Small Business Growth Strategies

My friend Hal Elrod, an empowerment coach and speaker for business and life, wrote an excellent blog post about 4 Questions to Guarantee 2009 is Your Best Year Yet! Take time to reflect and answer these if you truly want to create a fabulous year (and reject the recession!).

written by Stephanie Chandler

If you want to grow a bigger, better business, make time to review your progress at least once each year. Identify what went well and what needs improvement in your company. If you have a staff, involve them in the process. Ask for feedback, suggestions and new ideas. You might be surprised by what they have to contribute.

Also, take an inventory of your accomplishments for the year. It’s easy to get bogged down by what you didn’t achieve so make a list of what you did accomplish. Make this an annual exercise and store your lists in a place where you can review them each year. This gives you a record of your company’s progress over time and makes it easy to reflect on the company’s growth each year.  

Following are some questions to help you assess your business and plan for future growth:

*What worked well this year?
*What didn’t work so well?
*What areas of my business do I want to grow in the upcoming year?
*What are three specific actions I can take to make that growth happen?
*Where am I spending my time on my business? (It might be helpful to keep track for a couple of days.)
*How can I better manage my time (by delegating, outsourcing, minimizing obligations, etc.)?
*What is my ultimate vision for my company?
*What specific actions do I need to take to get my company to that next level?
*What are ten (or twenty or thirty!) goals I will set for my company in the coming year?

Once you have answered these questions, put your goals in writing. Something magical happens when you commit your goals to paper – they actually get accomplished! After identifying your goals, develop a plan with action steps for achieving them. Studies show that when you have a specific plan to get from point A to point B, you are far more likely to be successful.

Be sure to post your goal plan next to your desk to serve as a constant reminder to stay focused. Entrepreneurs are notorious for changing direction so if you do, simply review your goals and make the necessary changes. With a firm plan in place, you will pave your path to success!

written by Stephanie Chandler

You can convert files to all different kinds of formats including PDF, JPG, DOCX and more with http://www.zamzar.com/. It’s free for up to 700MB and a small fee applies for larger files. Cool stuff!

written by Stephanie Chandler

Change is essential to business success, and I’m not talking about the kind of change you drop in a vending machine. It’s the kind of change that too often brings fear, self-doubt and resistance to business owners.

Building a business is hard work and once the wheels are turning, it can be difficult to grasp the idea of doing something differently. But more often the not, resistance to change that can lead to trouble. A business that doesn’t change risks become stagnant and misses the opportunity to grow.

Consider McDonald’s, a turn-key operation that functions in cookie cutter fashion and has maintained the same core menu for decades. Though the business is based on being predictable, McDonald’s introduces new products and promotions on a regular basis. Often times the company strikes gold with something new like the Oreo McFlurry, and sometimes even McDonald’s misses the mark. Whatever happened to the McDLT? read more…

written by Stephanie Chandler

Before you begin any business, it’s important to do a lot of homework. The failure rate of new businesses is upwards of 50%, partly due to lack of planning. Following are some suggestions for getting started:

*Get Organized - There are many tasks involved when starting a business including choosing a business name, applying for business licenses, setting up an accounting system, and writing a business plan. You will need to keep notes and organize a filing system online and offline. read more…

written by Stephanie Chandler

Question:
I have been researching ebook software and was wondering if you could give me some advice here. My understanding is that some of the software is easy to use and some is difficult. Are you familiar with deadeasy software? Also do you think my plan of finding marketers to market my e-book is a viable one?

Answer:

I’m not familiar with the ebook software program you mentioned, however, I’m not sure you need it. In most cases you can deliver your ebook as a PDF document. Just be sure to format it so that it is easy to read and set the security settings so that readers cannot copy and paste the text (this helps prevent copyright infringement).

Having others market your ebook for you is a great idea. If you set up your shopping card through a service like www.Payloadz.com, you can create an affiliate program and offer others a commission for sales generated. The same is true with the more robust shopping cart service like www.1shoppingcart.com. In fact, this service includes a proprietary ebook reader. Another place to list your book for affiliate sales is www.clickbank.com.

I hope this helps!
Stephanie

written by Stephanie Chandler

Last week I was in the local coffee shop when the clerk grumbled about the fact that it was Monday. “Just getting your day started?” She asked with a look of pity.

“Yes I am! And I can’t wait!” I told her. And it’s the complete truth.

I admit it; I love Mondays. I love the fresh start of a new week. I love the anticipation of what is to come. I love what I do.

How lucky am I?

When I was in corporate America, I couldn’t wait for Friday because the pain was just about over. Now I like Fridays because by then I’m pushing my limits on brain power and energy and I am anxious to spend some quality family time. The difference is that I don’t live for Fridays. And instead of getting knots in my stomach on Sunday night, I begin to get excited all over again. Monday is coming! Monday is coming!

If you don’t feel like this, then I urge you to consider the possibilities. Life is so much more rewarding when you love what you do.

written by Stephanie Chandler

One of the most effective methods for promotion is media exposure- exposure that starts from a simple press release.  Newspapers, magazines and television news shows rely on press releases to locate news and human interest stories.  Anyone can send a press release, but in order to get the attention of reporters, it must be professional, news worthy and appealing to a broad audience.

A press release should be brief- one or two pages- yet include enough details that a reporter could write a short article based solely on the information provided.  The release should not be an announcement that a business or product simply exists, but should have an enticing “hook”.  Good hooks include special events and sales, product announcements, contests, survey results or awards given or received.  The trick is to make the hook interesting enough to capture the interest of the reader. read more…

written by Stephanie Chandler

Question:
In your experience, have PowerPoint based products sold well?  My concern is that not everyone will have PowerPoint to view the presentation. Also, It has recently come to my attention that the theft of e-books with copyright is common. Do you consider this to be a major problem? -”PCW”

Answer:
I do think that Powerpoint presentations can sell well and the good news is that buyers don’t have to have Powerpoint installed! There is a free Powerpoint reader available from Microsoft.

As long as you make this link available to buyers, you should be just fine.

I do occasionally hear stories about ebook theft, however, I honestly don’t spend much time worrying about it. If you discover someone in the US doing this, you can have your attorney send a cease and desist letter. There is little we can do about those outside the country, but again, I don’t see this as a rampant issue.

I use Google Alerts to keep track of sites that list my name, along with various key phrases from my writings. In all of these years, I have only run across one instance where a user had posted one of my free articles without crediting me as the source. I sent him a quick e-mail and he added the appropriate credit and bio immediately.

If you deliver your ebooks in PDF format, be sure to set security settings so that the text cannot be copied and pasted. Also, I imagine that ebook buyers occasionally share with friends. In my opinion, this is no different than someone lending a book to a friend or checking it out from the library. If your ebook is good enough to be shared, you have probably just earned a new fan who will return to buy other works directly from you!

I hope this helps!

Many thanks!

Stephanie

written by Stephanie Chandler