I have been watching politicians argue and debate over how to fix the economy both nationally and here in my state of Minnesota for a couple years now and there seems to be one key ingredient missing in the discussions.  Small businesses account for over 90% of the workforce in this country and small business drives the economy. What most politicians don’t seem to get is that the more they can do to help small businesses the better chance we have of getting the economy going again. But before they can have that discussion they must understand some core elements to small business.

Cash Flow: Cash flow is critical to any small business and if you do things that are going to impact the cash flow of a small business you are going to cripple it’s opportunity for growth. So higher taxes, higher costs for doing business such as benefits costs, energy and fuel costs and anything else that impacts cash flow are going to hinder growth.

Credit: Most small businesses use and need some sort of credit, from a simple credit card to SBA loans to major equipment and capital loans, credit is essential to growth. And yet since the financial collapse in this country small businesses have had to suffer the consequences of the big banks failing. In most cases it didn’t have anything to do with them but they are paying for the sins of the banks. And now the banks have gone the other direction making it extremely difficult for a small business to get a loan because of restricted lending requirements.  If you want to grow the economy then get banks lending again and give small businesses the capital they need to grow.

Regulation/Red Tape: In the ever-growing role of government it seems that the answer now is to regulate everything and anything. Regulation and government red tape hinder expansion and costs money to small businesses. The more time and resources they have to put into managing regulation the less they can put back into their businesses, it’s that simple. 

These issues are neither Democratic nor Republican they are core issues that need to be taken into consideration when determining how to get the economy back on track. The more government hinders these 3 areas the less chance we have of getting small businesses back on track and driving an economic recovery. 

I have decided to declare March as Grow Your Business Month. We’re two months into the year and my guess is many of you have already fallen off the wagon for your plans you created to start the year. And so now is a good time to recommit to making 2012 your best year ever!

In the spirit of that effort I am going to giving away lot’s of free tools this month, including my e-book, Business Planning of a Bar Napkin, new white papers, special reports and the biggest one of all a free business analysis of your business for you. To start the month off I’m going to give you my e-book Business Planning on a Bar Napkin free, to claim your free book, GO HERE   In it you will find great ideas on how to quickly identify the issues holding back your business and the a simple process for putting a plan together to deal with those issues. 

This is my first gift to you for the month and keep watching this blog for more tools, including a full blown business analysis, absolutely free! 

In today’s economic uncertainty there seems to be a lot of people running around the country calling themselves consultants and coaches. I’ve been doing some research on my competitors recently and quite frankly I’m shocked at how many people consider themselves experts on growing businesses. It seems that the popular thing to do to today if you’re an unemployed corporate executive is to hang out a shingle and call yourself a consultant or coach. And interestingly many of these same folks have very little if any background in running businesses or owning a business. And yet because they worked  for some big Fortune 500 corporation that qualifies them to advise small businesses. 

Well I think if you are considering working with these folks and anyone that can help your business (including me), here are some questions that you should ask them to make sure you are getting the right fit for your business.

1.  What specific experience do they have in helping businesses like yours grow?
2. How long have they been doing it?
3. Do they have a specific process or system that they use that can help your business and is that process simple to execute?
4. What kind of results should you expect?
5. Do they guarantee their work?

Those 5 questions can really help you determine if this person is right for you. You want to know exactly what they will do for you and your company. And you want to know how they will do it and what experience they have doing with companies like yours. 

I don’t think there is any question that a good business coach or consultant is extremely important  no matter what type of business you are in. To have someone that can keep you accountable and provide you with a framework to help you stay laser focused on what you need to do to keep your business moving forward and growing is essential. But also remember that there are a lot of people out there right now that don’t have the expertise, experience and process to help you even though they claim they can. 

Our proven programs can help you grow and whether you want to use tools on your own, have some limited support or get complete one on one help we have 24 years of working with hundreds of small businesses in 27 different industries. And our process is second to none and has been so successful we actually give you a satisfaction guarantee. If you’re looking for help growing your business make sure you ask the right questions so you don’t get burned! 

As a business owner like you I have a tendency to get caught up in the day to day running of my business, taking care of clients and just general busyness. I think one of the challenges that any entrepreneur has today is taking time out to think about your business.

What I mean by thinking about your business is to specifically frame the issues and challenges your business is facing separate of the day-to-day activities. One of the key reasons for this is because is you are thinking about challenges and issues outside of your day-to-day activities it lets you completely focus on the issue. You can critically think through the issue or challenge putting a structure around it that defines what it is, why it’s an issue, how are you going to deal with it and what are the opportunities once you deal with it.

Most business owners/entrepreneurs that I work with have a difficult time with this simply because they don’t allot the time to do it. One of the big reasons I see them make big mistakes in their business is because they don’t take the time to think through issues and challenges. They don’t do a thorough analysis before making a decision and then they wonder why they got bit in the behind! Now the other side of the coin in this is to not over analyze it, because the other problem here is analysis paralysis.  They over analyze it and then can’t make a decision.

I think there’s a happy medium and here’s some quick steps to help:

1.    Frame the issue/problem: What is it, why is it a problem and what caused it?

2.    Identify possible solutions: What can you do about it, who needs to be involved in solving it, are there more than one solution?

3.    Once it’s solved what are the upsides and opportunities?

4.    And lastly what’s the decision and what are the specific steps to deal with the issue and challenge. Make sure here you have specific steps and timelines so it gets done.

This process doesn’t have to take a long time and if you step outside your business for a bit and think through it without the day to day distractions you will be much more successful in solving it and moving on. 

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Today is Valentine’s Day and I have two important announcements but first I need your help! You see I have a goal this year of helping 100 businesses grow by $500,000 each. If I can do that I figure I add $50 million dollars to a sluggish economy and that seems to be better than what Washington can do. But in order to do that I need your help, I need you to help me find 100 businesses that want to grow. I am so confident in the process I use to help businesses grow that I am even willing to make a ridiculous offer.  They can try out my system for 30 days and if they don’t think it will help them grow I’ll give them their money back, no questions asked! So the first announcement I have is a special offer on Valentine’s Day I’m going to discount the program even more than it’s already discounted! So where I need your help is getting the word out so that we can find 100 businesses that want to grow. And I’ll even make it worth your while, if you become an affiliate I’ll pay you to help me find these businesses. All you have to do is signup here and you will get all the tools you need to help me find these businesses. Or if you don’t want to bother with that simply pass this along to someone you know that could use the help and have them go to this link: BusinessBuilder

My second announcement coincides with Valentine’s Day, one of the things that I have found in my travels working with businesses is that there seems to be a perception that you can’t do the right things all the time in your business and still be profitable. And I have been researching that theory now for a few months and I am announcing today that my next book which will come out in May will be titled “Business With Heart”: Creating a Company that Cares and Is Profitable. I have found many examples of companies that care for their people, customers, community and environment and are extremely profitable and I’ll talk about those companies and show you how to emulate those success stories and why it’s extremely profitable to do so. Watch for much more over the coming months on this new book!

So again my last request is I need your help and I know that together we can grow businesses and stimulate the economy!

Many times when so called experts and consultants talk about what they do it’s all based on all the successes that they have had and all the testimonials they have acquired. However I think it’s important to also recognize the failures. As a business owner myself I understand the difficulties of running and growing a business. I’ve been involved in 11 different start-ups and I have seen my share of failed companies and made the mistakes that drive companies into the ground. I think the most important  thing I have learned is that you must learn from failures. I have learned much more from the companies that didn’t succeed than I ever did from those that succeeded, I was able to step away from the failed businesses and look closely into why they failed and what I could have done differently in order for it not to happen again. I’ve tried to put the lessons learned into the next business and continue to improve and learn as I go.

I believe the success in any business lies in the ability for the owner/entrepreneur to learn from their mistakes quickly and to be able to quickly pivot on those mistakes and turn them into positives. They must be able to identify what isn’t working and then come up with a plan to reverse or change things that aren’t’ working. As I work with businesses throughout the country I see entrepreneurs that are so intent on their business idea being a success that they are blind to the things that are derailing it, I understand, I’ve been there!  I remember starting a company that did reusable grocery bags, it was a great idea and it received  a lot of great interest but in the end the market wasn’t ready for it and what we missed was that the market was the end user and they needed to be educated not the stores that were selling it. And so sometimes an idea is a great idea but the market isn’t ready for it and that’s a hard pill to swallow for most entrepreneurs. Had we understood that early enough we could have pivoted our marketing more toward the end user and educated them on the benefits and we may have had a chance.

I understand how difficult it is these days to have a successful business and I am very fortunate that entrepreneurs call me into to help them understand what’s going on in their businesses and one of the first things I look at is what has failed and why? And then what can we do to pivot on that failure to improve or fix it. In closing, understand and analyze your failures, they are the greatest business building tools you have!

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It’s January 6th and already 75% of the people who made New Year’s resolutions have broken them. So why make them? The problem with resolutions is that they are basically another name for goals and the problem with goals is that the minute it becomes apparent that you are either not going to reach them or succeed them they fall by the wayside. And in the case of New Year’s resolutions they generally fall by the wayside pretty quickly.

I have a better idea, rather than making resolutions that you will break, create a list of things that you will try to focus on in 2012. This list could be your philosophy on how you will do things in the new year or what you will focus on in the new year. To give you an idea of how this list might look I thought I would share mine with you.
So here goes:

I’m going to have more fun with my business and quit taking it so seriously
I’m going to help 1000 businesses grow significantly in 2012
I’m going to be better at setting deadlines and meeting them
I’m going to do a better job of connecting with my community of followers
I’m going to do a better job of managing my time and not wasting it (it’s the one asset we can’t replace)
I’m going to provide value in everything I do
I’m going to deliver exceptional service
I’m going to associate with positive people
I’m going to commit time everyday to learning
I’m going to commit time everyday to writing
I’m going to act with speed, money loves speed!

So there’s some of things I’m going to focus on in 2012 and as you can see I’m not making resolutions that I will break but rather I’m creating expectations that I’m going to work toward. And I’ll make sure that this list is prominently posted where I look at it everyday and burn it into my brain. If you create a list of things you’re going to work toward versus a set of goals you won’t set yourself up for failure and you’ll find that the new year will be your best year ever! So give it a shot, and let me know how it goes!

Mike salutes the veterans and active Military personnel today in this Veteran’s Day Friday Morning Coffee.

I read a recent article that stated there are now over 30,000 people in the U. S. that call themselves executive/life/business coaches. If that number is true and I don’t doubt that it is, then the question is; who really needs a coach?

What is a Business Coach?

First let’s back up and discuss the different types of coaches. There are currently 3 most commonly recognized types of coaches:

• The Life Coach
• The Executive Coach
• The Business Coach

A life coach is a person that generally works on the well being of the individual. In addition a life coach may assist a person with setting and achieving goals and leading a well-balanced life.

An executive coach is a person that typically works with senior level executives helping them achieve balance between life and work and helping them become better leaders.

The Business Coach

The business coach is a person that should be solely focused on the success of the business. The business coach works with the business owner/entrepreneur or manager helping them get the business on track, grow the business or take the business to a higher level. A good business coach should have a wealth of experience in multiple industries and businesses in order to bring a wide perspective to the business owner. The business coach should bring ideas, resources and assist in creating a game plan for success. And one of the most important roles of a business coach should be accountability, holding the business owner accountable in executing the game plan. My clients tell me this is the single most important aspect of our relationship. A good business coach should have processes and systems that can easily be followed to help you achieve the success you’re looking for, similar to my business planning funnel.

Are You a Candidate for a Business Coach?

If you own or run a business and are caught up in the day-to-day activities of the business and are spending more time working in your business versus working on your business then you are a candidate. However that being said you must want to take your business the next level and be willing to have someone hold you accountable to do just that. You must be open to as Jim Collins, author of Good To Great, says, “confronting the brutal facts”. Sometimes the business coach is going to tell you things you are not going to want to hear, but that’s their job. You must be open to outside ideas; the best business coaches go outside you industry to help you find ideas that could help you take you business to new levels. And lastly you must be wiling to invest in your business knowing that there is a cost to having a business expert on your team.

Ultimate Breakthrough Planning: On Demand Coaching

One of the challenges in finding a coach is being able to commit to the coach’s schedule and doing all the things that the coach wants you to do, in talking with my clients over the past several years that has typically been the biggest challenge is committing the time to do the program. With that in mind I’ve developed a new type of coaching program that I am calling th.  This program is designed for the business owner to have ultimate flexibility on when and how to use the business coach. After a complete business analysis and planning session you then determine how you want to use me, you purchase a block of time and you can schedule as much or as little as you want when you want.   I find with many business owners that sometimes because of what’s going on in their business they can’t take the time to go through a normal coaching session and then they start missing them and once you start down that slope it’s difficult to recover. With this program you don’t have to worry about it, the coaching program is done on your schedule when you can afford to take the time to do it. In addition because you buy blocks of time if there is a major issue that we need to work on we can do it all in one session versus multiple sessions which means you can deal with it immediately.  If you would like to know more about this program click here.

A good business coach can really help you take your business to higher levels but you have to want to go there and do those things that are required in order for the relationship to work.

Today Mike Ferrell discusses the difference between trying to grow your business and sales strategically versus tactically and how thinking strategically can get you more focused on achieving your goals.