What’s in a Name
What’s in a Name? When Shakespeare asked the question he was proposing that a name is of no matter and has no effect on the object being named. While perhaps true of a rose, it is not so true of a business. We have recently undergone three name changes with our relatively new business and this is what we experienced.
There are essentially three categories of business names and each caters to a particular clientele and evokes preconceptions about the company.
The first category is Personal. A name like Tom’s Towing evokes simplicity, personal service, mom and pop shop; and caters to the individual consumer. The extreme of this would be a name-for-fame like Kathy Ireland, Inc. where the person is the product.
The second category could be Cutie. A cutie name is designed to be memorable and express what you do, like Merry Maids. Who wouldn’t those folks happily cleaning their house?
The last would be Corporate. This name type would be used by one who wants for their business to be taken seriously, especially by other big businesses, investors and the stock market. IBM comes to mind. This is a name for an entity that transcends the founder or officers.
In each case you can see where the name has a certain effect. So name your company with two things in mind—the clientele and the exit strategy. If you intend to sell your company Sue’s Sea Shells may not draw a high dollar; that is unless of course your name is Betty Crocker.
Tracking your networking efforts
Tracking your networking efforts
My radio show is Wednesday, April 15th from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM. I want to discuss with you all the simple strategies you can put in place to track your efforts while you are networking.
What is it that you are tracking though?
I like to look at each event that I attend for networking and have a specific reason for attending that event. I look at before the event, during the event and after the event. Did I accomplish my initial goal? Is there room for improvement?
Did you go to the event to make contacts?
Did you go to the event to get business?
Did you go to the event to practice networking skills?
Did you go to the event to make new friends?
Whatever your reasons are for networking, by tracking your efforts then you can find out if you are being effective in what you set out to do. Then can you set aside a scheduled time with yourself to go over what you accomplished and what you need to work on further?
I have several simple, and effective, strategies that you can use without having to spend a lot of money. Some will not have to spend any money at all! This can really be easy and I think we should all keep it easy instead of making it harder!
Denver Twestival! Charity Event!
We need sponsors! We need media! We need press!
Can you help? Email me: susan@susankildahl.com
Title: Denver Twestival!
Location: Fox and the Hound, 5150 E. Arapahoe Road, Littleton
Link out: Click here
Description: This is a charity benefit happening all at once in 105 cities WORLDWIDE on Feb. 12 - organized by people who meet on Twitter.com. See particulars here:
http://twestival.com/
The charity for all 105 cities will be Charity: Water - a non-profit drilling water wells in Ethiopia. See more info here:
http://www.charitywater.org/projects/fromthefield/ethiopi…
IF YOU\’RE INTERESTED IN HELPING PUT THE DENVER VERSION OF THIS WORLDWIDE EVENT ON, SPONSOR IT, ETC., PLEASE EMAIL TO:
cfblakeman@gmail.com
Start Time: 6:00 PM
Date: 2009-02-12
End Time: 9:00 PM
If I can, you can … learning from your mistakes
This blog is for business owners, anyone in business that has to go out and put themselves out there in front of people, especially home-based and small businesses or even salespeople. And my message is simple: learn from what you’ve done. I’m not saying that everything you’ve done wrong or bad is a mistake. This isn’t a judgment, but if something didn’t work for you, learn from it and turn it around.
First, here’s my disclaimer. When I went into coaching, I did everything that you weren’t supposed to do. And I’m okay with that. So when anyone’s telling you that you haven’t done it right, tell them to take a flying leap because what I talk about on this show is that everything you do is fine. I’m going for progress, not perfection.
#1: If it doesn’t work, do something else.
How many people do we meet that say they do the same thing over and over again and it’s not working and they keep telling you how it’s not working, but they still do it? Let me put a Susan-ism caveat on that one: if it’s something that you really want to work, and it hasn’t been working, that is a different matter. Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re out there and you’re networking, and you’re still not getting clients, should you still try to get clients? It’s a no-brainer. Tweak it, throw it out, try it again, but take note of what didn’t work.
#2: Ask for help from other businesspeople or those who are supportive.
Why is it so hard to ask for help? I don’t have a problem in asking for help. It’s a learning process. Go out right now and ask for help, and you will find out right now who ignores you, who ignores your requests and that’s okay. If they don’t want to help, move on. And be specific too. I need this, and what can I do for you in return? Pay it forward.
#3: Find supportive people and don’t engage in non-supporters.
If someone is being negative, you have the option to have them in your life or engage them or not or to get them to try to stop being negative.
I want to put a big note here: A lot of times, people in your family are not your supporters, and that is also okay. You know what, they either do or they don’t. If they don’t, let it go and move on. Don’t go to them for support.
#4: Find people who can help you with your business/life weaknesses to help you get stronger.
Hey, coaching can help. That’s me. Find a team, get a team. Get into collaborative business. Surround yourself with people who can help.
I love it when my clients call and say, kick my butt. I’m like “bring it on.” In my business, I have a team of people to help me, and I couldn’t do it without them. Tell people what you need from them and how they can help push you – that’s what the relationship is. This is your business, so be responsible.
#5: If it doesn’t feel right, then don’t do it.
This one’s close to #1, but I’m talking about how it feels here. Here’s my example: sometimes, I don’t want to go to a networking event, and I have to go. I know that I need to adjust my thinking, but go and maybe just sit and not try to network. I went to an event last week that was somewhat icky, and I did make two really good connections where I usually make my typical 10-20-30.
#6: Just because it works for most, or some, then it still might not work for you and that is okay!
Some training’s will not work for you, some things will not work for you. When I coach, everybody is taught differently how to ask for business. Do I always have to? Yes. Do I always want to? No. It depends on the day. But what works for me may not work for you. Look at what you’re taught, try it and if it doesn’t work, change it.
#7: You really need to love what you are doing.
I used to be in corporate, and I made a lot of money in IT and telecom, and I had a nice team and I loved it, but it got icky. Over the years, it got icky. Don’t get me wrong, the paycheck was wonderful, but it wasn’t worth it. Re-evaluate your work if you are not happy with it.
Also, you need to love what you do, so you really need to be careful who you partner with too. A business partner burn is not great at all.
#8: You need to have realistic expectations.
Expectations in your business are like goal setting, visioning and writing everything down. When you start your own business, you need to go easy on yourself, seriously cut yourself a lot of slack. Because you don’t know what your business is going to do. If you’ve had a business and it’s in the same realm, then sure you can have the same expectations. You need to be really clear and …
#9: Don’t expect to be up and running in a year.
Ponder this … How do you set an expectation about something that you don’t know? I set monthly and weekly goals, but I don’t know if it’ll work out that way. You don’t know what will happen. Can you put a timeline on when you want your business to be done? You may achieve part of it, or most, but will it ever be done?
#10: Don’t dwell on mistakes or what you didn’t know. Just keep moving forward!
So many people beat themselves up about everything. Take what it takes for you to get your clients, write it down into steps and number those steps. Know what it takes to get you a client, because this is super-important. Instead of dwelling, take a look at what steps you missed.
Doing a business plan-your way and in your time!
Today we’re talking about business plans. The point is not to finish. It’s to start your plan, update it, look at it, think about it and maybe glance at it sitting over there dusty on the shelf. But for the radio show, I removed some of the sections that are … honestly, quite icky.
First, let me do a little caveat disclaimer here. Those of you who know me also know that I don’t like structure. My rule for 2009 is this: I’m looking for structure. It is good for my brain which is going superfast all the time. Structure slows me down.
I have several business plan templates that I’m working from – one is for an established business and one is for a startup. If you’d like a copy of these, email me at susan@susankildahl.com. Since structure is the name of the game, I’m going to do my business plan which hasn’t been updated for far too long.
For you, here’s some advice on how to approach some pertinent sections of your business plan:
- Table of Contents: Dull but necessary
- Executive Summary: Write this last
- General Company Description: if you can’t write this, you have no business being in business.
- Vision Statement: I’m adding this one in, because I want you to have a vision statement. And it answers this question – what do you want your business to look like? It needs to be precise, personal and exact. It’s not an entire paragraph. And it should be a reflection of you and who you are.
- Mission Statement: If you don’t know what your mission is, you really need to get started. Wow, if you don’t know what you are trying to accomplish, then you have no business being in business. Here’s what you do, go online and google mission statements of big companies: Target, Walmart, Johnson & Johnson, Best Buy and Noodles. Remember, your vision statement is personal and your mission statement is business.
- Products and Services: For those of you who have a product which is yourself — we are the product, we are the service. I have a radio show, a coaching business, a networking group, a book in progress. I do tele-seminars, classes and speaking engagements. This is the kind of information that you want to put in products and services. And, you should include products and services that you want to have later. If you are your product or service, you need to become product driven as I am becoming a product-driven coach.
- Marketing Plan: This is a real grown-up section, and it has a lot of really cool stuff in here, so fill in what you want. I’m going to suggest that you keep this template and not delete what you don’t use because you might need it later.
- Networking and Marketing: Do you know the difference between networking and marketing? Networking is what you do to go out and meet people and build relationships. Marketing is what you use to get your name out there: your book, website, business cards, brochures, flyers, tv show or keychains.
- Marketing Research: For Jan, a wellness coach who does healing touch, she may google other wellness coaches to see what their pricing structure is. Price points should be in your business plans, along with how you upsell and downsell. If you’re uncomfortable about what you charge, you need to hire me for a 1-1/2 hour performance plan and I’ll sit your butt down and set it straight. I’ll point out exactly what you need to charge to make up for undercharging yourself.
- Customers: Who are your customers? My customers are people in business who have to get their own clients. You can also complete the age, gender, location, income level, social class (I really don’t care about this).
- Competition: Do you need to know who your competition is? Maybe. Mainly, know what they’re charging and if they’re in the same price range. This way, you’ll know if you’re undercharging or overcharging. And if you want to overcharge and you can get the business, more power to you. Personally, I keep my rates competitive and not super icky.
- Niche: Who hires you? I have a definite niche. My market is so specific, anyone in business who has to get their own clients and isn’t making the money that they want. I’m a strategy coach and that’s what I do. I think you need to know who your client is and this part right here.
- Marketing Strategy: You need a strategy for marketing – it’s all about what you spend to talk about you. Keep in mind that marketing is your products and services, the part that sells them. Do you have a strategy for your website? What does your promotional material say about you?
- Operational Plan: If you have brick and mortar, fill out this section, but we’ll skip most of it for now.
- Credit policies: I personally like and use Paypal, because I don’t have to pay a lot of fees and all that yada yada yada. When a client calls me and wants to pay with a business credit card, I send them to the PayPal link, and within five minutes, I can have their money. Keep in mind though, if you’re out there and you can sell tele-classes, seminars or books, you can then have a little handheld machine – they’re about $1,000. Or you can have a shopping cart but that involves gateways and all real grown-up stuff that I don’t like dealing with, so Larry deals with it for me.
- Management and Organization: This is where you put all your people, including your accountant, lawyer and others.
- Personal Financial Statement: You can get this from your accountant or use Quickbooks to gather this data together.
- Financial History and Analysis: Put in any projections for the year that you have. If you’re trying to sell a business, bring in a partner, get funding, financing, lending, you want to pretty much put in whatever you can. Talk to your attorney, talk to your CPA. If you’re a startup, you’re not going to have anything, so you’ll want two years’ income tax returns, basic stuff.
- Financial Plan: Wow! What is cash flow? I’ve heard of that one. This is some real grown up stuff. Once again, if you’re trying to sell, get funding or to bring in a partner at some point, your business plan is going to be much more detailed, much more grown up, as I say, and robust.
- Balance Sheet: You need to know what your bills are. When you’re talking about all this financial stuff, take your time on it.
- Raising Capital: This is if you need to get a loan or get partners. Most of us who are home-based don’t deal with this at all. I’m not going to sell my business, because my business is me. If I got to the point where I was copywriting or trademarking a lot of the stuff I’m doing, I would need this part.
My business has changed so much since last summer. But do I update my business plan all the time … NOOO! Never beat yourself up for doing what you didn’t do before. As Heidi says, you don’t know what you don’t know. There you go.
Keep in mind, this is not meant to be filled out and completed today or tomorrow. There is no timeframe, so just get it done as much as you can get it done. If it still seems big, you can start to write it out on index cards. If you’re still struggling, bring your plan to any of my networking events this month, and I can help you. On the 14th at 4:30pm, we’re at the Fox and Hound in Littleton; on the 23rd at 11:00am, we’ll again be at the Fox and Hound in Littleton; and on the 26th at 9:00am at the Sunnyside Café on S. Colorado Blvd.
If you do your business plan right, it will never be finished. A business plan is a very dynamic document. If you think it’s a one-shot deal, you should not be spending your time on this document.
And please remember to join us for next week’s show on Wednesday. Our topic is very exciting: if I can do it, you can do it. It’s all about learning from others.
