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The Best of Times!

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There has never been a better time to live the self-employed life. Jacob Morgan, co-founder and principal of Chess Media Group and author of The Future of Work (2014), researches how market forces, demographics, political forces and advances in technology will likely impact the global workforce over the coming years and his research indicates that self-employment has significant momentum. “The picture for Freelancers is very good. It’s going to be a huge area going forward.”

Morgan points out what most traditionally and independently employed workers have learned over the past two decades: the steady paycheck is going the way of the dinosaurs. Those who are now age 50 or above started a career and expected to work steadily and at increasing pay for 25 or 30 years and then collect a pension as a reward for their contributions.  Employment at one company was considered an accomplishment and job-hopping was seen as instability, if not disloyalty. Morgan’s research shows that now, the average worker is employed at a place of business for an average of five years and Millennial Generation workers last an average of three years. “Nowadays, when a company is struggling, the first thing it tends to do is cut jobs.”

Because Freelance consultants typically have a list of active clients, we are somewhat insulated from the whims of business owners. We win some projects and lose others, but unlike the traditionally employed, we will not be laid off and abruptly lose all of our income. We do not qualify for unemployment benefits, but that benefit eventually runs out. The Freelance money is sometimes less than ideal, but finding project work is much easier than finding traditional employment that pays more than $20/hour, especially when the job seeker is 50 years or older. Freelancers are not at the mercy of a single employer. We have more opportunities to create options for ourselves.

As companies shed permanent workers, the demand for project-specific professional help continues to rise and for Freelancers, that is a good thing. Much depends upon one’s skill set and local economy, but the next three years and most likely more than that, look promising. Deciding which of your competencies are the most marketable and discovering how to connect with available projects forms the heart of the Freelance business model.

The uncertainties inherent in Freelance employment can also carry advantages, one of which is that you might earn a great deal of money. Traditional employment comes with income caps, unless you are employed in luxury real estate sales, high finance or big-ticket sales (fields that are overwhelmingly closed to most people).

The traditionally employed have been finding that getting a raise is harder than ever. Employers are keeping the money to themselves. The best anyone seems to get is 3%.  Bonuses and commissions for many sales reps have likewise been cut. Middle class wages have been stagnant to falling for 25 years. I’ve done adjunct teaching for 10 years and I’ve never received a raise, regardless of a decades’ worth of good evaluations from my students.

In 2010, Intuit predicted that the independently employed workforce in the US will rise to 60 million by 2020. There are already many associations and other resources, such as the Freelancer’s Union https://www.freelancersunion.org, that give relevant support to us in many practical ways, such as facilitating the purchase of affordable medical and dental insurance. Co-working spaces are available to those who need per diem meeting space at an affordable price or shared office space for those who would like to interact with a cohort of like-minded Freelancers.

Morgan recommends that those who have full-time employment consider taking on Freelance work as an experiment. “Now is an excellent time to do it, but I would do it in a smart way…do a little moonlighting and see how it goes. If it goes well, devote more effort to it. if not, you’ll have learned it’s not for you.”

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Media Training Gives You Media Savvy

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Journalists are constantly on the lookout for interesting and engaging stories that will become the relevant content that consumers of their visual, print or online outlets seek out. Freelance consultants must always encourage the existence of confidence in our abilities and media exposure may be employed to help us to achieve that aim. We must become adept at the art of selling ourselves, that is our capabilities, to target audiences through various media channels. When we make ourselves available for commentary tin the media, we position ourselves in a very powerful way and assume the mantle of authority in our subject.

To maximize the benefits derived from your media exposure, explore ways that you might receive some media training.  Media training will make you much more effective in your interactions with journalists and the technology and teach you how to get your message across succinctly and with impact.  You will be on your way to becoming an effective spokesperson and journalists will return to you again and again for expert commentary on issues in your field.

Speak in a way that builds confidence in your expertise

Our body language, tone of voice and vocabulary help us to deliver our message in a positive and powerful way. When speaking on television, facial expressions and body language can overtake the value of verbal content. As example, think of political debates, televised or not. Many politicians have been declared the winner of debates primarily on their communication style. That their action items were noticeably weaker than their less glib opponent gets lost in the shuffle.

Learn how to best define and communicate your key messages

Being savvy with body language and facial expressions and knowing how to look into the camera are all good, but it’s even better when we have a relevant message or information that is communicated clearly and concisely. Media training will teach you how to speak in “sound bites” : short, easy to remember statements that focus on outcomes and information that concerns the audience, spoken in language that resonates with the audience. Three points seems to be the magic number that audiences will recall in days that follow the interview.  Once you’ve enumerated your messages, you can loop back and reinforce them throughout the interview.

Anticipate difficult questions and learn to design a clear and credible response

Journalists often take a perverse pleasure in throwing interview subjects a question that might stop them cold or undermine their message. The journalists want to maintain credibility with their audience by showing that they’ve done their homework and demonstrating that don’t traffic in powder puff interviews. Media training will prepare you for challenging questions and help you learn how to anticipate the difficult questions that might be asked and to finesse your way out of tight spots, whether or not you expected that line of questioning. This skill above all others will help you to feel confident as you step into the interview.

Learn how to control your interview

The interview subject is always in control. Media training will teach you how to assert your dominant position, graciously. First, those who have clear answers that are communicated well are able to steer the interview in a direction that benefits them.  This is a subtle and yet hugely important skill. One can never stop practicing. A very close second is that through media training, one learns to maintain composure, which is a defining element of trust, the appearance of competence and professional stature. S/he who maintains composure can create the outcome that is desired.

Reduce the chance of being misquoted

Under no circumstances do you want your message to be misinterpreted in any way. Being unprepared for an interview leaves one in a very vulnerable position. Credibility and reputation are at risk. Learning, practicing and perfecting the skills of defining the most important points of your message; delivering the message in “sound bites” that help the journalist as well as the audience to understand your position; learning how to control the interview;  and learning how to finesse difficult questions, all the while maintaining your composure, will make you an in-demand media darling whose brand and billable hours will be greatly enhanced.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Build A Winning Business Model

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Whether you are considering the feasibility of launching a business or you are on the leadership team of a business that is several decades old, the business model for the organization is the hub around which all activities revolve. The business model is the blueprint that details how you will create and sustain a money-making business venture. It is the engine that drives revenue. Fail to identify a winning business model and you fail to build a business that will succeed over the long-term. Creation of a profitable business model is a multi-disciplinary exercise that encompasses marketing, sales, strategy, operations and finance.

Identify your primary customers  (Marketing)

If you will focus on B2B clients, describe who they are: for-profit or not-for-profit organizations, Fortune 1000 companies, start-ups. If you plan to focus on a particular industry, specify that and specify also the department(s) in which you will find your decision-maker and/or key purchase influencers and the job title of the person who can green-light your contract. Detail also the services or products that you will provide to your target clients.

Detail the business processes  (Operations)

Where will business transactions take place? Will you have a physical location and will clients visit you there? Will your business be primarily online? Will you have a consulting practice and perform most of the work off-site on your computer? How will clients pay—by check or credit card at the time of purchase, or will you bill them? Must you ship products? Describe how and from which location you will provide or deliver your products and services and the system of payment.

Identify the resources necessary to operate  (Finance)

Before your business is up and running, what must be available? Along with business cards and probably a website, computer, smart phone, and maybe a tablet, you may decide on print collaterals as well. You will need a business bank account and you may need a process by which you can accept credit cards as a merchant. Must you rent commercial space? What will the construction costs be for the build-out of your office space? What will insurance, special certifications and utilities cost you? How much product inventory does it make sense to have? Must you hire help? Determine how much you must spend and have on hand before you can commence business operations.

Define the value proposition  (Sales)

Make the case as to why your products and services are superior to what competitors offer. Learn what motivates your target customers to seek out the products and services that you will provide. How are target customers getting the job done now? Perfect your selling points and learn to neutralize the most common objections that prospects will raise.

Determine key business partners  (Strategy)

Will your business success be greatly helped by getting referrals from a particular source? In other words, if you plan to become a florist or a caterer, it will make a lot of sense to develop relationships with event planners. Referrals are always crucial to building your client list, so figure out which types of businesses you can build a mutually beneficial relationship with—what can they do for you and what can you do for them?

Build and fill the sales pipeline  (Marketing)

Describe the various methods you expect to use to build awareness of your business and find prospective clients. Social media will provably be used, but which platforms can be expected to have the most resonance with your target clients? Teaching, conducting webinars and networking will serve you well in the early stages of your business and throughout. Client testimonials, referrals and case studies will support you as your client list grows and you develop a track record.

Expect to fine-tune and innovate  (Strategy)

Until you begin to welcome paying customers, you will not really know if your proposed business model adequately meets their needs. Expect a reality check and build innovation —that is tweaking —into your business model.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Presentation Checklist: Audience Matters

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Next week, I will make two 15 minute presentations and in four weeks, I will make a 30 minute presentation and also preside at a big meeting. The latter engagement is an annual event and I knew well in advance of my obligation, but requests for the first two talks came up unexpectedly. Fortunately, I have time to prepare for all. Here’s how I’ll get ready to stand and deliver:

Who’s in the house and what do they want to know?

All presentations are ruled by the audience and the information that is desired. That information is the purpose of your talk and it determines what you’ll present. Find out also if any stakeholders whom you must persuade will be unable to attend and arrange to follow-up with them personally, if possible.

Hecklers and haters

While researching your talk, ask the organizer if anyone in the audience might have a reason to undermine your objective and why that would be so. To neutralize expected opposition, acknowledge somewhere in the solutions section of your talk that some in the audience may have considered another recipe for resolution and state how your approach will likely be more effective, sustainable over the long term, easier or less expensive to implement, or whatever. Handle the matter like a sales objection, because that’s what it is.

Audience size

The size of the audience guides your method of presentation. An audience of five is intimate and calls for a different approach —most likely more relaxed and personal— than an audience of 50. A larger audience often requires that the speaker use visuals, along with a speaking style and pacing that engages a bigger room.

Does the audience know you?

Friends in the house will make your job easier because you will feel more comfortable standing in front of them. If you are mostly an unknown quantity, it’s important to establish rapport with the audience early in the talk. A statement about how you understand or empathize with a priority or concern is a good ice-breaker and gives you credibility, since you agree with them.

What do you want audience members to do post-presentation?

Design your presentation to frame your call to action as logical, effective, beneficial and inevitable. Describe what you would like audience members, in particular the thought-leaders and decision-makers, to do on your behalf. Do you want them to donate money or time? Approve your proposal? Vote in a certain way? If you are able to make fulfilling your call to action easier for them, then do so.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Marketing Commute: Inbound and Outbound Traffic

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It is now a given that every Freelance consultant and business owner will develop an inbound marketing strategy that will support sales and diminish the need for cold calling, which is getting increasingly difficult to do successfully in the face of the wall that prospects are able to build around themselves. Inbound marketing consists of quality content that is designed to  “pull in” prospective clients who will be able to understand how your products and services can be of use to them. Outbound marketing often refers to any print or online information and promotion about your business venture (and that includes your social media accounts), advertising, press releases sent, your speaking and teaching assignments, webinars you headline and local charity drives in which your business participates or sponsors.

Inbound marketing makes a more direct appeal to your target markets and has the potential to reduce the amount of cold calling that a Freelance consultant or small business owner must do. However, be aware that inbound marketing aims for the more distant future, whereas outbound marketing aims for a more immediate time frame. Inbound marketing tends to have the longer ROI cycle; most businesses would starve as they waited for sales generated primarily from inbound marketing. Consider it your lead generator. Outbound marketing has the potential to produce a noticeably shorter ROI cycle. Today, both marketing formats are synergistic and necessary.

When creating content for your inbound marketing choices, be mindful that you must periodically speak to potential clients as they travel through the various stages of the buying process—and be aware that it is the buying process and not the sales process that presently rules the day. Some prospects will have a low-level interest, more like window-shopping. Others are more seriously contemplating a transaction, to take place in the more-or-less near future. Still others will need your product or service right now, because proposals are being accepted, or there is an emergency and they need a remedy ASAP.

The types of inbound marketing content and the way you choose to broadcast it depends on what your potential clients respond to. Compelling information is what they value and nothing more. Trial and error may be the way to choose your channels: weekly blog or monthly newsletter emailed to contacts; Twitter, Facebook or Instagram posts; white papers posted to LinkedIn and your website; YouTube videos or SlideShare infograms uploaded to social media accounts.

Reaching out to the various segments of your audience in different ways matters. In a truly comprehensive inbound marketing campaign, text, audio and visual methods of outreach will be represented. Once you’ve figured out your inbound marketing channels, then decide on the content to present and how often you will do so. Relevant content is a must; consistency is required; over-exposure is not recommended.

So many business owners are vying for attention. The noise causes many potential clients to shut down. B2B clients are usually over-worked and have little time for what is not immediately necessary. Unfortunately, many operate on a short-term vision.

One thing marketers must do is master the call to action. Like a sales call, one must know how to ask for the business, or at least how to persuade the prospect to take another step on the path to buying from you or engagement with you. Your call to action may be as simple as providing visible contact info plus an offer to give 30 minutes of free consultation. Your newsletter or blog must allow for easy subscription sign-up or RSS feed.

All marketing campaigns have the same goal: to create awareness of you and your products and services; to provide information about you and your business; to help prospective clients understand how and when your products and services would fulfill their needs; to give demonstrations of the quality of what you sell and your expertise in delivering the goods.  Marketing is how to fill the sales pipeline and helps business owners become less dependent on cold-calling, which is increasingly a road to frustration. It is up to you as a business owner to implement inbound and outbound marketing strategies that will sustain your venture.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Achieving Objectives: Obstacles to Overcome

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Whether you are building an architecture, accounting or law firm, financial services, or business consulting practice, going it alone as a Freelance consultant is fraught with challenges for all but the most well-connected. Let’s take a look at a few of the biggest obstacles that trip up those of us who’ve founded our own consulting shop.

Obstacle #1: You don’t own a business, you own your job

Eight out of ten consulting businesses never expand beyond the core services provided by the founder/principal. There may be administrative support staff, there may be occasional contract project-specific helpers, but these businesses are limited to the personal sales and production capacity of the founder/principal only. Typically, the founder is convinced that s/he cannot or should not bring in other talent to join in delivering the personally designed, boutique services to clients, a process that would make the operation scalable and capable of generating additional revenue.

Instead, if the founder/principal isn’t working, there are no billable hours, no accounts receivable and no revenue generated. Vacations are difficult to take, because they are financially risky. The founder pays twice: once for the vacation itself and a second time through lost revenue.  When the founder wants to retire, there will be no more money derived from the business. There’ll be no residual income harvested from decades of work done to research the market, decide the most marketable services to offer, identify the most logical clients to pursue, launch the venture, build a client list and develop a good reputation and brand. The doors will close and that is all.

Obstacle #2: Managing cash flow 

Let’s be brutally honest: many Freelance consultants do not have a truly dependable cash-cow revenue generator, regardless of the services provided. More often than any of us want to admit, we can drop a stitch when it comes to invoicing clients and that depresses our cash-flow. Too many accounts receivable may become past due and some will be difficult to collect. As a result, accounts payable may be late and interest charges may be incurred. Building up a capital reserve fund that can be used to help the business grow is therefore difficult.

Obstacle #3: Finding and keeping clients

Most Freelance consultants become founding principals of their own venture because we are respected experts of our core services, but many dislike sales and marketing. Others are too overwhelmed to keep up with the marketing plans they’ve designed.

As noted in Obstacle #1, if the founder/principal isn’t generating business and that means not only working on the in-house projects, but also networking to search for new business; identifying, if not creating, additional revenue streams; working in said revenue streams whenever possible; and trying to maintain good relationships with current clients, then none of it gets done. When new business is not created, slowdowns are likely to occur, along with gaps in income and cash-flow problems.

So what is the solution? Really, searching for a business partner who will join you would be most desirable, but that’s easier said than done. Partnerships are tricky to sustain. Hiring someone outright means that you have to make payroll every week. Is your consultancy generating that kind of reliable revenue?

There is no one answer because every consultancy is different. Founding principals of architecture, accounting, financial services and law firms may have an easier time than some other service providers — interior design or business consulting — because the former services are more “standardized” and less boutique- personal.

The latter typically guard clients jealously, because there are usually fewer of them. Sill, some cautious experimentation may be possible. The next time I hear about a project that is too big for me alone, I will think about who can help me and if I win the contract, evaluate that person for a partnership. Maybe the stars will align?

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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2Q Pep Talk and Organizing Primer

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Hello there, Freelancer and welcome to second quarter 2015. As a precaution against slowly sliding off-course, let’s take a look at some Freelance consultant basics that will keep stress at bay and you in the mood to work hard and smart to achieve your goals of business success, as you define it. Free or low-cost technology can help.

Budget your income

Poor financial management = sleepless nights and stress.  Your paychecks are irregular and taxes are not withheld.  Check stubs and business expense receipts can be misplaced, making it difficult to track accounts receivable and payable.  How you keep track of your revenue/ income is your choice, but keep track of it you must,  along with deductible business expenses. An Excel spreadsheet is your level one financial management tool.  Whenever you receive a revenue check, get into the habit of recording the payer, amount and date.  Save the check stub as well and keep them all together in a place that you’ll remember. Record also your accounts payable business expenses and save the receipts alongside the revenue checks.

If you are in the mood to pay, Intuit has two choices for you.  QuickBooks is the gold standard of bookkeeping and basic financial management for business ventures large and small. QuickBooks will produce income statements and balance sheets monthly, quarterly and annually and make sure that you know where you stand financially.  For about $10/month,  through a basic QuickBooks app on your smart phone or tablet, you’ll be able to download transactions from your bank account and credit cards; separate your business and personal spending; track all of your IRS Schedule C Profit & Loss From a Business variable expenses; calculate and pay estimated quarterly taxes; do it all with the same security encryption as your bank.

Intuit’s Mint will pull together all of your financial transactions and arrange in colorful and easy-to-decipher graphics that depict your financial picture. Get started for free and add your accounts. Mint will analyze all of your financial transactions: checking and savings account activity, credit and debit card activity, investments like brokerage and retirement accounts, and IRA rollover offers and will make recommendations as to how you can pay less, save more and earn more.

Mint will essentially do your budgeting for you, by calculating your average spending by category so that you can create a budget based on an accurate assessment of your spending patterns.  This is the way to create and achieve your savings goals, whether for retirement, for a home, or vacation.

Manage your time

Recognize and respect priorities and refuse to allow the time-suckers to take over your life.  Time is totally money for Freelance consultants and we bill by the hour, or on a project basis. Do whatever you can to devise and approach your to-do list with good time management in mind. At the very least, keep a written calendar in which you can see a monthly view of your appointments (it is superior to a weekly view). Record your obligations and the due dates, so that deadlines will be met. On your smart phone, make use of the Notes app, so you can easily jot down important dates or deliverables.

Evernote is a very handy technology tool that works on your desktop or laptop, tablet or smart phone and costs between zero and $10/month. When you’re working on a project, your notes can even be transformed into a screen-friendly graphic lay-out that works for a client meeting. Access attachments, including PDFs, all your notes and images, too. The details of your project will be easily available and readily organized. You will look so professional and in-charge!

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Business Coach Or Business Strategy Consultant?

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It has become increasing popular for leaders of organizations large and small, as well as Freelance consultants, to work with a coach, as a way to become a more effective leader, manager and decision-maker. Launching and sustaining a business venture is a significant undertaking. The stakes are very high and the margin of error is exceeding narrow. I’ve briefly worked with a coach myself. But is working with a coach beneficial, or a waste of time and money? Experience told me that it depends on your goals and your choice of coach.

Here’s the good news. The International Coach Federation, a support network for professional coaches, has data that demonstrates 86% of coaching clients recouped in business revenue at least what they invested in their coaching sessions. Further, 96% of those business owners/leaders would seek coaching again in the future. The ICF found that working with a coach improves productivity:

  • It keeps you on track. Through regularly scheduled sessions, business coaching provides accountability that encourages you to pursue your goals.
  • You have a forum for reliable and confidential business advice. A good business coach is positioned to use his/her expertise and judgment to guide you through the minefield of business challenges and difficult decisions.
  • You learn to set meaningful and attainable goals. Recognizing the goals one should set and can achieve is one of the keys to success in life and business. Ideally, your business coach will help you identify short and long-term goals and work with you to devise strategies and action plans that will bring your organization into the winner’s circle.

Now for the reality. As I see it, most of the certified coaches operating today have no business experience. Their background ranges from laid-off human resources / organizational development specialists to psychologists who can no longer make the money they want in the counseling field, due to restrictive health insurance reimbursement rules. Precious few of these individuals has ever seen the inside of a marketing department, sales department, finance or operations department.

They do not know how to create a business model; they’ve never participated in writing a strategic plan; they’ve never done a marketing plan; they’ve never so much as sold an umbrella on a rainy day; they could never interpret a profit & loss statement or a balance sheet. The only business decision they’ve ever made is to repackage themselves as a “business coach”, because they see financial potential.

When I prepared to open my consultancy, I saw a business coach who has an MBA from a very respectable program and who worked as a program manager at a mid-size local not-for-profit organization.  She was an acquaintance and so I consulted her for my launch. She was good with keeping me on track, but there were real deficiencies. She was not quite worth the $75/hour that I paid her in 2003.

She was useless in helping me to define my customer or devise strategies in how to reach them.  She was equally useless in helping me to either refine my business model, or offer feedback on the likely financial potential of the model presented. She, a single woman in consulting practice just as I aspired to be, had no words of advice regarding survival strategies, meaning the development of other revenue streams (such as teaching). She is still in business today, but she’s left the immediate area. I don’t know how successful her business is.

Many coaches may have glowing credentials, but the proper application for their experience and training is as a life coach and not a business coach. As I learned, even an MBA is not necessarily qualified to operate as a business coach.  A significant percentage of coaches are someone you call when work-life balance is an issue, or you need a plan for your under-employed husband, who’s become passive-aggressive because he’s envious of your professional success.

Qualified business coaches are available, but like any other professional services provider that you seek, conduct your due diligence. Coaching credentials are not your primary yardstick. Organizational development specialists and psychologists do not know business, so why would you hire one simply because they have some piece of paper?

Business experience and the ability to work with others one-on-one, or as group leader in CEO forums, is the skill-set that matters. Leaders who seek business coaching in fact need a business strategy consultant,  a seasoned professional who has been in the trenches and knows what it’s like to outwit, or get shot down, by competitors and the changing winds of business fortunes. Organization leaders are best served by a wise and savvy pro who has been to the mountain top and returned, to show us how to reach the summit.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Staying Alive: Business Management Technology That Works

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Business ventures new and old can fail for many reasons and small businesses are especially vulnerable to all manner of threats.  Even outrageous good fortune can kill a business,  when customer demand far outpaces the ability to effectively fulfill the demand. Fortunately, some challenges can be overcome through sound business practices that are aided by technology hardware or software that are not terribly costly.  Here are areas where technology can help Freelancers and small business owners get arms around common business stumbling blocks. There are also sales forecasting and business analysis tools available, typically by contract through a business services company. Are you ready to trade-up from your Excel spreadsheet?

1.  Operational efficiencies Efforts to deliver core products or services can fall short in under-staffed, under-capitalized organizations, especially when the CEO is inexperienced and overwhelmed.  Orders can be incomplete, late or lost altogether.  Payments to suppliers or sub-contractors could be late.  Invoices may not be sent at the agreed-upon time and as a result cash flow will be diminished,  which leads to all manner of problems, including the inability to make payroll, purchase inventory and other vital supplies, or meet work space rent or utilities payments.  There can be quality control issues with the products and services.  Customer service can be tone-deaf or unresponsive.  Employee skills and time may be inappropriately utilized, resulting in burn-out or wasted time.  Fear not, for there are readily available and typically affordable solutions.  Billing software can generate professional looking invoices quickly and accurately as well as manage common bookkeeping functions easily. Other business management tools can help the CEO to analyze key performance indicators that identify seasonal peaks and valleys that can be used to plan staffing needs, inventory and supplies purchases, or other necessities to meet increased or decreased demand.

2.  Mobile workforce Mobility is a must in today’s business world.  Not having access to client information while you’re on the road, perhaps while meeting with the client, is inexcusable and makes it impossible to uphold the quality of your brand. Invest in a tablet computer or  notebook computer that along with your smart phone will be loaded with apps and software that allow you to demonstrate that you are able to service client needs and answer questions wherever and whenever.  Mobile friendly business management tools allow you and your team to be equally effective in or out of the office.  Also, make sure that your website is converted to a responsive design format, so that it can be easily viewed from a smart phone or tablet.

3.  Manage growth Growth is always the goal, but it’s sometimes like drinking from the fire hose for a Freelancer or small business owner.  Serendipitous growth sounds like the answer to our prayers,  when the orders just fall into our laps,  but the concomitant follow-through can trip us up and burn us out as it rolls through like a tsunami.  Resource utilization— time, talent, staffing, money— all change as the business grows. The best growth is planned, which allows for budgeting and incorporation of the right technological tools, staffing, product or service delivery systems, quality control measures and customer service procedures that make us look like a pro and live up to the brand promise.

If you choose a business management platform that will allow you to perform forecasting and analysis,  be careful of the organization that you choose to work with.  Avoid long-term contracts and look for flexibility that allows you to get into and out of management platforms relatively quickly and inexpensively.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Market Research Matters

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“If you build it, they will come” is a myth. When evaluating the likely prospects of a business venture, new product or service, or entrance into a new market, good market research is your non-negotiable Step One.  The ability to create and sustain profitability must be demonstrated up front, in advance of committing time and money to its launch.  The only way to reliably predict whether your shiny new idea has broad appeal is to carefully research the marketplace and examine the story that emerges.  The good news is that if you are onto something, market research will help you define the size and potential of the market; decide how and when to enter it; reveal how target customers prefer the product or service to be described, packaged and delivered; the acceptable price range; and show you how to achieve market penetration and profitability goals faster.

Many decision-makers are uncertain as to the type of data that is relevant and the advent of big data has unfortunately complicated matters.  There is copious data available, but what will help your team to make the best decision?  Dionne McPhatter is a market research guru and co-founder of The Strategy Collective, a New York City and Los Angeles marketing firm that builds custom analytics that help clients better understand their customers and make more informed business decisions.  McPhatter  recommends that decision-makers identify what is called in market research circles the “path to purchase” and arrange for the product or service to touch as many “landmarks” as possible.

Some relevant data is free, or inexpensive.  Google Trends is free and a decent place to start your search and learn how many people in your city last year searched key words associated with the product or service (I found the now-defunct Google Wonder Wheel far superior, however).  Learning about competitors who provide your service, or something similar or complementary to it, is also revealing.  Tour a few of their websites and figure out business models and marketing messages.  If you are thinking about launching a business, you will write a business plan and do lots of research.  Contact your local library to learn about business reference material such as industry magazines and demographic information.

Further, there is value in spending some money and visiting professional organization meetings and attending conferences, so that you can meet prospective clients and learn the expectations and value they place on your product or service.  Listen and learn and discreetly take notes.

As you collect and examine data, a picture of the target customer groups,  competitors and the overall marketplace will begin to emerge.  The downside is, those who amass a large amount of data can become confused about what is relevant: the data threads may be too numerous to easily prioritize.  The challenge of decision-makers is to discover the relationships and triggers between the data points and eventually see what motivates clients along the path to purchase.  From there, you can confidently develop goals and objectives, strategies and action plans and a business model that will build and sustain a profitable launch.

Thanks for reading,

Kim