Plan a daily strategy or not? This is a question. This change means that the enemy battle plans do not survive contact with the first shot: Many business people and a few hours only to spend their own business plan and found that the fact that the old military Maxim all the things you do not constantly will not be able to expect, how important your plan is. However, business people and their completion of the plan during the next season’s plans can be reopened only put it on the shelf. This is the same as any plan. You do not plan to use it or not, drawings, plans have just failed.

So what should I do business leader or business? This is just to say have a plan, but we plan to use the utility to balance the amount of time devoted to planning should be. In other words, enough detailed plan, but do not get caught paralysis by analysis. One way to get your plan in place is to have a “Strategy Day” where you can get through the planning sequence in one day and then get on with implementation. If you want to do the day of the plan here is to set the agenda:* Mission: the mission is defined. What is it with the accessory people to accept the organization’s main purpose? They said succinctly. If your job is too complicated, it’s their employees, customers and stakeholders will be difficult to communicate. For the success of the organization for sorting purposes, a clear statement, to begin his mission.

* Value: Determines the value of your core. This should be a guide post, and his Polaris, the decisions and guide the organization’s operations. Planning for exercise, do not select a few values. Every breath you must select a value buy. If you are not a part of their culture, the people soon realized the sound is hollow and unsupported. To work on fundamental values.

* Environmental analysis: both internal and external, then take the time to look at. A quick way to accomplish this task the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threat assessment, is a swat analysis. Weather, you and Porter’s five forces model analysis of McKinsey Seven-S can be used to allow other models such as the environment, all organizations, a new trend, and the strengths and weaknesses of the organization must capture the essence of, so that their operating environment in the context of success should be.

* State: Analysis of the current status. To be honest and not sugar coat the reality. Can be advanced only by facing reality. Carefully describe the current state of their organization is. What does not work, you’re a short description which is where the success. That’s the next part of this year, is a future state – in fact as you want, do not confuse what is happening.

* Future State: Now is the time to imagine where you want to be in the future. Pick your timeframe, 3 years, 5 years, or 10 years down the road. What would success look like when you get there? Describe how your organization will be performing, what the structure would look like, and how it will operate. The more specific you can be about your future state, the better it will be to develop your strategies on how to get there.

* More than – Gap -: You now have defined all of the current status and future, the next step where you want to be in the future will take you to “close the gap” strategy is the development of. How will you bridge from its current location for the future? Their main strategy. You managed to limit the number of basic strategies to make sure. You, too, if it does not lack any concentration.

* Implementation strategy: Once you have determined your strategy, the next step is to define the tactics; you need a strategy to implement discrete steps. You must assign responsibility for setting goals and provide resources. It culminates in the achievement of that goal requires a logical sequence of steps of the cycle.

* Dashboard: Developing statistics and scorecards can see the progress. , Financial, customer, internal processes and learning and growth: Are you the type of balanced scorecard metrics used is defined in the 4th dimension. The future status of the selected statistics is on track to reach if you know the key elements of their strategy to be measured.

* Management strategy: their “Day of the strategy” before you complete, you have a plan for managing the plan to make sure. Planning meeting, the platform’s strategic plan, simply put, does not become one of the people. Regular review meetings to set the appointment calendar and get out. Only to check the progress of its established disciplinary and offers a practical implementation plan.

Therefore, planning is essential for success, however, so it is important to move to the application. However, because the situation changes, do not try to get the perfect plan. As George Patton once “less-than-perfect plan vigorously executed today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow,” he said. Plan a day to get him, “Strategic Planning for your shares immediately after the go!

You might be a little surprised to see how very little the recession affected the proportions of different-sized businesses. Or you may not … but I was. But the latest research does suggest that, whatever these trends towards smaller firms mean, they don’t seem to be going away.

New Firm Size Data

This month, we had one of my annual favorites: the release of the new firm size class data for 2008.  Overall, the population of U.S. businesses declined from about 27.7 million to 27.2 million, a decline of 476,224 firms or 1.7 percent, after growing by a relatively healthy 3.6 percent between 2006 and 2007. The number of nonemployer firms fell by 1.6 percent, down from 21.7 million to 21.4 million firms.

The number of employer firms fell by 2 percent, which shows that the bad news was felt across the board in 2008. Microbusiness employers with fewer than five employees declined in number by 2.4 percent; if you expand the category to include employers with fewer than 10 employees,  their numbers fell by 2.2 percent.

Non-micro small businesses with between 10 and 499 workers declined by 0.3 percent in number in 2007 and the population fell again in 2008, this time by 1.3 percent. Large firms saw a modest increase in population, of 0.9 percent (an additional 158 firms).  When the dust settles, the relative percentages of the business population, as classified by size, has not changed a smidgeon.

Nonemployers still comprise 78.2 percent of all U.S. firms. Microbusinesses with fewer than five employees still make up 92.4 percent of U.S. firms; microbusinesses with fewer than 10 employees are still 95.4 percent of U.S. firms. Non-micro small businesses make up 8.4 percent of all U.S. firms, and large businesses remain less than 1 percent of all firms.

Is There Life After Bankruptcy?

Theoretically, filing for bankruptcy is supposed to (sort of) wipe the slate clean and give small firms a fresh start. But does it?

That question was examined in a newly released research paper, “Beyond Bankruptcy: Does the Bankruptcy Code Provide a Fresh Start to Entrepreneurs?“, written by Aparna Mathur with funding from the SBA Office of Advocacy.

The research findings were largely unsurprising. Approximately 2.6 percent of all small businesses have filed for bankruptcy at some point over the past seven years. Firms that have previously filed for bankruptcy perform similarly to other firms for most variables.

On the other hand, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that a bankruptcy filing does have a very negative impact on the ability of a firm to secure financing, and that is the case even when controlling for credit scores.

Firms that have a bankruptcy filing in their past are 24 percent more likely to be denied credit and, when they do secure credit, pay interest that is an average of 1 percent higher than what is charged to other, similar businesses.

AmEx OPEN Studies Women-Owned Firms

As of this year, an estimated 8.1 million (29 percent of) U.S. firms were women-owned (that is, a woman owned 51 percent or more of the company). Women-owned businesses generate almost $1.3 trillion in revenues and employing roughly 7.7 million people. That’s the main finding of an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data on women-owned businesses performed by our old friend Julie Weeks of Womenable.com for American Express OPEN, based on data from the quinquennial Survey of Business Owners.

The analysis found that the number of women-owned firms grew at 1.5 times the national rate between 1997 and 2011, but that not many of them are growing very much. In 1997, 2.5 percent of women-owned firms had 10 or more employees and 1.8 percent had $1 million or more in revenues. In 2011, 1.9 percent of them have 10 or more employees and 1.8 percent have $1 million or more in revenues.

In addition, women-owned firms seem to stop growing at or before 10 employees and between $100,000 and $999,000 — which is what you would expect, if you were willing to factor microbusinesses into the equation. According to a November 2010 survey conducted by Vistaprint, a decisive 74 percent of microbusiness owner survey respondents indicated that they had no desire to grow their firms beyond 10 employees. In other words, the period from 1997 through the present has seen an unprecedented growth in the number of microbusinesses, and microbusiness owners keep their firms at micro size by choice, regardless of gender.

NSBA Releases 2011 Tax Survey

Right around tax day, the National Small Business Association (NSBA) released the results of its 2011 Small Business Taxation Survey, because that’s what we all want to do at that time of year: talk taxes. The survey demonstrated yet another instance in which there was a critical microbusiness issue but, evidently, there weren’t very many microbusinesses available to answer the questions about it.

Survey respondents identified economic uncertainty as the top challenge facing their business by a wide margin (66 percent), followed by “Decline in customer spending” (39 percent), “Cost of health insurance benefits” (35 percent), and regulatory burdens (32 percent). Federal taxes rounds out the top five challenges (29 percent). In light of the fact that 87 percent of small business owner respondents report paying an outside professional to prepare their taxes, it is somewhat shocking that almost 60 percent of small business owners still spend more than 40 hours dealing with federal taxes.

Another interesting set of numbers to emerge from this survey has to do with deductions. As much as lawmakers like to pat themselves on the back for repeatedly increasing Section 179 expensing, only 47 percent of these small business owners use it. And, under the category of Least Surprising Survey Result, only 18 percent of these respondents take the home office deduction, although 28 percent report working out of a home office.

Finally, almost two-thirds of survey respondents here support a combination of simplification and reduced tax rates as their preferred tack for reform. Then again, six in 10 would also favor a proposal such as the Fair Tax Act of 2011 (H.R. 25), which would eliminate income taxes, payroll taxes, estate taxes and gift taxes, and replace them all with a 23 percent national sales tax.

Study: Corporations Grow, Proprietorships Don’t

Most U.S. business owners make a decision about the legal form of their business at startup and rarely change it within the first few years of operation. That is the principal finding of a new research report, entitled “How Do Firms Choose Legal Form of Organization?“, written by Rebal Cole with funding from the SBA Office of Advocacy.

Advocacy released the study last week. According to Cole’s findings, only one in three firms starts its operations as a sole proprietorship, while almost another third start life as limited liability companies and corporations. Once the choice is made, it appears to be fairly stable; only 9 percent of companies changed their legal form of organization during the four years covered by the study. If all this sounds peculiar to you, there is a reason for it. Dr. Cole used data from the Kauffman Firm Survey in order to do this study. It shouldn’t be surprising that Kauffman’s database is rather thin on microbusiness survey respondents (85 percent of which are sole proprietorships).

In any event, firms are more likely to change forms if they are growing, if they move out of their home office and into commercial space, if there is a change of owners or if the number of owners grows, if the firm is highly leveraged, or if the firm changes industry. Finally, this research shows that corporations grow twice as fast as sole proprietorships. From all this, Dr. Cole concludes that policymakers can encourage entrepreneurs to select business forms that “are conducive to growth and complexity.”

But corporations don’t grow because they are corporations. They grow because of the choices of their management teams. And ultimately, the federal government probably needs to stop wasting its time (and our money) on this sort of thing. Owners who want to grow their firms will do so, with our without incentives. Owners who don’t want to grow their firms won’t, no matter what you offer them.

From Small Business Trends

Small Business, Taxes and Assorted Numbers

Small Business, Taxes and Assorted Numbers
AB User – KDY

For the past year or so there have been rumblings of how Google was embarking on a mission to take pictures of the inside of businesses as well as map their locations. It was called Store View initially. Yesterday, however, Google’s Marissa Mayer formally rolled out the service as Google Business Photos during the Social – Loco Conference in San Francisco. Take a look for yourself.

Initially, the service was free to businesses in the markets that it was available in (see complete list below) and there seems to be no information to the contrary as of yet.

Here is the complete list of cities and regions where this service can be applied for internationally.

United States:
Orange County, CA
Phoenix, AZ
Bay Area, CA
San Antonio, TX
St. Petersburg, FL

Australia:
Adelaide
Brisbane
Canberra
Melbourne
Perth
Sydney
Darwin

New Zealand:
Auckland
Wellington
Christchurch
Dunedin
Invercargill
Blenheim
Nelson

Japan:
Tokyo
Yokohama
Kyoto
Nara
Kobe
Fukuoka
Hyogo
Okinawa

South Korea:
Seoul

United Kingdom:
London

France:
Paris

If you would like to apply to have your business done you can do so here.

Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Google Business Photo Service Officially Launched
KDB – More Post

As marketers it’s most important to know where your market spends their time. In the current environment marketers struggle with how to develop products and apps that address a wider variety of ways that people take in information from the Internet. The cost of making sure you reach all people can be prohibitive for many. The latest, and possibly biggest, disruptor as of late has been the tablet.

Nielsen has put together a study showing the impact of the tablet on what people use and when to access information. This study is of current tablet owners.

It’s little surprise that tablet users are using desktops and laptops less frequently. What is important to note is that less frequently doesn’t mean not at all. So the naysayers saying the tablet signals the swan song for laptops and desktops should reference that the desktop still exists today even though this tired old computing platform has been left for dead for years.

The following findings of why someone uses a tablet over their PC or laptop tell the story of convenience and portability winning the day.

Many have found the real limitations of the tablet platform already so what’s your take as a marketer? How quickly will you determine what the dominant platform is for your users? Can you choose one over the other or do you need to be all things to all people at least for now?

Tablets Impacting Usage of All Other Devices
KDB – More Post

A while back I was asked to give a presentation about cartooning and I had to learn PowerPoint.

You see I went through school before PowerPoint became commonplace, and most of my later sales jobs were in decidedly low tech fields. And now, despite earning a living selling cartoons to make boring presentations bearable, I’d never actually opened the program a single time.

So I spent a good week researching ideas, looking at techniques, and watching video. After some practice, I performed my talk for my wife who noted that I had a few slides that needed work, including one that was an incomplete continuation of several previous slides that read simply “more goes here.”

The above cartoon came pretty soon afterward.

From Small Business Trends

PowerPoint Slide Needs Work

PowerPoint Slide Needs Work
AB User – KDY

Like the characters in the sci-fi/fantasy film The Matrix, today’s small business marketers face an unfamiliar and rapidly changing landscape in which nothing is what it seems and from which none of us can return to what we once knew. With the coming of new technologies and new trends, your small business must be ready for a whole new kind of marketing…or disappear forever.

Trends

Are you using video marketing? We’ve probably all heard repeated predictions about the importance of video for online marketing and being found on the Web, but Chris Hamilton suggests that soon, because of rapid expansion of video on the Web, your company may soon have no business at all without using it. Sales Tip a Day

Why marketing remains a numbers game. Targerting smaller niche audiences has become the key trend, especially in Internet marketing where relevant search rules. But this approach may still be at odds with another key philosophy of marketing which suggests that big numbers still matter. Sprouter Blog

On the other hand… This post gives a compelling overview of what is probably the most rational approach to marketing. It’s probably between launching your product or service and finding your customer base that all the real trouble happens. So how do you handle marketing before you know who your customers are? Seth Godin’s Blog

Strategy

Market research in the want ads. Find out who companies are hiring and you can effectively target their needs. It may not be the craziest idea anyone’s ever had. This  is a great way to add yet one more layer of knowledge about your potential customers and your market. WSJ

Better marketing by changing your product. Sometimes, let’s face it, the product or service is the problem. A simple change to what you are offering or a change in focus of the people you are offering it to can make all the difference in the world. Want more prove? Read the above case study. You’re the Boss

Social Media

More businesses spend money in social media. Are you spending money advertising in social media? Should you? There is a definite increase in social media advertising spend happening out there, probably, in part, due to the ever increasing audience social media commands. Do you need to reach that audience too? Technorati

How to track social media effectiveness. OK, so you’ve started using social media to market your business or brand. But how can you tell if it’s working or not? Well, measuring social media impact is not only possible, it’s not that difficult with a bit of practice. Small Business Trends

Old School

Newspaper advertising that still works. If rates are competitive and reaching a specific established geographic audience is still important to you, do not forget the option of newspaper advertising. But not just any newspaper advertising will do in this highly competitive marketing environment. StepByStep

Using radio to build your brand. Whether broadcast over the airwaves in the traditional format or distributed across the Internet in podcast form, radio remains a powerful form of communication. Securing spots for interviews etc. on either traditional or online radio can be a way to help get your message out in a form that people will respect. EMSI

Marketing with vintage vinyl. No, this doesn’t mean placing information about your business on vintage vinyl recordings. (But what a unique concept, huh?) It’s about using outdoor vinyl signs, of all things, to market a restaurant or similar business dependent upon street traffic. Remember, even in a digital, social media age, it’s what works that counts. UPrinting

From Small Business Trends

Small Business News: Marketing Matrix

Small Business News: Marketing Matrix
AB User – KDY

It’s time for another MillennialMedia SMART report. Today, we have the full results from Q1 2011 and it’s good news for mobile marketers. What we’re looking at are charts showing the potential actions attached to a mobile marketing campaign. As I understand this, the percentage does not indicate the number of users who availed themselves of those actions. However, it’s likely that there’s a correlation, right? More download options likely means more people are downloading.

Q1 2011

Comparing now (top) with then (below), you can see a nice little bump in M-Commerce from 10% to 12%. Application downloads also got a hefty rise, from 17% to 26%, as did campaigns that result in an enroll or join function. Basically, there was an increase in mobile activity across the board.

Q4 2010

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Who has more registered members, Facebook or Skype?

The average person is going to say Facebook, but since I’m asking the question, you’re probably going to pick Skype. The truth is somewhere in between. According to their S.1, Skype has 663 million registered users. Back in July, Facebook crossed the 500 million mark, so it’s likely they’re very close to Skype’s number about now.

So what will happen if these two giants join forces? I’ll be very unhappy. I’m sure that’s not going to affect Facebook’s decision, but I’d rather see Skype go to big brother Google. Why? Because Facebook is about bells and whistles and forcing people to share and smile. It’s the social media equivalent of a Coca-Cola commercial.

Google, on the other hand, is the workhorse. All these years and they still have that drop-dead simple home page. That’s Skype – it’s simple and effective. Also, Google has their free phone call option now, so they’re already playing in the same space. Why not join forces and be stronger for it?

Says Reuters, there’s no official conformation from any camp about a potential buy out, but they’re looking at Skype’s stalled IPO as a sign that something is up.

“When a company is not going public and it has been on file for a long time, one way or another something is going to happen.”

Let’s hope that something is a marriage between Google and Skype.

Facebook To Buy Skype? Say it Isn’t So!
KDB – More Post

You might lease your facility or office, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be green.

More property managers and tenants are signing so-called green leases. While the term is used loosely, these essentially are lease agreements struck between landlords and tenants in buildings that adhere to environmentally sustainable operations and management. The building may be designed in eco-friendlier ways, such as maximizing natural lighting, while building operations may be carefully controlled to minimize energy and water use and waste.

Among benefits for commercial tenants are lower energy costs, better air quality and more comfortable work environments. Some studies, such as this one from the Rocky Mountain Institute, find that green buildings improve worker productivity and lower absenteeism. (Another study found that green buildings have 3.5 percent lower vacancy rates and fetch 13 percent higher rental rates than non-green ones.)

But while more properties are being touted as “green” and marketing themselves to businesses as eco-friendlier alternatives, business owners should do some homework to ensure they’re truly getting a good deal. Remember, the commercial real estate market is still soft, and there’s lots of room for negotiation right now.

Here are some questions to ask before signing a green lease:

1.  Is the building LEED-certified or Energy Star-labeled? A common way for commercial properties to verify they are indeed “green” is by meeting the criteria for two programs. LEED – or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – is an internationally recognized building certification system created by the U.S. Green Building Council that promotes green practices in buildings, such as indoor air quality and energy efficiency.

The Energy Star Building and Plants program, run through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, provides ratings to buildings on a 1 to 100 scale based on energy use per square foot. Buildings that score at 75 or above – meaning they’re in the top 25^th percentile for energy use – can get the Energy Star label. You can feel good knowing you’re renting space in a building that has at least one of these certifications.

2.  Who pays the utility bills? Lower energy costs are a nice perk of parking yourself in a green building and can help offset any premium you might pay in rent. So it’s worth asking property management beforehand how utilities are handled and how much you should expect to pay for them. One benefit to paying utilities directly (rather than through your rent): You have direct control over your energy costs.

3.   How is the building’s performance measured and monitored? Make sure the landlord has procedures in place for ensuring the ongoing green operations of the building. Perhaps they do an annual audit or have other checks in place.

4.   How close is it to public transportation? It’s not just operations and design that make a facility truly green – it’s also accessibility to public transportation. Remember, employee commutes can take a big toll on the environment. The closer you are to a bus or commuter train or bike path, the more likely it is that employees will forgo cars.

5.   What are the cleaning procedures? Another aspect of green building is cleaning practices. Inquire how the building is cleaned, by whom and whether they can vouch that the cleaning products used are non-toxic.

6.   What’s my obligation as tenant? It’s not unusual for green leases to put some requirements on tenants to uphold green practices, such as recycling certain types of waste or following energy-efficient practices. Make sure you can uphold your end of the bargain before signing on the dotted line.

From Small Business Trends

6 Questions to Ask Before Signing a “Green Lease”

6 Questions to Ask Before Signing a “Green Lease”
AB User – KDY

One of the most compelling challenges for companies entering the world of social business is measurement. The ability to attribute cause and effect directly can be elusive when it comes to measuring business outcomes like increased sales, improved customer retention and lowered support costs. But that’s only because this is new territory.  Business participation with social media on the web at large and internally has absolutely made measurable progress for numerous companies and organizations. The trick is to learn how, create a model that works for you and to sell it internally for testing, implementation and adoption.

One way to facilitate learning about Social Media ROI, Measurement and Analytics is through books from subject matter experts. Here are 5 that I’ve found useful and hopefully, you will too.

Social Media ROI: Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in Your Organization
by Olivier Blanchard

There are many other books on social media strategy, but in your pursuit of social ROI enlightenment, I’d start with this one (it’s also very new) because it covers social program development and management as well as measurement.  Olivier’s presentation on the Basics of Social Media ROI from a few years ago completely opened the eyes for many (including myself) on basic ways to approach the impact of social media on tangible business goals. It’s damn funny too.

Social Media Metrics: How to Measure and Optimize Your Marketing Investment
by Jim Sterne

This may be one of the first books dedicated to socia media metrics and Analytics guru Jim Sterne does a great job of setting ground rules. This book isn’t about justifying social media at large or a collection of tactics. It takes you from goal setting to audience, influence, sentiment, action, conversation and business outcomes. Once you have all that, there’s advice on communicating your newfound social media measurement wisdom to the organization.

Measure What Matters: Online Tools For Understanding Customers, Social Media, Engagement, and Key Relationships
by Kattie Delahaye Paine

Katie Paine is the master of Public Relations and Social Media measurement and her new book is a great complement to our mix because it comes from a perspective of measuring and affecting influence, engagement and relationships – not just sales and revenue. Katie outlines how to get started with a measurement program, how to choose the right tools and she answers measurement “how” questions related to marketing and public relations, events, thought leadership, community, internal staff and crisis situations. This is a measurement bible for the social media and public relations savvy professionals of the world.
(Read our Public Relations Measurement interview with Katie)

Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity
by Avinash Kaushkik

If you’re even remotely familiar with web analytics, then you know the blog Occam’s Razor by Google’s Analytics Evangelist, Avinash Kaushik. In his enthusiastic and entertaining style, Avinash explains the next generation framework of web analytics including social media measurement and includes specific guidance on hiring analytics resources, practical advice on the practice of  gaining insight from clickstream data and analysis, plus how to help managers become more data-driven in their decision making.
(Watch our video interview with Avinash at SES Hong Kong)

Mining the Social Web: Analyzing Data from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Other Social Media Sites
By Matthew A. Russell

After you’ve read the books above and you’ve either tasked an internal analytics guru or hired someone for your social media measurement and analytics, then they really need to dig into this book. When business, marketing or PR managers ask question like, “How can we create our own tools to mine our prospects social web activity?” this is a great guidebook into the mechanics of making that happen. Matthew covers “data hacking” for Twitter, Blogs, Facebook, Google Buzz and LinkedIn plus how to visualize that data in a meaningful way.

While this is no comprehensive list of social media ROI, measurement and analytics books, it is a great collection to start with.  What books social media measurement books would you recommend?

(For the first time in 7 years, I’ve added Amazon affiliate links to these book URLs. Since we don’t sell ads here, I’m hoping you can appreciate  that effort).

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