▪      Shed Unprofitable Customers
▪      Buy To Diversify
▪      Let Principles Rule
▪      Invest In Staff
▪      Set Goals With Guts
▪      Audit, Then Diet
▪      Make a Don’t-Do List
▪      Go Online To Streamline
▪      Add A Product
▪      Invest In Technology
▪      Grow Customer Base
▪      Trim the Dead Wood
▪      Sell Online
▪      Steal Business From The Big Boys
▪      Boost Efficiency

They also included 7 things you must do now to make 2010 a better year:

▪      Shake Things Up
▪      Scout Talent
▪      Keep Talent
▪      Farm It Out
▪      Don’t Overextend
▪      Tackle Taxes Now
▪      Just Do It

They are all great.  Not profound, but straight, direct, and doable.  We’ll expand on these in future posts.  For now, think about them.  Take one or two and try it.  You’ll be surprised at how easy it is.  It only takes a little time, forethought and implementation.

Those of you who know me know that I am direct, straight-forward and try to cut through the fluff and get to the point.  That’s why I have moved on from corporate America where the politics and bureaucracy stifles momentum.  When I read about health care “reform” and see the maneuvering, it makes my blood boil.

A few weeks ago, I was reading Newsweek and came across an article about health care reform.  The graphic introduction summarized what to expect:

▪      You will be required to buy health insurance
▪      Exchanges will provide affordable plans
▪      You cannot be denied coverage based on a pre-existing condition
▪      “Cadillac” plans may be eliminated
▪      Your kids can stay on your insurance longer
▪      Costs will be capped
▪      The government may help you pay your premiums
▪      Medical drug benefits will improve
▪      Riskier customers cannot be charged astronomical premiums
▪      Medicaid will service more people

Well, it sure sounds like a little something for everyone. It’s a program all right.  There is what I will call a “consumers bill of health care rights” but, there is nothing really about reform.  And, reform in my books includes accountability.  Accountability by the vendors, providers AND patients.                                

I spent some time in the benefits area of health care and still get Employee Benefits News, a publication that does a good job of presenting various issues and a range of views.  I found the following article in the December 2009 edition.  Health care reform in six steps – well, not maybe steps, but definitely what needs to be fixed and the stakeholders of accountability.

What does this have to do with SMART business?  Hmmmm….you tell me.

If you want to increase your chances of success, treat every interaction as a chance to demonstrate your professionalism. If you say you’re going to do something, do it. Competition is fierce, and successful businesses cannot afford to be known for their unreliability.

If your client or vendor cannot rely on you to keep your word, chances are they will seek someone else who will. Would you continue to patronize a business or service that doesn’t seem to have time for you? Doesn’t return your calls? Doesn’t do what they say they will do for you when they say they’re going to do it?

Whenever possible, give yourself leeway within your deadlines, making sure that you deliver promptly and ahead of schedule. If your deadlines become unmanageable, adjust expectations—it’s much better to tell a client that something will be late than to leave them guessing.

For those businesses that work SMART, courtesy is a key factor in client retention and growth.

Run a Financial Check-up

Are you where you had hoped to be financially for the year? Check your profit and loss, income, and expense reports. Review your sales reports to determine the more profitable areas of business and areas where sales were sub par. Create a plan for increasing business in more profitable areas during the coming year. Either prepare to eliminate less profitable ventures, channels, or market segments, or create plans to increase their profitability.

Prepare a Budget

Examine your projected budget and actual expenses for the year. Prepare a budget for the New Year, and resolve to stick to it. Factor in expenses for computer and software updates and new equipment purchases. Be sure to allow for changes in your marketing strategy for the upcoming year. Prepare a list of areas to cut if profits or cash flow start running below expectations and a list of contingent opportunities to add or increase if cash flow runs higher.

Businesses that fail to plan, plan to fail. Create that fresh business plan you’ve been thinking about. Or, if your financial check-up shows variances, fine-tune your existing business plan for the coming year. Set aside some quality time in January to lay the groundwork for future sales.

Create a Marketing Plan

Evaluate your marketing mix for the past year and make changes for the better for the coming year. Freshen up your marketing message and strategy. Are you consistently getting the right message out to the public, or do you find your strategy and materials are sending out mixed messages?

Update the Database

Review your database, updating information as needed. Renew contact with lapsed customers and touch base with your existing customers. Ask for more referrals from some of your best customers; connecting their associates’ business with yours is a win-win situation. It is a quick and inexpensive way to increase business.

Review Staff

Identify staff behaviors and accomplishments that should be acknowledged or even rewarded. Also, identify those whose behaviors or work needs to be addressed and improved. Everyone wants feedback on how they are doing. If you have difficulty remembering pertinent examples, schedule a few minutes each day or week to update notes (both positive and negative) for performance reviews for each of your direct reports.

Learn Something New

Resolve to update or improve your professional skills. Take a class or plan to read a book or two in an area in which you feel you could use more training.

Try this: Try one new habit at a time.  If you take the 52 weeks in a year and divide by 3 weeks (21 day period) you find that you can develop 17 new habits each year.  Think about it – that’s a LOT.

My first resolution is to get my emails under control.  I have started to schedule when I check my email inbox – 4 times a day.  Wouldn’t life be grand with email under control?  It’s vital to communications, but it can be a big time-drain.  So, it’s my top SMART business priority.

It Takes Many Hands to Move a Ship

Maybe you have heard from, or commiserated with, other owners and managers who have been trying to “turn the ship” and feel that it is a solitary endeavor. Steering a new course is always challenging, but if you agree with the premise that it is easier to steer a ship when all hands set the rigging toward your intended heading, then it makes sense to bring your “crew” up to speed with your plans and not to consider them as adversaries. If you see yourself as solely responsible for bringing about change, your employees will probably wonder where, if at all, they fit into your plans. When they know “something”—but not “what”—is going on, they may fear that any action might hinder rather than assist your change, or they may take incorrect action. This can take the “wind out of their sails” and cause them to step back and avoid any actions that you may potentially welcome.

Keep an Open Mind

If you are coming into a new situation, keep an open mind about an individual employee’s performance. Most people perform differently under various circumstances. Evaluate any information given to you by previous management in light of your own observations. Communicate and interact with employees to learn more about their strengths and weaknesses and how they interact and work with others. You may be able to inspire a disgruntled or underutilized employee to step up and meet new challenges. Going into a new endeavor with a “clean house” approach usually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and can cripple your business, leaving it short on valuable experience. Better to go with a “clean slate” approach.

Address Employee Fears

Employee resistance to change is largely based on fear of change. If your employees appear to be resisting change, ask questions to find out why. They may fear that the company will not survive a change or that they will lose their job. Change may bring specific challenges to them that they feel ill-equipped to meet. Communicate your reasons for bringing change to the company and the negative consequences of not taking action. Listen to and acknowledge your employees’ thoughts. Try to minimize the hardships of change for employees. If job responsibilities are changed, offer an opportunity for training. If an employee wants to take this opportunity to try something different, see if this can fit with, or even facilitate, your plans. If you need to cut staff in some areas, retained staff will judge how you handle it. You might shuffle staff in different groups; give ample notice; or provide outplacement assistance, severance, or re-training.

Is your information and your business at risk? Theft, natural disasters, fires, broken water pipes, computer failure, viruses, and errors can torpedo your computer data and leave you scrambling to access critical information. The Small Business Administration noted that 85% of small businesses that lose their data close their doors within 18 months.

How many times have you called people only to hear that they can’t access their information because their computer “crashed”? Or, their system had a “melt down”? To me, that raises red flags: small thinking, lack of vision and safeguards, and questions about viability of their product or services.

With today’s technology, protecting your data IS protecting your business. And, with all of the options out there – there is no excuse. Be sure to backup your computer data frequently, and store that data in secure locations on- and off-site. There are so many ways to back up your data – DVDs, CDs, external hard drives, memory sticks, and external servers are a few.

If you haven’t done a backup, stop now! Assess your computer system and files and back up your data, documents, financial information, applications, contact list, and database – the information you take for granted will always be at your fingertips. Then, create and keep a backup schedule and continue with daily, weekly, and yearly backups.

The next time I hear “My computer crashed and I lost my data,” is the time I change vendors. Reliable vendors and partners all fit into a winning mix, When SMART Business Matters.

It costs more money to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing customer; if you want to increase sales, start with your address book. Are there more services or goods you could be selling to current customers, or have you come up with any ideas on how to offer them creative solutions to reach their business goals? Can they refer you to any other businesses or individuals who may need your services? Set aside a half-hour a day to check in with lapsed customers. Are there new products or services you can offer them? Are you now in a better position to offer better prices, services, or quality than your competitors?

And, when you reach the end of your Rolodex, try tapping a good client. When was the last time you called a good (reference-able) client and said: “Mark, this is Kathy. Will you do me a favor? Can you go through your Rolodex and give me 10 names and numbers of people you recommend that I call to introduce my services?” How can they say “no”? You will find that most people want to help.

When SMART Business Matters, all you need to do is: Just Ask

Communications priorities sure have changed as email tries to take over our professional and personal lives. We are all inundated with emails. It’s overwhelming. We need to be selective – we understand all of that and do our best. Yet, it doesn’t stop with emails. There are those which I call the email permutations: texts, tweets, IMs, Facebooking, Pings, etc. And as if that’s not enough, there are the pre-recorded phone calls, cluttering the way for the poor sales person who does attempt to make cold phone calls (I still have a soft spot for them). Then, there is snail mail. And, between all of those, there are the many phones and voice mails we seemed to be chained to – for whatever reason.

The dilemma is: how to respond?        

Let’s put them in perspective or – dare we say – priority with a corresponding responsibility when you are on the receiving end.

1. The personal phone call (or voice mail) – When I want to speak with someone, I pick up the phone and call them. It still has the most professional impact, and personal interaction goes a lot farther than any other means of communications. Yes, I know the college kids today mostly communicate via text message, but that should change in the workplace. At least I hope it does!

Responsibility: Call me old fashioned, but if someone takes the time to call me personally, I return the call. I may not be able to do it immediately, but I do respond. It’s professional courtesy. And, people don’t forget.

1. The personal email – Amidst all of the email clutter, there are emails from people who just feel more comfortable sending an email. Or, maybe it’s the best way they can communicate. I’m a perfect example. While I would rather pick up the phone to communicate, sometimes I run out of hours in the business day. Being a business owner, my day doesn’t stop at 5pm. As a night owl who is productive when the phone stops ringing, I can crank out a lot of responses and outreaches via email.

Responsibility: If someone takes the time to send me a personal email, I either respond via email or phone. It may take me a while to either get to it or find the time to craft an appropriate response, but I usually respond. I say ‘usually’ because with the number of emails (400 or so a day), some can get inadvertently lost in the ever-growing inbox or deleted in the semi-weekly purge.

1. The rest – And then there is the rest of the story. Depending on your chosen method (or generation) of communication, you brand yourself by your outreach and by your response.

Responsibility: No matter what your choice of communication, your response brands you. It demonstrates your image, professionalism, and respect for clients, colleagues, and business associates.

Your Professional Business Courtesy makes the difference When SMART Business Matters.

I marvel at the talent, innovation and speed of the entrepreneur.  After spending many years in corporate America, I find the entrepreneur refreshing and challenging. Always keeping me on my toes! But, it’s that innovation and do it now movement that is setting the pace for this economic recovery. The entrepreneur doesn’t have time to lick wounds or trim fat – they run lean operations and are always on the lookout. And, they are willing to take risk and move quickly.

Call it: Disruptive Innovation.

Disruptive innovation is an innovation that improves products or services in unexpected ways, affecting existing markets. These innovative products and services are often offered at a lower price than similar existing products and services or to a different set of consumers. Tough economic times often bring out the best from small business professionals and can foster a period of creativity. That’s why Professor Clayton Christensen at Harvard Business School feels like this economy will have a positive effect on innovation. Small business owners have the ability to change quickly and shake things up. They can also benefit by partnering with larger businesses that may be too big or cumbersome to change quickly and may be in need of a swift change-up in technology, services, and products that small businesses can provide.

Small business employs upwards of 50% of Americans. Disruptive Innovation has my support – When SMART Business Matters.