Does your sales approach include case studies?  If not, consider adding some to your website or sending one or two out with your brochures.

Have you ever heard of - or experienced - a business partnership ending badly?

I’ve seen it often. My experience is that out of every ten partnerships, eight don’t work, one works very well, and one is just okay.

Often, the ones that don’t work have run into problems with each partner’s expectations of the business. In other words, everybody is different in their vision, in their targets and what they are trying to achieve in the business. There can be conflict in the partnership when one partner wants to go faster than the other, one partner wants to take it easy, or one partner has a higher appetite for risk than the other.

That can mean that a couple of years down the track, one partner is working a bit harder than the other and resentment is starting to build. Or, the business needs a cash injection and one partner has the money and the other doesn’t. One wants to invest time and money in going after a new contract or market share, while the other is happy with a steady, reliable business. That’s when problems start to show up.

The trouble is that there is so much emotion and excitement in starting a new business that the partners often just didn’t talk about these kinds of issues before they got started. That’s what a successful partnership needs - clear communication and a lot of what-if planning.

• What if one of the partners wants to leave the business? How will you manage a buy out?
• What if you need a lot of capital suddenly? Whose personal assets will and will not be available?
• How do each of you define “success” in the business? Is there a particular milestone you each want to reach?
• How will you know when the business is “finished”? Do you intended to sell it? Run it forever and keep it in the family?
• How many hours a week are you really comfortable working? What about after the first few years of intense work are over?
• How much of a financial return are you each expecting? Now, and ultimately? If you each have different skills, do you value your time equally?
• How much personal or business debt can you each cope with, before you begin losing sleep over it?

These are the kinds of questions you need to discuss, and put down in writing, to form the basis of a successful partnership. When you’re working together, you need to know what to expect from one another. If you can see from this exercise that your expectations are not aligning on a lot of points, then you may need to consider other options rather than going into partnership.

Do you do too much in your business?

I don’t mean do you personally take on too much in the business, but does your business try to offer too many things to too many people? It’s a common theme in small business, and it’s something I see as a business coach every week.

These are businesses that start out, make a success of it, get more customers and make more money as they grow. Then, they start to look around and try new things, offering more and more products and services, instead of concentrating on what they are good at.

Sometimes that happens for no other reason than the business owner getting bored with the same product and wanting to add something new. And there’s nothing wrong with adding to your inventory, so long as you don’t lose sight of what made your business successful in the first place.

What is your cash cow? What is your core product? This product is the one that your business does well, efficiently, is well-known for, and you know that every time you make a sale or complete a job for a customer, you will make money on it. Contrast that with newer products or services which might be sold less often, be harder to deliver, take up more staff time, and you may not always come away with a profit.

Go back to that steady performer and make sure it’s getting the attention in the business it needs to keep generating great results. Then, carefully look at what the costs and benefits are to adding each new product to your business. Make a judgement as to which ones are worth your time and trouble for the result they will give you.

I touched on this topic when I spoke to business journalist Leon Gettler for his Smart Company article on 10 Big Strategic Mistakes. Read more in his article.

1. Business Coaches Can Show You How to Get More Returns with Less Work.

   You’re working too many hours and pretty sure that if you left for a vacation or holiday, things wouldn’t operate anywhere near as effectively as they do now … put another way, you’re ready to work a whole lot less … Whatever you call it, small business coaching, executive coaching or just plain old business mentoring, ActionCOACH is the world’s #1 business coaching firm and executive coaching firm. In fact, in 1993 Brad Sugars and ActionCOACH started the business coaching industry and now with more than 1,000 offices in 32 countries, ActionCOACH has literally turned the old business consulting model into business coaching and executive coaching, a far more powerful, profitable and more affordable way for you as a business owner or as an executive to get the help and mentoring to grow your company …

2. Business Coaching Creates More Profits.

   You’re ready to make a whole lot more profit … if you’re not making anywhere near enough money to justify the effort, risk and investment you’re making in the business …it’s time to turn that around …With literally 282 profit and money making strategies your nearest ActionCOACH will be able to help coach you in sales, marketing, advertising, profit growth, business systems, time management and team building strategies to literally jump your revenues in a matter of months … and unlike a business consultant who does the work for you, a business coach will teach you how, while an executive coach will work with your company to get the results your executives need.

3. A Business Coach Will Help You Develop Your Team.

   You’re ready to build or develop a team of people that can grow the business whether you’re there or not … recruiting, training and keeping the best people makes your life so much easier … From our team training programs to our ever so powerful recruitment systems, building a team of motivated, passionate performers is all part of the program that our business coaches and executive coaches will help you implement …

4. A Business Coach Will Help You Rediscover Your Passion.

   You need to fall in love with your business again, it’s gotten boring and at times you even feel sick of it all … time for a re-injection of that vision and passion you had when you first started … Motivation is at the core of everything your Business Coach will take you through. Building either a simple business plan or marketing plan will give you the clarity on not only what needs doing, but how to do it. Whether you work from home, are just starting, or run a multi-million dollar organization a Business Coach is one of the fastest ways to a better business and a better lifestyle …

5. A Business Coach Will Help You Navigate Changes in the Economy and Your Market.

   You know that to grow you need to be learning more, but you don’t even have time to keep up with your industry changes let alone the changes in global business and how to improve it all … Business education has moved into a new realm, with business mentoring and business coaching taking over from traditional consulting, books and seminars so you get the right information at the right time. Think of it as an entrepreneurial degree using your company as a case study …

6. Business Coaches Create Accountability.

   You need a Business Coach, a business mentor to hold you accountable, to demand a profit, to demand results, someone to push you, cajole you and hopefully more often than the rest … congratulate you on a job well done … Being an owner can be a lonely job, having a sounding board, a business mentor and coach, a friend to talk with you and provide expert coaching, helping you to solve your problems and turn them into opportunities. Creating opportunities is just a small part of what our business coaches do, but often it can be the most valuable …

7. Business Coaching Provides a Second Expert Opinion.

   You need a Business Coach, a business mentor to hold you accountable, to demand a profit, to demand results, someone to push you, cajole you and hopefully more often than the rest … You need a Business Coach who can see the forest for the trees, an expert who isn’t blinded by the industry and by too many years in your industry … Running your own company like any part of life, often you need a business mentor to see the simplest of things to help you in areas such as sales coaching. Often business mentors will ask the tough questions so that you’re on track … Join the thousands of other owners and executives around the world, who have implemented business coaching. Take the step before your competition does … call my office today on 03 9885 0044, or read more about business coaching.

In my mind, the most important attributes for success in business (over the long term) are … Focus and Discipline.

What about leadership I hear you say.  What about creativity or innovation.  While these are all important, I have seen many people build very successful businesses, simply based on finding a good business model, refining it and doing it again and again.

Where a lot of other people go wrong is they work hard and develop a good business.  But after several years of building their business, they get bored.  They start to look around at additional products or services they can ‘add-on’.  Or, they get excited about going after a new group of clients.  Clearly a case of the grass being greener on the other side of the hill.

Their downfall occurs when they start engaging in multiple fields of focus.  Logic tells us that when we focus 100% on something, 100% of our energy goes into it, when we split our focus our energy is split.

By not retaining focus on the supposedly ‘boring’ business they don’t refine it that little bit further, taking it from nicely profitable to super profitable.

So the rule for today is: Focus on your existing business and have the discipline to see it through.

The importance of checking references just prior to employing someone was bought home to me the other day.

One of my business coaching clients, had run through the recruitment process and identified what he thought was an exceptional candidate.  Her resume was impeccable and she presented confidently in an interview.

As a final check I gave him a reference check template and encouraged him to check past employers.  Her role, which she had recently left, didn’t include a reference.  Googling the company produced a phone number and he rang to check her employment history.

Well… 10 minutes later after finding out about accusations of theft and a suspicious Workcover claim he had changed his mind on the applicant.

Employment Commandment: Thou shall not employ ANYONE without first checking ALL their references.

One benefit of the current economic climate has been the turnaround in the employment market.  Nine months ago many small businesses were faced with rising wage costs and a lack of quality job applicants.

NOW, things are a little different.  For those businesses that have done the hard work and setup their businesses for growth (with the assistance of a quality business coach!), the pool of available talent is impressive.  It is an employers market with many more good quality applicants applying for jobs and fair and reasonable expectations when it comes to remuneration.

To give you an example, here are some examples of people I have assisted business coaching clients to recruit in the last month or so.

Admin/Finance Assistant (P/T)

A return to work mum with small business and secretarial experience and intermediate MYOB skills.  Salary of $20 per hour.

Business Developer (F/T)

An experienced salesperson comfortable in generating his own leads via cold calling.  He is confident presenting in a sales environment and skilled at closing sales.  Salary of $52,000 plus commissions.

It has just been announced.  Brad Sugars the founder of ActionCOACH will be coming to Melbourne on Wednesday 12th of August to present the seminar “Business is Booming”.  Past attendees of Brad’s seminars and business coaching clients well know his engaging style of presenting.  This time around, the “Business is Booming” seminar will focus on how to make money in a recession.

If you wish to attend, please register you interest with my office by calling Michele on 03 9809 4490.

Typically I’m not a fan of buying a competitor’s business to grow your own.  While this is a quick way to achieve sales growth it can also be fraught with danger.

HOWEVER…  What if you could pick up your competitors business for little or no money.  2009 is going to see some businesses prosper and others decline.  Those businesses that haven’t done the hard work and put in place a solid structure over the last couple of years are going to struggle in 2009.  This provides an opportunity to their competitors.  As the years goes on there will be competitors of yours that consider closing down.  They may have lost a big customer, they may have been hit by a bad debt or they may just give up.  Keep your ear to the ground, because the opportunity might come up for you to acquire them for very little and in turn grow your own sales and profits.

More information on buying your competitor’s business.

Welcome to my blog.  I’m going to start my first post with some very good news.

Not many businesses are aware, but there were some attractive measures in the governments recent $42B stimulus package.

Most people have heard about the one off payments to individuals and the building works grants for schools, BUT hidden in the details there is a favourable tax break for small business.

Small businesses will be eligible for an additional 30% tax break for specific assets costing more than $1,000 that are purchased between 13 Dec 2008 and 30 June 2009.

This means you could be eligible for a 130% tax deduction on assets you purchase now.  There are exclusions like building works, previously ‘used’ assets and software.  But, consider bringing forward any purchases of motor vehicles, general plant and equipment and you might be in for a nice reward.

It’s good to see small business getting SOMETHING from the splash of cash…

More information:

 http://www.economicstimulusplan.gov.au/s…

 http://www.treasury.gov.au/documents/150…