Congratulations! You have successfully completed the 2010 Tour de Profit! You should feel good about staying in the race, maintaining your discipline, and spending the time to focus ON your business rather than IN your business.

Now, before we put a wrap on this year, I want you to do one last exercise. I want you to take 30 minutes this week to reflect on the lessons of this last year’s race. You may consider it your Wins and Challenges. Others call it their Successes and Sorries. You call it whatever works for you, but take the time to sit down with a paper and pen or at your computer and capture the lessons you learned from this year’s competition.

What did you do this past year that you want to do again – those things that worked? Which of those that worked should you “double-up” on? They worked but you know they could even be bigger or better.

What happened this past year that you should not let happen again next year? What should you avoid at all costs? What missed opportunities can you see now that you are looking in the rear view mirror?

What new skills do you need to have as you begin your next year’s race? What skills are missing from your team that you need to make sure you secure? What needs to change with your approach, your attitude or your commitment to get a better result next year?

The trick to winning is to be improving all the time. There is no reason to repeat the year you just had again. No matter how good it was, there is always room for improvement. Are you thinking of the areas where you can and should improve?

Let me ask you this. If your son came home from the 4th grade and said, Mom, Dad, I have some bad news. I failed the 4th grade and will have to repeat it again next year. How would you respond? Would you lift him up, support him, tell him to try harder and help him get through the 4th grade the following year? Of course you would.

Now, what if the following year the same thing happened – he came home and said he failed the 4th grade yet again and has to repeat it. How would you feel now? Would you start to wonder if that was your son? Would you question what was wrong? Probably.

Say he did that year after year until he was now driving himself to school but still in the 4th grade! Are you laughing at the thought? Probably! Why is that so funny? Because that is exactly what many business owners do year after year. They are simply repeating the same year over and over again – rather than learning and growing and getting better results each year! Are you looking in the mirror?

Don’t let that happen to you! Take the time, while the memories are fresh, to gather your learnings and make improvements for this next year. You will be glad you did!

Again, congratulations on your 2010 Tour de Profit! I look forward to seeing you on the ride again in 2011 – we start in less than a week!

Contact Rich Allen, Business Coach at www.actioncoach.com/richallen or at richallen@actioncoach.com for more information on his business coaching programs.

The final stages of the Tour de France is a very special time. The hard racing is over. The winners have been decided. All that remains is the ceremonial ride into Paris culminating with the final laps down the Champs Elysees. There is time to reminisce about the difficult stage rides that are now finished, toast the winners with a glass of champagne and pay respect to those who wear the coveted yellow jersey.

The final stages of your Tour de Profit are much the same. You’re put in your best efforts. The results are all but final. It is now time to celebrate your victories and give thanks for all the good things that happened for you throughout the year. There will be time to compete again next year, but for now, the focus is on celebration and appreciation.

While you ride hard throughout the entire year and focus your on your business, the final measure of success comes down to the satisfaction and successes you have in your personal life. It matters more to have improved your relationship with your spouse or significant other and your children than with your vendors or business associates. You’ve spend the majority of your time in and around your business, now is the time to focus on your family, your important relationships, and yourself.

No matter what your faith or religious preferences, there are times when you must take time to reflect on why you are here. Your business often becomes the beacon that guides your life and consumes your time. If you have a healthy balance throughout the year, then good for you! Unfortunately, most do not. If you are among those who run hard and fast all year long, then this stage is designed with you in mind. This is your time to step away from the business and enjoy the fruits of your hard work.

And, don’t forget to allow your team members to do the same thing. No one likes working for a Scrooge – in any sense of the word. Be considerate of what matters to others around you and give them the flexibility and freedom to take time to refresh and recharge. Nothing is better for that than spending free time with family and friends.

I hope you are proud of what you have accomplished during this year’s Tour de Profit. There will always be room for improvement, and the more you improve, the more you realize that the opportunity to get better is even greater!

Now is the time to rest up before you have to get back on the bike for next year’s ride. The course continues to get more difficult. The route changes each and every year. But the challenge still pulls you back. Like many business owners, it is not yet time to “retire” – but soon – particularly as you get better and better at your business so you can go out on top!

Here’s wishing you only the best as we bring this year’s race to a close. We’ll be ready to push you along as you gear up for next year. I look forward to riding along with you again as you continue your quest to win the Tour de Profit.

Contact Rich Allen, Business Coach at www.actioncoach.com/richallen or at richallen@actioncoach.com for more information on his business coaching programs.

As we near the end of this year’s Tour de Profit, it is appropriate to take time to recognize those who have helped you achieve your success. I know that the first group of people who come to mind are your team members – those who have worked hard in your business all year long delivering on the promise you made to your customers and clients.There is no doubt that these folks deserve your thanks and attention.

But, I want you to spend this week recognizing an even more important group of people – your customers! Think about it; you would not even have team members if you did not have customers! There would be no need for documents, processes, procedures or systems if you did not have good customers. Your customers are without a doubt the most important people in your business success.

So, here’s your question for this week: What are you doing to make sure your customers KNOW how important they are to you? How will you recognize their value to you and your business? How will they, beyond a shadow of a doubt, know that you value them, respect them, admire them and appreciate them?

Let me suggest a few things that will not communicate this message:

• Sending an e-card with a template note.
• Sending a new calendar or meeting planner that doubles as a marketing piece.
• Sending a card through regular mail with an embossed “thank you”.
• Sending a card with the names of everyone in your office on it, but without a personal note.
• Having a package delivered without a personal note.

The list can go on and on. Hopefully, you can see a pattern. But surprisingly, while you may see an obvious issue with this list of bad ideas, many business owners will still do just this and think they have communicated how much they appreciate their customers!

So, this begs the question, what will YOU do? Let’s start with this thought. Anything you do is worth doing with a personal touch! If you are going to send a note, make it a personal note. If you are going to send a card, make it a personal card. If you are sending a gift, make it something that relates to that particular client.

If asked, each of you could come up with four or five examples of ways that a business has tried to let you know they appreciate you, but your reaction to their effort was very different. I recall getting a fruit basket every Christmas holiday – without fail. When the box arrived, I knew who had sent it. Without exception, I would open the box only to find a standard packing list and an order form if I wanted to place a future order, but no note of any kind – other than the standard template “Thanks for your Business” on the small card that doubled as a marketing piece. Was I impressed? No. Did I like the fruit? Sure. Did it make me appreciate the sender more? Not really. Did it make me do more business with them? Nope.

Go ahead. Think about how many of these you have received over the years. More than just a handful I would bet. So why not be different? Why not stand out from the crowd? Do something that really matters – something that gets the kind of response you hope for.

Need ideas? Great! Here is your assignment. Talk with three or four of your colleagues – other business owners. Ask them what they are doing this year to recognize their best customers. Then, steal the best ideas! Yes, it is ok to steal ideas – it is called benchmarking. Business owners do it all the time. Now is a great time to do it. If no one has any good ideas, then collaborate with a colleague and have them ask a few of your customers what would make them feel special and you agree to ask a few of their customers for them. No need to get a consultant to do this for you. Just swap a few customer contacts and call on behalf of your colleague. Have them do the same and see what kind of response you get.

Here’s the best part. Even if you don’t come up with any new, creative ideas, you will get some good customer feedback that will be valuable to your business. And you get it for free!

But, just so you don’t go empty handed into this important time of year, here are a few ideas to consider:

• Recognize your best customers on your website with a story of what makes them special.
• If your business is B-2-B, include links to your customers’ websites in your newsletter with a personal note of thanks and a referral.
• Invite your best customers to a happy hour or dinner where they can meet others who have similar interests.
• Give out customer awards – even if you have to make them up!
• Send them something unique and specialized – even with their name on it.
• Send them tickets to a special holiday event for their family with your personal note attached.

If you’re thinking, these are good ideas, but each of them will cost a lot of money, then you need to re-set your thinking. Take a minute to remind yourself of the lifetime value of a good customer in your business. If a good customer stays with you two or three years and they do multiple transactions with you, the cost of a special gift or personal invitation is comparatively small.

Take this week to recognize your best customers. Over the long term, it is one of the best ways to retain your customers, get more referrals and grow your business. Good luck!

Contact Rich Allen, Business Coach at www.actioncoach.com/richallen or at richallen@actioncoach.com for more information on his business coaching programs.

Stage 49 of this year’s Tour de Profit is designed to take your race plan (otherwise known as your business plan) from a collection of great ideas and potential business-building strategies and convert it into a meaningful set of measures and metrics that you can use to track your progress and quantify your results. This is where you Define your Key Performance Metrics (KPI).

Before we start, let’s get clear on what KPI’s are and what KPI’s are not. KPI’s are not the same as your monthly financial measures. They are not revenues, profit, margins or numbers of customers. These are important numbers to know in your business, but these are “results” of the activities that you are doing in your business. These are the “outcomes” from the decisions you made and the activities you and your team engaged in. These are “backward-looking” metrics. They show you clearly what happened in the past.

Many business owners like to use what happened in the past to be predictors of what will happen in the future. In some cases that makes sense. But what we want to do is identify and build a set of metrics that are more “current” activities and are the “input items” that generate the outcomes such as number of customers, revenues, margins, and profits. I call these Key Performance Indicators.

To be sure we are clear on this point, here are a few examples of KPI’s that a business might track and measure:

Number of Leads Generated
Number of Appointments Held with Prospects
Number of Proposals Made
Average Register Sale
Average Frequency of Purchase

The list can go on and on. But what you see on this list are early indicators of acquiring a new client, increasing revenues, etc. These early indicators are what you will want to measure to help you “predict” what your revenue and profit growth will be throughout the coming year.

And, here is another very important element to the KPI’s that you will want to define and build into your business; they are weekly measures of activities! Yes, you want to measure your efforts on a weekly basis, not on a monthly or quarterly basis. This will allow you many more opportunities to review our activities, make adjustments, and make improvements in your results.

So, with this basic understanding, your assignment this week is to design and build your KPI’s for next year’s race. Again, let’s take a simple approach to this exercise. Go back and review the work that you did in the last stage (last week) where you considered the nine critical areas of your business that you must be constantly improving. In each of the nine critical areas, ask yourself, what would be the best measure of activity or results in that area that would demonstrate that I am making progress in my business? Focus on the activities that you do every week. Don’t make it a complicated calculation. Keep it simple.

If the critical area is Lead Generation, then consider new leads generated, or number of networking groups attended, or number of responses to an advertisement. If the critical area is Delighting Customers, then consider average score on satisfaction surveys received, or average wait time for your services, or average deliver time on an order. These are the kind of leading indicators you will want to track and measure to give you a sense of whether you are improving or falling backward.

Once you have a list of potential KPI’s that cover all nine critical areas, you can prioritize and select the top five or six that will be most important for your business growth this next year. Focus on these first. Communicate to your team that these will be your KPI’s and instruct everyone on how and when the data will be collected, who will be responsible for updating the KPI graphs, where they will be posted and how you plan to review them regularly. Be specific in your assignments and engage your team in bringing your KPI’s to life.

This activity will turn your strategic planning into tangible, measurable activities that everyone can see. Nothing changes behaviors faster than performance metrics posted so everyone can be held accountable! Good luck defining your KPI’s this week. You will be glad you put in the effort to make this a priority.

Contact Rich Allen, Business Coach at www.actioncoach.com/richallen or at richallen@actioncoach.com for more information on his business coaching programs.

Congratulations to you on your efforts over these past two stages. Over the last two weeks you have gathered intelligence on your competition and reached out to your best customers to get their feedback on your opportunities for improvement. While it is difficult to determine absolute importance, these efforts on your part may just be the most significant and important pieces of work you have done during this Tour de Profit.

The hard work of you and your team have positioned you to begin putting together your best plan for next year’s Tour de Profit. Armed with the insights from your toughest competitors and from your best customers, you can build a plan that will take your business to the next level. To build this plan, you need a simple yet comprehensive model to follow. That is your assignment for this week in Stage 48 of the Tour de Profit.

I want to introduce you to a nine-category model that will cover the critical areas of your business that you must include as part of your game plan for next year. These nine categories will help you structure your business plan and focus your strategic actions on the areas that matter most. Here is a brief overview of each of these nine categories and the kinds of questions you need to address in each category:

Compelling Vision - How clear is your long-term vision? Does each member of your team know, understand and feel energized by your vision? What do you need to do to make it clearer, more compelling, and more real to those who will help you achieve it?

Lead Generation – What are your best strategies to get more prospective customers to know your business exists? How effective are the strategies you are currently using? What can you do to improve your cost per lead? Do you have a robust CRM system in place?

Lead Conversion – Is your current sales process well defined and used by everyone on your team? Are you tracking the results of each step of your sales process? Are you asking the right kids of questions of your prospects that are making them want to do business with you?

Delighting Customers – How do you know what your customers really think about your products and services? Are you gathering customer feedback on a regular basis? What would you do differently to improve your customer experience?

Generating Repeat Business – Do you know your average sales ticket? Do you know your average frequency of purchase? What strategies are you using to get your current customers to buy from you more often?

Building Leverage Through Processes – How many of your critical processes are well documented with checklists posted in the work area? What opportunities do you have to standardize routine processes? Where can you gain efficiency and reduce costs by eliminating unnecessary actions or mistakes.

Building a High-Performance Team – Does everyone on your team have a personal development plan? How do you encourage risk taking in your business? Have you communicated your expectations in terms of your non-negotiables?

Creating a Succession Plan – Have you defined your ideal transition scenario for your business? What have you done to prepare your key leaders to potentially become your general managers? Have you outlined the skills, behaviors and knowledge required of your successor?

Giving Back to the Community – What are you currently doing to be a good steward and contributor in the community? Have you defined a charity or service organization that you and your business could adopt? Are you seen in the community as a business that gives generously to those in need?

With your competitive assessment and your customer feedback in hand, and a planning model that you can follow, you can now begin building your plan. First set your goal of what you want to accomplish over the next year. Next, identify the top two or three specific actions that need to be addressed to achieve those goals. Lastly, turn these specific actions into SMART goals – goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Responsible (assigned to someone specific) and Time bound.

Focus your efforts this week and you have a solid foundation for your race plan for next year.

Contact Rich Allen, Business Coach at www.actioncoach.com or at richallen@actioncoach.com for more information on his business coaching programs.

In last week’s stage, we focused on your main competition. You did the research, collected intelligence on their product and service offerings, reviewed their websites, collected their flyers and spent the time building a SWOT analysis for each of your primary competitors. Good for you! This insight will be valuable as you begin to build your plan for next year’s race.

Now we turn our focus to YOUR business. And who better to give you feedback on how well you are delivering on the promises you make but your existing customers? Welcome to stage 47 of this year’s Tour de Profit. We are in the stages of the race where we are collecting data and insights that we can use to build a winning race strategy for next year. And your current customers hold the key to some of the most valuable competitive information you could ever gather.

Think about it. Your current customers have already made a choice about the competition. They are voting with their pocketbooks – which is the most powerful indicator of market preferences. Your customers have done some comparative shopping and have determined that your offer is the most compelling, your product is superior to others, your pricing is acceptable and your delivery meets their needs. Would you agree?

Not so fast! How can you be sure? What if they are on the verge of dropping you like a hot rock? How would you know? What if their last visit was just that – their last visit? Isn’t it important to KNOW what they are feeling about you and your business? How often do we go through time making an “assumption” that everything is going well – without asking our customer? My suspicion is way too often!

Well this is the week to change all that. This week, your assignment is to do something that many of your competitors rarely do – talk with your customers and ask them directly what they think about doing business with you. Before we compile our data and insights into a plan, we must have this critical piece of intelligence. The intelligence we gain from our customers is what is most critical to our future success. It is like the blood that flows through our veins. It is important to know that it is “good blood” and not “bad blood”.

So, as we have done several times before, I want to give you a step by step process to follow this week. There is not need to make this complicated. We’ll break down our activities into easy, logical steps that will give us the outcome we need and want – the honest truth from our current customers. Ready? Here we go:

Step 1 – Gather a list of all customers that have purchased from you over the past 6 months to 1 year. We want those who are current customers, not those who did business with you a couple of years ago. The more current the better.

Step 2 – Sort the list by frequency of purchase and total purchase volume. We want to know who those customers are who do business with you on a very regular basis. Their purchases may be small in relative size, but if they are regular, repeat customers, that makes them very valuable to you over the long run. We also want to know those who do a large volume of sales with us. These may be infrequent customers but when they buy, they buy big. These too, are critical to our long term success.

Step 3 – Start at the top of each list and identify a manageable number of customers who you could have a one to one discussion with over this next week. If you have others on your team who can assist with this activity, give them a manageable list as well. The more the better, but it is better to have a meaningful discussion with a few rather than a brief and surface level discussion with many.

Step 4 – Build a list of 5 or 6 key questions that you would like to ask each customer. These would be open ended questions – those that cannot be answered with a yes or a no. You want these questions to be relevant but also thought-provoking. An example might be “What is the feeling you get when you do business with us?” That question may cause them to wrinkle their forehead and pause for a minute, but the response you get will be very revealing. Come up with 4 or 5 others that get at the heart of your product , service, accessibility, ease of doing business, follow through, etc. Focus on those areas of your business that matter most and those that may be strategic for you.

Step 5 – For every primary question you identify, come up with a secondary question that digs deeper into their answer. These will likely be “why” questions. For example, “Why does that matter so much to you?” or “Why would that make a difference in who you do business with?” The goal is to get your customer to reveal more of their underlying reasoning for choosing you over your competition.

Step 6 – Make copies of your question set so that you have one set of questions for every customer you plan to visit with. Don’t try to “wing it”. Let them know that you are gathering data on which to make strategic decisions for your business. They will be honored to know you included them in your thought process.

Step 7 – Give yourself and your team members a target and goal of completing all discussions by a certain day and time. Don’t let this process linger. Set the expectation that this is urgent and important. Allow yourself and your team to schedule blocks of time to either visit your customers in person or connect with them by phone. Make this a live interaction. No e-mail. No survey monkey. No questionnaire in the mail. Talk with your customers – either on the phone or in person. They will appreciate you reaching out and making the connection.

Step 8 – Gather the data and compile the results. I know what you are thinking – these will be all verbal responses – no numbers to average. How does that help? This is not an effort to be scientific. There are multiple reasons for the direct contact in addition to asking for their opinion, it is about making a “touch”. Making a connection. Building a deeper relationship. You want to grow your business, spend time talking with your customers!

There you have it. Either simple steps. Nothing fancy. Just following a structured way to get insights and feedback from your current customers. Once you put this with your competitive SWOT intelligence, you are ready to make some decisions and build a plan.

Well done! You are now smarter. Your customers are impressed that you care. And you know more clearly what you need to do to gain more great customers. What could be better than that?

Contact Rich Allen, Business Coach at www.actioncoach.com/richallen or at richallen@actioncoach.com for more information on his business coaching programs.

It is hard to believe that we are already on Stage 46 of this year’s Tour de Profit! Only 6 weeks left to the finish line! But this is not the time to slow down or give up. Instead, this is the time to begin your planning for how you are going to win the race again next year. Remember, the stronger you get in your business, the more your competition will be using you as their standard – their benchmark.

So this week, in stage 46, we are going to focus on Benchmarking your Competition. We know that your competition is watching your every move. They can see that something is different about you this year. You’re more focused, more deliberate, more strategic in your approach to the marketplace. And they will want to know just what you are doing so they can quickly follow.

But we do not intend to let them catch up! This is the week to gather information on your competition and begin building your planning for next year’s race so you can extend your lead rather than give up ground.

Let’s take a simple, methodical approach to benchmarking. We don’t want to make this too complicated. We want our insights to be clear so that we can easily translate them into action items for next year’s plan.

To do this, I’ll ask you to follow these simple steps this week. To make this more complete and more interesting, I would suggest you enlist some of your team members in this process. The investigative and research work will be both interesting and thought-provoking for them as well as for you.

First, write down the top 5 or 6 competitors in your marketplace today. These will likely be businesses that are very similar to yours but may also include businesses that provide alternative services or newly introduced products or services that you see as potential threats to your existing business. This will become your target list for benchmarking activities.

Second, dedicate 30-45 minutes to each competitor and spend time researching their business online. Look first at their website and either make notes or print screen copies of their individual webpages. Collect ads or flyers to get an idea of the offers they are making. Read their blog posts. See what are they sharing with their customers and prospects. Go to their facebook pages, fan pages, and twitter accounts to see how they are positioning themselves in the marketplace. Determine if their key people have Linkedin accounts and go read their pages. What are they reading, who are they connected with, what groups do they follow, what credentials are they promoting. Build a file on each competitor with the major messages that they are sending to prospects.

Third, build a SWOT analysis sheet for each of your competitors. We did this exercise back in Stage 8 as we were beginning this year’s Tour de Profit. You can easily refer back to the work you did there as a sample of a SWOT. Remember, SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. You want to outline what the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are for each of your competitors. The more data you have collected, the better your SWOT analysis will be. Spend the time it takes to get this down on paper so you can reference each of their SWOT analysis sheets as you begin to build your plan for next year.

Fourth, hold a review session with everyone involved in the data collection. Bring each of the SWOT analysis sheets to the meeting and post them on a wall. Review them side-by-side and look for patterns, trends, similarities and uniquely different approaches. Capture your findings on a flipchart. What do you see when you look at your competition side by side? Who looks to be the competitor with the greatest momentum? Who is trying to change the way the game is being played?

Fifth, identify your SWOT as it compares with your major competitors. You will need to be brutally honest with yourself for this part of the exercise. Don’t sugar coat what you’re good at and where you need to improve. Do this well and you will identify the critical areas of your business where you need to focus attention and get better.

Now is not the time to make decisions for next year. This is simply gathering and analyzing data. Next week, we will engage our current customers and get their inputs on your business. Once we have their inputs to consider, then we can begin building a plan. So be patient. Don’t try to come to a quick decision. We want to have multiple views to consider before we build our plan.

Nice job collecting the competitive insights. Do this well and your plan will be solid for next year’s race!

Contact Rich Allen, Business Coach at www.actioncoach.com/richallen or at richallen@actioncoach.com for more information on his business coaching programs.

When was the last time you put some serious thought into what you would do after you sold or transferred your business to someone else? Seriously? I know that we all have those moments when we are so frustrated that all we want to do is get past what we are doing today. I know there have been times when I have said as much as “just take this business away from me – I’m done with it!”

But that is not what I mean. I’m talking about the serious, deliberate discussion with your inner circle of advisors - your business partner, spouse, CPA, banker, financial planner, business coach and other trusted colleagues. Let me guess – not lately. Why? Why aren’t you having this discussion? Is it too soon to be talking about a succession plan? Are there too many issues that need to be resolved in the business before you have these discussions? Really?

Welcome to Stage 45 in this year’s Tour de Profit. This week’s stage is focused on Building a Succession Plan for your business. That’s right – we’re going to discuss how you should do the preparation to make an orderly transition to a new owner of your business. Because we know that having that discussion well before the event will result in a more thoughtful plan – one that is not tainted by the emotions that are certain to rise up as the time for this transition comes near.

So why is this such an important topic? Because every business owner will eventually go through a transition of ownership. Whether it is a transition to a family member, a sale to an existing employee group, a sale to an external buyer, or one of the three “D’s” – disability, divorce or death, every business will go through a transition from one owner to another.

I suppose the only exception is when the current owner makes the decision (or because of a lack of decision) to shut the business down. And given that you have poured your heart and soul into the business, that is not the desired outcome!

So let’s spend some time on this subject this week. I want you to do this exercise with me:

Fast-forward time and imagine yourself at the stage of your life and the life of your business where you have decided it was time to sell. Take out a notepad and write down the things that are most important to you about how that transition occurs. This can be a list of concerns or a narrative of the situation, emotions, people involved and desired outcomes. No matter, put it in language and a format that works for you.

Answer these kinds of questions: Who are the specific people you want involved in the process? How will you share the news with your key people? What are the specific outcomes that you want to occur? What are you doing following the event? Where are you going? Who are you going with? What is the predominant feeling that you and your spouse have as a result?

Most importantly, get your thoughts down on paper.

If this is the first time you have given this much thought, you may need to begin the list and come back to it from time to time to add additional thoughts. Whether you do this in 10 minutes or 10 days, it is important to get your thoughts together before you begin having discussions with others. Not that you should not listen to their wise counsel, but I find it beneficial to always do your own thinking first then make adjustments as you see necessary.

Once you have a complete picture of your desired transition, now schedule time to visit with your close circle of advisors. You can either visit with them one by one or you can call them all together and share your thoughts. I believe it best to gather those you trust together so they can hear your ideas and desires, ask questions, and be prepared as a team to help you come to the best approach.

My experience is that most business owners do not take advantage of the knowledge, experience and wisdom of their close advisors on matters such as these. Rather than calling a small group together to think through this important transition, many will simply try to execute a transition on their own, or with the help of a previously unknown outside third party broker. What a missed opportunity!

Lean on those you know, trust and respect. They will help you think through many aspects of a succession plan that would otherwise be missed. Take this opportunity to gather additional notes, critical issues to address, potential minefields to avoid and traps to watch for. All of these can go into your succession plan notebook. With these insights and valuable lessons learned, you are much better equipped to make the right decisions at the right time to achieve your desired outcome.

Building a Succession Plan is as much about putting your desired thoughts on paper as it is about deciding who should replace you as leader of the business. Most corporate organizations think about Succession Plans as simply the replacement of one person for another. For a business owner, this topic is far more significant and far more complicated. That is why you should schedule the time to put this plan in place now. You can always revisit the plan and make adjustments as you get closer to the actual decision date.

Take the time this week to build your plan. It will add clarity to the critical issues in your business while at the same time give you peace of mind that you are thinking ahead and making thoughtful decisions.

Good luck with this week’s stage ride!

Contact Rich Allen, Business Coach at www.actioncoach.com/richallen or at richallen@actioncoach.com for more information on his business coaching programs.

How do you position yourself to move away from the day-to-day details of your business? This may be one of the biggest single issues that face most business owners today. It is not uncommon to get trapped in the details of today’s business to the point where you cannot find the time or energy to groom your replacement.

Welcome to Stage 44 of this year’s Tour de Profit. We are in the Synergy Region where we are focused on building our leaders for the future. This particular stage is centered on developing your senior-most leader – your General Manager. You can add whatever title that makes sense for your industry, but essentially this individual is responsible for the overall performance of your business, from top to bottom.

So let me ask you…Just how comfortable are you turning over your business to someone else to run? How confident are you that they will make decisions that you will agree with and that will be good for the long term success of your business? How knowledgeable is he or she about the needs and care-abouts of your most important clients? These are critical questions that must be addressed in order to put someone into this critical position.

It is easy to see that this is not a simple task or a decision that you would take lightly. This required a significant amount of thought and preparation. In fact, in some businesses, it may take months or even years to prepare someone for this assignment.

Since this is not a quick-response decision, doesn’t it make sense to approach this challenge with a thoughtful plan? I would suggest it does. So you might ask, where do I start? Let me give you a few thought starters.

It is critical that you create a detailed job description for the General Manager position. There are generic descriptions available online that will give you some ideas and suggestions. I’d suggest you start there and make changes based on the specific activities and areas of focus that you are personally involved in. It is often far easier to make changes to an existing document than it is to create one from scratch. If you have one from a prior business or from a colleague, “steal” the framework and edit with your specific content.

In the end, this document should be very descriptive about the tasks, responsibilities, structure, and success measures for the general manager position. I would strongly recommend that you “step it up a notch” from where you are currently managing the business today. Stretch the assignment to take on more responsibility, add more discipline and set higher standards than you do for yourself. While many business owners are their own toughest critic, it never hurts to set the bar higher for a new general manager – particularly since you are going to be in the background ready to help them succeed – at least for a time.

Once you have the job description in hand, make a list of the critical skills that a general manager must have to be successful in your business. These may include technical training, systems or software training, leadership training or even selling skills. No matter what they are, document them on a list. This may become a checklist for a prospective GM or it may become a critical part of a development plan for your new general manager candidate. With this key skills list, you can begin assessing your current team members for future potentials or use it as a standard for hiring a prospective general manager.

In many cases it takes months if not years to prepare someone for this critical position within your business. So even if you are not planning to step away from your business for some time, it is best to begin the preparation. Not only will you be prepared when you are ready, but your team will know you are thinking of the long-term success of the business. Don’t be afraid to let your team members know your plans so they can prepare themselves for the eventual change in leadership.

Remember, drama within an organization only inhibits progress. Drama is never good. It does not allow for abundance to occur. Your role as the business owner is to eliminate the drama, make certain your team knows where you are going with the business, and demonstrate that you are moving into the future with a solid plan for success. Doing your homework in this area will help in each of these areas.

Take this seriously. You will never make a more important hiring decision. The individual who will replace you in the business must be a great fit for the position – both today and in the future. Spend time in planning and preparation to improve your likelihood of making a smooth, successful transition.

Good luck developing your plans this week!

Contact Rich Allen, Business Coach at www.actioncoach.com/richallen or at richallen@actioncoach.com for more information on his business coaching programs.

This week we take a break from racing. It is an off-week – one to use for recovery, refreshment and most importantly preparation. Preparation for the next big race, which is only 11 short weeks away!

Yes, it is almost November! Another year is quickly fading into our rear-view mirror. To many of you, 2010 is a year you would like to forget and quickly put out of your mind. I’ve heard many business owners say “I can’t wait for 2011″. Does this sound like you?

If so, this week I want you to think about what are you going to do to make sure that 2011 is the year you are hoping it will be for you and your business. It is time to get prepared – to think about your PLAN for 2011. If you want to get a different result in 2011, then you must take the time to put your plan together to make it happen!

Unless you have already done the hard work and have your best plan ever in your hand, here is what I want you to do. Make plans TODAY to participate in our 2011 Business Planning Workshop scheduled for Thursday, December 11. We are bringing together 150+ business owners for a one-day planning event that you will not want to miss.

We will be helping you build your 2011 Tour de Profit Race Strategy Document! If you have been following this blog, you know that we think of running your business as we do a multi-stage bike race like the Tour de France. The 2011 Tour de Profit is a 52 stage race to grow your business. And no one would think about starting this kind of difficult, competitive race without first having a race strategy - your Business Plan.

Here is the best part. THIS business plan is not one you will simply put on the shelf. This is one that will outline the specific, weekly goals and actions you will take in 2011 to make this your best year ever!

You can register online at www.tourdeprofit.com If you need to know more before you register, simply give us a call. We can put you in touch with business owners who have participated in the past who can tell you exactly what you will experience. I can assure you - in fact I will GUARANTEE you - that you will find this to be the best investment you have made in your business all year!

Don’t go into 2011 hoping that the economy will improve and business will get better. HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY! You need a plan. Join us for the 2011 Tour de Profit Business Planning Workshop. Thursday, December 11. You will thank me for convincing you to attend!

Register today: www.tourdeprofit.com

Contact Rich Allen, Business Coach at www.actioncoach.com/richallen or at richallen@actioncoach.com for more information on his business coaching programs.