The Profit Repairman

IT’S FALL-WHERE’S ALL THE GREEN GOING?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:40:00 +0000

No, not the chlorophyll in the leaves, the green in your bottom line.

If you had a daily metric report in place, you would be able to answer that question.

What performance metrics do you want to monitor for your business unit on a continuous basis that are the most important and are very volatile for the achievement of operational and sales success? Also ask yourself what kind of precise micromanagement report you want, to whom should this report go to, and when and how often should this report be viewed when determining your businesses function and achievement ability.

On no more than a couple of 8½x11-inch pieces of paper, have a “snapshot” of the top five to ten critical statistical metrics that determine your business unit’s success available with comparisons for your daily morning review. If you do not have this report, you cannot be proactive in management. With a daily statistical data sheet/”house count”, you have the ability to spot trends, and thus, small corrections in the operations or sales can be initiated to neutralize the adverse effect of any negative component.

When you have daily statistical sheets that are simple, to the point, and full of the “most critical” metrics that you need, you can guide your business unit daily, which will lead to greater achievements of the business unit’s budget and stretch goals. Focus on managing your business unit today, so that today will be tomorrow and tomorrow will be your everything.

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Are You Targeting The Right Customer For Your Summer Promotion?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:29:00 +0000

Now that’s the Million Dollar question, are you?

When you set out to run your summer promotion, did you perform your due diligence on which you were first going to target with this promotion, so that you can see if you have the right customer, for the right outcome?

When you run a general promotion like “Sizzling Summer Deals”, don’t think that everyone wants/needs it, especially if your message is not directed to any special wants/needs of the demographic that you are promoting.

Before you commit to any promotion, you need to first ask the question and get answers to: What want/need is this promotion going to fill for a specific client, how are you going to get the message of your product information to them, how are you going to track the success of the promotion to determine the R.O.I., what ways are you going to build into this promotion a sense of urgency to commit to the purchase and finally, have you built in enough top of mind awareness to your targeted prospect, so that you differentiate your promotion from that of your competitive set?

When you get some sense of the answers to these above questions, a more detailed and directed promotion can evolve, which will result in greater success and R.O.I. to your expenditure. If you can just break your one promotion into 3 different ways in which you are going to target different prospects, you can then start to determine which one of those three promotions where successfully taken by the prospect and by whom. Once you determine this, a greater emphasize can be placed on that promotion and the unsuccessful ones can be modified to once again track and find the “hook” that will make your “right customer”, produce the right outcome for your promotion.

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Stop Your NO’s, Start Your KNOWS!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:20:00 +0000

If you say NO to something, ask yourself, “Why did I just say NO to that?”

Start with knowing why you said no before you actually say NO, because once you say NO, that NO may have far-reaching consequences. When you commit to something by saying NO to it, and then end up finding out that you could have done it, an opportunity for that action is lost forever. Make sure that each decision you make has been well thought out.

Life has a rippling effect. When you always say NO to someone, soon they will start asking someone else, because they really wanted a yes from you. But, if every answer you give is yes and you cannot follow through with that yes commitment, soon your word will not hold any credibility, negatively impacting your life, career and business.

Remember, committing to something too fast is also never the answer 100% of the time. Knowing why you say yes or NO to something is the only way to be successful in following through with your commitments.

Do you know why you are reading this? Because, you said YES to making a difference in your life, career, and increasing the success rate of your small and mid-sized business!

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Keep IT Simple

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:06:00 +0000

Your businesses is what is “IT”, with all of the information and bombardment of calls, e-mails, faxes, twitters, IM’s, texts and people, a business owner can feel overloaded and get misdirected and forget to keep an eye on what really matters to their success, THE BOTTOM LINE!

What’s the solution?

On no more than a couple of 8½x11-inch pieces of paper, have a “snapshot” of the top five to ten critical statistical metrics that determine your business unit’s success available with comparisons for your daily morning review. If you do not have this report, you cannot be proactive in management. With a daily statistical data sheet, you have the ability to spot trends, and thus, small corrections in the operations or sales can be initiated to neutralize the adverse effect of any negative component.

When you have daily statistical sheets that are simple, to the point, and full of the “most critical” metrics that you need, you can guide your business unit daily, which will lead to greater achievements of the business unit’s budget and stretch goals. Focus on managing your business unit today, so that today will be tomorrow and tomorrow will be your everything.

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

It’s June 1st, How Are You Pacing On Your Year-End 2009 Goals?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:47:00 +0000

Your 5/12 or 41.37% completed with the year, do your numbers tell you if you are going to make your 2009 year-end budget numbers today? If you had a twelve month pacing model in place for your business, you would have an accurate reading about this question.

A pacing model can help your business unit gauge if it is on pace to meet the goals set forth and gives a quick “YES or NO” to that pacing question throughout your goals’ time frame.

A pacing model is different than a forecasting model, since a pacing model takes your historical numbers to date plus what is pre-sold/reserved and compares that number to where you want to be at the end of your goal, which in turn can inform you if you are on pace to meet those goals in the allocated amount of time, with no variables included in its calculation (seasonality, pricing variations, external demand and supply situations, etc.).

Think of a pacing model as a macro model that tells you yes or no to the success of finishing your goal in the time allocated. By having a pacing model in place, you can determine if your current sales activity is enough today, to generate the numbers needed to make your year-end goals, even if you are less than 50% completed to that year-end. It is not just good enough to produce your numbers TODAY; you must also look forward and make sure that today’s numbers will match your goals tomorrow. By knowing if you are “on pace” or not to your year-end goals, management can make decisions TODAY if the marketing and pricing strategies in place now will be adequate to meet those goals, thus implement changes if they are not.

Stopping and looking forward is the only way a good business person can guarantee that today’s efforts will lead to tomorrow’s goal achievement.

Do you have some sort of pacing model in place for your business unit? If not, you should, how else can you make sure you will be at the 100% to goal for year-end numbers, even though you still have 58.63% to go?

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Are You Open?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:26:00 +0000

Are your hours open to best maximize your top line sales or your lifestyle?

When your business doors are closed, do potential, current, or future customers (economic decision makers) stop spending their money? Do outside and inside factors affecting your business and your competition stop, or is someone out there creating a better widget than you, ending their day when you do? No, they are not!

Obviously, many factors come into play as a big part in determining your operational hours. But when was the last time you truly looked at your business unit’s hours with a critical and objective eye and made sure that they were appropriate to make your future goals? Or are those hours just posted for “your convenience?”

The traditional hours of Monday through Friday, nine to five, are a very antiquated way of thinking. This is a global economy that is always “on, open, or alive,” 24/7/52. When you are sleeping, someone from halfway around the world is working. Look at your traffic, both on and off line, are you open and ready when needed the most? Have you looked at your competition and know what their posted hours are? Do you have the right staff on and servicing the demand at a time to maximize product and service revenue collection? Ask your associates, your clients and even your competitive set, when does YOUR BUSINESS need to be open for YOUR CURRENT AND POTENTIAL CLIENTS? Forget about a given day, look at demand and build your business model around it, that way, you truly have a business FOR THE CLIENT’S wants and needs.

If you build it around the demand of your clients, they will come!

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Did You Draft A Good Team?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:58:00 +0000

How many of you watched the NFL draft yesterday?

If you missed it, you also missed out on a great Human Resources lesson; do you know what that was? You must strengthen the weakest links in your Human Resources Chain to make sure your entire Team wins. Each Team that drafted yesterday asked the same question, round after round; whom is available in the marketplace (on a team or not) to fill our gaps, which our Team needs to win the next Super Bowl. Each Team’s need is different, but their goal is not; how do we build a better Team. They do that by not being satisfied with their current Human Resources in place now and in the future, they are always looking to change this and that to make the right HR formula for their success.

The Human Resource department should never stop looking to “trade-up” on associate talent and reposition others for greater utilization within your business unit, and one successful way to achieve this is by having a full pipeline of candidates.

One way on the HR front is to have candidates (current and non-current associates) in a hiring pipeline for those soon-to-be-open/heavy-turnover-rated positions, ready to move through the HR pipeline to fill the void left by “something” happening to one of your “starters (associates).”

Remember, an HR pipeline is similar to a sales pipeline. An HR pipeline does not always mean that you have to retain someone on payroll, just in case. It can also refer to identifying someone who you can call upon to fill that HR vacancy within a short span of time and with as little disruption to the business unit as possible (in-house or not); a good database of resume’s never hurt any business! As with all pipeline process approaches, you must continuously be filling the opening of the pipeline with excess amounts of potential candidates so that the end-result of this ever-moving, constricting pipeline is a successful transition between a new and old associate for those upcoming, voided positions.

Now go win your Super Bowl!

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Will You Spend A Penny Today, To Save A Dollar Tomorrow?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:19:00 +0000

Do You Have A Preventative Maintenance Program Installed In Your Business Like A Hotel Does?

Preventative maintenance, or P.M., as we call it in the hotel industry, is a must to help lower your replacement costs and prevent possible operations and sales breakdowns that can affect your bottom line.

What do I mean by P.M.? Well, in the hotel business it means some of the following actions: scheduled coil cleaning of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning units; bed mattress turning/rotating; cleaning/removing the sediment within the bottom of the hot water tanks; winterizing the exposed piping; caulking tub surrounds; shampooing the carpet, etc. The pattern of P.M. is this: tighten the screws, bolts, and belts; oil the lubricated moving parts; clean out areas that accumulate debris; and check on the status of the normal wear and tear of an item, so there is a proactive approach in maintaining its continued life cycle and use. Let’s say a hotel never did any P.M.s on its air conditioners and a very hot temperature index weekend occurs. The air conditioning units have not had adequate P.M. and may only be running at 30% capacity due to dirty filters and the Freon not being recharged.

Will the hotel get complaints? Will it have to refund money, lose future business, increase their utility bill, and have bad “word of mouth” created? The answer to everything is yes, but preventative maintenance could have helped to avoid and minimize these above situations.

Preventative maintenance is not limited to mechanical items only. Do a P.M. on your human resources and the complete business unit as well. When was the last time you went around and made sure that all of the correct Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Department of Labor, and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission posters were in the right place and current? When was the last time that you made sure your locked storage area was secure and functional? The old saying, “An ounce of prevention can give you a lifetime of protection” is correct when it comes to installing P.M. in your business unit. By performing P.M. within your business unit(s), you are showing a proactive management style that can lead to lower cost structures through your expenses and growth of your top and bottom lines.

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Use Amenity Selling To Increase Your Sales!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:38:00 +0000

In the hotel industry, they talk about amenity selling because amenities can set a hotel apart from its competition’s price point, because a hotel’s core product (the bed and shower) functions the same as most everyone else’s. But, when you sell your core product with amenities wrapped around it, the opportunity for rate variation and “apples to oranges” comparison selling exists within the marketplace. Amenity selling is a perceived value, not concrete, that can lead to greater revenue opportunities from your client base.

For example, a majority of hotel customers can quickly compare room rates at one hotel to the room rates at another hotel, but a hotel’s customers’ estimation varies greatly on the dollar amount that they will pay for items like turn-down service, indoor pool, Wi-Fi, free breakfast, express check in/out, frequent stay clubs, tennis courts, theme decorations, amusement/water parks, ocean/beachfront views, twenty-four-hour restaurant, spa, golf course, casino, shopping outlets, location of the hotel, bars, etc. These are all examples of amenities that wrap around the core product (the bed and shower) that raise room rates and cause variation within the same product line and competitive set.

What about roadside assistance plans from the auto makers, another amenity? What about the fast food industry, have they not sold us on an amenity we call the drive thru? What about the emerging use of accepting debit cards as payment in businesses (flexible payment options) around someone’s core product line? What about the laundry detergent bottles that have a “no-mess bottle?” Just one more example in a long list of products that sell amenities around their core product line.

Look all around and you can see that most businesses have an amenity to sell in one form and fashion, but have you really put great thought into amenity selling for your marketing campaigns to increase your pricing points and acquire more customers? Probably not, but why? Examine your business unit’s amenities that are in place now, and what could be added, so that you could wrap them around your core product line to create rate variations within your marketplace and gain greater market share, thus growing your bottom line.

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Happy 2009, NOW WHAT?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:08:00 +0000

First, stop making the first thought of your days in 2009, negative.

How many times do you set your alarm clock and think, “I do not want to wake up that early,” or “How early do I have to get up?” But if this is the last thought in your mind before bedtime, that idea festers and plays over and over in your mind throughout the night. When you wake up, you hit that snooze button and say, “Surely it is not tomorrow already.” From now on this year, you need to set the alarm clock and say to yourself, “I cannot wait for tomorrow to come, so that I can make a difference in my life and career.” When that alarm clock sounds, jump out of bed and walk around for at least two minutes so you do not get back into bed. This will start off your day charging and thinking in your mind about all of the opportunities you have to make a difference.

Second, stop putting your concerns first.

What is the worst that could happen if you always say, “What do I get for me?” If you do, there will never be much of “me” in the end at work.

We are all connected to one another, and each of us relies on hundreds, if not thousands, of people daily to live the way we do at this very moment. How did you get to work? Did you drive? Think for a moment. How many people did it take to dig up the raw materials necessary to make your car? How many people did it take to assemble your car? How many people did it take to produce the gas/energy supply for your car? And how many people did it take to build the road that you drove on to get to work? The list goes on, but you can see the connection forming. Start to see that “me” should mean “us.” From that, when you look at any project or a task to complete at work, ask yourself instead, “What do we get for us?” first, and then you can start to move your success dial for “me.” WE WIN AS ONE in 2009!

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Your 2008-Year End Financial Statement’s, Statistical Review Checklist

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:52:00 +0000

Make sure that the following items below are contained in your statistical reports, including variances and percentage changes within those numbers, on the four major income statement components: top line (gross revenue); labor; controllable and non-controllable expenses, and bottom line (N.O.I. with Cash Flow), (all numbers are accumulated and may be partial quarters or years, but each are equal to one another in their respective time frames):

• Month to Date (MTD)
• Quarter to Date (QTD)
• Year to Date (YTD)
• Current Month (MTD) Year over last Year Month (Example: Oct. 08 to Oct. 07)
• Current Quarter (QTD) Year over last Year Quarter (Example: Q4 of 08 to Q4 of 07)
• Year (YTD) over last Year (Example: YTD-2008 to YTD-2007)
• Month over Month (Example: Oct. 08 to Sep. 08)
• Quarter over Quarter (Example: Q4 of 08 to Q3 of 08)
• MTD, QTD, and YTD to budget and stretch goals with remaining/declining balances to reach each of those goals
• Projected QTD and YTD numbers against budget and stretch goals
• Trailing three month average
• Trailing twelve month average
• Trailing eighteen month average
• Trailing three to five year average
• Annualized MTD and QTD numbers

Don’t forget, visually, graphs, charts, and color-coding all add to the accelerated ability to understand, pinpoint, and emphasize negative and positive trending within your statistical numbers. Another great tool is to set parameters around each line item, so an exception report can be generated and quickly identified when numbers exceed those boundaries.

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

5 Key Components of a Profitable Holiday Season

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:06:00 +0000

In this current economic crunch, many small businesses are feeling the weight of the hard times heavily upon their shoulders. When times start to go bad, however, there are some basic things we as small business owners can do to ensure that we have the best possible holiday season. Take a look at these five key components, adjust your business as necessary, and get ready for a great holiday season.

Check Out the Competition

This is a key component and should always be done if you are in a competitive market. Shop online and in person in businesses like yours and see what the other guys are doing. What can you do to compete with these people? Can you adjust prices and rates or offer any sort of holiday promotions. Think about what you can do to maximize profits and maintain a competitive edge.

Maintain Quality

If you decide to go down the road of lowering prices or rates, make sure that you will still be able to give the same quality and value to your clientele that they have come to expect. It’s one thing to get them in the doors; it’s another thing completely to keep them coming back.

Give Superior Service

Especially during tough economic times, people are less willing to part with their hard-earned money if you haven’t earned their trust. Superior service shows that you are committed to doing the best possible job for you’re your clientele as well as yourself. Superior service and competitive prices will certainly help you to develop a larger client base during this time of increased exposure.

Follow Through

Once you have earned the trust and come through for your customers, make sure that they are satisfied with their products or services. This can be accomplished quickly and effectively through email or a quick phone call. Email is usually preferable, as it’s the least intrusive way of communicating with people. Following through with your clients is a great way to show that you care and will leave a great impression that will have them coming back to you again sooner than you think.

Thank Your Customers

This is a very basic component of business that many people seem to forget these days. Your clients and customers could have gone to a competitor, but they didn’t; they chose your business, so you must show your appreciation. This can be as simple as saying thanks after you have finished the transaction, but could also be done with a credit on a subsequent purchase or a discount for continued patronage. Use your discretion, but remember – people like to feel appreciated, so don’t forget your manners.

By-line:
This post was contributed by Kelly Kilpatrick, who writes on the subject of currency trade. She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com

Stop The “What If’s, Of Why Your Business Numbers Are Down!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:44:00 +0000

Instead, start taking responsibility for your own actions in all situations, even the ones that you cannot totally control.

If it happened to you, your actions, no matter how small a part that they played in the outcome, are still a part of the outcome; so take that portion of the responsibility without hesitation. Did you not market your business, thinking, if you built it, they would come? Did you not focus on client retention, when business was booming? Did you not sell value, instead of price when asking for the sale?

There are many factors as to why things happen the way they do. Some of your own actions account for it; some do not. No matter the “what ifs,” remember that sitting around and wondering about them will only displace your time and stop you from changing your situation. Stand out of the crowd, accept your situation, and stop questioning, “Why me?” and, “What if?” after you commit to an action of change to resolve the situation. Only then can you execute a plan to change within.

No matter what, you and you alone have the ability to change your situation. It may not be immediate, but change will happen with an executed plan from a person who has first accepted the reality that it is only their actions that can improve this situation. Taking responsibility for actions in your life is a big step to turn your situation into success.

The difference between success and non-success is in an individual’s ability to believe in themselves as their own element of change and the daily commitment of that individual with that knowledge of success to execute those changes.
So, are you going to take action today? Good, now finish reading and implement.

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Was Your Friday Black This Year?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:19:00 +0000

You would know if your company closed its’ books nightly!

Nightly closing of your accounting books allow for immediate reconciliation, so that you can identify and correct posting errors/miscoded items, generate net revenue/ledger balances, and create daily statistical performance metrics for a more accurate analysis.

Would you like to be able to go into your business unit and have some current gauge of the income statement’s profit position at a time frame when changes could be made to affect the final outcome, or would you rather wait for over two weeks after the month ends to find out that there was a negative bottom-line growth; after you were not able to do anything about it?

Although nightly closing of your business unit’s accounting books may not be as feasible for you as some other industries, the mind-set of it is not. Does your business unit have timely, up to date, and accurate accounting books for management to make critical business decisions when they need the information the most? If not, you need to.

Soft accounting closes are not that challenging. Just make sure that outputted numbers are taken into consideration and everyone is aware that there is some “flex” in the numbers. In my judgment, something of a current financial picture is better than none at all.

If daily conditions, factors, and circumstances are “change agents” that determine a business unit’s cash flow requirements and affect its bottom-line results, then would you not want to get some picture of how those “agents of change” are affecting the accounting statements in quicker time frames than the current ones in place now? Many of today’s accounting software programs can immediately generate some sort of preliminary statements with the push of a button, so why have you not added that to your weekly operational review checklist? Your views on how to use accounting statements must be parallel with the real world views, DAILY, because the change that is driving the supply-and-demand grid around your business unit can be viewed through these statements.

This is ground level thinking for “big picture” successful business building. You can make a difference in your business unit’s financial success by having the mind-set that your books close nightly.

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

“NO BAILOUT MONEY FOR YOU” Mr. Small Business Owner, now what? HERE’S WHAT!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:33:00 +0000

Stop Doing That and Start Doing this:

Stop thinking that the end result is what matters.

Start remembering that every step you take is a step closer to your goal’s finish and that the result at the end of your goal’s journey is the total effect of all of your little steps before.

These little steps are not the cause of your success, but the reason it occurred. Put more focus on each and every step. When you do this, you can quickly identify if the steps are getting you to your goal or directing you somewhere else, making your end result a failure. Immediate correction can be taken when you focus on each step as you take it. Once you realize that your steps are going in the right direction, you can commit to those steps with confidence and be able to follow through and finish the tasks until you reach the goal. Results will only be seen when all of the steps already taken are tied together as a solid line to form the chain of events needed on each and every goal in order to achieve success.

Stop the “what ifs.”

Start taking responsibility for your own actions in all situations, even the ones that you cannot totally control.

If it happened to you, your actions, no matter how small a part that they played in the outcome, are still a part of the outcome; so take that portion of the responsibility without hesitation. There are many factors as to why things happen the way they do. Some of your own actions account for it; some do not. No matter the “what ifs,” remember that sitting around and wondering about them will only displace your time and stop you from changing your situation. Stand out of the crowd, accept your situation, and stop questioning, “Why me?” and, “What if?” after you commit to an action of change to resolve the situation. Only then can you execute a plan to change within.

No matter what, you and you alone have the ability to change your situation. It may not be immediate, but change will happen with an executed plan from a person who has first accepted the reality that it is only his actions that can improve this situation. Taking responsibility for actions in your life is a big step to turn your situation into success.

Stop wanting things to stay consistent.

Start understanding that the only consistent thing in life is change.

If you want something to happen, no matter how little of a movement it is within your life, it will never take shape if you do not first embrace the change element behind it. Change is a great catalyst with a specialty to accelerate events and make all things possible. Once you have that mind-set, you will no longer have the attitude, “Okay, what's next to go wrong with this situation?” Instead, you will say, “Great! What's the next opportunity to make, not have, success come to me?”

The flexibility for action that you have when your mind-set is changed to the latter is amazing. When you have the understanding that change is right around the corner, it will give you the edge over the competition, because instead of looking into your life as a constant, stagnant model, you are continuously looking to embrace its metamorphosis into a great opportunity.

By successfully taking the change element and working with it, rather than against it, you will be ahead of the change and its time frame, thus making you more available to capitalize upon it before others, leading to greater success. “Change gives you the ability to rise above and deliver upon command, therefore leading to more positive outcomes.” Embrace your change element today for your tomorrow’s success!

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Got Milk?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:27:00 +0000

Good, Now Understand That Your Business is More Perishable than a Glass of Milk.

For Business Owners, this is a must to understand if they are going to generate the maximum revenue potential on a daily basis. Every night that one single widget in a particular business goes unsold, that widget has lost that day’s revenue, forever. It can never regenerate revenue for that given day again, so it becomes non-recoverable potential (left on the table) revenue.

A glass of milk has a longer shelf life than an unsold widget. If you do not drink all of the milk that you purchased today, you can at least put that milk back in the refrigerator and have some of it for tomorrow. You can repeat those above steps for at least a couple of weeks, so that you have the opportunity to receive the greatest consumption relationship to the money spent, for the value of that product. Not so for an unsold widget or for whatever product or industry that you work in. Once that day is gone, you can never sell or use that moment again for revenue generation or operational efficiency gain. With that being said, it means that every business is more perishable than a glass of milk. The business unit that you are involved in must make sure that it has a greater sense of urgency regarding this principle and acknowledge its perishable nature.

Let's say that you have eight hours to make the most money on any given day. After just one hour of that day, you have lost the opportunity of making the maximum revenue generation by 12.5%. Start thinking about how perishable your product really is, even if it has a shelf life of one hundred years. Every day that you do not maximize your revenue potential or gain greater operational efficiency; is a day that is lost forever.

Is your business running? You better go catch it and make the most money with it; it is not a glass of milk!

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Stop Thinking That You Are Equal To Everyone Else!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:59:00 +0000

Stop thinking that you are equal to everyone else.

Start remembering this one simple fact: We are all equal in this world to everyone else on just one thing, no matter who we are or what we do: time.

Each of us has exactly twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and fifty-two weeks a year to make a difference. What we do with those precious moments, makes the difference between success and non-success of those goals and achievements that we want to obtain.

By knowing that you are not equal to others, except in your time constraints, you can focus on doing more with the one equal item to gain success over others.

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Script Your Dialogue For Greater Business Success

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:58:00 +0000

Scripted dialogues can benefit your business unit in the following ways: consistency; professionalism; assurance that the operational and sales talking points are covered; on-boarding, cross-training associates are effectively accomplished; and objective, clear, and non-derogatory answers that can be discussed to a broad-base spectrum that can be documented and used for legality protection.

Ever make a reservation at a hotel? The reservation screen is actually a fill-in-the-blank script that the hotel uses to capture its requested reservation information. In fact, there are parts within that reservation screen that will not let the reservation agent produce a confirmation number until the required information is completely filled in and correct. Ever call an 800 number for reservations? Ever get a wake-up call from a hotel? These are all examples of scripting within the hotel business.

Now, focus on your business unit and ask yourself, “What tasks can be scripted to help send my business unit into a proactive approach to talking with the customers and converting that captured time with them into a more qualified database for mining, better close ratios, lower miscommunication experiences, and higher profits?”

Once you identify those scripting opportunities, make sure that there is some sort of ongoing quality assurance program installed and corrective action responses in place to maintain all of the benefits that a “scripted company” can yield for itself.

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Managing Associate Performance For Your Small Business Success!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:05:00 +0000

How do you manage associate performance? Just like you would manage driving a car. You need to know where you are at the start, where you want to be at the end, and a roadmap to help optimize the distance from point A to point B and receive some redirection in case you are off the path.

Managing associate performance can be in the form of written documentation for reporting the results, personal follow-up/open dialogue with that associate, constructive feedback, timely reviews, accurate assessments, direct and specific directional action tasks that have been accomplished, and what needs to be accomplished for future goal platforms.

Along with these items, you need assessment tools that determine upward mobility capabilities and strategic skills currently in place or underdeveloped ones needing attention, placement within current and ongoing organizational charts, open dialogue with direct supervisors, customer satisfaction scores (if applicable), and financial performance metrics (if applicable). By combining the information and resources above, you know where the associate is and where he wants to end up, so you are giving the associate a “roadmap” on how to get there, and he can now “drive” his own career achievement by daily, hands-on deliverance within the business unit’s success structure.

Each associate has a different want and need from a workplace environment, but by assisting each to accomplish his end results by managing his performance from the very first day of employment to the end, both the associate and business unit will see the most productive outcome. Only when a business unit focuses on managing associate performance through each associate as an individual part of the whole and manages career path/performance to those individualities; can the sum of all associates’ efforts be combined into one goal for the achievement of the entire organization.

Start managing associate performance and doing the reporting on it today, because we are all connected and dependent on one another. Your success depends on other associate’s within your business unit, and managing associate performance is one way to guide that success in the right direction. Remember, “We win as one!”

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Have a Daily Snap Shot Report-Out To Make Your Small Business More Successful!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:06:00 +0000

Do you know right this very moment what performance metrics your business unit is achieving? Use a snapshot performance (daily snapshot) report as the tool that contains the important and volatile numbers, which must be reviewed on a regular and continuous basis for you to achieve successful expense adherence and revenue projection.

What performance metrics do you want to monitor for your business unit on a continuous basis that are the most important and are very volatile for the achievement of operational and sales success? Also ask yourself what kind of precise micromanagement report you want, to whom should this report go to, and when and how often should this report be viewed when determining your businesses function and achievement ability.

On no more than a couple of 8½x11-inch pieces of paper, have a “snapshot” of the top five to ten critical statistical metrics that determine your business unit’s success available with comparisons for your daily morning review. If you do not have this report, you cannot be proactive in management. With a daily statistical data sheet, you have the ability to spot trends, and thus, small corrections in the operations or sales can be initiated to neutralize the adverse effect of any negative component. When you have daily statistical sheets that are simple, to the point, and full of the “most critical” metrics that you need, you can guide your business unit daily, which will lead to greater achievements of the business unit’s budget and stretch goals. Focus on managing your business unit today, so that today will be tomorrow and tomorrow will be your everything.

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Pennies Really Do Add Up In Your Small Business

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:27:00 +0000

I remember a story told to me as a young boy. It goes like this: In a far off land, many years ago, there was a very poor man that went in front of a king of a very rich land and offered to work for the king for that day for just one penny, and if the king liked his work, the poor man would continue to work for the king every day after that first day for a total of thirty consecutive days.

The only contingency to this payment plan for the king was that for every day that went by that the poor man worked, the king would have to double the poor man’s previous days wage from the first day’s wage of one cent for thirty consecutive days. After those thirty days, the king would then pay the poor man in full for his thirty days of labor (example, day 1=.01, day 2=.02, day 3=.04, day 4=.08 and so on). Well, the king just knew that he had a sucker in front of him. He thought that he could get the poor man to do a lot of work for him without paying him very much money.

Do you know what happened next? At the end of those thirty days, the poor man made $5,368,709.12 a day and the king owed him $10,737,418.23, due in full at the end of the thirtieth day! The king forgot the exponential factor of the money doubling and never asked about what the poor man was earning daily throughout the month, because to the king, a penny meant very little and could never add up to any real amount of money.

The story ends like this: the king was broke, the poor man rich, and the moral of the story is that a penny really does add up. So focus your attention on each penny within your business unit.

If you save just two widgets a day by training the staff not to waste those widgets, and those widgets cost fifteen cents each, you would save $109.50 a year. This would be just the tip of the iceberg for savings within your business. There is a penny to save here and a penny to save there. Just look around, and when you are done, over time, that penny will multiply to thousands of dollars a year that your business unit can bring down to the bottom line, by simply remembering that “A penny really does add up!”

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Market And Sell Your Small Business 24/7/52 To Be More Successful!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:36:00 +0000

24/7/52. What this phrase means is twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and fifty-two weeks a year; this is the golden rule if you are marketing and selling your business unit's product line. Your marketing and sales efforts should never close, which means that you have 525,600 minutes a year to be open and to make sure that your business markets and sells itself in the best and most efficient way that it can, be it through on-line or off efforts.

No matter what the posted hours on the doors are for your business, you must be in the mind-set that your business is always “on, open, or alive,” 24/7/52. Think of it this way: When your business doors are closed, do potential, current, or future customers (economic decision makers) stop spending their money? Do outside and inside factors affecting your business and your competition stop, or is someone out there creating a better widget than you, ending their day when you do? No, they are not!

Obviously, many factors come into play as a big part in determining your operational hours. But when was the last time you truly looked at your business unit’s hours with a critical and objective eye and made sure that they were appropriate to make your future goals? Or are those hours just posted for “your convenience?”

If you get into the mind-set that you are always “on, open, or alive,” 24/7/52 when marketing and selling your business, you will then start to think about how to make the most out of all that “extra” time you have to increase your business’ success model.

The traditional hours of Monday through Friday, nine to five, are a very antiquated way of thinking. This is a global economy that is always “on, open, or alive,” 24/7/52. When you are sleeping, someone from halfway around the world is working.

Your business unit must have a 24/7/52 mentality to be more successful. Only when you embrace this mind-set will new ways “to do more” arise, because you are now always “open” to more success in your marketing and sales efforts.

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Run Your Small Business Like A Hotel To Be Successful!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:15:00 +0000

Do you know right this very moment what performance metrics your business unit is achieving? This kind of snapshot performance (daily snapshot) report out is what we call a “house count” in the hotel business. Within a hotel’s house count, hoteliers look at rooms rented, number of arrivals/check-outs/clean rooms, A.D.R., occupancy, and so on. Hotels see this “house count” report as the tool that contains important and volatile numbers, which must be reviewed on a regular and continuous basis for the hotel to achieve its successful expense adherence and revenue projection model.

What performance metrics do you want to monitor for your business unit on a continuous basis that are the most important and are very volatile for the achievement of operational and sales success? Also ask yourself what kind of precise micromanagement report you want, to whom should this report go to, and when and how often should this report be viewed when determining your businesses function and achievement ability.

Once you have these questions answered, installing the S.O.P. to monitor this “house count” becomes second nature to the business unit and in turn will radiate the importance and acceptance from your associates that these are the metrics that will drive their business unit to success and acclaim.

On no more than a couple of 8½x11-inch pieces of paper, have a “snapshot” of the top five to ten critical statistical metrics that determine your business unit’s success available with comparisons for your daily morning review. If you do not have this report, you cannot be proactive in management. With a daily statistical data sheet/”house count”, you have the ability to spot trends, and thus, small corrections in the operations or sales can be initiated to neutralize the adverse effect of any negative component. When you have daily statistical sheets that are simple, to the point, and full of the “most critical” metrics that you need, you can guide your business unit daily, which will lead to greater achievements of the business unit’s budget and stretch goals. Focus on managing your business unit today, so that today will be tomorrow and tomorrow will be your everything.

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Stop Reading This Article To Make Your Small Business Successful!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:48:00 +0000

Instead, start changing your life, both personally and professionally, by taking these below written words and turning them into a lifestyle, not a fad to send you into action.

"The difference between success and non-success is in an individual’s ability to believe in himself as his own element of change and the daily commitment of that individual with that knowledge of success to execute those changes. Remember, leaders lead and also make mistakes, so the element of change is profitable to a leader and their business. Change and turnover give you the opportunity to evaluate a situation and quickly correct and realign, thus strengthening the whole organization and its future. So, take action and continue your leadership-driven attitude in your life and career to propel your small and mid-sized businesses’ success."

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You are in the Service Industry, no matter what your business is!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Marquardt-The Profit Repairman) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:15:00 +0000

It does not matter what your product line is, service is the key difference to your success. Service builds a value-added benefit that can increase your client’s retention rate and generate a higher asking price for your product line. From the very first sale to the one hundredth repeat sale from a satisfied, retained customer, it is the level and consistency of the service that you provide that allows your revenue streams to grow.

Even if you are working for a company and never see a single customer, are you not offering service within your task list to your own workplace, co-workers, and employer? By making each associate very aware that they have a higher purpose than just doing their task list (but instead delivering the best possible service within their task list), you create a sense of urgency in which every action that they do affects a customer. After you get into this mind-set, you can start under-promising and over-delivering on that service that you give, for every aspect within those assigned tasks.

When you lead by example and put this thought into your routine, there is a synergy that is produced; you realize that the value of the whole organization is dependent upon the service that you produce with everything you do and say. “Visualize great service—delivery first, all things possible thereafter.”

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