They work on a solution before fully understanding the problem. Therefore the only tool that we use is asking the right questions. “What problem are you trying to solve?”

“How will that solution affect the way things work and how people exchange information?”

“What will be different when you implement that solution?”

“Who do you need on board before you start to make sure a change actually is sustainable?” Now you know the tasks will pay off.

This is what is happening to business owners today. They think their companies are worth a certain amount. Confidently, they step onto the playing field to find a buyer. Like a player who didn’t see the hit coming, they suddenly discover they needed to have prepared a playbook long before that big day. Not sure if this applies to you? Here is a business owner’s experience going forward with the wrong playbook.

It’s insider secrets like these that many business owners never find out about until it’s too late. Getting the low-down on what to do and when to do it to prepare your company for sale without devaluing or exposing your company to risk is why we wrote Fast-Track Secrets for Making Your Business Saleable.

What kind of results can you expect? Depends on the strategy you select and the consistency that you deliver. Expect the unexpected. More name recognition, means you are better able to attract new employees. Better lead generation because people trust you to deliver value, not just say you do. You’ll be the first company on their mind because they hear from you regularly.

Want to power up your 2012? Work with a strategist to make sure the efforts you put into social media pay off. You want to be of influence in your target market, not just the guy who sends out the goofy you tube videos.

For more information and to register go to Community Bank Advisors

]]> http://www.spiritwest.com/2011/12/09/own-a-community-bank-need-a-better-2012-register-for-this-webinar/feed/ 0 http://www.spiritwest.com/2011/12/09/own-a-community-bank-need-a-better-2012-register-for-this-webinar/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/spiritwest/~3/wHLGQRaEUBA/ http://www.spiritwest.com/2011/11/09/will-you-play-your-game-or-the-economys-game/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:50:30 +0000 Lorraine http://www.spiritwest.com/?p=1065 Today the head of the IMF and the Conference Board both declared the next decade the lost decade for economic growth. And the decade only just started!

Remember, economists deal in global statistics which are the AVERAGE of every country’s economic potential. You, the business owner, do not have to be an AVERAGE statistic in the next decade. Want more in your future than doom and gloom? Then change the game you’re playing in your business. Take back your future. Get your team together and brainstorm how you can deliver more value to your customers to earn their business and their loyalty.

Here are our top three tips for delivering top line value:

1. Reinvent your customers’ experience buying from you. Get their feedback. Search out their pet peeves. What works and what doesn’t. Choose to listen by being curious, rather than defensive. Every pet peeve has a golden opportunity in it for your business, but only if you choose to see it that way. Then analyze based on the complaints where the problems are in your customer experience system. Put together a team made up of someone from each part of the business, including those departments not part of the ‘problem’. Mandate? Reinvent how the process works to deliver what the customer really wants. Set a deadline and give this team carte blanche to come up with a game plan, budget and implementation plan you will approve.

2. Deliver value in surprising ways. How can you and your team go the extra mile for your customers? Can you teach them something that will help their business? Make introductions that will help generate more traffic? Show them how to get more mileage from your product or service. It’s like those Apple iPhone commercials that show you how to use their product. Or the webinars that Nevada State Bank put on featuring Darren Hardy from Success Magazine for how to build a successful mindset to deal with the economy. Or the supply salesperson who designed a supply cart for a hospital and filled it with her products so that the nurses didn’t have to take valuable time away from nursing to stock the shelves with new product deliveries.

3. What are you talking about? Are you adding to the doom and gloom mentality when you talk to your staff, suppliers and customers? Are you dwelling on the headlines or spending your creative energy with your team dreaming up how you are going to outshine the economy. Your mindset powers your business. What fuel are using?

As business owners, we can be part of the problem or part of the solution. We don’t have to succumb to the headlines. What will you choose to do?

Is a brand new economy wishful thinking? Not for some business owners. They’ve stopped listening to the news and that’s as good as shower. “You have to focus on what you do want, not what you don’t want. Then you see the possibilities unfold before you,” says Rob McGregor, a specialist in coaching business owners. Don’t want to hang on hold any longer? You need new indicators to guide your thinking.

What’s good, what’s new, what’s coming?

1. Capital IQ, the market research firm says that the mergers and acquisitions outlook data shows there are a lot of great companies on the market which means great buys for acquirers. Some owners are getting premium offers because they have discovered what it takes to make their business saleable.

2. Mobi Ditto, the new start up that’s transforming main street businesses into mobile marketing machines with their community heros program is racking up new accounts everywhere. Owners are signing on to use their text messaging program to help bring in new clients and give back to charities that help the people and animals of their communities. Their customers use the coupon to try the new business and get their investment back on the first purchase as well as know they are giving to charity. Everyone wins.

3. Success Magazine is pursuing stories of business owners who have made big come backs. The common theme? Every author of a comeback had to write a new chapter in their business strategy manual. Following the pack was not the way out. Innovation, recognizing the truth of the situation and talking to customers brought out the way forward.

What are you doing to separate your self from the muck that slimes the best of intentions? Tell us your story and we will select the best ones to showcase.

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common
Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how
old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic
red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable
lessons as:

• - Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
• - Why the early bird gets the worm;
• - Life isn’t always fair;
• - and Maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t
spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not
children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned
but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old
boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens
suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher
fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for
doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining
their unruly children.It declined even further when schools were required to get
parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student;
but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted
to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became
businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself
from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for
assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman
failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a
little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and
Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by
his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;

1. I Know My Rights
2. I Want It Now
3. Someone Else Is To Blame
4. I’m A Victim

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was
gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority
and do nothing.