.

That’s your opportunity today. Right now. This very moment. From dusk till dawn, each moment you live is an opportunity for you to improve your harvest. But you have to work while the sun is shining. Some days the sun won’t come out. The skies will be darkened with the clouds. Storms will fill the sky, threatening your very existence.

What you have done to this point will have to be enough to carry you through until the sun shines bright again. Which is why what you have to do has to be done today.

While the sun is still shining. Why you still have a chance to sow seeds that can make a difference in the days to come.

marketplaces without boundaries

6/22/2018

Today’s marketplace has transformed as to how sales are generated and sustained. And nowhere else is this more apparent than in the changing relationship between sellers and buyers.

Gone are the days of pure transactional selling. Buyers don’t wait for you to come to them anymore. Instead, they seek out what they’re looking for. When they’re prepared, they choose to do business with those who best meet their needs. More than ever, the strength of the connections you cultivate determines how successful you’ll be in positioning yourself in the minds of your buyer as that top pick.

Build relationships within communities
If you look at the current selling landscape, you could say it resembles the rise and success of the modern farmers’ market. These operate on a small scale across multiple communities and thrive on local connections. You see your neighbors all the time, which is community building, and vendors all promote each other through a rich network of selling goods and services. For example, the local butcher recommends buying tomatoes at another farmer’s market up the road for a delicious sauce to compliment the meat. Or the bread maker tells customers that the cheese and jams of the neighboring vendor are second to none. A buyer can confidently find what they’re looking for in these networked communities. And the seller’s work and reputation are measured by how useful they are to both the marketplace and customers.

The same is true of today’s selling landscape. Communities are where relationships get forged now, and to be part of a community means to put in the time to share what you know so that you help something meaningful grow for the benefit of others.

Seek spaces, not places
It’s not just about closing the sale anymore. And it’s not about telling others to follow you as the leader in a monopolizing way. Today’s marketplace without boundaries means that buyers from the four corners of the earth can find what they’re looking for in spaces where people congregate. I’m choosing my words carefully here: I’m talking about spaces rather than places. Spaces don’t occupy a fixed location, nor do they have limits on who can join or what they can contribute. Spaces can be created online. They can be found in professional associations. By occupying spaces, you’re creating a sense of kinship and shared purpose.

Out of this, communities are born. When managed correctly, it means an end to the boom-bust cycle of sales, because unlike the old way of doing things, communities are populated first and foremost with people, not buyers.

The four groups to establish
To adapt and grow a sales force that can thrive in a marketplace without boundaries, there are four types of communities your organization needs to build and sustain.

Intelligence communities: Information is a highly valuable commodity in today’s marketplace. People are hungry for good ideas, and that’s why it’s important to share what you know. When I say this, I don’t just mean on a personal level; this applies just as much to groups of people you manage. Today, many businesses are building intelligence communities to better engage their prospects and customers. They’re posting videos, publishing case studies, developing white papers and e-books, and posting fresh ideas to their blogs. The more you add to your knowledge backlist, especially if you post your content online, the more valuable the information becomes for your audience today and in the future.
Specialist communities: No matter what line of work you’re in, you’ve been honing your professional skills throughout your career and have built up a library of know-how. Skill complements knowledge. It adds proof to the promise of good ideas. That’s why specialist communities help nurture prospect relationships. They help build trust, proving your competence and adding value so you can establish and retain more customers in less time. They showcase your mastery, how you use your sharpened skills to achieve great results. Building specialist communities can also include your clients, giving them the opportunity to share their expertise or even to talk about how they have benefitted from the skills they’ve gained by doing business with your organization.
Business communities: What I’m seeing in the marketplace today is smart leaders in sales working hard to develop a good corporate rapport with their clients. In particular, they seek multiple buying influences inside their own accounts. They create a community of advocates among their best customers. The outcome is they gain a broad base of support throughout the organization while building a library of knowledge about how that client’s business operates (e.g., who makes decisions and according to what criteria). This is about more than mining a corporate hierarchy for influential decision makers. In fact, every point of contact has value. Every conversation is a good conversation. Insight comes in many forms, and each contact you make in that corporate community plays a role in the sales process. You will never lose business by forming too many relationships, but you’re sure to lose business if you fail to engage too few of them.
Education communities: Create a community of clients who talk about how you’ve helped them solve challenges, helped them make more money, saved them money or time, or retained their employees. You can leverage that learning opportunity to help grow your business even bigger. Learning communities come in many forms. It can be as simple as forming an advisory group or a user forum. It can feature shareable best practices or case studies, each one underlining the advantage of doing business with you. Smart, successful companies today recognize the power that results from bringing people together.

Just like with farmers’ markets, buyers today are looking for more than a transaction; they want to do business with people who can provide knowledge and insight on top of the products or services being offered. That meeting point can only be achieved if you take the time to build a rapport with your prospects and customers. This means you put their needs first, help them learn and grow, and deliver value far beyond what your product or service provides.

Amazing things can happen when you embrace change as an opportunity to work differently than you’ve done in the past. Find ways to build your own communities. Think about how you can become a trusted part of today’s marketplace without boundaries.

working smarter

5/18/2018

There was a time when the sun was the time clock. You worked from daylight until dusk to produce a successful harvest. There was no understanding of working 9-to-5. No populist “need to be balanced” explanation for working less.

You weren’t smarter because you worked less. There was only one reason why you didn’t put in the effort required to be successful. Because you were lazy, right?

But then we got sophisticated and learned that only stupid people need to work hard. If you could study hard and get your college degree, you could find a job where you didn’t have to work from dawn until sundown. Hmmm.

Then we learned that with even more advanced education and specialized training you could work as a manager and receive even better perks.

But over the last few generations, we’ve lost track of the real essence of achieving success. We’ve become confused. We’ve replaced success with a simple formula that says if you work smart you can live comfortably without working hard.

If you don’t want to sweat from sun up until sundown doing backbreaking tasks, then you need a college degree or specialized training.

Wrong! You still need to work hard. A degree will likely earn you a place in a cubicle instead of behind a plow. Book smarts might put you in the boardroom instead of the barn. But it’s not, by itself, the secret to success.

It’s just a better way to work hard. You have more options. More understanding. More creativity.

Successful people don’t shy away from hard work. In fact, everything we’ve been taught is a reminder that achievement is conceived simply through massive amounts of focused personal effort. If there was actually a Holy Grail of working smarter, it might simply be the belief that the smartest thing you can do is to work hard.

You don’t work hard because you’re stupid and don’t have any other options. You work hard because it’s the fastest way to get to where you want to be.

Whether you’re behind a plow or in front of a whiteboard, working harder is the smartest way to work.

FIVE THINGS YOU AND YOUR SALESPEOPLE NEED TO KNOW

11/17/2017

Recently in a client meeting, I was asked by one of the sales employees what they needed to know to help them be more successful next year.

It’s a great question and one that we should be asking ourselves on a regular basis, not just about next year but about next quarter and next month.

Here’s what I told the salesperson and the rest of the team:

1. If you can’t raise your level of sales effectiveness by at least 15%, you’ll wind up losing ground to the competition.

There is not one company out there that is not demanding more of every employee with each passing year. This means every competitor you have is going to be looking to become more efficient in how they sell. Yes, some will stumble, but many will be successful.

To you, it means one thing. Doing the same thing next year is simply not going to be good enough. You must find ways to streamline your sales process and market in new ways to be competitive.

2. The pool of prospects next year is going to grow.

There will be more prospects than ever, and the good news is more of them will actually buy. The Internet continues to open up new areas and social media processes, and this means prospects can come from more places. Yes, it’s good news, but it also means competitors can come from more places.

In the end, it means you must be able to adapt how you sell to be more flexible than ever.

3. Prospects are going to engage you later than ever in the process.

The Internet is an amazing tool in how it allows prospects to review how you might be able to assist them with what you offer. Thanks to the capabilities of search engines, prospects can do more, learn more and ultimately draw more conclusions without ever directly communicating with you.

4. Time will become even more important for you, your prospects and your customers.

Because prospects can engage with you later in the sales cycle, after they have done more research, they will be looking to make their decision faster regarding the time you have with them. If you sell in the B2B market, this same thing holds true for the customers your customers sell to. The entire sales process is going to continue to shrink in regard to the level of time it takes to complete the sale.

5. Customer loyalty will continue to decrease.

Why should a customer stay loyal to you? There is so much information on the Internet and the number of competitors is so robust, it only makes sense for even the most loyal customer to look around.

If you’ve been reading between the lines with each one of the points I’ve listed above, you’ll notice something. They are all interconnected. At the core is the ever-growing level of information available to the prospects and customers. Just as the level of information is growing, so is the number of competitors you have.

In the end, the big take away is this: If you think you can be successful doing the exact same thing you did this year, you’re kidding yourself. You might be successful for a while, but ultimately your business will erode, and chances are you won’t notice it until too much has eroded away.

So, take to heart what you can learn from these points I have shared so that you will be more successful next year than this year!

CHOOSE YOUR BEST ENTITY

10/20/2017

Determining the legal structure of your business is one of the most important business decisions you’ll ever make. This decision can significantly impact the security of your business as well as its profitability; the type of business you’re in can help you determine which entity to choose.

Sole Proprietorship
If you’re a single owner or a married couple just starting up, a sole proprietorship is the simplest business structure. If you work from your home, have no employees, and don’t require walk-in traffic, this may be your best option.
The best types of businesses for sole proprietorships are those with limited liability, such as Internet sales, housekeeping services, medical transcription, and so forth. The income from a sole proprietorship can be reported on the Schedule C and the self-employment tax is reported on Schedule SE for Form 1040 for personal income taxes. Income is taxed at the personal rate, and losses can be carried forward.

Partnership
If you have a partner to whom you’re not related, you may not be able to have a sole proprietorship. In this case, a partnership is your best option. It’s always advisable to have a legal document detailing the responsibilities of each partner, both physical and monetary. There are four types of partnerships.

General partnership: Each party shares equally in the investment, the profitability, the management, and the liability of the business.

Limited Partnership: Limited partners are involved only to the extent of their investment and are not involved in the day-to-day activities. A limited partnership offers you more legal protection than does a general partnership.

Limited Liability Partnership: This type of partnership is usually used when one of the partners must be licensed by the state, such as an attorney or a doctor. There’s more latitude in management duties, and the protection offered is similar to the protection offered a corporation.

Limited Liability Limited Partnership: This relatively new type of partnership consists of at least one general partner and one limited partner. The general partner is responsible for the day-to-day management, while the limited partner is connected only by an investment in the partnership.

Partnerships are ideal for smaller companies that don’t wish to incorporate.

Limited Liability Company
An LLC is a combination of a corporation and a partnership. It’s similar to a partnership for day-to-day involvement and income benefits but offers protection similar to a corporation. The tax ramifications are different for an LLC and a corporation and you should consult with an attorney before making a final decision.
To learn more about LLCs, click here.

Corporation
A corporation is its own entity and is best used if you have a company that can incur significant liability, such as a general contracting company. A corporation can be sued to the extent of its assets but members or stockholders are protected. The corporation pays its own taxes. Any wages paid to its employees or stockholders are claimed on their personal income tax return and taxes are paid accordingly.

Please note that the information above is just general material for consideration by employers and business start-ups, but is not intended as legal advice. To learn more, click here.