Are You Serious About Starting A New Business Venture?
I've noticed something in the last couple of weeks that I find quite striking.
I'm running into a lot of people - a LOT - who have started up their own business ventures. A lot of people have lost their jobs, and a number just got fed up and decided to strike out on their own. As a result, there's a wide range of one-person businesses that have cropped up in the last year or two.
Perhaps it's always been this vibrant - I'm not sure. The point is that I'm seeing a lot of them because I'm out there networking, promoting my own business.
In a matter of just a few minutes' conversation, I tend to classify each person as serious about their business, or not so much.
I'm not talking about whether they're GOOD at their business - we all make plenty of mistakes when we first start out.
I'm noticing whether they're DEDICATED to their venture.
Serious
- Is making the outcome happen
- Is working at it full time
- Makes decisions
- Speeds up
- Self-energizes
- "I am doing, we are doing"
- Obstacles are a way to learn
- Sees positive signs, hopeful
Not Serious
- Is wishing the outcome will happen
- Is working on it as convenient
- Waits for decisions
- Slows down
- Gets discouraged
- "They are (or aren't) doing"
- Obstacles are a reason to stop
- Sees all the negative signs
There's a particular franchise that's become quite popular of late, and I've run across a bunch of people who have signed up as one-person franchisees. When I talk to the 10% who are serious, they:
- Know their products very well
- Are actively seeking customers every day who would like to work with them
- Know exactly how their business is doing
- Envision a future with the company, and are doing things to build it
The other 90% are less serious, it's clear that they're just dabbling and hoping for some income until a "real job" comes along. But they're sabotaging their business success: Nobody but their current family and friends is ever going to become a customer.
Yes, I think the ratio is roughly 90/10. I've seen this pattern enough times now, and have tested my theory with others.
Why do you suppose that the most successful franchises have such high fees? A compelling reason is to weed out the 90%, so the 10% who are serious can join and build a robust business. And the other 90% aren't out there damaging the quality of the brand.
So… Are you putting in the serious effort it’s going to take for your new business to succeed? Or are you just dabbling?
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
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Random Acts Of Marketing
- Put a few ads in the newspaper.
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Send out a mailing to your list of prospects.
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Hand out some coupons.
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Attend a networking function.
I’ve worked with a number of businesses that have marketing programs like this. Is it effective? Likely not. Why?
First, for many of these efforts, the first attempt will have absolutely no impact. In fact, studies have shown that it’s going to take seven tries before that prospect is even aware of you. And it’s going to take perhaps 20 tries before they have any kind of preference to even check you out. I have every reason to believe that these numbers have increased, as we’ve become more and more deluged with information and advertising.
Second, you need to be reaching the right audience. Let’s say that you have a pizza joint that serves students at the university. Will coupons in the newspaper work? If it’s the school daily, perhaps. If it’s the community paper, no way. And you may get a lot more traction handing out coupons at the student commons than by assuming that anybody is reading newspapers anymore.
Third, your message needs to be consistent for any particular prospect. If your pitch at the networking function is about cheap and easy, and in the advertisement is about slow and high quality, you’re going to confuse people. And people don’t buy when they’re confused.
Here’s the key principles of a productive marketing strategy:
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Invest in the methods which actually reach the right people and have impact
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Do it repeatedly, so you can get people to recognize, remember, and prefer your company
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Be consistent, so that each prospect is hearing reinforcing messages through different media
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And measure results!
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
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Business Coaching for Partners
I’ve had occasion to work with business partners as my clients, and it’s an interesting dynamic. Here’s why:
Partners often enter into a business relationship because they recognize that they need to bring together different skills and viewpoints in order to help the company succeed. That’s wonderful, and it usually works quite well.
Often the two will have a “50-50 mindset”: the significant decisions will be made with equal input from both people, which then implies that consensus (pretty much full agreement) is the way to bring it to conclusion. Even if one partner owns more of the company than the other, it’s still desirable to reach a consensus agreement because that makes for a stronger forward motion. Employees like to see consistency and agreement, as do customers and investors.
Remember, though: These are two different people, with different backgrounds, viewpoints, and personal goals. So if you rely entirely on consensus decisions as your only tool, you may find times where you reach an impasse. Or, you get APPARENT agreement, but without full commitment. That can be even more dangerous than outright disagreement, because there’s less than full honesty.
This is where a business coach really helps to create a stronger alignment. When I’m working with partners, I often explore HOW they make decisions, where they have independent areas of ownership and when they want to drive a deeper alignment. I help them to get their viewpoints, opinions and emotions out on the table where they can be talked about in a less contentious way. Part of that is just having a third person in the room, but it’s also important that I ask some probing questions and honestly listen to the responses.
The result is sometimes quite startling: I find partners who are able to go back to their core reasons for working together, rather than focusing on the differences. Often what appears to be a large gap becomes much smaller, and can be resolved via compromises and creative alternatives. And what results is stronger alignment to create a powerful future for the business.
If you work in a partnership of some kind and sense that there could be value in aligning the two of you and helping to resolve differences, give us a ring. We’d be glad to sit down with you and show you what a great coaching conversation looks like.
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
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Maintain A Balance In Business
I had a person cancel a meeting with me this morning, which might have been a bit annoying. But the reason was that he’d experienced the death of a close friend, and was frantically trying to figure out how to get to New York as soon as possible.
You know what? That’s more important than our meeting. And even if he would have shown up, he would have been totally distracted because of the emotional turmoil that he’s going through. So we rescheduled for next week, no problem.
In your own business, I’ve found that it’s helpful to keep a little perspective about such things. Sure, business is important – you’re devoting a huge amount of your time and energy to it. But if you can’t take a little time to focus on relationships, on your mental and spiritual health, then what’s the point? And remember, the same is true for your employees. They also need to get away from the stresses of the job in order to maintain a bit of balance.
That balance will make them better employees too: more dedicated, more inspired, more customer-focused. You can’t beat that into them using pressure.
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
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Transitioning Ownership of Your Business
I’ve worked with several people who were involved in a transition of leadership for their companies or organizations. It’s a very interesting journey, with many layers and nuances.
If the current owner started the company, then he’s going to have a great deal of personal ownership tied up in it. Even if he’s getting burned out and wants to leave, he’s still going to be attached to the history. He’ll remember sitting around the kitchen table drawing diagrams, the day the business opened, and the first customer. All of these are emotionally charged events, and it’s hard to give them up.
It’s kind of like a divorce, or a close friend dying. It’s impossible not to get drawn into emotional responses.
The new owner, on the other hand, has her own history – both inside and outside this company. She’s going to have a fresh viewpoint, even if she’s a strong supporter of the previous owner. It’s natural for her to have difficulty balancing these new ideas and the old way of doing things. If she moves too quickly, that’s taking on significant risk. But staying with the old means that progress can slow to a crawl.
Notice that I haven’t even talked about the technical knowledge needed to transition ownership. That’s the easiest part, because often the technical skills are fairly visible. When the new and old owners have a chance to plan the shift a year or more in advance, it’s not hard to build a comprehensive list of everything that needs to be done, to analyze how decisions were made, and the relationships that will be tested when the switchover occurs.
Let’s not forget the adjustment that employees make when leadership changes. Usually their jobs don’t change much, at least not initially. But the relationship with your manager, especially if that’s the company owner, is an important part of whether you’re happy on the job or not. So all these relationships will essentially be re-negotiated from scratch. That takes time.
The best advice I give people is to:
- Plan the transition well in advance – preferably, more than a year
- Create a rigorous plan for transition of technical knowledge
- Develop a comprehensive list of all the relationships which will be touched: partners, employees, managers, suppliers, and customers
- Be patient with the internal emotional journeys each person needs to go through
- Learn as you go – it’s never perfect!
Are you thinking about how you might change leadership in your company? Start working through these points, even if you’re not sure when it’s going to happen.
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
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Your Target Niche
I often ask people to identify the target market niche for their product or service. Many answer, “Anyone who will give me money!”
OK, that’s good for a chuckle – we all need all the customers we can get. And who’s to turn away someone who wants to spend money?
But when I ask the question again, it’s clear that many people don’t have much of an answer. That’s a problem. When you’re trying to market to everyone:
- You’re spreading your budget so thin that you can’t spend enough to be make much of an impression with anyone.
- Your message is so vague and diffuse that people often aren’t clear about why you’re different than anyone else.
Here’s the challenge, then: Go ahead and sell to anyone who wants to buy. But when you’re developing your message, make the target narrow enough that you can achieve real intensity, real leadership. Ideally you’d like to have a target market that’s large enough to keep you in business, and a message that clearly shows how you’re head and shoulders above the competition.
It’s not easy.
I recently developed an example business which would be focused on left-handed tools. Forget for the moment that there probably aren’t enough uniquely left-handed tools to actually make this a successful business. Instead, let’s think about the strength of the message.
- Could there be a large enough market? Well, 10% of the population is left-handed, so that could be a decent size for a small business.
- Is it a unique message? Quite possibly, especially if you’re talking about an actual storefront. There’s left-handed stores on websites, but if there was a good reason for people to prefer a more personal experience, a storefront could be a powerful selling point.
- Could you achieve a “best in class” perception? Quite possibly, because lefties are treated as an afterthought by most stores which sell tools.
Next: If you were to create such a store, would you ONLY sell left-handed tools? Probably not, because that would ignore the fact that most tools are in fact ambidextrous. And actively DISsatisfying right-handed customers might create problems.
Your product offering can be larger than your highly targeted message, to the degree it makes sense. But create a truly powerful position in the market so people can see why you’re different, why they should care.
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
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Picking The Best Networking Forums
Yesterday I got my weekly message from meetup.com: “Last week there were 240 meetups in Fort Collins!”
Like that’s a good thing. Delete.
Networking meetings can be useful, and a huge asset for people who are seeking out groups of common interest, even if that’s just to hang out and drink coffee for an hour. But if you have a business to take care of, how do you decide where it’s useful to spend your valuable time? Actually, it’s quite simple:
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People who are your target customers
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People who can help to bring in new customers through influence or referrals
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People who have knowledge you’d like to acquire
The problem is that you often don’t know the true nature of a networking group until you’ve attended a few meetings. That’s where your friends, associates and employees can help you out. Figure out what your most important networking goals are, let these people know, and listen to their ideas and recommendations. Try out a few meetings, and then move on to somewhere else if it looks like the wrong group for you.
I met with a gentleman a few months ago who was very clear on his objective for attending a networking meeting: “My task is to arrange for two one-on-one meetings, and when I’ve achieved that, I walk out.” Here’s the problem: His goal wasn’t aligned with the nature of the group. It was designed as a generous give-and-take, while his goal was purely to take.
Needless to say, he doesn’t see much success with this approach. He might arrange two meetings, but people aren’t happy about it. He’s leaving a whole bunch of dissatisfied people in his wake, actually damaging his reputation in the market.
My point is that it’s critical to ensure you have alignment between your personal goals and those of the group. If you don’t have that alignment, it’s probably better to avoid getting involved at all.
And if you see a group that should exist but doesn’t, go ahead and create one. It’s never been easier to find people who share a common interest, no matter how narrow.
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
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What's Customer Satisfaction Really Mean?
I’m out there talking with all kinds of business owners in different industries. Most of them claim that a key differentiator for their business is that it maintains a high level of customer satisfaction based on understanding needs, providing great service, and fixing up anything that goes wrong.
The problem is that if everybody is taking the same approach, it’s not a differentiator. It’s become the new normal.
Either that, or people are kidding themselves. I find that a lot, actually. When I walk into a business, I try to get a sense for what the customer experience might be. I was in a shop last week where the owner raved about their customer service, but in fact it took quite a few minutes for anyone to acknowledge my existence when I walked in. And when someone approached me, it was pretty brusque, not particularly welcoming at all.
And don’t get me started about the number of business owners who don’t actually answer the phone, or don’t respond to contacts in a timely manner.
How do you know if your business is actually delivering the level of customer service you want? Well, don’t ask your employees – they want to keep their jobs. Don’t ask your managers – they don’t want you to yell at them. Don’t ask your friends – they don’t want to criticize you.
Ask your customers. They’re the ones that matter. And ask your NON-customers, the ones who decided not to do business with you. They have a different viewpoint on how the experience went.
How do you ask them? This is tricky. You could ask your next customer, “how did you like the experience of working with us?” But there’s every chance that they’ll avoid any confrontation, giving you generic answers but little useful information. If you ask something more specific, though, you could get powerful feedback. “We have a goal to welcome everyone within one minute – did that happen?” “Where do you feel we could have done a better job of explaining your options?”
Here’s a very powerful concept: Ask people for helpful and constructive input, rather than critical feedback. Most people avoid being critical to your face if they don’t have to. But if you ask them for help so you can improve things next time around, many people really would like to feel helpful. “What would make this an awesome experience for the next customer who walks in the door?” “Do you have any ideas for how we could have made your time with us better?”
And always say thank you. For real. Not that bland “Thank you for your feedback, we value your time blah blah blah” stuff that I got at the end of the survey I filled out this afternoon.
If you want to be better than the competition by having more satisfied and loyal customers, you always have to be striving to improve. Big steps, little steps, but keep moving.
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
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That Feeling Of Isolation
I was talking with a person this week who has some struggles with being isolated from the rest of the community. She happens to live with all her customers, 24x7, and has a tough time making connections with others outside her business.
For her company, she needs to be out there developing relationships with future customers. She can’t just throw money at advertising and expect people to walk in.
I’ve seen a lot of business owners who struggle with a similar problem. It’s not because they’re physically isolated from the rest of the community, but that they’re working 80 hours a week and don’t have the strength to get out there and interact with the larger world. This typically creates a few problems:
- They’re not making connections with people who might be future customers, partners, or employees.
- They’re not getting new business ideas which might produce breakthroughs.
- They’ve sacrificed their quality of life, and personal relationships are suffering.
This sense of isolation can be damaging, even fatal, to your company.
Most people recognize that they should be watching the competition, and general developments in the industry. It’s great to keep up on the right magazines, trade groups and newsletters. But there are much bigger opportunities out there.
One of my roles as a coach is to ask, “why do you do it that way?” And I’m not talking about just your company – this includes asking why your industry does it that way. I ask this because I often find innovative ideas which exist in one place and are totally unknown somewhere else. I’ve been amazed at some of the great progress I’ve seen in making stores more comfortable and attractive to customers – these might not be in YOUR industry, so maybe you have to look around at other examples.
Where do you find out about these kinds of things? Talk to friends in other industries. Read more general business blogs. Pay attention when you’re out running personal errands.
But don’t get stuck inside your own industry. Other people will come from the outside, inject some new ideas, and become the new winners.
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
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Getting Ahead of Time Management
Whenever I start working with a new client, time management is often an urgent issue. The obvious question is, “How can I find time to work on coaching if I don’t have enough time to even run my business?” This is tricky, but not as impossible as you might think.
I took on a new client last year who had exactly this problem. He was working about 14 hours a day, didn’t feel that he could ever close his door to interruptions, getting further and further behind in his email and tasks. His health and personal relationships were declining, and of course his stress was out of control.
I pointed out that he happened to have a 15 minute commute. Since he’s outside the US, he is able to have a driver take him to and from the office. What would happen if he would use those 15 minutes to think and plan, rather than start in on his voice messages?
We fanned the tiny flame. 15 minutes a day turned into some dedicated planning time. He started looking at the larger business world, capturing ideas from others in his industry and others. Today he’s in control of his time and has cut down his work hours substantially.
In some sense, controlling you time isn’t particularly complicated. Prioritize what’s most important. Work on each task when you can be most effective. Limit interruptions.
But in reality, this is incredibly difficult. You don’t feel you have control over the constant flood of incoming issues. Prioritizing seems an impossible task.
The secret, if there is one, is to start simple. Do what’s possible, and grow it. Don’t start by obligating yourself to an hour of exercise every day – instead take a 5 minute walk and expand that as you see success and make it a habit. If your “daily plan” is a few scribbles on the back of a napkin, go for it.
It just might work!
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
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