Category: Planning & Management

Article Contributed by Tony Kubica and Sara LaForest

How much time do you spend thinking about business exit planning?

If you’re like many of the small business owners we meet – not much. That’s okay as long as you don’t care about supporting yourself and your family when you retire or leave the business, and if you are not attached to what happens to the business, your employees and your customers after you leave. But in truth, the business professionals and small business owners we meet do care.

They care a lot – they just haven’t done much about it yet.

Unfortunately, many business owners believe that their business will just dissolve when they exit, and don’t believe or understand that their business could have value for sale.

Two Reasons Your Business Can Have Value After You Leave the Business

1.      If you setup your business so it can be sold at a later date, then your company can help grow the acquirer’s business by allowing them to add a new service or product line to their business or by enhancing an existing service/product line through the addition of your company.

2.      If you are a thought leader in your industry and if the business does not rely on you for operations – then your business has value as your competition will want to remove you as a competitor!

Now, I know what you are thinking… “But, I’m not ready to sell my business. Why do I have to think about exit planning for my business now?”

Here’s Why Exit Planning Is Critical For Your Business Now – And Why You Should Not Delay Thinking About Exit Strategies…

An exit plan better prepares you (the business owner) for the inevitable transition of your business – whether it’s expected (intended), unexpected or the result of undesirable circumstances that can and do arise.

Most business owners we talk to understand the voluntary exit (even if they are not currently planning for it). And they also understand and fear an involuntary exit. What is less discussed, but a looming reality like the proverbial albatross around your neck, is the unexpected exit.

An unexpected exit may be triggered by a biological event such as:

• You die
• You become ill or disabled
• You’re too old to effectively run the business

Due to the sensitivity of the topic, many small business owners and business professionals simply avoid the biological aspects in their exit planning.  As a result, they are left to deal with the muddle of unknowns amid the highly emotional and sometimes financial losses of an owner.

Now That You Know Why You Need to Have An Exit Plan in Place – Here Are Your Next Steps…

Regardless of whether the exit event is planned (the sale of the company, leadership succession of an employee or family member) or not (a biological event), at some point there will be an inevitable transition.

So we ask again, how much time have you spent thinking about and formulating an exit plan that considers not only the planned exit options, but also the unplanned exit possibilities?

To start thinking about it, we suggest you start with one key question: Can your business continue if you could no longer run it tomorrow?

If the answer is yes – then you are well prepared for a sale or for a biological event. If your answer is no because the business relies either solely or primarily on you for sales and key operational activities, you are not a very attractive acquisition target. And should a biological event occur, sustaining the business will be a serious challenge.

Clearly, we recommend that regardless of where you are in your business life cycle (start-up, or nearing the end of your tenure with the business), you should be working with a business consultant to create your business exit plan.

While formulating an exit plan will require some “frontloading” in time, the benefits of your effort will payoff by:

•      Allowing you to control and better manage the exit

•      Helping you to maximize company value

•      Minimizing tax implications

•      Establishing multiple exit options which mitigate unknowns and negative unexpected circumstances (i.e. serious injury/disability, death, divorce, disagreement/owner deadlock, etc.)

•      Better enabling you to achieve business and personal goals

•      Reducing stress and anxiety due to prior planning and defined expectations

•      Insuring business continuity

Now, start planning your exit strategy!

About the Author:

Tony Kubica and Sara LaForest are management consultants with more than 50+ years of combined experience in helping entrepreneurs, small businesses and organizations improve their business performance. Failing to plan an exit strategy is just one way to sabotage your business. Get their complete “Self-Sabotage in Business White Paper” at: http://www.kubicalaforestconsulting.com/resources.php and uncover the common, subtle ways you are harming your performance.

Article Contributed by Lisa Cherney

Here we are, the second in a series of articles based on my recent virtual workshop, “Why Your Dream Business is Not Making BIG money (Yet) – 3 Steps to Build a Full-Time Business on Part Time Hours”.  Working part-time without taking a cut in pay can be a reality, but it’s going to take diligence and concentration on your part.  In Step 2, I’m going to show you how to focus on your time.  Where it’s going, how you’re spending it, and most importantly – how to guard it.  This part really is the backbone of realizing your dream of full-time prosperity with part-time hours!

Step 2 – Create a vision for your ideal work week and practice time guarding.  Step back and visualize what your life would look like if you had 2 or 3 extra days a week to spend any way you wanted.  Would you spend more time with family?  Or do some volunteer work?  Or maybe start exercising, or take a class at the local college?

I got started on this step by literally putting a big red X through the days that I did not want to be available.  You know yourself; make your work days the ones that are typically the most productive for you.  Maybe you want to knock out your work week at the beginning of the week, and have a long weekend.  Or you could work 2 days, take a day off, work the other 2, and have your weekend.  It doesn’t matter which days you pick, what matters is that the days you pick are sacred.  It is essential that you block off that time and make it work.  Who says it has to be Monday through Friday?  You’re in charge here!

I’m not suggesting that you cram everything you’re doing right now into a few days, keeping the same work load.  You may be used to working 5, 6… 7 days a week (I know some of you are in this category!) and there is no way you are going to fit all of it into just 3 or 4 days.  So here’s where you get out your little scissors and start making cuts.  If you want to shed a light on things that you’re doing now that really aren’t essential to your business, shortening your work week will do it.  What needs to get done will get done.  So you really have to commit to these work days, making them productive, power-house days, protecting them from any non-essential distractions like a mama bear protects her baby cubs.

Now here’s the flip side.  You need to be as protective about your days off as you are with your work days.  Right now, take out your calendar and plan how many vacations you want to take this year-  even if you don’t know where you want to go yet!  Figure in your long weekends, your week to visit family, or lay on the beach for a few days.  These dates are not set in stone – that’s the beauty of having your own business and being flexible – but you are 99% more likely to take this time for replenishment if you already have the dates set.  If you don’t, chances are you will never go anywhere; and all work and no play makes Jack – or Jackie – a dull person!  I can tell you from experience that having specific vacation dates is key.  Do it for the rest of the year, and every year after that.  In months that have 5 weeks, use that bonus week to catch up on your filler stuff, or special projects that you’ve been wanting to work on.

I love my life, and what my income allows me to do.  But my lifestyle is not by accident.  I make sure that I do not schedule work activities on my days off, and vice-versa.  Do not let your guard down, or you will see your calendar start filling up on those precious “me” days.  It takes accountability, and   having someone in your life that models this lifestyle for you.  You will start to see what you’ve been missing in a very short period.  And you will see how you can get more done with less time just by planning your ideal work week.

Step 3 will show you another import time-guarding secret!

About the Author:

Lisa Cherney, a.k.a. the Juicy Marketing Expert, founded Conscious Marketing 12 years ago to help small business owners find their authentic marketing voice, attract their ideal clients and increase their sales. Following her own Stand Out & Be Juicy program, which centers on owning your unique self and laser-focus marketing, Lisa has tripled her income while working
part-time.

Prior to Conscious Marketing, Lisa worked with many Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, Lipton, Nissan, Blue Cross and Equal. She is a highly sought after speaker and often shares the stage with experts such as Jack Assaraf (The Secret), Jack Canfield and Jill Lublin. Learn more about Lisa at www.consciousmarketing.com or call 887-771-0156.

Article Contributed by Skip Weisman

A common complaint is about employees who repeatedly fail to follow through on specifically requested tasks. The reason for the lack of follow through is often something like “not enough time, couldn’t get to it.”  I cringe when I hear business leaders admit they begrudgingly continue to “accept” this excuse. (Accept is in quotations because they don’t  really accept it, they became frustrated with it and want it to change as the status quo is unacceptable and negatively impacts on business results.)

When I first heard this from a couple of my own clients, I presumed that their employees just weren’t committed to the job and helping the company achieve its goals. I was told in both cases that was not an accurate assessment as these employees were “good employees that were always on time for work, rarely took days off and worked hard while on duty.”

I then said, “Then its just procrastination as they are not comfortable doing what you are asking of them and they avoid it. They are “yessing” you and always defaulting to activities they are more comfortable performing, letting your priorities slip.”

The next day I received a call from one of these clients saying, “You were right, she admitted to me she wasn’t comfortable making the calls I was asking her to make.”  No kidding!

You can’t make pigs fly!

And you can’t have a receptionist, hired because of a personality geared toward make people happy and liking your organization, make collection calls or missed appointment reschedules. You can’t have a vet technician who prefers to interact with animals over humans make outgoing phone calls for collections while also struggling with challenging conversations with patients over billing and appointments.

In small businesses I realize it is imperative for people to fill multiple roles and multi task. I get that. But if that is the job expectation, you better invest more time in hiring the right person for that dual role.

Stop hiring the first person that has some of the skills you determine are your highest priority and then try to squeeze in the other responsibilities after they’re hired, or without full disclosure during the original hiring process. This is bait and switch.

I coach my clients to paint the most challenging job expectations as possible so that reality will never be as tough as articulated in the meeting and have the employee sell themselves that they are a fit for contributing to that type of work environment.

Quite simply, you must invest time on the front end of the hiring process to:

1.    Create a job description that includes specific performance expectations and job outcomes and make it as comprehensive as possible for the position you are looking to fill.

2.    Develop specific behavior based questions of your applicants in the interview process that are geared to generate answers that will let you know how they would react to real life situations they may encounter in your work environment.

3.    Invest at least as much time in evaluating an individual’s personality, attitude and beliefs around work ethic, personal and professional growth and development, and working in teams, etc as you do investigating their work experience and education.

Make sure you have people who are working in their areas of strength 80% of the time if you want happy, productive employees.

Baseball teams do not have catchers playing center field, or third basemen coming in as relief pitchers. In football, quarterbacks do not play defensive line, and wide receivers do not kick field goals.

And, pushing a pig out an airplane door at 15,000 feet to try and teach them to fly will just give you a dead pig when they hit the ground with a loud “splat!” Trying to get employees to perform tasks they are not suited for will cause them to fall just as flat!

Are you trying to make pigs fly in your hiring and employee performance expectations?

About the Author:

If you are tired of avoiding and tolerating limiting behaviors in team members and aspire to inspire greater organizational and team performance, it’s time to take action. You can apply for a gratis leadership assessment session here: http://www.workplacecommunicationexpert.com/strategy-sessions/

Leaders and Their Employees Unknowingly Undermine Morale, Motivation and Trust in Work Environments.” The white paper is available as a free download for a limited time at www.HowToImproveLeadershipCommunication.com . If you’d like to learn how you can improve your work environment by improving communication contact him directly with any questions at 845-463-3838 or e-mail to Skip@WeismanSuccessResources.com

Article Contributed by Jeff Beals

On a dark and stormy night…

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. No serious writer would start his article with such a tired old cliché. You probably think I’m some boorish amateur.

But seriously, it is a dark and stormy night. And kind of lonely too. And other than the thunder, it’s awfully quiet.

It’s late Wednesday night, and I’m sitting by myself inside a barbeque joint in Kansas City, Missouri. There’s nothing like driving rain to keep people away from late-night pork ribs and baked beans, so essentially, I have the place to myself. In fact, I’m kind of surprised they bothered to stay open.

So, the scene here is set – stormy night, deserted restaurant, and a booth next to the window which constantly fills with flickering light from cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. It’s the perfect time to think, contemplate and reflect.

Right now I’m thinking about the day that was. It was a good day, a productive day. I attended a meeting here in Kansas City earlier this evening.

As a professional speaker, I’m a member of the National Speakers Association. It’s a professional association designed to help speakers become better at their craft and find new sources of speaking business. I joined NSA a couple years ago, but I was never a member of a local chapter. My city doesn’t have one. Kansas City has a very good one. The Kansas City chapter is 165 miles away, but it is the closest to my home. So, despite the distance, I attended a meeting and submitted an application for membership.

As a new guy, I enjoyed a warm welcome. The current members seemed amazed that someone would drive so far to attend the meeting. I heard comments like:

“Wow, I’m so impressed you came all this way.”

“Sorry you had to drive so far.”

I must admit at one point I did question myself, thinking it was an awfully long way to drive for a meeting, but then I remembered why I sought out this organization in the first place. Like people in any industry, professional speakers benefit mightily when they have a group of colleagues they can help and from whom they can receive help.

But as I quietly sat in that restaurant, another thought came to mind. By joining this “local” organization, I get the rare opportunity to build a “local” base in two geographic markets. In fact, it’s a privilege to be involved in a local organization outside my home market.

Think about it. I’m already well connected at home. I have lived in Omaha, Nebraska most of my life. I work there. I’m raising my kids there. I host a radio show there. I like it there. I already have great colleagues and trusted mentors in my home town. In other words, I’m doing things right at home.

By joining a local organization in Kansas City, I now have the chance to build friendships, develop referral networks and foster mutually beneficial professional relationships in a different place. It also gives me easier, more direct access to a whole new market of prospective clients.

It’s like I’m living two professional lives!

Hmmm…Perhaps I’m on to something. Maybe other people could benefit from this.

Admittedly, some readers of this article work only “virtually” or have a truly national or international focus. Most of us, however, benefit by having a strong local base. We can milk that base and also use it as a foundation, upon which we can stand as we chase national or worldwide business.

Given all of this, there are several questions you might want to ask yourself. How can you broaden your local base? What can you do to make areas outside your home market feel like your own turf? Does it make sense for you in your industry to dip your toes in two local ponds?

What a great day this turned out to be. Something as simple as seeking the closest NSA chapter appears to be leading me to potential benefits I didn’t quite grasp just a few hours ago.

I’m looking forward to seeing what opportunities arise from my new “local” colleagues in Kansas City, and I’m hopeful that I can help them do better in their businesses as well.

Uh oh…The bus boy is giving me dirty looks. I have overstayed my welcome. Problem is…I don’t want to leave. I like it here. It’s really cool sitting by this window thinking and writing – protected from the storm.

Oh well, all good things come to an end. I just hope I can run to the car fast enough to avoid a complete soaking. After all, the 165-mile drive to my real home town won’t be comfortable if I’m drenching wet.

About the Author:

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques. As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide. You can learn more and follow his “Business Motivation Blog” at JeffBeals.com.

Article Contributed by Gary Jordan

Leaders with the Flow Perceptual Style challenge the generally accepted meaning of the word ‘leadership.’ They suggest, encourage, and endorse specific actions; with a word here and a comment there, they gently nudge the direction of events. People with the Flow style tend to seek input from everyone involved, build consensus, and secure buy-in before taking action. They value community and create it around them.

Because those with the Flow style lead so subtly and unobtrusively, others are often unaware they have been led. Flow leaders attract followers through listening and advising; people follow them because it feels right to do so.

Flow leaders often gravitate to “behind the scenes” roles and shine the spotlight on their followers instead. Consequently, it’s hard to find real world examples that are well known, but some that come to mind are political leaders Jimmy Carter and Mary Parker Follett, psychologist Carl Rogers, and religious leaders Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama.

The Goals Leadership Style

Those with the Goals Perceptual Style exist on the opposite end of the spectrum. They epitomize traditional notions of leadership, boldly and courageously setting sights on new directions, taking decisive action and steering a confident path toward the future.

Individuals with this style tend to charge ahead with any endeavor, rallying those around them with exhortations to heroic action and self-sacrifice. They make quick decisions and move into action assertively and confidently, taking advantage of opportunities as they present themselves.

Leaders with the Goals style do not hesitate to tell others directly what needs to be done and what they want each person to do. For this reason, they may elicit resentment when there is no crisis at hand—but when chaos and confusion arise, this style tends to be respected and welcomed.

The Goals person’s clear direction and confident demeanor provides a focal point around which others rally. They attract followers because their dominating style provides practical direction and action when the answers may not otherwise be clear.

Examples of Goals leadership are abundant, as those with this style are drawn to the spotlight. Goals leadership is exemplified in actors such as Clint Eastwood and Katherine Hepburn, military leaders like George S. Patton, and political leaders such as Winston Churchill and Dick Cheney.

*It is impossible to determine another’s Perceptual Style (PS)by observation alone. This is especially true for public figures. The examples provided ‘appear’, based on their public behavior, to be the PS for which they are used as examples. However, without a complete Perceptual Style Assessment, their particular PS is simply an educated guess.

About the Author:

Gary Jordan, Ph.D., has over 27 years of experience in clinical psychology, behavioral assessment, individual development, and coaching. He earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology – Berkeley. He is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. He’s a partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., a consulting firm that specializes in helping people discover their true skills and talents. For more information, visit http://www.yourtalentadvantage.com.