Investment in Leadership

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Janna

Are you a leader?  What makes a business owner a good leader?  What makes an executive a good leader? How is leadership defined?  Enough of the questions.  Each of those questions are at the foundation of understanding where you are as a leader and how to recognize good leadership.  Executives are often criticized for lack of leadership or at least quality leadership.  What most have a hard time determining is: what is true leadership vs. good management vs. not doing what the leader wants done, which is loosely interpreted as: I don’t agree.

Leadership is defined as influence – trusted influence.  The influence you have on others can be determined as good, or not good.  We all influence, it is how influence is used.    Everything rises and falls on the quality of leadership in your organization.  The organization can only rise to the level of your leadership.  If your business isn’t growing or your team isn’t moving forward you need to look at yourself and determine where your leadership needs to change.  Essentially your business won’t surpass your leadership skills.

What areas of leadership do you need to invest?  An investment in yourself has a high rate of return.  You are worth the investment.

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Mindset for Excellence in Life

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Janna

As a business owner, are you comfortable?  Do you challenge yourself every day?  Do you get out of your comfort zone and do things different, in new ways, and with new thoughts?  Here is one – do you go to work the same way every single day?  STOP IT

I challenge my Colorado Springs business clients, with – if you are comfortable, relaxed, and doing things the same way today as 1, 5, or 10 years ago, then look at your business.  Is it where you want to be, or has your business gotten comfortable to the point of not returning to you, your family, your team and your investors the results they want?  There is a book called “If it ain’t broke… break it!” by Robert J. Kriegel and Louis Patler.  The premise is we need to change.  Marketing must be different today than it was yesterday.  Sales can’t be done the same way they always have.  One of the stories in the book is about football.  In the 1930’s the game was primarily a running game, till one coach decided to try passing.  He was ridiculed, talked about, made fun of – until it started working.  Now football is very much a passing game. 

What do you need to do different in your business?  Do you need to change your mindset so you embrace change?  Do you train your team to look for new ways to do things?  Do you change just for the sake of keeping yourself on your toes, your mind working and those around your guessing?  Your customers are always expecting you to improve and do things better, are you?

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Mindset for Excellence in Business Owners

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Janna

I have seen these mindsets with my Colorado Springs business coaching clients.  Do you recognize them?  When the employee receives the promotion, they will have the clout to act like an executive.  When the business owner gets the big contract they will be successful.  When the sales person closes the deal they will have the confidence to close larger accounts.  Each of these examples starts at the end of the equation. 

When the employee starts to BE the executive in mindset, attitude, focus and results – they will DO the necessary things that will ensure they HAVE the promotion.  BE X DO = HAVE.  In our society, we want the results first and believe the actions will come afterward.  Reality is just the opposite.  We want to BE a business owner of a $5million business, and then we will start acting like one.  That doesn’t mean spend like one.  Set your mindset of where you want to be.  It will take time.  A physicist starts becoming a physicist long before they get the degree.  They start by studying, learning, applying and getting the degree.  It may be years/decades before they have the credentials.

DO:  Hang out with those who do own $5M businesses.  Dress like them, read what they read, go to conferences that other larger business owners attend, ask them to lunch, get them to mentor you.  Create a path.  Most importantly DO, don’t wait, DO.

HAVE:  This will come, it may take time.  Enjoy the journey, learn, BE ready to mentor someone else.  Show them how to DO the things that will make them a success.  You will then HAVE more than you imagined.

Keith Cunningham said “Hell on earth would be running into the person I could have been”

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A Mindset for Business Excellence in Colorado Springs

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Janna

Are you – positioned for growth in your business, ready to enjoy the profits from the year, looking to hire new employees, focused on the goals for my business?  Do those words describe you, your business and your environment?  They should.   Business owners, executives, team members need to have a mindset for excellence.  How do you get there and what does it mean?

Above the line behavior is the first step.  As a Colorado Springs business coach, I see many owners focus on below the line behavior: Blame, Excuses, and Denial, which create the word BED.  Your competition may want to blame the economy, have 25 excuses for why they didn’t make a profit or deny that any of their business challenges start with them.  Above the line behavior has a mindset for excellence that will focus on Ownership, Accountability and Responsibility – OAR.  You own the oar for your ship – your business.  You have the ability to make a difference, to think out of the box, to focus on the positive.  You own the results of your past actions.  What will you change this quarter to make that difference.  Accountability – it isn’t someone else that can make your company profitable – it is you.   You are responsible for your actions – or in many cases – inaction.  To make above the line even more powerful add Results before the OAR – it then creates a ROAR.  That ROAR will be heard throughout your industry, your customers, your employees, and your profit.

Results don’t need to be explained; reasons do (reasons are what you get below the line.)  Are you ready for Results or do you want to stick with all the reasons you aren’t positioned for growth, don’t have profits, can’t hire and don’t know where your business is going.  The choice is yours.

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Do you have the right Team on the Bus?

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Janna

Employees – some business owners love them, some say they will never have them.  Why is that? My Colorado Springs business coaching clients tell me that hiring is the hardest and yet most important thing a business owner/manager can do to affect their business.  Hiring the right employees can allow your business to grow and keep on growing.  Hiring the wrong ones can be VERY expensive, especially if you need to let them go and start the process over again.  Often you have good employees, but just in the wrong “seats” in your business.  So how do you work to ensure you have the right people in the right seat of the bus of your business?  Part of it is art and part of it is science.  Part of it is understanding the person you are interviewing, understanding your own company, and understanding the role of this new person.  So often, bad hiring decisions are made because we really don’t know the job we want them to do, the characteristics of the job, and the characteristics of the individual.  For example, to hire an individual who doesn’t like to talk on the phone to be a telemarketer is a mistake.  However, this type of mistake happens constantly.

 ActionCOACH has a very powerful interviewing process.  Although there is never a 100% guarantee on hiring, it does take the normal hiring process, which at best is a 50/50 chance, and makes it about 75%.  Most people would take those odds to the casino and be very happy.  One of the tools we use is a DISC analysis.  DISC does a great job at assessing (in about 20 minutes) who you are.  There isn’t a right or wrong, but it does show your natural vs. adaptive tendencies.  For example, if you are hiring a new bookkeeper and the DISC profile shows they don’t really like to be detail oriented, but are outgoing, like to organize, and interact with people.  They might not be a great bookkeeper, but they might be a great office manager.

 I can’t tell you how many times I have talked to business owners and they have stated – I used to have employees and it was a total pain.  I am never doing that again!  Well, ok – then you are slated to doing all the work yourself for the rest of your business life, there will be limited growth, limited return on your time investment and just remember that premise when you try to retire.  Instead – maybe look to yourself and determine, were the hires the right ones, did I provide the leadership required and why can the competitor down the street hire, keep staff, and grow when they are in the same business?  We have a saying of “isn’t that interesting” for topics like this.  It should cause us to look within ourselves.

 Now I agree employees can be troublesome. I have hired many, fired many (usually my mistake in hiring) and wondered how to make the process less of an art and more of a science.  I have learned much over the last 25 years and especially the last few years in coaching.  Part of what I do in coaching is look at the organization.  What is truly needed to achieve the goals and what are the personalities.  In many cases, you need to look for attitude far more than what their skills are.  Yes, if you need a scientist they must have the basic skills.  However, I would rather train someone not as qualified but who has the right attitude, then one very qualified with a negative or neutral attitude.  The affect on the business is tremendous.  One of my clients was in the process of hiring someone to help in the office.  They really wanted someone with experience in their industry; however, what they found is someone with a take-charge positive attitude who is willing to think out of the box, but with little industry experience.  That has proven to be a wonderful hire.  Yes, learning the industry has taken a few weeks longer, BUT everything else is providing them what they needed. 

 If you are interesting in the DISC profile, contact me at jannahoiberg@actioncoach.com

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Do you believe in what you provide your clients?

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Janna

What is a guarantee?  Webster defines it as” Something that assures a particular outcome or condition.” Businesses here in Colorado guarantee things from clothing purchases to electrical work.  I guarantee my business coaching clients will see results to their bottom line.  What do you assure your clients you will do?  Do you assure your clients anything?  For example, do you assure them you will show up on time or that you will paint a straight line or that your work will be done up to code?  Will you stand behind the work you have done? 

Why have a Guarantee?  To take the FEAR out of doing business with you.  New customers and sometimes-existing ones are often afraid of doing business with you.  They don’t state it in those terms.  They say it is too much money, they say they aren’t sure, they say they want another opinion and the list goes on.  However, what they are really afraid of is – what happens when I do business with this business?  What happens if there is a problem?  What happens if the product breaks?  What happens if I don’t like the service?   I have an acronym for FEAR – False Expectations Appearing Real.  Were your kids (or you) afraid of ghosts?  Were there ghosts in your closet, under your bed, in your room?  What are YOU afraid of NOW?  Is it that if you provide a guarantee your clients might take you up on it?  Is it that if you provide a guarantee you might have to improve the quality of your product or service?    What do you really provide your clients now?  If they come back and say there is an issue, what do you tell them – “sorry”?  Or do you go the extra mile to make sure they are satisfied, make sure they want to come back for more, made sure you did what you promised.  Hummmm – don’t you already provide a guarantee; you just don’t get credit for it!

Do Guarantees have to be “cash” back – “money” back?  I don’t think so.  Yes, there are times that those guarantees are appropriate.  I believe in my business coaching so much that if you aren’t finding value with my coaching, or one of my workshops, I will give you your money back.  What can you guarantee?  There is a story about a Taxi Cab driver – who had a mission and vision statement and a guarantee.  The guarantee was that he would get you as quickly and safely as possible from the point of pick up to the destination.   That taxi cab driver had a guarantee, he also had a tremendous amount of other things he gave his clients too numerous to mention here, but it allowed him to see his profits grow 100% each of the 2 years since he started his guarantee.   My clients all have worked through what they guarantee to their clients.  It is one of many reasons their businesses continue to grow.  So what is your guarantee – do you have one?  Do your clients want one?  Go ahead and ask them – you might be surprised at the result.  In fact, email me your guarantee jannahoiberg@actioncoach.com .   I would love to see them and I will provide you input on anything I receive from you.

Some final points on guarantees:  Make them simple.  Communicate them to your customers.  Communicate them to your staff – that might make a big impression.  Communicate them in your advertising.  Make sure you believe in them and if you do – your customers will thank you by coming back again and again – and telling others about you.  The time for you to act is always NOW.

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Build profitability by doing the same thing over and over

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Janna

Growth, balance, profitability – what do they have to do with how you deliver to your customers?  Have you ever been to a restaurant and it was fantastic? I visited a Colorado Springs restaurant and the service was good, food was great, and atmosphere was perfect.  Because of this experience, I chose to take one of my business coaching clients there.   I really talked up how good this restaurant was so my client was looking forward to the meeting.  When we arrived, our table wasn’t ready, although I made a reservation; we were seated then did not see the wait staff until I went to find them.  The food really wasn’t that good, one meal was over done, and another was cold.  Now I wondered why I chose this restaurant.  Will I recommend them to someone else?  Probably not.  Will I ever go back – maybe, but maybe not.  How does this apply to you?   Well if you are in the restaurant industry– then you should relate really well – if another type of business it applies just as much to you.

Consistency is actually more important to your customers and clients than quality.  Now that is assuming you have a level of quality in your product or service and that someone actually wants to purchase it.  However, with that assumption, being able to predict the experience that your customer will have is more important than improving the quality.  Once you have consistency, quality should always continue to improve.  Business is grown based on referrals, references, and word of mouth.  Having people talk about you, and trust me they do, affects your growth, balance, and profitability more than most people realize.  It affects growth because you won’t grow if your delivery to your customers is not consistent.  You might grow for a while, but you won’t stay there.  If people don’t like dealing with your team, they will find somewhere else to spend their money.  Balance – if you are always fighting delivery problems to your customers you will work more, have a higher level of frustration and therefore have much less time for yourself and your family.  Profitability, if you are spending time fixing customer issues, you are spending your profits.

What does consistency really mean?  Back to our restaurant example, there is a well-known hamburger chain that has sold billions and billions of burgers.  They aren’t know n for having the best burger in the world, but you can go to one of their restaurants anywhere in the world and you will essentially have the same experience, food, etc.  It is consistent – that is why they have sold billions and billions. 

Consistency means making sure your staff knows what it means to be consistent, knowing what it means to the business, to them, to profitability.  Too many people work but don’t know the impact they have on the business.  They don’t understand the impact of an upset customer.  They don’t even really know that a customer is upset.   They and you just wonder why the customer doesn’t return, then you wonder why revenue is down, profits are down and you are working harder.  It is sort of like trying to fill the sink with water, but you did not put the plug in the drain.  The water (i.e., revenue, profitability etc.) just keeps going down the drain and not staying in the business.

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Rules of the Game

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Janna

Most people here in Colorado have either played a sport or watched one live or on TV.  There are rules that everyone plays by.  Violating the rules can affect the game and your chance of winning.  So why is it within our businesses we change the rules for our team, or don’t have rules, or don’t enforce the rules?  Then we wonder why employees leave, have bad attitudes, our business isn’t growing, and the list goes on.

Two of my business coaching clients had worked together for a number of years, but one thing that would cause issues was different expectations – i.e., rules of the game.  We sat down and determined how the game was to be played.  For example, what did it mean to show up on time?  If the appointment is 8 am, when should you show up – 8:05, 7:55, 8:00, or 7:45? What happens if you will be late, what should you do?  When you get to the appointment, what is the dress code and how should you present yourself.  What happens when there is an issue, how is the communication handled, and the list goes on.  This also plays into the office.  Do meetings start on time?  If not, what are the ramifications?  When I hold business workshops, the attendees set the rules of the game.  What should be allowed; phone calls during the meeting, leaving, coming back late from breaks?  What affect does it have on the workshop and then on your business?  One client created a rule (that was decided on by the team) that every time someone was late for a meeting they had to put in a $1 for the first time, $5 second and it went up from there.  They then took the money and did one of two things – gave it to charity, or went out that month for a “beer”.

Rules of the game are unique to each company, they can be as loose or tight as you want them to be, but they must be consistent.  Inconsistency is the poison in business – with customers and with employees.  If it is OK for one team member to break the rules, then why should anyone follow them?  If it is OK for you to break the rules, what leadership are you setting for the organization?  Now some would say rules are made to be broken and trust me I have broken a few, but as the owner/manager YOU need to set the stage.  Part of the concept of a strong Team is Strong Leadership and 100% inclusion in the decision making process regarding the rules.  If everyone buys in and is part of the enforcement then everyone also wins.

There are really 6 rules to a winning team. Give me a call, or send me an email jannahoiberg@actioncoach.com  if you would like further details, but they are the critical factors to ensuring success with your team.  Employees are the lifeblood of your business.  Help them help you and you will have a wonderful company, with a wonderful team that you will thank all the way to reaching your goals.

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Profiling your Ideal Customer

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Janna

My Colorado based business owners often ask me, their business coach, “Who is your ideal client?”  My question back is:

Who is YOUR ideal client? 

Do you know? Is it documented, so all your team can recognize your ideal customer? 

Much of the time, businesses paint such a broad picture of their ideal client that the picture is fuzzy, there are too many that fit the profile.  Your ideal customer should not have the word “anyone” or “everyone” in the description.  It should not state “someone who has money.”  It should be specific.  The more specific your description is, the better the target.  The better your target is the higher quality of your leads and the higher rate of your conversions.  Higher conversion rates mean higher profit. 

Defining the ideal customer for your business often creates fear and trembling.  Business owners, sales people, marketing teams are often afraid of turning away business that does not fit the definition.  In a software company I previously worked for this was very much the case.  As we started to define our market niche, we waited over a year for the sales people to really understand that by defining our niche in the market would allow them to work less and sell more.  We stopped chasing our tails.  We knew if someone wasn’t in our target market our chances of closing the deal dropped dramatically.  The sales team stopped wasting EVERYONE’s time.

I have a worksheet of 53 questions to help you figure out your ideal customer. 

If you would like a copy – go to the reference library on my website and download the 53 questions.

Email me jannahoiberg@actioncoach.com with who you think is my ideal client.  What are their characteristics?

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Finance Made Simple

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Janna

Why do so many business owners procrastinate when it comes to understanding their financial statements?  As I look at my business-coaching clients, I believe it is due to lack of understanding what they mean.  Is it also not wanting to hear the message they are presenting.  The reality is financial statements don’t need to be daunting.  Yes, you need to take some time to learn the basics; however the basics are not that difficult.  Let’s start with a profit and loss statement, commonly called a P/L.  This is a picture of where things stand  – in theory.  Have you made money, or lost it for this time period.  Balance Sheet – and no the balance sheet should not be “BS”.  This is an overall picture of your business.  It is actually the most accurate picture of where your business stands from inception to now.  That may scare you.  However it is the truth (assuming it is accurate – which is another story). 

Cash flow forecast is the 3rd essential statement that as a business coach I consider essential.  In theory you have made money based on your PL.  Your Balance Sheet says there is cash in the bank today, however, what happens tomorrow?  That is the purpose of the Cash Flow Forecast.    Notice the emphasis on forecast – this is what you project will happen over the next one to 12 months with cash.  This isn’t meant to be exact so rounding is normal, however what do you expect sales to be, what are your expenses each month and will you have the money needed to pay the bills.  What is your cash gap?

How often do you review these reports?  If it is more than monthly, then why?  Do you have the ability to change your July profitability in August?  Usually no.  If you want to be more profitable, then start looking at your financial statement while you have the opportunity to affect the results – and/or give me a call to find out how to make this happen.

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